SELLING GOODS

Southland Times, Issue 21823, 28 September 1932, Page 2

SELLING GOODS

NEED FOR YOUNG SALESMEN. “The pessimistic salesman is pursuing the wrong vdcation, and the quicker he switches off on to some other job the better for everyone,” said Sir Edwin Stockton, president of the Manchester branch of the Incorporated Sales Managers’ Association, at the Advertising Convention at Liverpool recently. “The good salesman,” he continued, “never decries his goods—he knows that other people are always ready enough to do that without his aid. He must not allow the word ‘despair’ to be in his vocabulary. “There is room for a wider introduction of youth into British salesmanship—particularly abroad. We must have more vigour, more of the spirit of adventure, more originality, more vision, and more determination. We must set the pace, not follow it. We cannot expect to thrive on armchair salesmanship.” Major Colville, secretary to the Overseas Trade Department, said that caution in trade was killing the world. The spirit of enterprise has become stifled, and there was less and less inclination on the part of traders to take the slightest risk.