A HASKELL -OBERLin • "■HnufiATiQp LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 25c a copy . . . $2.00 a year . . . Twelve Issues. Liberal discount in quantities. Must not be reproduced whole or in part without permission. EXTRA COPIES OF THIS ISSUE ARE AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY AT LIBERAL DISCOUNT IN QUANTITIES. DAVID H. COLCORD Abe Lincoln -the Master Salesman Haskell'Oberlin Company ' Chicago Copyright 1936 By HASKELL-OBERLW COMPACT 1325 Elmdale Avenue Chicago, Illinois Printed in the United States of America by the Regent Printing Company, Chicago. j>{ot to be reproduced whole or in part without permission of the publishers. T^e source 'fulness . . . mastery J\ of the art of persuasion . . . . . . simplicity of expression . . . a degree of sincere humility . . . inherent love of human nature for its own sake . . .the habit of work . . . and the capacity for taking punishment—these are the seven sovereign qualities of greatness which distinguish a true salesman from an order- taker. In fact these are the pre- requisites of success in all pro- fessions—and in life itself! Abe Lincoln -the Master Salesman BY David H. Colcord a J^ j^S HE sauntered by the pool-room, they were watching him. He overheard someone say, "HI bet ya three to one he won't fight!" When he turned into the lobby of the Chenery House a group of his old friends sud- denly stopped talking and stared. He was be- ginning to realise that something serious had happened while he had been gone. What it was, he hadn't the faintest idea. Engrossed in his case on the circuit he hadn't seen the news. They told him at the newspaper office. It seemed that for two years as a circuit-riding lawyer and a local politician he had been writ- ing editorials for this newspaper under an 7 Abe Lincoln assumed name. He had attacked in these edi' torials one Shields, the State auditor. Shields smarting under the lacing, had at last learned the identity of the author, and during the lawyer's absence had challenged him to a duel. The challenge had been published. The town was afire with the news. Business had stopped . . . awaiting the lawyer's return . . . and his answer. Every politician north of the Ohio realised the monstrous predicament of this circuit rider. To accept the challenge and fight meant the loss of his citizenship. The constitution of the state provided that should he fight he could never again hold office. Yet the code of the Illinois pioneer defied the law. He'd have to fight or every man he knew would brand him as a coward. That night he never took off his clothes. His landlady found him sitting on the edge of his bed at dawn, fully dressed, with his head buried in his hands, in deep thought. His next move might end his career. He knew there was some way out! — the Master Salesman Two days later he accepted the challenge! It was his privilege to name the time, place and conditions of the duel. These he named at once in a signed published statement. First, the place was to be three miles west of Alton, across the Mississippi. Second, the time was to be the following Thursday at five in the afternoon. Third, the weapons were to be cavalry broadswords of the largest size. Fourth, the conditions specified were that a plank ten feet long, twelve inches broad was to be firmly fixed on edge on the dueling ground to serve as a line between the duelists. If either stepped over this plank he thereby forfeited his life. Next a line was to be drawn on the ground on either side of the plank and parallel to it. Each of these lines (AND HERE WAS THE JOKER!) was to be drawn the whole length of the sword and three additional feet from the plank. If either duelist stepped over these lines, he forfeited the contest. (In other words the duelists to meet these conditions could not possibly reach each other with the swords — UN' LESS ONE OF THE MEN HAD UNUSUALLY LONG ARMS!) And this circuit'riding lawyer had the long' est arms in the state of Illinois! This man was Abraham Lincoln! Poor Shields, the pigmy, could walk under his arms without stooping. But they met as arranged. "Honest Abe" sat silently on his log awaiting the signal to fight. The crowd were watching him intently. His face was unusually grave. Then he felt along Abe Lincoln the edge of his weapon with his thumb as a barber feels the edge of a rasor, suddenly raised himself to his full height, stretched his long arms and clipped a twig above his head with the sword. Shields cringed. The crowd got the absurd' ity of the situation .... AND HOWLED WITH LAUGHTER. Shields grinned . . • in the "shadow of his grave," threw his sword to one side, walked over to Lincoln and shook his hand. The crowd cheered. Arm-in-arm Lincoln and Shields left the grounds and started for Alton ... to remain close friends for the rest of their lives. An ordinary, awkward, back-woods, circuit' riding lawyer in that incident displayed that sovereign quality of greatness known as RE' SOURCEFULNESS which later carried him to the presidency of the United States. And it is that quality, and SIX other sovereign qualities manifest in the life of this MASTER SALESMAN with which this little book is concerned. We shall examine every phase of his life to find them. We shall lift them out 