Masonry Magazine May 1966 Page. 15
THE SELLING PARADE
by Charles B. Roth, America's no. 1 salesmanship authority
The Selling Parade by Charles B. Roth is another new feature added by Masonry. Watch for it in all future issues of the magazine for the entire Masonry Industry. Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference.
Don't Shoot All Your Arrows
Like a good many salesman, Ray Barton, who sells heavy-duty trucks, can hardly expect to close a deal on his first call.
Barton figures that, even though he is turned down, he can start building his next call on the resistances of the customer. He says what he wants to do after each call is keep the door ajar for a comeback later on.
So, he doesn't tell his entire story at any one time; doesn't shoot all his arrows at once.
There is a fine piece of selling strategy in Barton's method. It goes something like this:
When the prospect asks for some kind of technical information, if Barton feels the prospect is not ready to buy, he deliberately withholds the information.
That sounds as if it might be a dangerous procedure. Barton doesn't think so, because: "Since a salesman with pertinent information is always welcome, I make it a point not to exhaust my bag of tricks too soon."
His methods are: Keep him dangling by withholding information. Arouse his curiosity; offer to satisfy it later. Leave material to be picked up later. Spring new ideas each time you call.
Every Salesman's Most Valuable Commodity
Once I studied the lives and work habits of over 500 of the top salesmen of the country. What I wanted to discover was whether they had a few pet secrets that made them great. I found they had one.
It was a fierce regard for time.
Time to these salesmen was their most valuable commodity; time is your most valuable commodity, too.
One of the most successful salesmen on the go today lives in Ohio. His name is Ben Feldman. He is a giant in his industry. He works all the time.
One of Feldman's associates told me this about him: "Ben is dedicated to hard work. It is easy to see why he is so successful.
"To Ben Feldman a day of twelve hours is a short day. If he is not making calls, he is spending every evening working on plans or presentations to submit the next day."
It could be that you feel life is too short to work all the time, and you could be right. But if you want to thrive in selling, there is no way you can do it without working all the time.
Besides, as Robert Graves' grandmother told him when he was a little boy in Wales: "Bobbie, always remember this: that work is as much fun as anything else."
Here's How It Is With Salesmen On The Go
A few months ago I introduced you to a young salesman named Sam Cummings, an internationalist who, at the age of 35, owns a company worth $10 million. I told you he was a salesman on the go for sure.
I thought maybe you would like to know how a salesman on the go lives, so here is one of Sam Cummings' recent itineraries. Not many of us would like to live up to it, but it is smoke to Cummings' nostrils, money in Cummings' bank accounts. The itinerary;
September 17. Leave Monaco, where he lives, for Athens. Lunch at Rome airport. Met by agent in Athens who reports on progressing negotiations.
September 18. Up at 6, whisked to Ordnance Depot at Menidi. Spot checks surpluses. Back to Athens. Deal clinched.
September 19. To Iran. Tours arsenals. To New Delhi by midnight plane, arriving more dead than alive.
September 20. Little time for sleep. Agent has arranged series of talks at defense ministry. Nothing comes of them.
September 21-22. Morning talks with Indias Prime Minister Nehru.
September 23. Bangkok.
The reporter who was assigned to accompany Cummings, threw in the towel here, exhausted. Cummings went on. Three weeks later he reported where he had been: Indonesia, Melbourne, Wellington, finally the long haul to Alexandria via Fiji, Honolulu, and Los Angeles.
Cummings came back unwashed, famished and exhausted, but in his crocodile briefcase he had what he went after a contract for $1 million of World War II weapons. "Good show!" he exclaimed.
That is what life is like for a salesman on the go in this century. Maybe it sounds exciting, all that travel, but many salesmen wouldn't like it for eight or nine months out of the year. Cummings has to. It is his job.
Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference.
All rights reserved. MAY 1966 CHARLES ROTH.
MASONRY May, 1966
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