Page 192 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

grocery store overlooks the importance of sales ability and sales knowledge.

Competition in the grocery business is so keen today that old methods of
storekeeping won’t do. In order to succeed you have to know why people
buy, and how to make them buy. To some extent this knowledge comes
natural to observant people. However, there are certain definite fundamentals
about salesmanship which need to be understood to be successful in the retail
business. Fortunately for James Brandt, he realized this when he began to
think about opening a grocery store in Los Angeles. He could not very well
give up two or three years to acquire the needed selling experience, but he
learned from a friend that there were schools which taught the principles of
salesmanship by mail. That, he thought, would make it easy since he could
open his store and study while he earned. “One section of this course,” he
said, “was devoted to retail merchandising and, among other things,
explained various methods of building retail sales. This section, of course,
was intended for the wholesaler’s salesman making calls upon retailers, and
was designed to show him how to help the retailer move the goods from his
shelves. Being a retailer, I read this section carefully and found a number of
excellent suggestions which I later put into practice in my grocery business.

“From the day I opened the store, I realized the benefits of my salesmanship
course. Not only did it teach me how to address a customer, but it taught me
how to suggest things so as to build up the unit of sale. By applying the right
merchandising principles, I found I could increase a sale by as much as a
dollar. You see there’s a difference in the way an additional item is suggested
to a customer. Suggest it one way and the customer resents it. Suggest it
another, and the customer is interested. This art of suggestion helped me get a
good start. By applying this principle and others, I soon built up a successful
trade here in Los Angeles.”

Jimmy Brandt’s course in salesmanship cost him eighty-four dollars, which
he paid in small monthly payments. But it was worth considerably more than
that to him. While most people may not be interested in a course in
salesmanship, it is well to think of the many advantages of training if you
want to succeed in business. Undoubtedly, such training does open new
fields, and keeps you from making mistakes that often are costly and always