10 - — the Master Salesman and establish them as the fundamental prin- ciples of all forward-looking conduct. We shall adapt them to the profession of salesman- ship and hold them as the basic laws of all successful human endeavor. * * * * RESOURCEFULNESS is generally as- sumed to be an inherited characteristic. This is false. The TENDENCY to be resourceful may be inherited. The characteristic is ac- quired and developed by experience. When the door of a dog kennel blows open in sub- zero weather, no dog has the resourcefulness to get up from his straw and close it. A human would . . . and fasten it the next night. The human capacity for developing this character- istic is unlimited. A salesman may have been doggedly following a "milk route 11 for years and suddenly AWAKEN and strike out for new business, thrilled to discover something within which he did not dream he possessed. Resourcefulness marked young Lincoln as a leader. Ten years ago it marked a young sales- man travelling out of New York and sent him 11 Abe Lincoln within five years to the general sales manager' ship of a several million dollar corporation. He was selling a coal spraying equipment to mid' die-western coal dealers. He was instructed to cover western Illinois and Iowa .... to follow in the wake of an older salesman and close the towns "fumbled" by the other. The older man had reported a town in eastern Iowa as "impossible to close." He stated that the dealers there had formed an association agree ing not to sell sprayed dustless coal. It would add to their costs, and if they all refused to sell dustless coal, no individual dealer would lose. The young salesman had not seen this report. He ran head'on into the situation. The line of least resistance would have been to have reported to New York . . . and then driven on to Cedar Rapids. Instead he telephoned every dealer in town asking them if they belonged to the association. Finally he found one that did not .... who had stayed out of the asso' ciation to capitalize on the advantage of oper' ating as a lone wolf. 12 — the Master Salesman That young salesman drove out to Cedar Rapids that night with an order for $600 in his pocket! SEVEN fundamental qualities, ac quired and developed to the uttermost, distinguished Abraham Lincoln from the circuit'riding country lawyers and small'town politicians of his time. One of these was the enviable attrv bute of RESOURCEFULNESS. SEVEN distinguish YOU from the circuit-riding cler\s and order-takers of today. One of these is RESOURCEFUL- NESS . . . from whence spring all of the other attributes of CREATIVE SALESMANSHIP. ^t» %£» +$0 mfo »f* The case was ready for the jury. Hannah Armstrong sat disconsolate in the rear of the courtroom. Even though the lawyer defend" ing her son "Duff" for murder had lived at their home for months and had the reputation of winning his cases, he had made a poor show ing in this case which meant everything to 13 Abe Lincoln her. He had permitted Allen, the chief wit- ness, to introduce evidence damaging enough to send her son to the gallows. He had made no effort to refute this evidence . . . had en- couraged its recital in fact. MeUger had gotten into a fight at a camp meeting with "Duff 1 ' Armstrong and a man named Norris. He had been licked and a few hours later had fallen off his horse and had been found dead. The lawyer defending "Duff 1 ' had gotten the following testimony from the witness Allen: that he had seen the fight . . . that he had stood two hundred yards away . . . that he could see distinctly as the moon was full and as bright "as the sun at mid-day" . . . that he saw Norris hit MeU' ger with a neck-yoke . . . that he saw "Duff" Armstrong hit Metzger in the eye with a sling shot. The defense made no attempt to question the testimony, accepted it as true. It did look bad for "Duff 11 . Then this circuit-riding de- fense lawyer, Abe Lincoln, the friend of Han- nah Armstrong, took his defense to the jury. 14 — the Master Salesman HE ADMITTED ALL OF THE EVI- DENCE. HE MADE NO ATTEMPT TO REFUTE IT. HE DID NOT ARGUE. He pleaded, persuasively, for the life of the boy, told how he knew the boy and his mother . . . that he was a good boy from a good home. It was said that he brought tears to their eyes. He was about to finish when he pulled an almanac from his pocket, turned to the judge and jury and said, "This almanac shows that on the night of August 27, 1857, the night of the fight, that the MOON HAD SET AT 9 o'clock in the evening. The fight took place at 11 o'clock. The chief witness swears that he saw 'Duff 1 Armstrong hit MetZ' ger with the sling shot by the light of a full moon at two hundred yards distance. I have nothing more to say to the court or the jury", and Abe Lincoln handed the almanac to the judge. He won his case and Hannah Arm- strong's boy went free. This well-known incident in Abraham Lin- coln's life brings into sharp relief the second 15 Ab e Lincoln quality in his character which made him great. He never CONTRADICTED another. He never ARGUED. Instead he always PER- SUADED. From the time he carried grain to the mill at Gentryville as a boy where he talked politics with the other Indiana pioneers, he practiced the fine art of getting the good will of his opponents by