1922—Millinery
by Charlotte Rankin Aiken, B.A.

Chapter XVI—SUGGESTIONS TO SALESPEOPLE

What the Customer Is Wearing

The skilful salesperson notices a customer as she approaches and besides being ready with a pleasant, alert look and a greeting, if it seems acceptable, observes what the customer is wearing, whether it is becoming, what color and kind of hat she has on, whether it goes well with her clothes, and her general type of face and figure. She does not stop this mental observation when she begins talking to the customer; but she needs to be alert and to continue her observations while the customer is standing at the counter. Perhaps it is the courteous practice in your department for you to meet the customers as they come in. A look of greeting serves as well as spoken words and since some customers object to being spoken to, a cordial appearance of attention will invite them to speak if they so desire.

Visiting Among Salespeople

It is disconcerting and makes a customer feel unwelcome to enter and find the salespeople idly talking among themselves and paying no attention to her.

Do you not think that in most cases this visiting among the salespeople, especially noticeable on dull days, and a practice which every manager objects to, is due to a lack of ambition and intelligent interest on their part? There are so many things they might do! There is no lack of opportunity for study in this department. They might be studying materials, straws, color, form, trying trimmings on hats, and even learning how to talk more effectively to the customers.

Learning to Talk About Hats

How many different words do you think can be found to describe a certain hat? If several salespeople try to think of every possible good expression, beginning with each letter of the alphabet in turn, the number of words to be found is remarkable. For instance, each person suggests a word beginning with "a" which will describe a chosen hat, and this search for words keeps going around the circle till no more can be found beginning with "a" and then "b" is taken up. Each word is put down on a paper and the result counted.

Such a game will help the salespeople to avoid the common, poor, everyday expressions which have been so overworked and abused that often they even offend customers. It is not necessary to cite them. "Sweet," "dear," "dressy," "stunning," "little," are some of them, and there are dozens of others.

Trade Papers and Home Study

A chance for interesting reading and study is to be found in the magazines and papers which the manager of the department takes. He is always very willing to loan them to interested people.

A great number of salespeople as well as buyers subscribe personally to a good department store paper, which contains items of interest for every department. Even if only one idea is obtained from an article, it is worth while to read it.

Factory Visiting

In certain cities it may be possible for the salespeople to arrange to visit some factories that produce articles in their line. Many managers would be only too glad to take the salespeople if they are interested, and nothing could be more instructive and helpful than these trips.

The Care of Stock

Perhaps one of the most important and least recognized opportunities to study merchandise lies in the daily care of stock. Simple dusting, rearranging, and inspection may seem a homely task, but it affords a splendid chance to handle, examine, and become intimately familiar with every kind of merchandise in the department. It affords an opportunity to learn prices, and this knowledge may afterwards be helpful in making a sale. While a good stock-keeper may not be a merchandise expert, an expert in merchandise is always a good stock-keeper.

The duty of caring for the stock should not be done listlessly and carelessly, but intelligently, with every faculty awake to the opportunity of learning the goods. In addition, good stock-keeping is of the utmost importance to the ambitious saleswoman, for by the personal attention she gives it she can keep her stock in the freshest and most salable condition, and thereby avoid the handicap of soiled or damaged merchandise.

Such care helps to prevent accumulations of slow-moving merchandise and the consequent losses through reductions or mark-downs. An expert stock-keeper is often invaluable to her manager, and frequently draws a higher salary than a co-worker who sells more, but does not keep her stock as though it were her own treasured personal possession.

Seating the Customer

Care in seating a customer comfortably before a mirror is a very important factor in making a sale. Fatigue leads to indecision and many women leave without buying just because they are tired.

Careful Selection of Stock

After your customer is seated, bring her well-selected hats to try on. It makes a good impression to know your prices accurately; so if you do not know the price of a hat, it is well to glance at the price ticket without being observed by the customer. It may not be necessary to show many hats if they are well chosen. The salesperson with taste and judgment can suit her patrons very easily. How many times do you sell a customer the very first hat you show her? Do you know what is the proportion of your sales to the number of people whom you approach?

It is well to keep a record of this for a time and to note how your percentage increases with study. The percentage of the persons entering a certain department to whom sales were made has been known to increase in three weeks from 52 to 90 per cent when the salespeople were studying their merchandise and the proper methods of salesmanship.

Customers Who Are "Just Looking"

It is of course discouraging to have a woman say she is "just looking." But why does she say it? In most cases because she was not met in the most tactful way.

She was probably asked a foolish question that meant little, such as, "Are you looking for a hat?" or "Something in hats?" which forced her to reply in that way. She has come with an interest in hats or she would not be there. Yet she did not want to place herself in a position where she might be made to buy or to admit that she might buy, so she said she was "just looking."

