Men who sell things

observations and experiences of over twenty years as a travelling salesman

This book is an attempt to specify the qualifications necessary to the making of a successful salesman and the reasons for so many failures in the greatest profession on earth, the profession of salesmanship. I wish to write, not of the doctrine of "luck," "chance," and "good fortune," but of the doctrine of effort and result; to proclaim that highest form of twentieth-century salesmanship which brings success, not to the indolent, the improvident, and the dreamer, but to the striving, the intelligent, and the busy man.

When a man has taken the "third degree" in the science of salesmanship, has put finishing touches on a career of strapping and unstrapping cases in hot Summers and chilly Winters, has taken a course in hard knocks at the College of Give-and-Take; after he has been trapped by below-zero receptions; after he has simmered in the cauldron of competition; after he has set his foot on the path that leads to the summit of the mountain peak Success; after he has taken his post-graduate training in seeing Hope deferred, I believe he should have the degree of Commercial Ambassador brought to him on a golden salver, for he is now a professor in the gentle arts of Peace and Plenty.

If you will recall the definition of Ambassador as set down in the dictionaries, it signifies an envoy of the highest rank sent by one government to another for the advantage of both. If there is anybody in the world who knows more about diplomacy than the men who sell things, knows more of dexterity, skill, and tact, more of the art of conducting negotiations, I will cheerfully waive the title of Ambassador and return to those of Travelling Man and Drummer.

But, even then, is not every salesman worthy the name, an envoy of the highest rank sent by one house to another? Herald, then, the Commercial Ambassador! He is the herald and harbinger of the good things in the world of them.

When he stops bumping the ties hotels will hang out "To Let" signs, railroads will have salt-watered stock, and store-keepers everywhere will raise cobwebs in their shop- windows. He keeps going and he keeps all the rest going.

He is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. What, then, of the man who sends back the Ambassador's card by an office boy, who turns his back upon him, who curtly refuses him a look-in? Such a man fails absolutely to safeguard the interests of his customers, proves him ignorant of his own welfare, and into the bargain cheats himself out of the rich storehouse of knowledge that can be entered only through the magic key entrusted to the Commercial Ambassador that daily reviewer of the results of human endeavour of every sort, from desperate failure to brilliant success. Hoch der Ambassador! It is to him and for him that I have written this book.

I. The New Era IS
11. Pure Grit 26
III. The Knocker . . . . . 44
IV. The Order-Taker . . . .57
V. The Fussy or Over- Anxious Salesman 70
VI. The Wheelbarrow Salesman . . 95
VII. The Know-It-All Salesman . . Ill
VIII. The Quick-Tempered Salesman . . 117
IX. The Sky- Rocket Salesman . . 125
X. The All-Head-and-No-Soul Salesman 136
XL The Old-Timer . . . .145
XII. The Right Kind of Salesman . . 158
XIII. The Mind as a Magnet . . . 181
XIV. Specializing Efforts . . . .188
XV. Letters to the Trade ... 203
XVI. Getting the Price . . . .213
XVII. Dress and Orderliness ... 229
XVIII. Retail Salesmen .... 240
XIX. The Salesman's Relation to Credits. 260
XX. The Salesman's Relation to the Buyer 272
XXI. The Sales Manager . . . .281
XXII. Getting an interest in the Business. 287
XXIII. The Employer .... 296

the book details :

Author: Walter Dwight Moody

Publication date: 1919

Company: Chicago: A. C. McClurg

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