IMAGINATION 445People love to buy appearance or atmosphere, which is simply a
more refined way of saying what P. T. Barnum said about "one being
born every minute."
It is no overstatement to say that a master of sales psychology
could go into the average merchant's store, where the stock of goods
was worth, let us say, $50,000, and at very slight additional expense
make the stock bring $60,000 to $75,000. That person would have
to do nothing except coach the salespeople on the proper showing
of the merchandise, after having purchased a small amount of more
suitable fixtures, perhaps, and repackaging the merchandise in more
suitable coverings and boxes.
A shirt or blouse, packed one to a box, in the right sort of box, with
a piece of ribbon and a sheet of tissue paper added for embellishment,
can be made to bring a dollar or a dollar and a half more than the same
shirt would bring without more artistic packing. I know this is true, and
I have proved it more times than I can recall, to convince some skeptical
merchant who had not studied the effect of "proper displays:'
Conversely stated, I have proved, many times, that the finest shirt
made cannot be sold for half its value if it is removed from its box
and placed on a bargain counter with inferior-looking shirts.
COMMENTARY
As was noted at the beginning of this section, merchandising has changed radically
in the years since Napoleon Hill wrote those words, but the basic principles he
described are still at work in contemporary life. The editors are confident that if you
stop to think about the last time you went into Starbucks or Wal-Mart, bought a cell
phone, a computer, a car, or just a pair of jeans at the Gap, you will recognize that you
were being influenced by those same principles of imaginative salesmanship that Hill
was writing about in 1927. The editors are equally confident that you, too, can take
those "old-fashioned" concepts and use them in your own "new-fashioned" way.