A.J. Lauver, General Manager Burroughs’ Adding Machine, says, “The ideal salesman is one who is making an honest and determined effort to render a real service to his customers. He believes thoroughly in the value of his goods and has faith in the honesty and ability of the house he represents.”

An unqualified confidence in the value of what you are selling will multiply your selling ability tremendously, just as a lack of confidence in its merit will greatly diminish your power to make a sale. All of your mental operations follow confidence. Your faculties will not give out their best unless they are led by the honest faith in your house and in your goods which generates enthusiasm.

The salesman communicates his faith, or lack of it, to the experienced buyer. Whatever passes through your mind will be telegraphed with lightning rapidity to your prospect’s mind. He will feel what you feel. He will sense mentally what you are picturing secretly, as you imagine, in your own mind. If doubt is there, if unbelief is there, he will feel them no matter what you may say to the contrary. He can tell very quickly whether you really believe what you are saying or whether you are just talking for a sale. He can tell whether you honestly believe that what you are trying to sell would be good for him to buy or not.

The consciousness that you are representing an absolutely reliable firm, and that you are selling a superb thing, something which you really believe it would be as advantageous for your prospect to buy as it would be for you to sell, will not only increase your self-confidence, but will also lend wonderful dignity and power to your bearing and your manner, and greater force to your presentation and persuasion.

On the other hand, if you are conscious that you are selling shams, that you are merely trying to get a person to buy that which you know will not be of much value to him, you are immediately shorn of power. The conviction that you are not doing your fellow-man a good turn, that, on the contrary, you are trying to deceive him, trying to palm off on him an article which you would not buy yourself, will make you contemptible in your own eyes and also in the eyes of the man who is shrewd enough to see through you.

Nothing can take the place of confidence in the quality of what you are selling. Quality is really the best salesman in the world. The article that is a little better than others of the same kind—that is the best, even if the price is higher—“carries in its first sale the possibilities of many sales, because it makes a satisfied customer, and only a satisfied customer will come again.”

The salesman thinks more of himself when he is conscious that he is giving his customer the best that can be had. The assurance that it is not possible for another to beat what he offers is a wonderful tonic and encourager to the seller. He does not need to resort to “tricks of the trade”; nor does he have to hang his head or apologize when he approaches his prospect, for he knows that he is backed by quality and that there will be no disappointment or “come backs.”

A superb quality, like good things to eat, always leaves a good taste in the mouth, and the salesman who deals in the best knows that he will be welcome when he goes back for another order to a buyer who has once had a taste of the quality of his goods.

The reputation of a house noted for its square dealing is of itself a powerful salesman, and representatives of such a house have a tremendous advantage over those who represent tricky, sharp-dealing, shoddy houses, where the buyer knows that he has got to look out for himself, to drive a sharp bargain or get taken in—and he knows that he is liable to be taken in anyway.

Quality is the best possible advertisement. The salesmen of a house thoroughly established in the confidence of the public have a comparatively easy time of it, because they do not have to do nearly as much talking and convincing as those who represent unreliable concerns. The high reputation of a house is a great business asset, and a salesman’s best argument. It is not so difficult a matter to persuade men to buy what they know from experience to be all that it is represented to be.

When a customer has been in the habit of buying the best, dealing with a quality house, and has acquired a taste for the best, he does not like the second-best—only the best is good enough for him.

International sales experts tell us that is where American salesmen fall down, especially in seeking foreign trade—in South America for instance. They dwell at too great length on price, and skim over quality. They dilate on cheapness, and the inference is that the goods must be low grade to be marketed at such a low price.

No matter how hard pushed you may be, never undertake to sell questionable goods; never taint your reputation, or smirch your character by becoming the representative of a shifty, dishonest concern. Resolve that whatever comes you will not cheapen yourself by stooping to low-down methods, that you will not sell shabby goods, or deal in cheap-John commodities. Resolve that you will be a high-class man or nothing, that you are not going to do another’s lying for him, that you are not going to deceive for a salary, that you are not going to do anything which will make you think less of yourself, which will make you less of a man.