St. Tammany farmer., 1906-12-08
's~'1(>-'s~'3(Ass~s13c
ny Charles N. crewdson.

(Author of Tales of the Road" Etc.)
1.-THE thing to do in handling your
customer is to gain his confidence" be-
gan the necktie man, "and the next
thing to do is to hold his confidence.
I've been going over my territory for
good many years and fatter myself
that I have as solid line of custom
ers as any man out in this country,
I know, to be honest about 1t, that
there are lots of lines of goods out
here that are, on a par with mine, ano
there is no reason why my customers,
as far as values of goods are con-
cerned, might not as we'll buy their
goods elsewhere. At the same time,
my customers stick to me-"
Il wish I had my trade as solid as
you have" remarked the hat man.
"Well, try to treat my trade right
continued the necktie man. Now,
for instance, was up in the Black
Hills last time just about the time /
was winding up. I was about week
late and my customer had been wait,
ing for me to buy some Fourth OF
July neckties. He was running very
short on them. When I reached town
didn't even have time to telegraph
in and get some stuff out to him.
was really sorry about this, but he
had been faithful customer, in fact
gave me every cent in his line. / was
lucky, though, in having quite num-
Der of outs so, after he had given
me his regular bill. / not only put the
outs in a pile, but threw on top Of
them whole lot more samples could
spare. You know I carry my line all
made up instead of trying to work the
confidence game and getting my Gus
toners to buy from swatches-small
samples no bigger than the palm Of
your hand. The prices on the samples
ranged from $3.50 to $6 dozen, and
there were a few 50 goods among
them. Now, look here said to my
customer, you have been on the
square with me and have been waiting
for me. can't get out anything In
time for the Fourth, but I'll just let
you have this bunch Of samples over
here. They will help you out good
deal. Are they worth anything to
your I can use them in my sale;
they are worth 81 dozen to me- an
swered he. They would make bully
good 50-cent line.' Well, can't let
you have them at that price, an
swered, but you may have them at
$780, There were nine dozen in all.
l would just as soon have gone down
into my friends pocket and taken out
$3.50 as to have charged him 81 q
dozen for those ties, because my Gus
tomary price on samples was only
$780,"
Saving Customer Money.
well, it isn't everybody that will
appreciate a thing like that" re-
marked the grocery man. Il know
once struck fellow who wanted to
buy an opening bill in my line. He
had been carrying clothing and dry
goods and everything OF that sort, but
didn't know anything about my busi-
ness. He wanted to put in line with
which to fight competitor who had
been an exclusive grocer, but who had
put in general line of goods. was
making a special trip on pipes that
time and had large case of samples
with me. These / had in the back
end of his store, SO when we got down
to pipes-I had rather made an esti-
mate of all the other stuff for him
I thought it best for him to pick out
the line. Just as had spread out the
samples on the counter a messenger
boy came in and told me that man
from neighboring town wanted me
at the telephone. l was gone at the
telephone Office about half an hour,
and when I came back my customer
had laid out enough pipes for an ex-
elusive store on Broadway. Well.
give us about a dozen each of these,
l guess he said. We have big
Irish settlement west of here. Well,
Irish or no Irish,' replied, you don't
want all those pipes. If you will cut
down about half of them and. say six
each, that would be little more like
it, and / cut down his pipe order at
least three -fourths. And do you know
never sold that son of a gun another
sou. After that I made up my mind
that I would let man have all he
| wanted"
"Well, you can work your game as
much as you please" remarked the
necktie man. while may lose out
a little once in awhile my way, am
going to keep on playing the old sys
tenn, and If customer wishes to or.
der from me a little more than think
he really needs, / am going to suggest
| to him that he do not take so much"
Best System In the End.
And you will ftnd," remarked Brew
ster, the merchant, that is the
right system. l know In my buy
ing I like to have the sales.
man who is waiting on me make
suggestions. Now, must not only
buy underwear from Gaylord and dry
goods from Watkins, but dozen more
lines of goods. The statesmen ON the
road are specialists In their lines of
business, and / find that they help me
| a great deal. Once in awhile find a
fellow who wants to ram me full, but
he Injuries himself when he does so,
because won't let the same dog bite
me twice"
well, you can handle some Custom
ers that way remarked the furnish
ing goods man, but not all of them. I
have many who let me pick out their
goods for them, but / have one that
/ let almost absolutely alone. You
cannot handle every customer alike.
When first struck this man and told