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Tactics In Selling
by
“‘If such were the case,’ said my merchant friend, ‘why, then, I ought to sell out to you.’
“‘Then you are right,’ said I. ‘Nothing bothers me more, on going into a barber shop when I’m in a rush and wish nothing but a shave, than to have the barber insist on cutting my hair, singing it, giving me a shampoo, and a face massage.’
“‘Well, I don’t think I’m needing anything just now,’ said my merchant friend. ‘But as you’re here, I’ll run down and see you right after luncheon. ‘No,’ said he, pulling out his watch, ‘I might as well go with you right now. It is half past eleven and that will give you all the afternoon free.’
“‘Very well,’ said I, ‘this is kind of you. I am at your service.’
“It was considerate of him to go along with me right then, for the time of a traveling man relatively is more valuable than that of any other man I know of. In many lines he must make his living in four to six months in the year. Every minute of daylight, when he is on the road, means to him just twice that time or more!
“Do you know, I never had in my sample room a finer man. He very quickly looked over what I had and when he said to me, ‘Do you know, I’m really glad that I’ve come down with you. You have some things that strike me. I hadn’t intended putting in any more goods for this season, but here are a few numbers that I’m sure I can use. I can’t give you a very large order. However, if you’re willing to take what I wish, I shall be very glad to give you a small one; but if your goods turn out all right, and this I have no right to question, we shall do more business in future.’
“I took the order, which wasn’t such a small one, either, and from that time on he has always been a pleasant customer. He was a gentleman-merchant!”
“He’s the kind that always gets the best that’s coming,” broke in two or three of the boys at once.
“Yes, you bet your life!” exclaimed the shoe man. “If a man wishes to get the best I have, that is the way I like him to come at me. To be sure, I do a one price business; but even then, you know, we can all do a man a good turn if he makes us have an interest in his business by treating us courteously. We can serve him by helping him select the best things in our lines, and by not overloading him.”
“Many’s the way,” said the dry goods man, “that we have of getting a man’s ear. In ’96 I was traveling in Western Nebraska. That state, you know, is Bryan’s home. Things were mighty hot out there in September, and nearly everybody in that part of the country was for him; but when you did strike one that was on the other side, he was there good and hard! Yet, most of those who were against Bryan by the time September rolled around were beginning to think that he was going to win out. I had just left Chicago and had been attending a great many Republican political meetings. I had read the Chicago newspapers, all of which were against Bryan that year, and thought that while there was a good deal of hurrah going on, he didn’t stand a ghost of a show, and I was willing to bet my money on it.
“I didn’t have a customer in this town. It was Beaver City. You know how the stores are all built around three sides of a public square. I was out scouting for a looker. I dropped into one man’s store–he was a Republican, but he said to me, ‘Heavens alive! How do you expect me to buy any goods this year? Why, Bryan’s going to be elected sure’s your born, and this whole country is going to the devil. I’m a Republican and working against him as hard as I can, but I’m not going to get myself in debt and go broke all the same.