Making a success of salesmanship - PDF by Maxwell Droke

Making a success of salesmanship from the introduction:  A certain naive and candid author, of a generation gone by, once declared that he w...

Making a success of salesmanship

from the introduction:

 A certain naive and candid author, of a generation gone by, once declared that he wrote books in order to have an excuse to write prefaces. Perhaps that author was in a more fortunate position than the present writer. Maybe he real¬ ly had something to say in the preface of his books. I am afraid, in this instance, that I have not. I find myself in the sorry predicament of having put everything into the book. This was an unfortunate slip-up and greatly to be deplored.

But, you see, I am not a professional writer of books, and I must plead ignorance of most of the tricks of the trade. I believe that this book, Making a Success of Salesmanship, will not require extended explanation or introduction; if it does, then I have failed in my desire to have a simple, friendly talk with salesmen about the day-to-day problems that we all meet up with on the battlegrounds of business.
 I did not write this book. It was written for me by dozens of salesmen, in as many lines; men who have told me their stories, and discussed with me their trials and triumphs. 

If you find between the covers of this little volume (an expression which all accredited preface writers use) a bit of cheer, inspiration, and helpfulness, it is to these salesmen your gratitude is due. They furnished the power—I merely pushed the pen.

A few years ago a certain salesman who had met with rather phenomenal success in the east was transferred to a middle- western city which is celebrated for its large percentage of the foreign-born population. The salesman started out with a great deal of “pep” and “ginger” but for some reason or other, he couldn't close his prospects. Finally, the District Manager, who was conversant with local conditions, pointed out the trouble, “You are travelling at too fast a gait,” he declared. “You are trying to sell these phlegmatic foreigners by the same strong-arm methods you used on the high-powered, quick-thinking eastern business executive, and it won't work. 

Help your prospect to think—and think your way—as you go along, and you will do a lot more business in this town.” The salesman saw the point and immediately altered his tactics. Speaking slowly and distinctly, he presented his proposition a step at a time, pausing frequently to ask, “Is that perfectly clear to you, Mr Schneider?” or “You agree with  that statement, do you not ?” And throughout the interview the salesman closely studied the prospect, carefully noting the reaction to each point and making certain that every claim was throughly believed. 

As a result, the very first day he wrote $20,000 -worth of insurance. Psychologists, you know, tell us that a sale is consummated when the prospective customer makes up his mind that he wants a certain commodity more than he wants the money required to purchase it. That is all very true. But the fact remains that the prospective customer, left to his own de¬ vices would, nine times out of ten, decide negatively. We men who earn our bread and butter by making sales know from practical experience that very few commodities are bought voluntarily. 

They have to be sold. And the very foundation of every sale is—confidence. First and foremost we must make our man believe in us, in our product, and in our proposition, before we can hope to close the sale. You remember the story of the man who by way of experiment stationed himself on a busy street corner and tried in vain to sell genuine five-dollar gold pieces for fifty cents. He had the goods all right. But he couldn't secure the confidence of the passing public. 
the book details :

Author: Maxwell Droke 

Publication date: 1922 

Company: Chicago, New York, The Dartnell corporation

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