In some departments such an expression perhaps might pass with the salespeople, but as you know it does little good to "just look" at hats. They must be tried on and fitted to the customer before anything definite can be decided about them. It would take too powerful an imagination to picture how the hat off the head would look on it.

No person, therefore, who enters the department should be allowed to "just look" at hats without a tactful word. If she does not realize the necessity of trying on a hat to find out whether she likes it or not, she should be tactfully taught. For instance, the salesperson might say, "It is hard to tell how a hat looks until it is on the head. I should be glad to help you by fitting you even if you do not wish to buy."

Even though the customer says she does not intend to buy, the wise salesperson should be willing and ready to fit her, and by this method will often make a sale.

Avoiding Questions

It is of the first importance that the customer should not be antagonized by the questions that are so often asked her. The best way is to ask her to be seated and to begin to show her merchandise with as few direct questions as possible.

Every question that you can avoid asking is a point gained. Questions create antagonism and weariness and if you can find out your customer's ideas about price, size, shape, color, etc., without asking a single direct question, you will find your sales and your clientele increasing.

Show her the hats your studies tell you are the best suited to her, and from her comments gather all her ideas about hats. Follow the hints she gives you, and the customer herself will guide you to a successful sale.

Judging a Customer by Her Dress

It is a fatal mistake to assume that a plainly dressed woman will not pay a high price for something that pleases her. Simple dressing is often the mark of refinement and good taste, and the most fashionable people are apt to dress simply and plainly. Many extremely wealthy women pride themselves upon the simplicity of the clothes in which they shop. Sometimes they purposely shop in plain clothes to avoid over-solicitations to purchase, but, if they are pleased, there is no limit to the amount they can and will spend.

Aside from the unexpected rewards that sometimes come through attentions to even shabbily dressed people, it is no more than simple kindness to show the poor as much consideration as the rich. The American spirit of democracy, as well as good sense and good service, requires it.

When the Customer Leaves Without Buying

If a customer departs without buying, no unpleasant impression should be left on her mind to prevent her return at another time. She should not be made to feel that she has wasted the time of the salesperson or that the latter is the least bit disappointed. Even more courtesy should be shown such a customer than if she had already bought a hat, because she still has a hat to buy and on thinking it over may return to purchase. Some departments make it so unpleasant for a customer who does not purchase that she never returns under any circumstances.

If the customer goes away, saying that she wants to look elsewhere, agree with her pleasantly, but try to impress her mind so powerfully with the beauty and becoming effect of some well-selected hat which you have shown her that she will remember and return for it. If you make the mental picture of the hat vivid enough, she is sure to remember it and nothing she sees elsewhere will put it out of her mind. The old saying, "Distance lends enchantment," applies to her remembrance of the hat and she will not be happy until she possesses it.

Fitness to Meet a Customer

Before a saleswoman is ready to meet her customer on the floor, she must possess a wide and accurate fund of knowledge in regard to her merchandise. She must be dressed in the proper costume for a business woman in order to prove her own good taste and to look appropriately gowned. She must be physically well and fit, as a result of intelligent care of her health. She must be prepared to conduct the sale in accordance with the rules of successful selling.

In Chapter XVIII is given a classification of the stock of a typical Millinery Department. This classification gives an outline of the information upon the stock which every saleswoman should possess before she is really ready to meet a customer.

The following outline gives the specific steps to follow in the average sale from the time the customer first appears until she leaves the department.

STEPS IN A SALE IN A MILLINERY DEPARTMENT

1. Be ready for the customer.
   1. Wear a business dress,
   2. Feel well, alert, attentive.
2. Begin to study her the moment your eyes rest upon her. Observe her closely as she approaches. Meet her with a pleasant greeting.
3. Seat her and bring her a few hats that you know through your studies are the most becoming to her type. Be guided by the hints she gives you. Do not ask questions. Try to get her opinion, not to make her agree with you. Do not argue.
4. Take anything she dislikes out of her sight, and don't try to press on her what you like and she does not. The fewer hats she has finally to decide upon, the better. Eliminate the less becoming ones.
5. Close the sale pleasantly, see that she is not delayed longer than necessary. Be sure to take her name and address correctly, invite her to return, and suggest something which is on sale in another part of the store. Do not leave her unoccupied if it is necessary for her to wait for check, change, or package, but bring to her notice something of interest. Do not, however, show her any hat that might upset the sale you have already made.

If you will check over your knowledge and abilities by these outlines, and if you can honestly grade yourself well on each point, you may consider yourself an efficient saleswoman, and your increasing sales and salary will prove it.