admitting their cow tcntions at the start, thus getting their guards down to swing them finally to his side. Not so long ago, a young woman stopped at a grade school in Chicago to get the list of the pupils in the eighth grade. She secured my daughter's name. An hour later at the door of my home she told my wife she had called to "talk about Mary's school". Natur- ally our door opened wide immediately. Seated she began, and mark these opening words well, "You certainly have a lot of books. You must take about all of the good magazines. How do you have time to read them all? You probably won't buy another book for a long time and I wouldn't blame you. Everybody 16 — the Master Salesman is so busy now they have very little time for serious reading. Even the school children have got to do their outside reading quickly, and I imagine Mary has plenty of it. What she needs is something she can turn to and get the information she requires quickly" . . . and from there she went on and presented Comp' ton's Pictured Encyclopedia which we bought . . . and have worn out. Let's examine her "opener 1 '. Notice that she anticipated the objection that we didn't have time to read the books we had let alone buying more, anticipated it, by ADMITTING IT, thus getting our guards down by the use of LINCOLN'S ART OF PERSUASION. The novice would have permitted us to have raised this objection which she would have ARGUED AGAINST and lost the sale. The SECOND fundamental quality, acquired and developed by Abraham Lincoln was that of PERSUASIOH, refusing to argue by admitting the op" ponent's contention at the start. This quality again distinguishes you from the canvasser, the order'ta\er and 17 Abe Lincoln the man who covers his territory by rule'of 'thumb. $ $ $ ii t This circuit'riding lawyer again represented the defense. Two men had gotten into an argument in a tavern. One of the men insulted and then struck the other who fought back giving the aggressor a sound thrashing. The man who started the fight and finally got licked sued the man who licked him. Abe Lincoln in defending the accused might have addressed the jury in the following language, "I base this man's defense on the plea of son assault demesne . . . the plaintiff brought on the fight." But not "Honest Abe". He knew the intelligence of the backwoodsmen in that court room. Instead he told the fol' lowing story to the jury. "My client at the time of the fight was in the fix of a man going along the highway with a pitchfork on his shoulder. A fierce dog ran out from a farmer's yard and attacked him. The man in parrying off the brute with the pitchfork stuck the prongs into the dog and 13 — the Master Salesman killed him. The farmer rushed to the scene. " 'What made you kill my dog?' said the farmer. " 'What made him try to bite me? 1 replied the man. " 'But why didn't you go at him with the other end of the fork?' said the farmer. " 'Why didn't the dog come after me with his other en&V answered the man." The court room howled. Lincoln won his case. He knew instinctively from the start the SALES value of simple, understandable lan- guage . . . the value of the pat story or the homely parable to put over his point. Lin- coln read, wrote and practiced for fifty years to ACQUIRE his classic style of SIMPLICI- TY. It wasn't an accident; he made it an ART. Note the stark simplicity of the clos- ing words of his inaugural address, **I am loath to close. We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it, we must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over the broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when touched, 19 Abe Lincoln as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.'" That story and that peroration are of the same stuff from which a REAL salesman man- ufactures the language used in teaching his prospect the value of his merchandise. When Jim White, representing a great life insurance company, calls on Bill Brown, he no longer pulls a black, forbidding ratebook from his pocket to start a harangue on "annuities, pre- miums, dividends, death rates, etc. etc." which has sprained the brains of better men than Brown. HE TELLS A SIMPLE STORY OF A NEIGHBOR'S DEATH AND WHAT IT MEANT TO THE WIDOW (BROWN KNOWS HER) TO GET $10,000 TO LIVE ON FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE! The THIRD fundamental quality, acquired and developed, by Abraham Lincoln which had much to do with his success was that of SIMPLICITY, tal\ing in terms of the other mans understanding. The acquired ability which you have to present your proposition in terms of 20 — the Master Salesman the prospect's interest and understand' ing again distinguishes you from the mine'run of order'ta\ers who mas' querade under the name of "salesmen". Lincoln sat whittling on the steps of the Chenery House in Springfield. A delegation from Chicago stood before him urging him to run for the Presidency against Douglas. They asked him later for a sketch of his life for publicity purposes. He wrote, "There is not much of it for the reason I suppose there is not much of me. If anything be made out of it, I wish to be modest and not go beyond the material." Six months later 75,000 admirers paraded in front of his door — a demonstration eight miles long