Retailer Hooked Customers By Fishing For Opinions; Listen To Customers: Orvis' Leigh Perkins found out what people really wanted and made sure he gave them exactly that.(LEADERS & SUCCESS)(BEST OF LEADERS & SUCCESS)

Byline: CURT SCHLEIER

Leigh Perkins was dying as a salesman.

It was his first sales job at Harris Calorific, a Cleveland manufacturer of welding and cutting equipment. He'd started in 1955 on the manufacturing floor, and in about a year had worked his way into sales.

The sales manager evaluated his employees on the number of demonstrations they gave potential customers. "I gave a good demonstration and was getting plenty of them, so, at first, I thought I was doing OK," Perkins wrote in his memoir, "A Sportsman's Life."

But his sales record stank. He figured he needed some expert help and signed up for a Dale Carnegie course. There he learned the key to good salesmanship isn't demonstrating the virtues of a product, but demonstrating the virtues of a product the customer needs.

"You have to find out what your customer is really interested in -- in what he really wants before you can sell him anything," Perkins wrote. "The way to learn is to listen to what he has to say."

Listening made a difference. While the number of demonstrations he gave plunged by about 50%, his success rate in making a sale went from 15% of demonstrations to 70%. His commissions rose 400%.