Why is it That One Salesman Succeeds Where Another Fails?

There are few goods which are not duplicated in quality and quantity. Few salesmen have anything which is exclusively their own. The sinking of any one company, or the annihilation of any one salesman, would hardly make a ripple on the sea of trade.

Why is it that one salesman succeeds where another fails, with identical goods, identical prices, and identical demand? Simply because one salesman has a certain faculty of presenting his products and of subjecting the buyer to his personal influence.

If the purchaser were perfectly sane, and knew his business, the salesman would be unnecessary, and personality would not count for much in selling, for most of it could be done over the internet or through product demonstrations. But the present buyer is very human and does not see straight, any more than other people do. He is in a condition to be directed, and the salesman who succeeds understands how to direct others and how to make them do what, perhaps, they would not do if they were let alone.

I do not mean to say that the salesman absolutely controls the buyer, that he exercises what is falsely called a hypnotic influence over him, that in his hands the buyer is powerless and must do what the salesman tells him to do. Except in a few instances, no salesman possesses this power in any degree of fullness; yet the good salesman has some of it, and is able by personality and argument to bring the buyer into a purchasing mood, to make him buy, then and there, when, perhaps, he would postpone the purchase or give the order to some other house.

There is another element which plays a mighty part in selling: the average buyer does not usually want to buy, or says he does not, or thinks he does not, - and usually he says he does not want to buy whatever his intention may be. The salesman, then, has before him a wall of opposition, even when the buyer has made up his mind to purchase. Not only must he present the right goods and the right prices, but he must possess that unanalyzable ability to make the buyer do what he may not voluntarily do or what he would postpone doing. This ability may be considered the fundamental bottom of good salesmanship under present conditions.

Even the woman in front of the counter, with her mind fully made up to purchase, may go to another store, or may decide to wait a day or two, if she and the salesman antagonize each other, or if she is not pleased with the salesman's manner or methods. And, further, a large proportion of retail purchasers may be made to buy more if the salesman understands how to sell. It is a fight, a battle of wits, the buyer starting in ahead of the game, the salesman to win in the end if he can. However much the buyer may want to purchase, the salesman should want to sell him more than he wants to buy; and unless the salesman keeps this fact in mind, and realizes that it is more difficult to sell the customer than it is for the customer to buy of him, he will make only mediocre sales.

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