Lesson Six - Imagination / Using Your Creative Abilities

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Some inventor who understands the value of imagination and has a working knowledge of the radio principle, may make a fortune by perfecting a burglar alarm system that will signal police headquarters and at the same time switch on lights and ring a gong in the place about to be burglarized, with the aid of apparatus similar to that now used for broadcasting.

 

Any farmer with enough imagination to create a plan, plus the use of a list of all automobile licenses issued in his state, may easily work up a clientele of motorists who will come to his farm and purchase all the vegetables he can produce and all the chickens he can raise, thus saving him the expense of hauling his products to the city. i.e. farmers market.

 

By contracting with each motorist for the season the farmer may accurately estimate the amount of produce he should provide. The advantage to the motorist, accruing under the arrangement, is that he will be sure of direct-from-the-farm produce, at less cost than he could purchase it from local dealers.

 

The roadside gasoline filling station owner can make effective use of imagination by placing a lunch stand near his filling station, and then doing some attractive advertising along the road in each direction, calling attention to his "barbecue," "home-made sandwiches" or whatever else he may wish to specialize on.

 

The lunch stand will cause the motorists to stop, and many of them will purchase gasoline before starting on their way again.

 

These are simple suggestions that people are now using, involving no particular amount of complication in connection with their use, yet it is just such uses of imagination that bring financial success.

 

The Piggly-Wiggly self-help store plan, which made millions of dollars for its originator, was a very simple idea which anyone could have adopted, yet considerable imagination was required to put the idea to work in a practical sort of way.

 

The more simple and easily adapted to a need an idea is, the greater is its value,

as no one is looking for ideas which are involved with great detail

or in any manner complicated.

 

Imagination is the most important factor entering into the art of selling. The Master Salesman is always one who makes systematic use of imagination.

 

The outstanding merchant relies upon imagination for the ideas which make his business excel. Imagination may be used effectively in the sale of even the smallest articles of merchandise, such as ties, shirts, hosiery, etc.

 

Let us proceed to examine just how this may be done.

 

I walked into one of the best known haberdasheries (clothing store) in the city of Philadelphia, for the purpose of purchasing some shirts and ties. As I approached the tie counter a young man stepped forward and inquired: "Is there something you want?"

 

Now if I had been the man behind the counter I would not have asked that question.

 

He ought to have known, by the fact that I had approached the tie counter, that I wanted to look at ties. I picked up two or three ties from the counter, examined them briefly, then laid down all but one light blue which somewhat appealed to me. Finally I laid this one down, also, and began to look through the remainder of the assortment.

 

The young man behind the counter then had a happy idea. Picking up a gaudy-looking yellow tie he wound it around his fingers to show how it would look when tied, and asked: "Isn't this a beauty?"

 

Now I hate yellow ties, and the salesman made no particular hit with me by suggesting that a gaudy yellow tie is pretty. If I had been in that salesman's place I would have picked up the blue tie for which I had shown a decided preference, and I would have wound it around my fingers so as to bring out its appearance after being tied.

 

I would have known what my customer wanted by watching the kinds of ties that he picked up and examined. Moreover, I would have known the particular tie that he liked best by the time he held it in his hands. A man will not stand by a counter and fondle a piece of merchandise which he does not like.

 

If given the opportunity, any customer will give the alert salesman a clue as to the particular merchandise which should be stressed in an effort to make a sale.

 

I then moved over to the shirt counter. Here I was met by an elderly gentleman who asked: "Is there something I can do for you today?" Well, I thought to myself that if he ever did anything for me it would have to be today, as I might never come back to that particular store again. I told him I wanted to look at shirts, and described the style and color of shirt that I wanted.

 

The old gentleman made quite a hit with me when he replied by saying: "I am sorry, sir, but they are not wearing that style this season, so we are not showing it."

 

I said I knew "they" were not wearing the style for which I had asked, and for that very reason, among others, I was going to wear it providing I could find it in stock.

 

If there is anything which nettles a man - especially that type of man who knows exactly what he wants and describes it the moment he walks into the store - it is to be told that "they are not wearing it this season." Such a statement is an insult to a man's intelligence, or to what he thinks is his intelligence, and in most cases it is fatal to a sale.

 

If I were selling goods I might think what I pleased about a customer's taste, but I surely would not be so lacking in tact and diplomacy as to tell the customer that I thought he didn't know his business.

