THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SALESMANSHIP/PART 1
CHAPTER I
PSYCHOLOGY IN BUSINESS
Until
the last few years the mere mention of the word "psychology" in
connection with business was apt to be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders, a
significant raising of the eyebrows—and a change of the subject. Psychology was
a subject that savored of the class room, or else was thought to be somehow
concerned with the soul, or possibly related to the abnormal phenomena
generally classified as "psychic." The average business man was apt
to impatiently resent the introduction into business of class room topics, or
speculation regarding the soul, or of theories and tales regarding
clairvoyance, telepathy, or general "spookiness"—for these were the
things included in his concept of "psychology."
But
a change has come to the man in business. He has heard much of late years
regarding psychology in business affairs, and has read something on the
subject. He understands now that psychology means "the science of the
mind" and is not necessarily the same as metaphysics or "psychism."
He has had brought home to him the fact that psychology plays a most important
part in business, and that it is quite worth his while to acquaint himself with
its fundamental principles. In fact, if he has thought sufficiently on the subject,
he will have seen that the entire process of selling goods, personally, or by
means of advertising or display, is essentially a mental process depending upon
the state of mind induced in the purchaser, and that these states of mind are
induced solely by reason of certain established principles of psychology.
Whether the salesman, or advertiser, realizes this or not, he is employing
psychological principles in attracting the attention, arousing the interest,
creating the desire, and moving the will of the purchaser of his goods.
The
best authorities on salesmanship and advertising now recognize this fact and
emphasize it in their writings. George French, in his "Art and
Science of Advertising" says regarding psychology in advertising:
"So we can dismiss the weird word, and simply acknowledge that we can sell
things to a man more readily if we know the man. We can't personally know every
man to whom we wish to sell goods. We must therefore consider if there are not
certain ways of thinking and of acting which are common to all men, or to a
large proportion of men. If we can discover the laws governing the action of
men's minds we will know how to appeal to those men. We know how to appeal to
Smith, because we know Smith. We know what will please Brown, because we know
Brown. We know how to get our way with Jones, because we know Jones. What the
advertiser must know is how to get at Smith, Brown, and Jones without knowing
any of them. While every man has his personal peculiarities, and while every
mind has its peculiar method of dealing with the facts of life, every man and
every mind is controlled, in a large sense and to a great extent, by
predilections and mind-workings which were established before he lived, and are
operated in a manner separate from his personality. Our minds are more
automatic, more mechanical, than we are willing to admit. That which we loosely
call mind is largely the automatic expression of tendencies controlled by
physical conditions wholly apart from conscious intellectual or moral motives or
qualities. What those physical conditions are, and how the knowledge of what
they are may be utilized by advertisers, forms the body of that new knowledge
some like to call psychology, so far as it concerns advertising." Mr.
French has well expressed the idea of the important part played in business by
psychology. What he says is, of course, as applicable to personal salesmanship
as to salesmanship through advertisements—the same principles are present and
operative in both cases.
In
order to bring to the mind of the reader the full idea of the operation of
psychological principles in the sale of goods, we shall mention a few
particular instances in which these principles have played a part. Each reader
will be able to recollect many similar instances, once his attention is called
to the matter.
Prof.
Halleck, a well known authority on psychology says: "Business men say
that the ability to gain the attention is often the secret of success in life.
Enormous salaries are paid to persons who can write advertisements certain to
catch the eye. A publisher said that he had sold only five thousand copies of
an excellent work, merely because it had failed to catch the attention of many,
and that twenty-five thousand copies could have been disposed of in the same time,
if agents had forced them upon the notice of people. Druggists say that any
kind of patent medicine can be sold, if it is so advertised as to strike the
attention in a forcible manner. Business life has largely resolved itself into
a battle to secure the attention of people."
The
same excellent authority says, regarding the effect of associated ideas:
"An eminent philosopher has said that man is completely at the mercy of
the association of his ideas. Every new object is seen in the light of its
associated ideas. * * * The principle of the association of ideas is sufficient
to account for the change in fashions. A woman in a southern city had a bonnet
that she particularly admired, until she one day saw three negresses
wearing precisely the same pattern. She never appeared again in that bonnet.
