in the clothing business.

He said that a part of the value you deliver to a customer consists in
giving him a better opinion of himself: making him feel like a king
for a day and that the best is none too good for him.

"A store," he would tell the boys, "cannot be run on the low gear. You
must keep her keyed up. Relax when the store is empty, but when you go
to meet a customer put on the tension--take a brace--get spring into
your step--learn to bunch your vitality and get it across. But keep
your energy inside.

"Don't bounce and don't talk too much. Keep yourself in hand. Be quiet
but alert.

"Concentrate! For the time being there is but one person in the world
and that is the customer, and the most interesting thing in life is
the thing he came in to see.

"You can size up your man while you are going forward to meet him. But
by all means take him easy. Undue interest might embarrass him.
Suppose he only wants a pair of 15c. socks; if he does, there is a
test of your ability that you may not realize.

"Many a clerk who can close a Twenty dollar transaction with tact and
dispatch never seems able to handle a Ten cent sale so that the
customer goes out feeling pleased with himself.

"Nine men out of ten who come into the store are self-conscious. The
thing to do is to make your man feel that his requirement is important
simply because it is his requirement.

"A good salesman keeps his own personality in the background: he keeps
the store and the sale in the background. He puts all the emphasis on
service to the customer, and to do this he must mentally put himself
in the customer's place.

"Try to be as interested in the customer's finding what he wants as if
the article was for yourself; but don't insist on his taking only the
thing that appeals to you.

"Quietly dominate the sale, but leave him plenty of room for the
exercise of his own taste and ideas.

"Most men, though they may not show it, are slightly on the defensive
when they come into a clothing store. That is why it is so very
important that there be no talking or laughing among the clerks.

"You may find it hard to realize the effect of a whisper or a titter
on the part of the store's help when a customer is present. In nearly
every case the man becomes sensitive or resentful and thinks he is
being ridiculed.

"Try it yourself sometime by going into a strange store in another
line of business in a distant city: when you hear a laugh or a