The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Psychology of Salesmanship, by William Walker Atkinson

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Title: The Psychology of Salesmanship

Author: William Walker Atkinson

Release Date: November 29, 2012 [eBook #41510]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SALESMANSHIP***

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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
SALESMANSHIP

BY

WILLIAM WALKER ATKINSON

L.N. FOWLER & COMPANY
7, Imperial Arcade, Ludgate Circus
London, E.C., England

1912
THE ELIZABETH TOWNE CO.
HOLYOKE, MASS.

Copyright 1912
By
ELIZABETH TOWNE

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
SALESMANSHIP

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PSYCHOLOGY IN BUSINESS

Until the last few years the mere mention of the word "psychology" in connection with business was apt to be greeted with a shrug of the shoulders, a significant raising of the eyebrows—and a change of the subject. Psychology was a subject that savored of the class room, or else was thought to be somehow concerned with the soul, or possibly related to the abnormal phenomena generally classified as "psychic." The average business man was apt to impatiently resent the introduction into business of class room topics, or speculation regarding the soul, or of theories and tales regarding clairvoyance, telepathy, or general "spookiness"—for these were the things included in his concept of "psychology."

But a change has come to the man in business. He has heard much of late years regarding psychology in business affairs, and has read something on the subject. He understands now that psychology means "the science of the mind" and is not necessarily the same as metaphysics or "psychism." He has had brought home to him the fact that psychology plays a most important part in business, and that it is quite worth his while to acquaint himself with its fundamental principles. In fact, if he has thought sufficiently on the subject, he will have seen that the entire process of selling goods, personally, or by means of advertising or display, is essentially a mental process depending upon the state of mind induced in the purchaser, and that these states of mind are induced solely by reason of certain established principles of psychology. Whether the salesman, or advertiser, realizes this or not, he is employing psychological principles in attracting the attention, arousing the interest, creating the desire, and moving the will of the purchaser of his goods.

The best authorities on salesmanship and advertising now recognize this fact and emphasize it in their writings. George French, in his "Art and Science of Advertising" says regarding psychology in advertising: "So we can dismiss the weird word, and simply acknowledge that we can sell things to a man more readily if we know the man. We can't personally know every man to whom we wish to sell goods. We must therefore consider if there are not certain ways of thinking and of acting which are common to all men, or to a large proportion of men. If we can discover the laws governing the action of men's minds we will know how to appeal to those men. We know how to appeal to Smith, because we know Smith. We know what will please Brown, because we know Brown. We know how to get our way with Jones, because we know Jones. What the advertiser must know is how to get at Smith, Brown, and Jones without knowing any of them. While every man has his personal peculiarities, and while every mind has its peculiar method of dealing with the facts of life, every man and every mind is controlled, in a large sense and to a great extent, by predilections and mind-workings which were established before he lived, and are operated