CHAPTER VIII

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CUSTOMERS (_Continued_)

IN A HURRY

Certain customers there are who are required at times to make purchases in a hurry. When a man has ten minutes to use in buying a pair of shoes, and is on his way to catch the limited train from New York to Chicago that leaves twenty minutes later, he is in a hurry. It is safe to say, too, that he needs the shoes pretty badly. There is nothing the salesman can do under these conditions that will please the customer so much as to cut through all the red tape, get right down to business and get the customer started on his way again before the ten minutes are up. Excitement would not do it. This would result in the salesman being unable to think clearly and it would mean also that the customer in excitement would probably take whatever was offered—and repent later. Someone has said that what the salesman needs under these conditions is to be “cool-headed and hot-footed.”

However, when a customer, especially a man, it not actually in a hurry it is promptness and dispatch that he wants rather than “pushing.” The distinction between these was clearly brought out in a recent article:

All men like promptness and dispatch, but few of them want to be hurried. It is important to keep in mind the difference between hurrying the customer and waiting on him with speed.

Quick, nervous movements or speech on the salesman’s part do not indicate quick service; they only confuse or annoy the customer. The salesman who puts the least extra motions in his work, the fewest words and the keenest attention, is the one who will serve quickly and best.

Help the man to make his choice without seeming to be patronizing; try to anticipate his course of thought without interrupting him. When he steps up in front of you act able to hurry, but do not suggest hurrying. This is the safe way because, while men do not like to waste time, few of them, except on special occasions like catching a train or keeping an appointment, are in such a hurry that they want to be shot through the selling process as though they were getting into a lifeboat.

Reflect confidence in your ability to save the customer’s time rather than the ability to speed him out of the department.

“ONLY LOOKING”

There are a few women who take keen enjoyment in a form of indoor amusement known as “shopping.” This may be nothing more than a desire to use what would otherwise be a dull morning by attending a variety show of merchandise. Such a woman may pass from one department of a store to another trying on pretty clothes in each one, and with no thought to buy.

After some experience on the floor the salesman soon learns to distinguish between the customer who comes for business and the “looker” who has come to be entertained at the expense of the salesman’s time and effort while other customers are waiting to be served. On learning that there is no possibility of making a sale, it is for the salesman to suggest, perhaps, that he has shown the principal range of styles and that if there is nothing satisfactory among them the lady might call later and find what she is looking for. The salesman should, of course, offer the usual courtesy extended to customers and should make no intimation of the fact that he does not care to spend further time showing goods. Skillful salesmanship has often been accountable for sales in those cases where there had originally been no intention to buy. Rather than run the risk of missing a sale it is much better for the salesman to continue his effort for a while even after he has become convinced that a purchase is not even being considered. The idle “looker” today may later be ready and able to buy. Therefore whatever goods are shown should be shown to advantage in order that they may make the most favorable impression.

UNDECIDED

Everyone with selling experience has met the customer who is unable to make a decision—the person who is thoroughly satisfied with the goods but cannot come to the point of saying “yes.” In a recent booklet written for salespeople[3] the following important points are brought out and clearly state the position of the salesman in relation to the undecided customer.

Footnote 3:

_Chats on Garment Salesmanship_, by Margaret Sumner.

Now for the woman who needs to be helped in making up her mind. She is a very trying type and needs careful coaching, bolstering up and nursing along to the point of decision. Her other characteristics will be more or less your guide in showing you how to bring her to the point of decision, but your own manner must be very firm. Do not let the least hint of a doubt that she will finally buy creep into your manner or voice. At the same time don’t try to overwhelm her with your own forcefulness, for then she will be frightened. Caution and timidity are the natural weapons of the weak nature, and in all dealings with such persons you must use all the kindness and patience at your command. You have to make decisions for them but let them think that they are making up their minds. Be very gentle but firm.

