Do salesmen sell

Selling is a talent and a skill. The world is populated with people who profess to be salesmen. In actuality they are employed as "order takers." They wait on customers and collect payment in exchange for purchased goods.

True salesmen are an almost extinct breed. These are the individuals who know their business, believe in their product and convey that confidence to the customer in the form of education about the item being purchased.

A real salesman will not accept rationalizations such as "business is slow." He creates business by taking every opportunity to converse with customers and draw their attention to his product. Once he has their attention, he demonstrates what the product will do for the customers and why they cannot afford to be without the item. In order to succeed in converting this conversational exchange into a sale, the professional salesman will exude honesty and confidence. He actually sells himself as a prerequisite to selling his product.

My husband has been a salesman for fifty years. He started out selling sewing machines for Singer Company. For fifteen years he demonstrated sewing machines to potential customers and accumulated awards and trophies for his outstanding selling performance.

He learned to sew and demonstrated the sewing machine with so much skill that customers and coworkers were in awe of his talent. He could take a sewing machine apart and repair, clean, oil and adjust with more proficiency than the Singer service department technicians. More often than not a customer who was "just looking" walked away the proud owner of the latest and greatest product available.

When Singer Co. closed their retail stores, my husband took his talent and training to Sears Roebuck Company and became equally knowledgeable about the vacuum cleaner as he was the sewing machine. Soon he became the top salesman of small appliances in the Western Division. His explanation of his success was, "If you know your product, you can sell anything to anyone." He also believes there is no such thing as "just looking," for if an individual were truly not interested he would be elsewhere.

Sears is famous for offering maintenance contracts on their products. My spouse claimed his own fame by leading product sales and maintenance agreement sales nationwide for some years. He continued to accrue awards, trophies, monetary prizes and accolades.

He has taught many an educational seminar on the benefits of the maintenance agreement. Sears customers are often reluctant to spend the additional amount to insure products renowned for their durablility and performance. My spouse will point out the pricelss virtue of insurance against the unexpected and the fact that what they are really purchasing for a bargain price is peace of mind. Seldom does a customer walk away from this salesman without the best product for their situation and adequate peace of mind about the wisdom of their purchase.

In 1990 my better half hung up his name tag and vacuum hose and retired. He had accumulated myriad stories of his selling experiences and his stories were superbly entertaining. Beginning with carrying a sewing machine cabinet up eight flights in a New York city tenement in the fifties, to selling sewing machines on the Indian reservation in Arizona in the sixties and supporting a family of seven in style with commission from his selling prowess in the seventies and eighties.

Exactly one year later, he tired of retirement and telling his stories and went back to Sears to accumulate more adventures. That was eighteen years ago and his is still working at Sears today and continues to be a leader in sales of floor care products and maintenance contracts. He swears he will never retire again and we are beginning to believe him. He is now selling vacuum cleaners to the adult grandchildren of his original customers.

This super salesman has gimmicks to dress up his selling performance. I met him when he worked at Singer Company and I worked there as the bookkeeper. I still remember holding my breath each time he stood up and with a flourish whipped the belt out of his pants and ran stitches through it to demonstrate the durablility of his product.

Another example of showmanship he uses to this day is to pull a dollar bill out of his pocket, crumple it and throw it on the floor to illustrate the money being wasted if his customer does not take advantage of the fine product he is offering at a great price.

Gimmicks aside, this veteran salesman will be the first to say that what makes a great salesman is knowledge of the product and winning the trust of the customer through behaving honestly and sincerely.

With a good presentation consisting of the two components of knowledge and honesty, I believe the customer buys because the salesman sells.