The Psychology of SalesmanshipAtkinson, William Walker
Science
The Psychology of Salesmanship
Atkinson, William Walker
Selling -- Psychological aspects
Prof. Halleck, a well known authority on psychology says: "Business men
say that the ability to gain the attention is often the secret of
success in life. Enormous salaries are paid to persons who can write
advertisements certain to catch the eye. A publisher said that he had
sold only five thousand copies of an excellent work, merely because it
had failed to catch the attention of many, and that twenty-five thousand
copies could have been disposed of in the same time, if agents had
forced them upon the notice of people. Druggists say that any kind of
patent medicine can be sold, if it is so advertised as to strike the
attention in a forcible manner. Business life has largely resolved
itself into a battle to secure the attention of people."
The same excellent authority says, regarding the effect of associated
ideas: "An eminent philosopher has said that man is completely at the
mercy of the association of his ideas. Every new object is seen in the
light of its associated ideas. * * * The principle of the association of
ideas is sufficient to account for the change in fashions. A woman in a
southern city had a bonnet that she particularly admired, until she one
day saw three negresses wearing precisely the same pattern. She never
appeared again in that bonnet. When a style of dress becomes 'common,'
and is worn by the lower classes, it is discarded by the fashionable
people. Fashions that are absolutely repulsive will often be adopted if
they are introduced by popular or noted people. * * * A knowledge of the
power of the association of ideas is of the utmost importance in
business. One man has his store so planned that all its associations are
pleasing, from the manner of the clerks to the fixtures and drapery.
Another store brings up unpleasant associations. * * * When negligee
hats first made their appearance, a shrewd hatter sent for a
well-dressed and popular collegian and offered him his choice of the
best hats in the store, if he would wear a negligee hat for three days.
He objected to making such an exhibition of himself, until he was
flattered by the hatter's wager that the hats could, in this way, be
made the fashion for the entire town. When the collegian first put in
his appearance on the campus with the hat, he was guyed for his oddity.
Late in the afternoon, some of his friends concluded that the hat
looked so well that they would invest. On the following day large
numbers reached the same conclusion. For some time after this the hatter
found difficulty in keeping a sufficient supply in stock. Had an
unpopular or poorly dressed man appeared first on the campus with that
hat, the result would have been the reverse. The hat would have been the
same, but the association of ideas would have differed. Some of the
ladies of fashion in a large European city selected on their own
responsibility, without consulting the milliners, a cheap spring Manilla
hat, which was very handsome. The milliners found themselves with a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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