• Sale Objectives
• Starting the Simple Sale
• The All-Important Interview
• Three General Considerations for Closing Sales
• Meeting the Customer

Unit II.—TECHNIQUE OF SALESMANSHIP

SALE OBJECTIVES

When you start toward the display floor with a customer who has asked for a particular article, you have—or should have—five objectives:

In order to attain these objectives you must gain the confidence of the buyer, and here your success will depend upon what happens in the first 5 minutes. It is during these crucial minutes that the customer forms the impressions which so often lead her either to bestow her confidence or withhold it.

STARTING THE SIMPLE SALE

The experienced salesman is accustomed to form a quick judgment of the customer and to base his opening procedure on that judgment. The technique presented here is designed particularly to help this salesman make large sales or handle small sales which may be expected to produce future business.

Let us assume that your customer has not asked for an advertised chair, and that there is nothing in her appearance or manner to enable you to make a close guess as to her tastes and means. All you know is that she is interested in an easy chair. Since she has not told you exactly what kind of chair she wants, it is safe to assume that she doesn't know. On the other hand, you may be certain she wants a chair to serve some particular purpose of her own. The chances are that she has only a vague idea as to the particular type of chair which will best serve this purpose; you as yet have no idea whatever. Accordingly, you must choose one of three methods for starting the sale.

THE HAPHAZARD METHOD

The first is to lead her through your stock in the hope that she will see a chair that pleases her and buy it. This sometimes will happen, and there are some customers—though few—who can be sold in no other way. However, this method wastes so much time, and results in such a heavy percentage of lost sales, that it should be your last resort. It is open to three serious objections:

First, it will not help you win the customer's confidence. By relinquishing all control of the interview, you forfeit her respect for you as a competent adviser in the processes of home furnishing, and become merely an order taker. If she happens to like your merchandise, you are fortunate; but you can do nothing to influence her toward liking it.

Second, no one can look at a great many different things, however interesting and beautiful, without becoming confused and losing the power of discriminating judgment. The woman who is shown furniture by this undirected method is likely to become tired and certain to become confused, and may be expected to decide to "think it over," "look around," or "bring her husband."

Moreover, you cannot show many chairs, even by this method, without making some comments about them. If you are like many salespersons you will fall into the habit of describing half the pieces shown either as the most beautiful, the smartest, the most comfortable, the latest, or the best bargain. If this happens, any normally intelligent person will suspect that you are either insincere or incompetent.

Third, if a sale results, it is likely to be at an unnecessarily low-price level unless the question of credit limit is involved; and in any event there will be no sale of additional merchandise, no information of future value, no loyal business friendship.

THE HIGH-PRESSURE METHOD

You may decide to make a persistent and, if necessary, a high-pressure effort to "sell" her something. This method, like the first, will work with a limited number of buyers. However, it results in much wasted time by reason of the high percentage of returns for credit or exchange, and in ill-feeling and impaired confidence which over a period of years make it difficult for the salesman to build up a personal following among the buyers of his community.

As a matter of cold fact, this method of selling home furnishings has caused the retailers an immense loss in public confidence, as well as in money. Because of wrong selling methods, multitudes of women now stay out of certain stores except on those rare occasions when they are forced by actual needs to enter. Although these women want to buy, they are afraid of being sold.

More accurately, they are afraid of being sold the wrong thing. Most of the women who ask to see a chair or rug or other home-furnishings merchandise really want something much more important to themselves, although they do not tell us about it. They want beauty, comfort, distinction, or social prestige. In other words, they want to buy furniture as a means of making their homes more attractive; but their past experience, or the experience of their friends, often leads them to believe that the salesman will not really help them. To overcome their hesitancy, they must be made to feel at the beginning of the interview that no one is trying to sell them, or even to let them buy, but rather that the desire of the salesman is to help them buy.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

The third possible course of action is based upon a study of the customer's needs. The salesman will seek to discover the customer's purpose in looking at easy chairs and then to show her the particular pieces in stock which are best adapted to serve that purpose. He will need information about the size, style, and coloring of the chair required, and the amount that the buyer is able or willing to pay for it. Do not, at the outset, ask for this information.

