Salesmanship Practices and Problems

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SALESMANSHIP PRACTICES AND PROBLEMS The quality of the materials used in the manufacture of this book is governed by continued post-war shortages. PREFACE So much has already been written about salesmanship that the only justification for another book is that it presents a new approach to the subject. This volume is a departure from the usual text on salesmanship in that it is neither inspirational, anecdotal, psychological, nor economic. The unique aim of this book is to present successful salesman ship as a simple process of overcoming twenty fundamental problems commonly encountered in selling goods and services. The authors conception of selling is that it is essentially a method of dealing with difficulties which are created by a sales man himself, his product, and his prospects. A successful salesman experiences little trouble in surmounting these prob lems an unsuccessful salesman fails because he cannot overcome these basic difficulties met in selling. These fundamental problems are experienced in selling every variety of product and service and with all types of prospects. They often are present before a salesman comes face to face with a prospective customer and they often exist long after an order has been secured. Many of the problems confronting an indi vidual salesman are of his own making, arising from his personality, habits, health, education, and attitude. Other problems are created for him by prospective purchasers and are a result of their experience, personality, education, needs, ability to buy, and authority. After critical observation of the work of many salesmen of numerous products and services, consultation with many types of buyers, conferences with salesmen and sales executives, and consideration of the authors personal experience as a salesman, sales executive, and trainer of salesmen, twenty of the most common problems encountered in this occupation were selected as representative of the difficulties met by salesmen in selling all kinds of products and services. Each of these problems is repre sented by a chapter in this book. vi PREFACE After these twenty basic problems of salesmen were selected, genuine sales situations, depicting the methods employed by salesmen in dealing with these fundamental problems, next were sought. Several unique methods were employed in procuring actual interviews between salesmen and prospects. Micro phones were installed in the offices of buyers of various types of products and services and the actual conversations between salesmen and these buyers were recorded on wax cylinders in adjoining offices. These records were obtained without knowl edge of the salesmen. Transcriptions from these records pro duced several hundred pages of verbatim sales conversations. In addition, investigators, equipped with dictographs and ear phones, listened in on hundreds of sales interviews and rated the difficulties of salesmen on eighty separate points, including open ing remarks, personality factors, objections encountered, strategy in dealing with price, competition, closing the sale, etc. Investigators were assigned also to accompany salesmen on the job to record their remarks, methods, time employment, and difficulties encountered. Posing as purchasers, investigators also shopped retail stores and made verbatim records of the presenta tions of retail salesmen and the problems encountered by them in a wide variety of retail establishments. Critical observations were made of the methods used by these salesmen in meeting these problems. As a result of these investigations carried on over a period of two years, many genuine records of sales interviews illustrating the twenty common problems encountered by salesmen were secured, and two or more are included with each chapter. These interviews are the first actual records of what salesmen say to buyers that huvo been published in book form...