The weak person must be led like a little child. She simply hesitates to make up her mind without any reason at all. Do not try to reason with her; just be cheerful, smiling and confident, until you inspire a little confidence in her. Some remark about the reliability of your goods and the reputation of their makers and of the store behind them will help.

Other woman find it hard to make decisions when the mind is a little weakened through worry or too great an expenditure of nervous energy. This is the nervous, unhealthy, irritable type, and your method must be as cheerful and sympathetic as with the timid woman, but less insistent. Try to convey the impression, without saying it in so many words, that it will be a relief to get the matter off her mind by making a decision _now_. These poor women run around from store to store, get half a dozen different styles and desirable qualities fixed in their minds and then lie awake at night trying to decide between them. If this method of shopping is hard upon the salesperson, it is many times as hard upon the shopper. When such a one leaves with the promise to “decide later” be just as polite and cheerful as ever, yet without any abruptness. Leave as good an impression as possible, remarking that you hope she will come in later and in many cases she will. Often the personality of the salesperson is the deciding factor in a case of this kind without the customer realizing it.

Still another type of customer who is undecided and has difficulty in coming to a decision is the person who, for example, has a short, thick foot and always admires the long, slim-looking styles and wishes to be fitted accordingly. Then there is naturally the opposite—the person with the long, slim foot who laments of its size, who thinks of the length, which to her seems enormous. One practical salesman with years of experience mentions that such a customer, if well served, can actually be made to feel pleased with the shape of her foot. He says: “When reasoned with properly the customer can be made to feel much comforted if not really proud of the shape of her feet. The salesman can mention, for instance, that the cubic contents of this 8AA foot is less than a size 5½E—and besides a tall woman would not be well proportioned if she had short feet, short arms and short fingers. To be properly proportioned is an advantage—and before the customer realizes it the size 8AA looks pretty well, after all, she thinks they will do all right, the price is satisfactory and the sale is made.”

There is nothing dishonest about this means of serving the customer. It is a genuine, whole-hearted effort to please her and to supply her with the shoe she should rightly wear and that will give her the maximum of service. Hugh Black, a prominent Scotch writer and a close student of human nature, made the statement, after having toured the United States, that one of the chief characteristics of the American people, as he noticed them, was that “no matter what they are doing they want to be doing something else; and no matter where they are they would go somewhere else.” It is perfectly human for everyone to seek variety. The woman with the long, thin foot has become tired of looking at it and consequently it seems commonplace. The salesman in mentioning that the slim foot has its advantages is simply reassuring his customer of a fact, and in doing so he is serving her well.

One of the fatal mistakes in shoe selling is to attempt to please a customer with a size or proportion that is not the proper one for her to wear. This can result in nothing but a loss of business through dissatisfaction when the shoe fails to give the service expected of it. To understand the customer, to use tact—but not deceit—in selling the shoe she should wear, is the responsibility of the salesman.

TWO FRIENDS TOGETHER

It is not unusual for a customer who may be undecided to bring along a friend to assist in the selection. The salesman, under these conditions, may have the task of selling two people the one pair of shoes, because the sale depends upon the satisfaction of both. The effort to sell will, of course, be directed to the person who is buying. However, should there be a difference of opinion between the two concerning some important point such as size or fit, the salesman would naturally be supported by the person who favors the shoe he is suggesting as the most desirable one. Although it would be a mistake for him to make a controversy of it by setting up sides, he can assist in bringing about a decision by a suggestion or two in favor of the person who has agreed with the salesman’s selection.

A woman customer accompanied by her husband, or vice versa, offers another situation that calls for tact on the part of the salesman. One good woman explained that her husband had bought _himself_ a new suit but that she had accompanied him simply to pick out the one he should have. The shoe salesman under the same conditions, will soon be able to tell which one of the two is to do the deciding, and he will then direct his selling effort accordingly.

IGNORANT AND POOR

As a test in salesmanship and the ability to serve different types of customers, the question was asked before a training class for retail salespeople as to the manner in which a customer answering the following description should be greeted and served:

A woman about thirty enters the store carrying a baby in her arms and leading another child by the hand. Her clothes are shabby. She is evidently tired and makes her way to the nearest chair. She looks discouraged.