In selling home furnishings avoid questions which will force the buyer to make definite commitments in advance as to her tastes or the amount of money she is prepared to spend. In the first place, it is probable that if she had fixed ideas on these subjects she would have told you exactly what she wanted at once. If you force her by direct questions to make a statement, she may feel impelled to abide by it later; you thereby have placed yourself and your stock under an unnecessary handicap.

In the second place you run the risk of annoying her, since few women welcome a direct question at the beginning of a sales interview as to how much they are prepared to spend. Finally, such questions may be so clumsy and amateurish in technique as to under-mine a customer's confidence in your ability. Your questions at the outset should be directed toward determining her needs. If such questions are skillfully put, she will welcome them as evidence that you are trying to help her buy economically and intelligently.

THE ALL-IMPORTANT INTERVIEW

Upon leaving the elevator take your customer directly to an easy chair which you know to be good-looking and comfortable, conservative both in design and coloring, and neither your cheapest nor your most costly quality. By choosing a conservative rather than an extreme style you run no risk of impairing her confidence in your taste and judgment, and by picking a piece in the middle price range you run no risk of offending her if she is in the market for a costly chair, or of alarming her if she is a buyer for a cheap chair. Moreover, you are in the safe position of being able to shift ground in either direction without loss of prestige. Don't ask her how she likes this chair, and don't make any flattering comments on it. Merely say, in effect: "I don't know how close this particular chair comes to what you have in mind; but at least it is attractive and comfortable. If you care to sit down in it for a moment, and to tell me a little about your requirements, or about your room, perhaps I can save you the time and trouble of looking at a great number of unsuitable pieces. Is the chair for your living room?" If the answer is "Yes," proceed: "Then it will of course have to fit in with your other things in that room."

At this point you may wish to draw up a small table and lay the living-room floor plan[1] on it with the first page so placed that the customer can easily see it. Then draw up a chair for yourself. It is important to move with a poise and assurance which will cause the buyer to know you are following the usual procedure. By the time you are seated she will likely have read enough of the first page to be interested and awaiting your next move.

OPENING THE INTERVIEW

In many simple sales it will be unnecessary to ask many questions, or to enter the answers on the plan. Since you cannot know this at the start of the interview, however, it is usually wise to show the plan, even if you make no actual use of it. The effect of this procedure catches interest, places the transaction on a more professional basis, and helps create confidence in yourself and your store as skillful and competent advisers in the selection of furniture.

If you decide to use the plan, spread it on the table, and say, in effect: "This device helps us to serve our patrons who are interested in buying furniture that will add to the comfort and beauty of their homes. In your own case, for example, we have scores of chairs that are good looking and that are good values. Yet, if you were to look at all of them you would undoubtedly find that some are too large or too small and that the great majority will not harmonize perfectly in design, style, or coloring with the other things in your own particular room. By using this device you can give me a clear picture of your room as you want it to look. Then I can show you only such pieces as promise to meet your requirements, and you in turn may select the one chair that seems most suitable. Do you have a guest chair in mind, or one for the special use of a member of the family? If for a member of the family, the sex, size, and individual preference must be taken into account; if for guests, the general decorative character of the room only.

"The new chair will be seen against the background of the walls and the floor coverings, and as a part of the group to which it belongs. Hence, we must be sure it will harmonize with these other elements. Your rug, for example, is——?" Enter important information which is given on the floor plan under the heading "Floor covering." Information needed includes the type of rug (which may give you an idea of the buyer's price level); coloring; and type of design (which will indicate to you the characteristic features of the new chair necessary to insure harmony). Then proceed in the same way with the walls, woodwork, draperies, and principal upholstery fabrics.