 

Rather I would prefer to manage tactfully to show him what I believed to be more appropriate merchandise than that for which he had called, if what he wanted was not in stock.

 

One of the most famous and highly paid writers in the world has built his fame and fortune on the sole discovery that it is profitable to write about that which people already know and with which they are already in accord. The same rule might as well apply to the sale of merchandise.

 

The old gentleman finally pulled down some shirt boxes and began laying out shirts which were not even similar to the shirt for which I had asked. I told him that none of these suited, and as I started to walk out he asked if I would like to look at some nice suspenders.

 

Imagine it! To begin with I do not wear suspenders, and, furthermore, there was nothing about my manner or bearing to indicate that I might like to look at suspenders.

 

It is proper for a salesman to try to interest a customer in wares for which he makes no inquiry, but judgment should be used and care taken to offer something which the salesman has reason to believe the customer may want. I walked out of the store without having bought either shirts or ties, and feeling somewhat resentful because I had been so grossly misjudged as to my tastes for colors and styles.

 

A little further down the street I went into a small, one-man shop which had shirts and ties on display in the window.

 

Here I was handled differently!

 

The man behind the counter asked no unnecessary or stereotyped questions. He took one glance at me as I entered the door, sized me up quite accurately and greeted me with a very pleasant "Good morning, sir!"

 

He then inquired, "Which shall I show you first, shirts or ties?"

 

I said I would look at the shirts first. He then glanced at the style of shirt I was wearing asked my size, and began laying out shirts of the very type and color for which I was searching, without my saying another word.

 

He laid out six different styles and watched to see which I would pick up first.

 

I looked at each shirt, in turn, and laid them all back on the counter, but the salesman observed that I examined one of the shirts a little more closely than the others, and that I held it a little longer.

 

No sooner had I laid this shirt down than the salesman picked it up and began to explain how it was made. He then went to the tie counter and came back with three very beautiful blue ties, of the very type for which I had been looking, tied each and held it in front of the shirt, calling attention to the perfect harmony between the colors of the ties and the shirt.

 

Before I had been in the store five minutes I had purchased three shirts and three ties, and was on my way with the package under my arm, feeling that here was a store to which I would return when I needed more shirts and ties.

 

I learned, afterwards, that the merchant who owns the little shop where I made these purchases pays a monthly rental of $500.00 for the small store, and makes a handsome income from the sale of nothing but shirts, ties and collars.

 

He would have to go out of business, with a fixed charge of $500.00 a month for rent, if it were not for his knowledge of human nature which enables him to make a very high percentage of sales to all who come into his store.

 

I have often observed women when they were trying on hats, and have wondered why salespeople did not read the prospective buyer's mind by watching her manner of handling the hats.

 

A woman goes into a store and asks to be shown some hats. The salesperson starts bringing out hats and the prospective buyer starts trying them on.

 

If a hat suits her, even in the slightest sort of way, she will keep it on a few seconds, or a few minutes, but if she does not like it she will pull it right off her head the moment the salesperson takes her hands off the hat.

 

Finally, when the customer is shown a hat that she likes she will begin to announce that fact, in terms which no well informed salesperson will fail to understand, by arranging her hair under the hat, or pulling it down on her head to just the angle which she likes best, and by looking at the hat from the rear, with the aid of a hand-mirror.

 

The signs of admiration are unmistakable.

 

Finally, the customer will remove the hat from her head, and begin to look at it closely; then she may lay it aside and permit another hat to be tried on her, in which event the clever salesperson will lay aside the hat just removed, and at the opportune time she will bring it back and ask the customer to try it on again.

 

By careful observation of the customer's likes and dislikes a clever saleswoman may often sell as many as three or four hats to the same customer, at one sitting, by merely watching what appeals to the customer and then concentrating upon the sale of that.

 

The same rule applies in the sale of other merchandise. The customer will, if closely observed, clearly indicate what is wanted, and, if the clue is followed, very rarely will a customer walk out without buying.

 

I believe it a conservative estimate when I say that fully seventy-five per cent of the "walk-outs," as the non-purchasing customers are called, are due to lack of tactful showing of merchandise.

 

Last Fall, I went into a hat store to purchase a felt hat. It was a busy Saturday afternoon and I was approached by a young "extra" rush-hour salesman who had not yet learned how to size people up at a glance. For no good reason whatsoever the young man pulled down a brown derby and handed it to me, or rather tried to hand it to me.