The salesman on considering these facts realizes at once that such a customer cannot be served in the same manner as the care-free schoolgirl. If he places himself in the position of the tired woman he will realize that her problems are different and that she requires in a shoe not only service but quality, fit, style and price to meet her own circumstances.

The salesman would make no effort to hurry such a customer. He would realize that she would get genuine comfort by resting for a minute or two before getting down to business and that she might not even care to think of shoes while resting. Being discouraged, as shown by her expression, she would probably be cheered by a remark and some show of interest in the children. To show an interest would not mean to pry into her personal affairs or to ask a lot of questions, but a kindly word would serve to direct the woman’s thought from her troubles and to put her in a buying frame of mind.

Such a customer would expect shoes that would give her the maximum of wearing quality for the money she has to spend. Her appearance indicates that she is poor. She wants the greatest possible wearing service and comfort that she can get. She deserves the best fit that it is possible to give her, and she will generally be glad of the salesman’s suggestions concerning the shoe she should wear. The matter of pattern and style is not a prime consideration. Talk quality and supply a strong, serviceable shoe. Show an interest in the children and they will at once be lined up for the next pair of shoes the mother is able to buy them. It may have taken ten minutes longer to serve the woman well, but she has been satisfied and has been made a steady customer.

STYLE REGARDLESS OF PRICE

A certain amount of almost every store’s trade is made up of the customer who is interested above all other things in style. Something has already been said concerning the personal appearance of such a customer. The whole outfit from hat to shoes will speak in terms of style.

With the customer who puts style before all other considerations there is great likelihood of there being objection in the matter of correct shoe fitting, especially if the person’s foot is unusual in size or shape. Here the salesman is called in to use all he knows of the art of tactful selling. Business of the kind where price is no object is certainly well worth cultivating, but here, as in all other successful shoe selling, the matter of correct fitting is essential to satisfaction. Avoid talking in terms of sizes. This always lays bare a tender part of the customer’s conceit or consciousness and opens up the possibility of dispute and misunderstanding. It is _correct fitting_ that the customer is buying and not size marks. The salesman will concentrate his efforts to give the maximum of _style with correct fitting_, but with customers whose first and only thought is style, he will speak only in terms of _style_.

ACTUAL OR ASSUMED FOOT TROUBLES

Among customers there are a certain number who continually have trouble with their feet but who are never able to come to the point of realizing that the shoes they insist are the proper size are the real cause of their great discomfort. The salesman should serve his customer by furnishing him with a shoe that actually fits the _foot_ and not one that fits some mistaken idea of size.

J. M. Watson, president of the Guarantee Shoe Company, San Antonio, Texas, emphasizes very strongly the need to serve the customer with _fit_ rather than sizes. In explaining the policy of his company he said:

If the customer asks what size the shoes are, change the subject if possible. However, if you are pinned down to where it is necessary to talk size, do so. But do not say simply “6A”—say “6A, which is the size that fits you.” Then if the customer should say, “They are too long, I don’t wear a 6A, I wear a 5C,” the salesman would reply: “When I sell you a shoe you wear a 6A because I do not misfit my customers. The shoe you have on is exactly the model and size that your feet require—to give you any other would mean that I would be selling you the wrong shoe for your feet.”

This is a clear statement of fact, but it is bound to impress the customer favorably because it is said with an air of authority and because it brings out the importance of correct fitting. The subject of shoe fitting will be fully treated in the next following section of the Course. It is mentioned here simply in its important relation to the treatment of different types of customers. If the customer actually has foot trouble he needs expert advice such as the salesman will be in a position to give after having mastered the section of the Course on “Correct Shoe Fitting.” On the other hand, if he does not have foot trouble, he needs good salesmanship to protect himself from insisting upon a poorly fitted shoe that would later bring on trouble.