Masonry Magazine January 1966 Page.29
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.
You Have to Know People
To deal successfully with people, on any basis, but most particularly as a salesman, you have to know them. You have to know what they want. Have to know what they will do and what they won't do.
But where can you, ambitious to understand people and handle them, go for instruction? There aren't any college courses worth mentioning on the subject; a few private classes are offered, but only some of those are good.
Where can your master your skill? I like the thoughts of Otto M. Schwab, who is a very great man in handling people, being partner in one of the nation's most successful advertising agencies, on this subject.
"Here are four ways to know people, to know human nature, as a salesman or anyone else interested in handling others, can follow," he says, then names the four:
"First way: READ THE COMICS, read newspaper and magazine stories, and books which have the widest possible following.
"Second way: SEE the smash-hit movies and plays whose entertainment value packs people into the theater.
"Third way: LISTEN to those particular radio programs that includes TV-which hold the interest of millions week by week.
"Fourth way: TALK with taxi-drivers, newsboys, clerks and others who do not inhabit the more rarefied social and economic heights.
"And remember," concludes Mr. Schwab, "that the more successful a salesman becomes the more he risks losing his down-to-earth understanding of the very people whose response to his work have made him successful!"
Now you know where you can take your course in human nature-everywhere.
Don't Share Troubles
Everyone on meeting this man was captivated by his geniality, his optimism, his serenity. He had so much compassion that he won you before he uttered a word: you sensed his utter feeling of friendliness toward you, toward the rest of the human race.
You were not surprised when you learned he was a salesman, perhaps the best of his time, and that his earnings ran into an enormous figure.
Of course you jumped to the conclusion that this man had been one of the lucky ones, born to achievement, used to the better things in life all his life.
You wondered if he had ever known the meaning of the word trouble: it wasn't obvious that he had, he seemed so self-confident and genuinely happy. And maybe a little enviously you caught yourself saying that if this man had known the burden you carry he wouldn't find it quite so easy to be cheerful.
But thoughts of that kind, you learned when you had been told the inside story of this man's career, were wrong, utterly wrong. Far from never having carried burdens, he was forced to carry those that would have crushed two ordinary men. Ill fate had dogged him for years.
He had suffered ill health, bereavement, bankruptcy. It seemed the fates had conspired to see just how much one man could stand. That he had stood it redounded more and more to his credit, and you found yourself admiring him for his courage, for his faith-these were the courage and the faith of a true professional in the field of salesmanship.
Behind his serenity was a philosophy which you will find worthy of copying, because it is the philosophy of anyone who wants to be master of his fate and of those around him. To a friend this man explained it:
"Share everything with your customers and with others, too, for that matter but your troubles.
"That has always been my rule-share everything but troubles. Those I keep to myself.
"It's human nature to want to tell others your troubles, everything from your bunions to your latest bankruptcy. You know the old idea that 'misery loves company.'
"But if you want to get along in the world, let others share their troubles with you (which they will do eagerly!) but you, why, you keep your troubles to yourself, absolutely to yourself."
That's a good rule to keep your troubles, to keep your private life, also, to yourself. Be consecrated to your profession, to its standards, to the job you do in serving others better than they were served before.
But keep your troubles to yourself. Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference.
All rights reserved. NOVEMBER 1966 CHARLES ROTH.