4 
Sherman Nursery Company, Charles City, Iowa 
Salesman’s Manual 
To our Salesmen: 
As our representative the vocation in which 
you are now engaged is salesmanship — the 
greatest vocation in the world. Today as never 
before is its importance realized and admitted. 
During the past few decades a great deal of 
study, effort and money has been devoted in all 
lines of industry to the improvement of pro¬ 
duction methods, until they have become so 
efficient and extensive that we are now produc¬ 
ing at low costs more goods than we can dis¬ 
tribute (sell) or consume. Our supply is in 
excess of the demand. I need not tell you the 
result of this situation—it has been all too self- 
evident during the past few years. 
The salesman is a creator of demands. It is 
through his work that markets are developed 
and expanded—it is through his efforts that 
the products of our factories and fields are dis¬ 
tributed. When he slackens his efforts, when 
his sales decrease, industry slows down and 
men are thrown out of employment—he is 
therefore also a maker of jobs. When he stops 
—all stops. Salesmanship is the axis upon 
which industry revolves. You can well be 
proud of your vocation, for upon your efforts 
and the efforts of thousands of others engaged 
in selling- depends the happiness of hundreds 
of thousands of your fellowmen. 
The fundamentals of salesmanship are the 
same regardless of the particular line or com¬ 
modity you are selling—it is only the applica¬ 
tion of these fundamentals that differs. 
Briefly enumerated, some of the essential 
qualifications of a successful salesman are: 
ambition, enthusiasm, honesty, resourcefulness, 
perseverance, loyalty, knowledge of goods, and 
a willingness to work. Of these qualities pos¬ 
sibly the last mentioned is most important. 
The possession of all the other qualities men¬ 
tioned will be of no value to you unless you 
work. Constant, consistent, intelligent work is 
what produces orders and builds permanent 
business. Mediocre ability and hard work pro¬ 
duce greater results than superior ability and 
laziness. The law of averages holds g-ood—the 
more prospects called on; the more prospects 
sold. 
Your efforts cannot be intelligent efforts 
without a knowledge of your goods—therefore 
you must study your line. You must know 
more about your product than your prospect 
does, be able to answer his questions in an in¬ 
telligent manner—be able to dominate the con¬ 
versation. Only knowledge will enable you to 
do this. 
Ambition is essential to success in any line of 
endeavor. It is the desire to achieve, to 
attain; the spark that ignites your energy. 
In it you build your castles—your hopes fpr 
the future. 
Enthusiasm, a most potent quality in salesman¬ 
ship—a quality that “is catching,’’ that- car¬ 
ries your prospect with you, that denotes 
sincerity, enjoyment of your work, a vision 
of its possibilities—a convincing quality that 
is born of knowledge. 
Honesty, a quality which should need no com¬ 
ment. That continued success requires hon¬ 
esty has always been a recognized fact. Ex¬ 
amples of the disastrous results in high 
places of its lack of observation have been 
evident during the past few years. Tell the 
truth and you will not have to remember 
what you said before. Be honest in your 
statements, efforts and acts. 
Resourcefulness is the ability to find a way to 
accomplish your g-oal—to get under, over or 
around the obstacles that stand in your path 
—to deviate from set methods or plans, to 
successfully meet your customers’ objections, 
to overcome competition and to solve the 
many perplexing problems that arise in life. 
Perseverance —Stick-to-it-iveness—The ability 
to face disappointments without discourage¬ 
ment—to carry on against odds—to accept 
rebuffs—“to hang on.” The persevering 
salesman does hear the prospect say “No”; 
he summons his resourcefulness and ap¬ 
proaches the subject from another angle. 
Failure to close on the first call doesn’t pre¬ 
vent him from making future calls-—he for¬ 
gets a “turn-down” as soon as the interview 
ends and approaches his next prospect with 
full enthusiasm and increased determination 
to sell him. The “never die spirit.” 
Loyalty—True and faithful to your work, your 
company, your friends—ever ready to defend 
any criticism against them; not possible with¬ 
out a confidence and belief in them and with¬ 
out which you cannot render an honest serv¬ 
ice to your company, your customer or your¬ 
self. 
If you do not possess these qualities in a high 
degree, cultivate them, build them up, for good 
salesmen are made, not born. They are the result 
of hard work, training, study and experience. 
In all sales there are five steps—you pass 
through all of them either consciously or un¬ 
consciously whenever you close an order. They 
are: 
Attention, Interest, Desire, Decision, Action 
and follow in the order outlined. 
Many methods are used for attracting or 
gaining- attention—be sure your method obtains 
interested attention. Shooting a man would at¬ 
tract attention but would not assist you in sell¬ 
ing him nursery stock. The billboards in colors 
along the roadside, the show windows in the 
stores, the electric signs along the streets, the 
colored posters in front of the movie houses, 
are all for the purpose of attracting attention. 
When you spread your Plate Book before 
your prospect, its beautiful colored illustrations 
gain attention at once. Use your Plate Book 
religiously in your canvass. We have inten¬ 
tionally omitted extensive descriptions and in¬ 
formation from this book, believing it is good 
psychology to present to your prospect’s vision 
more color and less printing. Tell him the 
merits of planting— Show him its appearance 
in actual colors. Color attracts and impresses. 
What we see impresses us much more than 
what we hear. 
