There are many products of which the sense of touch is important. It is a common art in selling clothing to get the customer to feel the quality of the products. The salesperson of ties asks you to run your fingers over the tie and feel how smooth it is. The smoothness of the tie might not be a matter really worthy of any consideration, because the tie is to be around your neck, and people are going to look at it rather than touch it. But the salesperson knows if it is pleasant to the touch, the impression will be an agreeable one, and will convey an idea of good quality.

The matter of touch is important when you are shaking hands with a customer. A firm, cordial handshake is a valuable asset.

In many respects touch may be considered our greatest sense. It is undoubtedly the most important for self -protection. Every minute portion of the surface of the body is equipped with nerves that not only give warnings of danger, but convey all manner of impressions to the mind.

When hearing and sight are gone, touch alone, after it has been properly trained, is able to convey nearly every necessary impression to the mind.

Not only is the surface of the body supplied with nerves, but the interior surface of the alimentary canal is so influenced by touch that it records instantly the pleasurable or unpleasant sensations that affect digestion.

When we become too hot or too cold, it is the sense of feeling that gives the signal. When the body is in an improper or unhealthful position, the feeling of discomfort or pain causes us to change the position. When muscles become overworked, the sense of feeling gives warning. And when muscles need exercise, it is the sense of feeling again that prompts us to set them in motion.

Exercises for Touch

Exercise One. Exactness

Get samples of cotton, wool, silk, linen, oak, pine, iron, onion, potato, orange, lemon, grape fruit, baseball, banana, china cup, sugar, salt, and pepper. Touch each with the tip of the same finger while the eyes are blindfolded. See how many you can name.

Try the same experiment with each of the eight fingers and each of the two thumbs, with the back of the hand and the base of the palm.

Exercise Two. Range of Touch

Get a number of weights and guess them. See what range of weights you are most accurate in guessing.

Exercise Three. Quickness of Touch

Perhaps no better common instruments for testing the quickness of touch are to be found than the piano and the keyboard. Take a keyboard and press a key down as if you were touching a red hot stove and yet had to touch it hard enough to write the letter on the computer screen.
This is a very excellent test of the best sort since touch must always be quick enough to accomplish the object desired in the shortest possible time and not too quick to accomplish that object.

On the piano the finger must be held down for the precise length of time indicated by the note, and the performer whose touch is either too staccato or too prolonged must practice laboriously until the sense of touch, aided by the sense of hearing, enables him to hold a note for the precise length of time desired.

Exercise Four. Capacity of Touch

Place a number of different shaped objects on a table beneath the hand. See how many objects you can name by feeling alone.

Have someone place a number of products on a table and cover them with the palm of the hand without knowing what is beneath the hand. See how many you can name.

Stick a number of pins through a stiff cardboard. Place your fingers on the points and see how many you can count. This experiment can be performed by using the back of the hand, the palm of the hand, and the cheek.

Exercise Five. Emotional Use of Touch

Select an object that is disagreeable to the touch, such as a sticky or rough substance, and select a product that is agreeable to the touch, such as a piece of velvet. Rub your fingers over the velvet for fifteen or twenty seconds. Notice how pleasant a sensation comes over you as a result. Then rub the disagreeable substance for the same length of time and notice the effect on your emotions.

Practice handshaking daily with the same person until you learn how it should be done. Do not grasp the hand with the tips of the fingers, do not grip it too roughly, and do not let your hand side over it. Do not touch it too delicately. Let the grasp be firm and yet easy with the palms pressed well together. A firm, friendly handshake is a very desirable accomplishment. You can improve it only by practice, and this exercise should be persisted in a number of weeks with your conscious effort to improve.

Read my previous posts:

- Using the Five Senses in Selling

- The Sense of Sight in Selling

- The Sense of Sight in Selling – part 2

- Hearing in Selling

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