 

I thought he was trying to be funny, and refused to take the hat into my hands, saying to him, in an attempt to return his compliment and be funny in turn, "Do you tell bed-time stories also?" He looked at me in surprise, but didn't take the cue which I had offered him.

 

If I had not observed the young man more closely than he had observed me, and sized him up as an earnest but inexperienced "extra," I would have been highly insulted, for if there is anything I hate it is a derby of any sort, much less a brown derby.

 

One of the regular salesmen happened to see what was going on, walked over and snatched the brown derby out of the young man's hands, and, with a smile on his face intended as a sort of sop to me, said, "What the hell are you trying to show this gentleman, anyway?" That spoiled my fun, and the salesman who had immediately recognized me as a gentleman sold me the first hat he brought out.

 

The customer generally feels complimented when a salesman takes the time to study the customer's personality and lay out merchandise suited to that personality.

 

I went into one of the largest men's clothing stores in New York City, a few years ago, and asked for a suit, describing exactly what was wanted, but not mentioning price.

 

The young man, who purported to be a salesman, said he did not believe they carried such a suit, but I happened to see exactly what I wanted hanging on a model, and called his attention to the suit.

 

He then made a hit with me by saying, "Oh, that one over there? That's a high-priced suit!"

 

His reply amused me; it also angered me, so I inquired of the young man what he saw about me which indicated that I did not come in to purchase a high-priced suit?

 

With embarrassment he tried to explain, but his explanations were as bad as the original offense, and I started toward the door, muttering something to myself about "dumb-ass."

 

Before I reached the door I was met by another salesman who had sensed by the way I walked and the expression on my face that I was none too well pleased. With tact well worth remembering, this salesman engaged me in conversation while I unburdened my woes and then managed to get me to go back with him and look at the suit.

 

Before I left the store I purchased the suit I came in to look at, and two others which I had not intended purchasing.

 

That was the difference between a salesman and one who drove customers away.

 

Moreover, I later introduced two of my friends to this same salesman and he made sizable sales to each of them.

 

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I was once walking down Michigan Boulevard, in Chicago, when my eye was attracted to a beautiful gray suit in the window of a men's store. I had no notion of buying the suit, but I was curious to know the price, so I opened the door, and, without entering, merely pushed my head inside and asked the first man I saw how much the suit in the window was.

 

Then followed one of the cleverest bits of sales maneuvering I have ever observed. The salesman knew he could not sell me the suit unless I came into the store, so he said, "Will you not step inside, sir, while I find out the price of the suit?"

 

Of course he knew the price, all the time, but that was his way of disarming me of the thought that he intended trying to sell me the suit. Of course I had to be as polite as the salesman, so I said, "Certainly," and walked inside.

 

The salesman said, "Step right this way, sir, and I will get the information for you." In less than two minutes I found myself standing in front of a case, with my coat off, getting ready to try on a coat like the one I had observed in the window.

 

After I was in the coat, which happened to fit almost perfectly (which was no accident, thanks to the accurate eyes of an observing salesman) my attention was called to the nice, smooth touch of the material. I rubbed my hand up and down the arm of the coat, as I had seen the salesman do while describing the material, and, sure enough, it was a very fine piece of material. By this time I had again asked the price, and when I was told that the suit was only fifty dollars I was agreeably surprised, because I had been led to believe that it might have been priced much higher.

 

However, when I first saw the suit in the window my guess was that it was priced at about thirty-five dollars, and I doubt that I would have paid that much for it had I not fallen into the hands of a man who knew how to show the suit to best advantage.

 

If the first coat tried on me had been about two sizes too large, or a size too small, I doubt that any sale would have been made, despite the fact that all ready-to-wear suits sold in the better stores are altered to fit the customer.

 

I bought that suit "on the impulse of the moment," as the psychologist would say, and I am not the only man who buys goods on that same sort of impulse.

 

A single slip on the part of the salesman would have lost him the sale of that suit.

 

If he had replied, "Fifty dollars," when I asked the price I would have said, "Thank you," and have gone my way without looking at the suit.

 

Later in the season I purchased two more suits from this same salesman, and if I now lived in Chicago the chances are that I would buy still other suits from him, because he always showed me suits that were in keeping with my personality.

