The Harvester World: Volume 3, number 12, December 1912

              A TALK ON   SELLING

DEVELOP YOUR OWN METHODS OF SELLING

By WILLIAM  BROWNING,  Manager  Domestic  Sales

THE way to sell is to sell. There is no royal road, no short cut, no standard method, whereby you can make a man buy from you, except as you adapt general theories to your specific personality. Insofar as each salesman on our force differs from every other salesman, there are that many different ways of selling our goods. No man can sell another man s way.     No man can tell you how to sell.
It is true there are certain little rules to be respected, and other rules to observe, but for one man to try to ape another man s selling manner is almost always a signal for disaster. One could tell you how he used to make sales, but unless you could adapt his methods to your own particular personality, and then go after the sale your own particular way, it would do you no good.
When people talk about this and that in selling, they do not talk about developing sales¬ manship directly. They talk about character building. It is right, too, that they should do this, because in a permanent business like ours, where the product is sold on quality, and where the life of the business depends on repeat orders, the man of strongest character—that is, the sales¬ man who is most respected by his customers—is the one who is of most value to this Company in the long run.
A scamp or a rascal cannot be a success on our force. He might go out and do a good season's work, because, perhaps, nature had equipped him with a personality which made selling a natural and easy task for him, but if he misrepresented our goods, or if he could not be trusted other ways, if, in general, he was not a man of character, he would soon fail as a salesman.
Such a man would lose out at both ends. His customers would cease to give him their orders, and we would not want him on our force.
This is why, when Hugh Chalmers or Charley Sharp, or your district manager get dis¬ cussing salesmanship they always penetrate back of the mere act of persuading a customer to buy to the question of what kind of a man is our salesman.
In my long years of service with the Company I have had a chance to weigh up the quali¬ ties of many makes of salesmen. In the old days, I used to weigh those who gave the orders just the same as you perhaps weigh me now, and I found that there was only one way for me to sell, and that was my way. So it is with each one of you. Your success depends upon your individuality, so do not try to change unless your individuality at present is not bringing you success.
Neither must you stand still.     A man who does not go forward goes backward.     Avoid