SELLING COMMERCIAL VEHICLES.
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Some Salesmen Take Pride in Claiming that they can "Sell Anything." Agents should not Employ them to Sell Commercial Vehicles.
By "Vim."
THE TRUE SALESMAN never sells anything; he helps his customers to buy. This is an aphorism which, in one form or another, is constantly being served up by the great captains of industry, and is put into practice in all the great stores, such as Selfridge's. There is a subtle, but very vital, difference between selling goods and helping people to buy them. The one counts an article disposed of as a victory gained; the other considers it a dead loss if the customer is not likely to be satisfied for all time with the deal. It is the same difference as exists between catch-penny advertisements and publicity designed to build up goodwill. Now, if there is one thing of which agents for commercial vehicles must be careful, it is to supply their customers with precisely the right vans and lorries to suit their requirements. Far better to lose a sale altogether than to book an order simply because it is an order. The incentive to do so may be very strong, but it should be resisted; and must be resisted if the success of the agency is to be assured.
Study the Business of a Potential Customer.
The closest study of a " prospect's" business is necessary in order to assist him to purchase the most suitable type of vehicle for his purpose, and an intimate knowledge, not only of the capabilities of the range-of chassis that the agency comprises, but of all the other well-known makes on the market, is also essential if the right selection is to be made. When it is impossible, without foisting an unsuitable vehicle on the prospective purchaser, to recommend a chassis for which an agency is held, it pays in the long run to advise something else. The memory of the deal will live in the mind of the buyer for years after it may have been forgotten by the seller ; and, when the question of buying another car crops up, that memory will have its effect. Besides risking future business with the same customer, an unsuitable vehicle prejudices other possible sales, because, for every owner of a van or lorry, there are several tradesmen watching the results that he is getting and forining their opinions accordingly.
That is why I say that agents should be wary of employing the type of salesman whose one aim is to register a sale, and who does not care a rap whether the buyer has got what he needs or not. There are plenty of salesmen of this description, and they usually betray themselves by their glee when they have palmed off something on somebody against his will. Such men are undoubtedly useful as house-to-house canvassers for orders for sumptuously bound Family Bibles (just the very article for servant girls, and cheap at five guineas, payable at half a crown a week), but they are out of place as commercisl vehicle salesmen. The man to lay the foundations and ;construct a sound agency on top of them is he he has the natural gift of being able to get "inside the skin" of his customers. He e20 must always stand, figuratively speaking, on the door side of the counter. In that position he will very often find himself forced to give advice that may, on the face of it, appear to be against his firm's interests ; but that does not matter, for, in the end, it will turn out to have been for his firm's good. This may seem an altruistic sort of policy for a trader to adopt, but, believe me, it is not true altruism, for it resets to his own benefit, and it is on that ground that I advocate it,
The Salesman has Much to Learn.
To render himself fit to understand the needs of his customers, it follows that a salesman has more te learn than the special points of advantage and disadvantage of the popular chassis. Bodywork is no less an important study. The Commercial otor, week by week, publishes in its Editorial pages and amongst its advertisement pages illustrations of finished vehicles that have been specially designed for various kinds of trades, and from these an infinite range of ideas can be extracted and stored up for subsequent use when discussing customers' requirements. The advertisement value of attractive bodywork and painting schemes deserves • fuller recognition than it receives, as a rule, from salesmen. A passing motor vehicle compels •attention, and it is little• short of a scandalous W-aste of opportunity that so few owners employ this means of publicity to any advantage. Business men will pay out heavy sums for advertising on hoardings, in the Press, and by elaborate window-dressing, and yet many of them throw away the finest medium they could possibly have—their transport. A car can be a perambulating trade-winner, of great value. It may make its appearance a dozen times a. day in the same street, and still be fresh to those who look at it; but to impress its message on beholders it must be designed and painted with that end in view. Vans, obviously, lend themselves more readily to display than lorries, but, even in the case of the latter, much can be done to give them individuality.
So as to be able to give prospective purchasers the best advice, a salesman should look upon a knowledge of the principles of advertising as indispensable to him. Unless he is capable of guiding their choice of bodywork, they may not obtain the utmost value from the vehicles they buy. At a minimum estimate, a really striking van is worth 2100 a year to any retail firm on account of the publicity it gives; while a commonplace vehicle may be worth nothing at all, and an unsightly one be even damaging to the reputation of the concern. pA wholesale firm's motor transport will also return some of its upkeep in the shape of advertisement, although the effect will be indirect, provided its vehicles are different from those of other firms and . create a favourable impression of the trade that is being carried on.
Help customers to buy what they need. It is the secret of prosperity in the commercial car agency business.