A Study of Personality and Its Relation to Salesmanship

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921. Excerpt: ... Sales on the Road. The traveling salesman employed by a wholesale house does his work under conditions similar to those under which the more difficult of specialty sales are usually made Therefore, the general principles of selling, and most of those noted under specialty sales, must be borne in mind as being fully applicable to sales on the road. After the first trip through his territory, the traveling man, if he has done his work well, has more favorable conditions of pre-approach and approach than are usual to the salesman who sells a specialty to people with whom he is unacquainted. The commercial traveler has the advantage of acquaintance, perhaps of friendship, of an increasing knowledge of the kind of men with whom he has to deal, and of their business interests. Naturally these advantages tend to lighten the work of making sales. Personality of the Commercial Traveler. In these days of close competition, of increased publicity, and of quick and easy means of communication, there is much less difference in the quality and price of competing goods than formerly. For this reason sales now are less dependent upon quality and price than heretofore, and more dependent upon the personality of the salesman. So much depends upon what sort of man the traveling salesman really is that his personality becomes a subject of special interest. The sincere, courteous, friendly, well informed traveling man prepares his own welcome, and opens the way to his own success. Those with whom he deals soon learn that they need not be on the defensive against him, that his interests and theirs are not opposed, that to lay aside other matters and talk with him will be agreeable, and that what he has to offer is probably of mutual concern. The man who can create that kind of...