Retail Shoe Salesmanship

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.This is an OCR edition with typos.Excerpt from book:RETAIL SHOE SALESMANSHIP CHAPTER I THE FIELD OF RETAIL SELLING PURPOSE OF THE COURSE The whole idea and purpose of the Training Course for Retail Shoe Salesmen is to supply the means to increase the salesman's value.1 The slogan of the Retail Shoe Salesmen's Institute is the plain truth that "Knowledge Applied is Power." Knowledge of itself is of no more value than idle steam from the teapot. Harness up the steam so that it may be put to work and it moves the world — it operates your factories, lights your cities, grows your food and keeps you warm. So also with knowledge. All the world's learning is worth not a dollar unless it is harnessed-up to the practical problem of every-day life. 1 Although, throughout the Course, mention is often made of "the salesman," without reference to the saleswoman, this is done to avoid repetition, simply as a matter of convenience in reading. This volume and all others of the Course are designed to meet the special needs of both the retail shoe salesman and the saleswoman. Similarly the customer is for convenience referred to by the use of the masculine pronoun forms. Above all other things this Course is practical. It is the first-hand statement of the experience gathered as a result of years of effort by successful men in the shoe business. It is a plain statement of principles and practices of success that have cost these men hundreds of thousands of dollars to gather in the school of practical experience. This is an advanced age. No longer need the man or woman of ambition grope around in the darkness to find a safe footing on which to build a career. Business today is a red-blooded man's game, and success comes to those who know the rules of this game. Here are the rules — learn to know them. THE PLAN "Anything that's