When a style of dress becomes 'common,' and is worn by the lower classes, it is
discarded by the fashionable people. Fashions that are absolutely repulsive
will often be adopted if they are introduced by popular or noted people. * * *
A knowledge of the power of the association of ideas is of the utmost
importance in business. One man has his store so planned that all its
associations are pleasing, from the manner of the clerks to the fixtures and
drapery. Another store brings up unpleasant associations. * * * When negligee
hats first made their appearance, a shrewd hatter sent for a well-dressed and
popular collegian and offered him his choice of the best hats in the store, if
he would wear a negligee hat for three days. He objected to making such an
exhibition of himself, until he was flattered by the hatter's wager that the
hats could, in this way, be made the fashion for the entire town. When the
collegian first put in his appearance on the campus with the hat, he was guyed
for his oddity. Late in the afternoon, some of his friends concluded that
the hat looked so well that they would invest. On the following day large
numbers reached the same conclusion. For some time after this the hatter found
difficulty in keeping a sufficient supply in stock. Had an unpopular or poorly
dressed man appeared first on the campus with that hat, the result would have
been the reverse. The hat would have been the same, but the association of
ideas would have differed. Some of the ladies of fashion in a large European
city selected on their own responsibility, without consulting the milliners, a
cheap spring Manilla hat, which was very handsome. The milliners found
themselves with a high-priced stock for which there was no demand. They held a
council, bought a large number of the cheap hats, and put them on the heads of
all the female street sweepers and scavengers in the town. When the ladies of
fashion went out the next day, they were amazed to see the very dregs of the
city arrayed in headgear like their own. It was not very long before the result
was what might have been expected."
In
a previous work of the present writer, the following illustrations of the
effect of psychological suggestion in advertising were used:
The
use of the "direct command" as the "ad. men" call it, is
very common. People are positively told to do certain things in these
advertisements. They are told to "take home a cake of Hinky-dink's Soap
tonight; your wife needs it!" And they do it. Or they see a mammoth hand
pointing down at them from a sign, and almost hear the corresponding mammoth
voice as it says (in painted words): "Say you! Smoke Honey-Dope Cigars;
they're the best ever!!!" And, if you manage to reject the command the
first time, you will probably yield at the repeated suggestion of the same
thing being hurled at you at every corner and high fence, and
"Honey-Dope" will be your favorite brand until some other suggestion
catches you. Suggestion by authority and repetition, remember; that's what does
the business for you! They call this the "Direct Command" in the
advertising schools. Then there are some other subtle forms of suggestion in
advertising. You see staring from every bit of space, on billboard and in
newspapers and magazines: "Uwanta Cracker," or something of that
sort—and you usually wind up by acquiescing. And then you are constantly told
that "Babies howl for Grandma Hankin's Infantile Soother," and then
when you hear some baby howling you think of what you have been told they are
howling for, and then you run and buy a bottle of "Grandma Hankin's."
Then you are told that some cigar is "Generously Liberal" in size and
quality; or that some kind of Cocoa is "Grateful and Refreshing"; or
that some brand of soap is "99.999% Pure"; etc., etc. Only last night
I saw a new one—"Somebody's Whisky is Smooth," and every imbiber in
the car was smacking his lips and thinking about the "smooth" feeling
in his mouth and throat. It was smooth—the idea, not the
stuff, I mean. And some other whiskey man shows a picture of a glass, a bottle,
some ice and a syphon of seltzer, with simply these words: "Oldboy's
Highball—That's all!" All of these things are suggestions, and some of
them are very powerful ones, too, when constantly impressed upon the mind by
repetition. * * * I have known dealers in Spring goods to force the season
by filling their windows with their advance stock. I have seen hat dealers
start up the straw hat season by putting on a straw themselves, their clerks
ditto, and then a few friends. The sprinkling of "straws" gave a
suggestion to the street, and the straw hat season was opened.