 

 

The Marshall Field store, in Chicago, gets more for merchandise than does any other store of its kind in the country. Moreover, people knowingly pay more at this store, and feel better satisfied than if they bought the merchandise at another store for less money.

 

Why is this?

 

Well, there are many reasons, among them the fact that anything purchased at the Field store which is not entirely satisfactory may be returned and exchanged for other merchandise, or the purchase price may be refunded, just as the customer wishes.  An implied guarantee goes with every article sold in the Field store.

 

Another reason why people will pay more at the Field store is the fact that the merchandise is displayed and shown to better advantage than it is at most other stores.

 

The Field window-displays are truly works of art, no less than if they were created for the sake of art alone, and not merely to sell merchandise.

 

The same is true of the goods displayed in the store. There is harmony and proper grouping of merchandise throughout the Field establishment, and this creates an "atmosphere" that is more - much more - than merely an imaginary one.

 

Still another reason why the Field store can get more for merchandise than most other merchants is due to the careful selection and supervision of salespeople. One would seldom find a person employed in the Field store whom one would not be willing to accept as a social equal, or as a neighbor. Not a few men have made the acquaintance of girls in the Field store who later became their wives.

 

Merchandise purchased in the Field store is packed or wrapped more artistically than is common in other stores, which is still another reason why people go out of their way and pay higher prices to trade there.

 

While we are on the subject of artistic wrapping of merchandise I wish to relate the experience of a friend of mine which will not fail to convey a very definite meaning to those engaged in the business of selling, as it shows how imagination may be used even in wrapping merchandise.

 

This friend had a very fine silver cigarette case which he had carried for years, and of which he was very proud because it was a gift from his wife.

 

Constant usage had banged the case up rather badly. It had been bent, dented, the hinges warped, etc., until he decided to take it to Caldwell the jeweler, in Philadelphia, to be repaired.

 

He left the case and asked them to send it to his office when it was ready.

 

About two weeks later a splendid-looking new delivery wagon with the Caldwell name on it drew up in front of his office, and a nice-looking young man in a neat uniform stepped out with a package that was artistically wrapped and tied with a ribbon tape string. The package happened to be delivered to my friend on his birthday, and, having forgotten about leaving the cigarette case to be repaired, and observing the beauty and size of the package that was handed to him, he naturally imagined that someone had sent him a birthday present.

 

His secretary and other workers in his office gathered around his desk to watch him open up his "present." He cut the ribbon and removed the outer covering. Under this was a covering of tissue paper, fastened with beautiful gold seals bearing the Caldwell initials and trade-mark.

 

This paper was removed and behold! a most beautiful plush-lined box met his eyes.

 

The box was opened, and, after removing the tissue paper packing, there was a cigarette case which he recognized, after careful examination, as the one he had left to be repaired, but it did not look like the same case, thanks to the imagination of the Caldwell manager. 

 

Every dent had been carefully straightened out. The hinges had been trued and the case had been polished and cleaned so it shone as it did when it was first purchased.

 

Simultaneously a prolonged "Oo-o-o-o-o-o-Oh!" of admiration came from the onlookers, including the owner of the cigarette case.

 

And the bill! Oh, it was a plenty, and yet the price charged for the repair did not seem too high. As a matter of fact everything that entered into the transaction from the packing of the case, with the fine tissue paper cover, the gold seals, the ribbon tape string, the delivery of the package by a neatly uniformed boy, from a well appointed new delivery wagon, was based upon carefully calculated psychology which laid the foundation for a high price for the repair.

 

People, generally, do not complain of high prices, providing the "service" or embellishment of the merchandise is such as to pave the way for high prices.

 

What people do complain of, and rightly so, is high prices and "sloppy" service.

 

To me there was a great lesson in this cigarette case incident, and I think there is a lesson in it for any person who makes a business of selling any sort of merchandise.

 

The goods you are selling may actually be worth all you are asking for them, but if you do not carefully study the subjects of advantageous display and artistic packing you may be accused of overcharging your customers.

 

On Broad Street, in the city of Philadelphia, there is a fruit shop where those who patronize the store are met at the door by a man in uniform who opens the door for them.

 

He does nothing else but merely open the door, but he does it with a smile (even though it be a carefully studied and rehearsed smile) which makes the customer feel welcome even before he gets inside of the store.

 

This fruit merchant specializes on specially prepared baskets of fruit.