If by this time your customer shows signs of impatience, you may wish to say in effect that you can show her several chairs that will fill the requirements admirably. Then go to work.

UTILIZING THE CUSTOMER'S ANSWERS

If, on the other hand, the buyer clearly is interested, ask for the size of her room and for the description and location of her other furniture, and block in the information on the floor plan, using the method shown in the typical floor plan, page 21. Here the best procedure is to start from the point of intersection of the 2 heavy lines, or axes, and count in 4 directions, using the scale of ¼-inch square for each foot. For example, if the room is 16 × 24 feet, count 12 squares from the center in both directions to locate the end walls, and 8 squares in both directions to locate the side walls. When this information is recorded you will get an idea as to the correct size and proper location for the new chair. Be sure to locate windows and doors accurately and indicate the exposure of the room with reference to the compass points.

These preliminaries when completed will give a clear picture of the room, a fair idea of your customer's price range, and a good start toward her confidence. Thank her and introduce yourself simply by saying, "I am Mr. Smith. If you are pleased by what I have shown you today, I shall hope to see you again as other living-room needs arise. May I fill in your name and address, so that this plan may be filed for use when you are next in the store?"

USE JUDGMENT IN SHOWING MERCHANDISE

You must be guided by your best judgment. If you have reason to think the customer has confidence in you, show first the particular chair that you honestly believe is best for her purpose, introducing it with a brief, pointed, and purely impersonal comment on its beauty, style, and peculiar fitness for her own purpose. Don't use superlatives. She may not like this piece well enough to buy it immediately, in which case you will be seriously handicapped in trying to interest her in another one. If, on the contrary, you do not feel assured of her complete confidence, probably it will be wiser to show your second or third best piece first, holding the best in reserve.

As soon as you detect signs of real interest in a chair, build up a little group based on the principles of harmony which are stated and illustrated in unit VII, page 142. In some cases a small table will be enough; but usually it will be better to use a larger table, a lamp, and often a small rug and a length or two of drapery fabrics, if you stock them. The purpose of this procedure is to help the customer see your chair as an integral part of her own room and to emphasize its desirability as a means of making that room more attractive. If she already has the pieces necessary to form a complete group when the chair is added, select pieces as nearly like her own as possible. If not, select pieces that harmonize perfectly with the chair. Don't tell her that she ought to have these pieces. Merely show them without comment, and defer any attempt to sell anything more than an easy chair until after the chair has been sold.

THREE GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR CLOSING SALES

BE PREPARED TO CLOSE A SALE AT ANY POINT

Some salesmen make the serious and costly mistake of assuming that every customer will be exacting and hard to sell, and that a large percentage of them enter the store with no real intention of buying. The really able salesman knows that this is not true. Under present conditions the woman who enters a furniture store or department may be presumed to have an active interest in furniture. When you have found her real needs and offered her something that satisfies them, there in an excellent chance that she will be ready to buy. If so, take the order at once. Don't make the tactical blunder of showing additional merchandise, or of completing all the steps necessary to close a difficult sale. Many salesmen talk themselves out of a sale by suggesting unnecessary alternatives. In other words, prepare carefully and intelligently for the order, expect it, and take it at the first opportunity.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION UNTIL YOU KNOW THE CUSTOMER'S BUYING MOTIVES

At the start of a sale it is safe to assume that the buyer is thinking in terms of her own interests. Don't tell her that a given chair is in the latest or most popular style until you know that she is interested in the latest rather than the best style for her particular room. Don't tell her that it is your best-selling number; or that Mrs. Jones just bought a piece like it; or that you think, or the buyer thinks, or the head of the house thinks it "wonderful."

DON'T QUOTE A PRICE—UNLESS YOU ARE ASKED FOR IT

As a general, but by no means invariable, rule, don't quote a price—unless you are asked for it—until you see definite signs of interest in the piece under consideration; and even then not until you have prepared for it by a brief but convincing statement as to quality or desirability. However, when you are asked the price of an article, give it immediately and without apology or comment.

