Joseph Francis MacGrail

Character is greater than any career.

Character is the greatest power in the world. Nothing can take its place; talents cannot, genius cannot, education cannot, training cannot. The reputation of being absolutely square and clean and straight, of being a man whose word is his bond, is the finest recommendation.

Simple genuineness, transparency of character, will win the confidence of a customer whether he is prejudiced or not, and the confidence of the purchaser is half the sale, for no matter how pleasing the speech or the manner of the salesman, if he isn’t genuine, if he doesn’t ring true, if he doesn’t inspire confidence, if the customer sees a muddy streak back of his eye, he is not likely to purchase.

Lack of absolute integrity often keeps salesmen in inferior positions. Take the average salesman in a retail clothing store. A customer tries on a coat. “How does it look?” he asks the salesman in a pleased tone.

“Perfect, fine,” answers that worthy.

Then a garment of totally different cut is put on. If the customer seems to like it, the salesman echoes his view. It is just the coat he should buy.

Pretty soon the customer realizes that the salesman’s advice is worthless; he won’t tell him the truth as to how the garment looks, fits and hangs; he is intent only on making a sale. When the customer sees this, naturally he will not buy there. He will go to another house or to a salesman who will tell him the truth, who will be honest with him.

Sincerity, genuineness, transparency, carry great weight with us all. Just think what it means to have everybody believe in you, to have everybody that has ever had any dealings with you feel that, there is a man as clean as a hound’s tooth and as straight as a die; no wavering, no shuffling, no sneaking, no apologizing, no streak of any kind in his honesty; you can always rely on his word. There is a young man who has nothing to cover up; he has no motive but to tell the truth; he doesn’t have to cover up his tracks because he has lied once and must make his future conduct correspond; he knows that honesty needs no defense, no explanation. His character is transparent. One doesn’t need to throw up guards against him.

We all know what a comfort it is to do business with such a man, a man who cannot be bought, who would feel insulted at the mere suggestion that any influence could swerve him a hair’s breadth from the right. Is there anything grander than the man who stands foursquare to the world, who does not love money or influence as he loves his reputation, and who would rather be right than be President?

The salesman who has made such a reputation, a reputation of never misrepresenting, never deceiving, never trying to cajole or over-influence, who never tries to sell a man what he knows he does not want or what would not be good for him, who does not try to palm off “out of season” goods or cover up defects, is certainly a comfort and a treasure both to his employer and his customers.

How much more comfortable and satisfactory it is for oneself not to have to watch every step and to guard every statement for fear one will let out some previous deception! How much easier and how much better it is to be honest than always to have to be on the lookout for discrepancies in one’s statements, to be obliged continually to cover one’s tracks!

No training, no bluffing, no tricks, will take the place of genuine sterling character; your prospect’s instinct, if he is a sharp student of human nature,—and most business men are,—will very quickly tell him whether you are shamming an interest in him or whether it is genuine. He can tell whether you are pure gold or a base counterfeit; and if your character is unalloyed you will establish a friendly relation with him which will be of very great value.

A good salesman will not fail to realize that the men he approaches have been swindled many times, and that a hooked trout is shy of new bait. He will not forget that his would-be customers probably have had many unfortunate experiences, that possibly they have bought many gold bricks, that their confidence has been shaken many times by violated pledges, so that they will be on their guard, and at the outset will look upon every salesman who approaches them as a smooth-tongued swindler. The experienced man knows that business chickens come home to roost, that a dishonest policy, any underhand business, any effort to take advantage will surely be a boomerang for the firm. It is only a question of time. Every misrepresentation, every mean transaction will sooner or later cost the firm very dear.

Remember that every sale you make is an advertisement that will either help or hinder your business. It is an advertisement of the character and general policy of your firm. It advertises the squareness, the honesty, or the cunning, the trickery of the whole concern; in other words, the man you approach will get a pretty good idea of your firm,—their policy and methods of doing business,—by the impression which you make on him. He can tell pretty well whether he is dealing with high-class men, whether he can absolutely depend upon the word of the house, whether he can rely upon their statements, whether he will be protected, or whether he will have to protect himself by watching and guarding every little step in every business transaction with the house. He can tell whether he can rely absolutely upon its doing the square thing by him or not. “A company is judged by the men it keeps.”

The best salesmen to-day, besides making a study of their business, make a study of their customers and their wants. Many customers regard such salesmen as their business advisers, and they give them their confidence, knowing they will receive from them “white” treatment, that they will only sell them the merchandise which it is to their advantage to buy.

After he has gained their confidence it would be easy enough for the salesman to violate it and sell a much larger bill of goods than is to the advantage of the customer, but the modern salesman knows that this is a poor sort of business policy. The old-time method of holding up a customer when you get him for every dollar you can squeeze out of him, and piling onto him just as many goods as he can be induced to take, and at the biggest possible price, has gone by forever.