 

Just outside the store is a big blackboard on which are listed the sailing dates of the various ocean liners leaving New York City. This merchant caters to people who wish baskets of fruit delivered on board departing boats on which friends are sailing.

 

If a man's sweetheart, or perhaps his wife or a very dear friend, happens to be sailing on a certain date he naturally wants the basket of fruit he purchases for her to be embellished with frills and "trimmings." Moreover, he is not necessarily looking for something "cheap" or even inexpensive.

 

All of which the fruit merchant capitalizes!

 

He gets from $10.00 to $25.00 for a basket of fruit which one could purchase just around the corner, not more than a block away, for from $3.00 to $7.50, with the exception that the latter would not be embellished with the seventy-five cents' worth of frills which the former contains.

 

This merchant's store is a small affair, no larger than the average small fruit-stand store, but he pays, a rent of at least $15,000.00 a year for the place and makes more money than half a hundred ordinary fruit stands combined, merely because he knows how to display and deliver his wares so they appeal to the vanity of the buyers.

 

This is but another proof of the value of imagination.

 

The American people - and this means all of them, not merely the so-called rich - are the most extravagant spenders on earth, but they insist on "class" when it comes to appearances such as wrapping and delivery and other embellishments which add no real value to the merchandise they buy.

 

The merchant who understands this, and has learned how to mix IMAGINATION with his merchandise, may reap a rich harvest in return for his knowledge. And a great many are doing it, too.

 

The salesman who understands the psychology of proper display, wrapping and delivery of merchandise, and who knows how to show his wares to fit the whims and characteristics of his customers, can make ordinary merchandise bring fancy prices, and what is more important still, he can do so and still retain the patronage of his customers more readily than if he sold the same merchandise without the "studied" appeal and the artistic wrapping and delivery service.

 

In a "cheap" restaurant, where coffee is served in heavy, thick cups and the silverware is tarnished or dirty, a ham sandwich is only a ham sandwich, and if the restaurant keeper gets fifteen cents for it, he is doing well; but just across the street, where the coffee is served in dainty thin cups, on neatly covered tables, by neatly dressed young women, a much smaller ham sandwich will bring a quarter, to say nothing of the cost of the tip to the waitress.

 

The only difference in the sandwiches is merely in appearances; the ham comes from the same butcher and the bread from the same baker, whether purchased from the former or the latter restaurant.

 

The difference in price is very considerable, but the difference in the merchandise is not a difference of either quality or quantity so much as it is of "atmosphere," or appearances.

 

People love to buy "appearance" or atmosphere! which is merely a more refined way of saying that which P. T. Barnum said about "one being born every minute."

 

It is no overstatement of fact to say that a master of sales psychology could go into the average merchant's store, where the stock of goods was worth, let us say, $50,000.00, and at very slight additional expense make the stock bring $60,000.00 to $75,000.00.

 

He would do nothing except coach the salespeople on the proper showing of the merchandise, after having purchased a small amount of more suitable fixtures, perhaps, and re-packed the merchandise in more suitable coverings and boxes.

 

A man's shirt, packed one to the box, in the right sort of a box, with a piece of ribbon and a sheet of, tissue paper added for embellishment, can be made to bring a dollar or a dollar and a half more than the same shirt would bring without the more artistic packing.

 

I know this is true, and I have proved it more times than I can recall, to convince some skeptical merchant who had not studied the effect of "proper displays."

 

Conversely stated, I have proved, many times, that, the finest shirt made cannot be sold for half its value if it is removed from its box and placed on a bargain counter, with inferior looking shirts, both of which examples prove that people do not know what they are buying - that they go more by appearances than they do by actual analysis of the merchandise they purchase.

 

This is noticeably true in the purchase of automobiles. The American people want, and DEMAND, style in the appearance of automobiles.

 

What is under the hood or in the rear axle they do not know and really do not care, as long as the car looks the part.

 

Henry Ford required nearly twenty years of experience to learn the truth of the statement just made, and even then, despite all of his analytical ability, he only acknowledged the truth when forced to do so by his competitors.

 

If it were not true that people buy "appearances" more than they buy "reality" Ford never would have created his new automobile. That car is the finest sort of example of a psychologist who appeals to the tendency which people have to purchase "appearance," although, of course, it must be admitted that in this particular example the real value of the car actually exists.

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Lesson Six - Imagination / Using Your Creative Abilities

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