Dr.
Herbert A. Parkyn, an authority on Suggestion, draws the following picture from
life of a retail merchant who is suffering from the effect of adverse psychological
influences resulting from his pessimistic mental attitude. The present writer
can vouch for the accuracy of Dr. Parkyn's picture, for he knows the original
of the sketch. Dr. Parkyn says of the storekeeper:
"He
is the proprietor of a store in a neighboring city; but such a store—it almost
gives me the blues to go into it! His windows are dressed year in and year out
with the same old signs, and there is nothing to give the store the cheerful
appearance so essential to an up-to-date business establishment. But the
atmosphere of the place is only in keeping with the proprietor. When he started
in business thirty years ago he employed eight clerks, but his business has
fallen off till he does all the work himself and is scarcely able now to pay
rent, although competitors around him are increasing their business steadily
every year. In the course of a fifteen minute's conversation, the first time I
met him, he told me all his troubles, which were many. According to his story,
everyone had been trying to get the better of him ever since he started in
business; his competitors resorted to unfair business methods; his landlord was
endeavoring to drive him out by raising his rent; he could not get an honest
clerk in his store; an old man had not an equal chance with a young man; he
could not understand why people he had catered to so faithfully should be so
ungrateful or so fickle as to give their patronage to every upstart who went
into business in the same line as his; he supposed that he could work along, as
he was doing, from morning till night without a holiday till he was driven to
the poorhouse or died, and although he had been in the same stand for fifteen
years there was not a single person he could call on if in need of a
friend, etc. Although I have had occasion to visit him many times during
business hours, I have never heard him address a cheerful or encouraging remark
to a customer. On the other hand he waited on them, not only with an air of
indifference, but apparently as if he were doing them a favor by allowing them
to trade at his store, while others who dropped in to ask permission to use his
telephone or to enquire about residents in the neighborhood were soon given to
understand by his manner and answers that he considered them a nuisance and hoped
they had not mistaken his store for an information bureau. I have purposely led
him into other channels of conversation, with the same result; everything was
going to the dogs—the city, the country, etc. No matter what was talked about,
his remarks were saturated with pessimism. He was ready to blame everything and
everyone for his condition, and when I ventured to suggest that much of his
trouble was due to his attitude he was ready to show me to the door. * * * If
he would but cast his bread upon the waters for a few weeks by bestowing a
smile here and a smile there, or a cheerful encouraging word to this
customer and that customer, he would certainly feel better for the giving, and
they would return to him a thousand fold. If he would only assume that he is
prosperous and proceed to give his store an air of prosperity, how much more
attractive he could make his place look and how much more inviting it would be
for customers! If he would assume that every person that entered his store was
his guest, whether he made a purchase or not, people would feel like returning
to his store when they wanted anything in his line. I could suggest a hundred
ways in which this man could employ suggestion and auto-suggestion to increase
his business, to draw friends to him, instead of driving them away, and to make
the world and himself better and happier while he lives in it."
But,
you may ask, what has all this to do with psychology in salesmanship—what has
the matter of advertising, store display, personal manner, etc., to do with
salesmanship? Just this much, that all these things are based on the same
fundamental principles as is salesmanship, and that these fundamental
principles are those of psychology. All that has been said refers to
psychology—all is the effect of psychology pure and simple. All depends upon
the mental attitude, the suggestions offered, the mental states induced, the
motive to the will—all these outward things are merely the effects of inner
mental states.
J.W.
Kennedy, in "Judicious Advertising" says: "Advertising is just
salesmanship on paper; a mere money-making means of selling goods rapidly. That
'mysterious something' is just printed persuasion and its other name is
'selling conviction.' Conviction can be imparted at will by those few writers
who have closely studied the thought processes by which conviction is induced.