MEETING THE CUSTOMER

All first impressions and most sales start at the front door of your store or department. For any lack of promptness and courtesy at this point there will be a penalty.

Anyone who enters the store should be met immediately. If it happens to be a customer, whether man or woman, a long delay for any reason will be resented, and even a moment's pause to finish a conversation may be regarded as an affront. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of this matter, both to yourself and to your house. In a competitive market few persons will buy from the man who treats them discourteously, nor will they return to the store where they have met with discourtesy if another store with better methods is accessible. Moreover, one offended customer can do more damage through word-of-mouth advertising than a thousand lines of newspaper space can repair.

The visitor should be greeted with a smile, a bow, and the words "Good morning" or "Good afternoon." Test both your smile and your bow before a mirror and improve them if any improvement is possible. A genuine infectious smile is literally a priceless asset. After this greeting usually you will be told what is wanted. If not, after a slight pause, ask: "May I show you something?" or "What may I show you?" Don't ask: "Can I help you?" "Are you interested in furniture?" "What can I do for you?" or "Anything, today?"

For the purpose of illustration, suppose the customer is a woman who asks to see a sofa bed. Don't ask her how much she wants to pay, or even what sort of sofa bed she wants. If the stock is on another floor it will be enough to say: "We will take the elevator, please," and indicate the direction. Do not precede her. Walk abreast, and, if the aisle is crowded, drop behind. If she is carrying a parcel of burdensome size ask her if you may have it.

Although many successful salesmen begin at once to draw out information as to the customer's requirements, it is better practice to defer such questions until you are in the presence of your merchandise and beyond the possibility of noise and confusion. Whether it is wise to try a few impersonal remarks, or to keep still, from the front door to the sales floor, will depend upon your judgment of the individual customer.

QUESTIONS

1. This unit discussed three methods of starting the sale. How would you proceed to sell furnishings for the new clubhouse at the community center?

2. What would you do to correct a wrong attitude toward use of certain types of furniture in a living room?

3. A woman tells you that she cannot afford costly furnishings. What steps would you take to show her that good taste is not necessarily expensive?

4. Of what advantage is the study of advertising to the young man who expects to become a furniture salesman?

5. What use should be made of dealers' aids furnished by the manufacturer of products you are to sell?

6. Give five sources of information regarding prospects which a retail furniture salesman may use.

7. What should a good furniture salesman know about the history of his firm?

8. Why is the excessive use of superlatives an indication of ignorance of the article being sold?

9. (a) Of what value is a knowledge of competing goods? (b) How should such knowledge be used?

SUGGESTED READING LIST

(Most libraries will have other excellent books discussing retail salesmanship and these should be consulted freely.)

• Studying the Customers, VII, pp. 89-107.
• Receiving the Customers, VIII, pp. 107-131.
• Sales Persuasion, IX, pp. 131-152.
• Methods of Increasing Sales, XI, pp. 165-186.

• Hiring, Training, Promotion, IV, pp. 41-65.
• Hours, Vacations, Earnings, V, pp. 65-93.

• Furnishing the Home, XVI, pp. 351-388.

• The Psychology of the Retail Sale, III, pp. 19-31.
• Studying the Merchandise, VI, VII, pp. 81-119.
• Customer Types and Characteristics, X, pp. 159-185.
• How to Meet Objectives, XIV, pp. 235-259.
• Substitution Sale, XV, pp. 259-265.

• The Retail Sales Process, XI, pp. 219-245.
• Customer Service, XIV, pp. 295-311.

• The Futility of Price Appeal, XI, pp. 97-106.
• Buyer Slants on Selling, XIV, pp. 121-128.

• The Buyer's Motives, VII, pp. 61-74.
• The Customer, XIV, pp. 153-173.