Napoleon Hill
Imagine it!
To begin with I do not wear suspenders, and, furthermore,
there was nothing about my manner or bearing to indicate that I might
like to look at suspenders.
It is proper for a salesman to try to interest a customer in wares for
which he makes no inquiry, but judgment should be used and care
taken to offer something which the salesman has reason to believe
the customer may want.
I walked out of the store without having bought either shirts or ties, and feeling somewhat resentful because I had been so grossly misjudged as to my tastes for colors and styles. A little further down the street I went into a small, one-man shop which had shirts and ties on display in the window. Here I was handled differently!
The man behind the counter asked no unnecessary or stereotyped questions. He took one glance at me as I entered the door, sized me up quite accurately and greeted me with a very pleasant "Good morning, sir!" He then inquired, "Which shall I show you first, shirts or ties?"
I said I would look at the shirts first. He then glanced at the style of shirt I was wearing asked my size, and began laying out shirts of the very type and color for which I was searching, without my saying another word. He laid out six different styles and watched to see which I would pick up first. I looked at each shirt, in turn, and laid them all back on the counter, but the salesman observed that I examined one of the shirts a little more closely than the others, and that I held it a little longer.
No sooner had I laid this shirt down than the salesman picked it up
and began to explain how it was made. He then went to the tie
counter and came back with three very beautiful blue ties, of the very
type for which I had been looking, tied each and held it in front of the
shirt, calling attention to the perfect harmony between the colors of the ties
and the shirt.
Before I had been in the store five minutes I had purchased three shirts and three ties, and was on my way with the package under my arm, feeling that here was a store to which I would return when I needed more shirts and ties. I learned, afterwards, that the merchant who owns the little shop where I made these purchases pays a monthly rental of $500.00 for the small store, and makes a handsome income from the sale of nothing but shirts, ties and collars.