The mission of every ad. is to convert readers into buyers." Geo. Dyers,
in the same journal says: "Advertising takes into account the
sub-conscious impressions, the varying phases of suggestion and association as
received through the eye, the psychology of the direct command,—all worth
earnest consideration, and seriously to be reckoned with, however we may balk
at the terms." Seth Brown in "Salesmanship" says: "To make
advertising which will sell goods requires development of the human part
of the writer. He must realize the different forces which command
Attention, Interest, Desire and Conviction. The buyer wants your goods because
they will produce for him some definite effect or result. It is this result
that the ad. man must keep in mind."
"But,"
you may also say, "after all this 'psychology' seems to be nothing else
than what we have always known as 'human nature'—there is nothing new about
this." Exactly so! Psychology is the inner science of human nature. Human
nature depends entirely upon psychological processes—it is bound up with the
activities of the mind. The study of human nature is the study of the minds of
people. But whereas the study of human nature, as usually conducted, is a
haphazard, hit-or-miss sort of undertaking, the study of the mind, according to
the established principles of psychology, is of the nature of the study of
science, and is pursued according to scientific methods.
Particularly
in its phase of Salesmanship does the study of human nature along the lines of
psychology become a science. From the first to the last Salesmanship is a
psychological subject. Every step in the process of a sale is a mental process.
The mental attitude and mental expression of the salesman; the mental attitude
and mental impression of the customer; the process of arousing the attention,
awakening curiosity or interest, creating desire, satisfying the reason, and
moving the will—all these are purely mental processes, and the study of them
becomes a branch of the study of psychology. The display of goods on the
counters, shelves, or windows of a store, or in the hands of the salesman on
the road, must be based upon psychological principles. The argument of the
salesman must not only be logical but must be so arranged and worded as to
arouse certain feelings or faculties within the mind of the prospective
buyer—this is psychology. And finally, the closing of the sale, in which the
object is to arouse the will of the buyer into final favorable action—this also
is psychology. From the entrance of the salesman to the final closing of the
sale, each and every step is a psychological process. A sale is the action and
reaction of mind upon mind, according to well established psychological
principles and rules. Salesmanship is essentially a psychological science
as all must admit who will give to the subject a logical consideration. To
those who object to the term "psychology" because of its newness and
unfamiliar sound, we do not care to urge the term. Let such cling to their old
term of "human nature," remembering however that "human
nature" is essentially mental. A dead man, a man asleep or in a trance, or
an idiot, manifests no "human nature" in the sense the word is
generally used. A man must be alive, wide awake, and in possession of his
senses, before he is able to manifest "human nature," and before his
"human nature" may be appealed to according to the well known
principles. "Human nature" cannot be divorced from psychology, try as
we may.
We
do not for a moment wish to imply that Salesmanship is entirely dependent upon
a knowledge of psychology. There are other factors concerned. For instance, the
salesman must possess a practical knowledge of his goods; of the seasons; of
the trend of fashion in relation to his line; of the adaptability of certain
goods for certain sections. But, waiving for the moment the point that
even these are concerned with the mind of people at the last, and admitting
that they may be considered as independent of psychology, all of these points
will avail nothing if the salesman violates the psychological principles of the
sale. Give such a man the best goods, of the best house, with a thorough
knowledge of the requirements of the trade and the goods themselves, and send
him forth to sell those goods. The result will be that his sales will fall
below the mark of a man far less well equipped in other respects but who
understands the psychology of salesmanship, either intuitively or else by
conscious acquirement.
Inasmuch
as the essence of Salesmanship is the employment of the proper psychological
principles, does it not seem imperative that the salesman should know something
of the Mind of Man—the instrument upon which he must play in plying his
vocation? Should not the salesman possess the same kind of knowledge of his
instrument as does the musician, the mechanic, the artisan, the artist? What
would be thought of one who would expect to become an expert swordsman without
a knowledge of the principles of fencing, or of one who would expect to become
a boxer without mastering the established principle of boxing? The instruments
of the salesman are his own mind and the mind of his customers. He should
acquaint himself thoroughly with both.
Comments
Post a Comment