celebrating his nomination! The day of "high pressure", "personality' ' selling is over. Nothing is more becoming — and more forceful today — than a reasonable dc gree of sincere HUMILITY. "Mr. Buyer, I don't know whether your stock is low or not. I'm not here to SELL you anything. May I spend an hour in your stock room with your man out there and see if we can't help you. As a matter of fact my company sends me out 21 Abe Lincoln to SERVICE our distributors — not overload them with merchandise." That's HUMILL TY. The buyer senses that you don't think you know it all. He feels that your company gives him credit for knowing his own business better than they do. He's afraid of the "star" salesman, his guard goes up when the "smart" man enters his office . . . but he welcomes you and likes your honest HUMILITY. The FOURTH quality, retained and natural, which carried Abraham Lin" coin to the highest honor the American people bestow upon men who are equipped to serve was that of sincere HUMILITY, the attitude that there were always better men than he. KEEP that THIRD characteristic in the practice of your profession as a salesman. If you \now your merchant dise, if you really get the other mans point of view, a certain degree of HUMILITY will always give you added strength in the presence of the man who buys. Lincoln \new men. This knowledge more 22 — the Master Salesman than anything else was responsible for his suc- cess. At ten he swapped stories with them at the grist mill. He fraternized with them on the flat boats of the Ohio and the Missis- sippi. He bunked with them in the old "Swamp" the riverman's rendezvous at New Orleans. He knew the Creoles, the Spaniards, and the traders of Algiers. Raw-boned cronies followed him without discipline through the Black Hawk War. They made his grocery store the political headquarters of the com- munity. As postmaster carrying their mail in his hat, he met them in their homes and fields. He singled out strangers from vast crowds, pulled them aside to visit with them ... es- pecially when he found a man as tall as he. The common soldiers in the Army of the Potomac loved him ... he lived among them, shook their hands . . . and they understood him and he understood them. Travelling fifteen counties in Illinois for thirteen years as a cir- cuit-riding lawyer, when there were no rail- roads, he road in the same "rig" with judges, lawyers, witnesses and criminals. At the tav 23 Abe Lincoln erns they slept two in a bed with three or four beds in a room, ate at the same table with jurors, and prisoners on bail. It was largely because of this studied knowl' edge of men that he won his cases. It gave him a plain candor with jurors. He made them feel that they themselves were arriving at the conclusions he wanted them to reach. LINCOLN ALWAYS TOOK THE AT- TITUDE OF A BYSTANDER HELPING THE JURY TO GET AT THE TRUTH! Last week I heard one of the executives at Marshall Field's say without being conscious of it, exactly the same thing in regard to their policy of sales training. He said, and note the direct analogy, "We forbid any attempt at high-pressure selling in this organisation. Our sales people mentally stand to one side and con" tribute what they can to helping the customer make the proper selection." I wonder what Lincoln would have done had he been selling today in the basement of one of our large department stores when they were conducting a basement sale! What would 24 — the Master Salesman he have done when some poor foreign woman came to the counter? Would he have acted as though he hated to touch the cheap mer- chandise? Would he have disdainfully patron- ized the poor woman because she was forced to buy with pennies instead of dollars, making the woman feel cheap and low for being in the basement? I wonder! Or would Lincoln's heart have gone out to the poor bedraggled woman, sympathized with her shortage of money, and sincerely helped her get the greatest value he could find for her. A sales woman or a salesman without that heartfelt sympathy and understanding is hope- lessly misplaced. The FIFTH fundamental quality, ac quired and developed by Abraham Lin' coin was his penetrating KNOWI/ EDGE OF HUMAN NATURE. This quality of the heart again dis' tinguishes you as well, from the can' vasser who finds nothing more than commissions in his daily contact with people. Somehow there is a popular impression to- 25 Abe Lincoln day that Lincoln spent most of his time whit' tling and swapping stories, that about the only hard work he did was to split rails. This is fiction. Lincoln had formed the HABIT of work early in his life. At seven when his father moved to Gentryville, Indiana, an axe was put into young Abe's hand which he swung for that first year, incessantly, helping to clear the land. He claimed later that he didn't drop that axe until his twentythird year. At the age of eleven he hired out at 25 cents a day as "hostler, ploughman, and woodchop- per 11 to neighboring settlers. At fifteen he built a flat boat on the Ohio and floated bag' gage from the shore to the steamers plying the Ohio. A year later he hired out at $8 a month as bowhand on a boat bound for New Orleans. In all HE TOOK TIME OFF FOR LESS THAN ONE YEAR IN SCHOOL! At twenty-one he began to shift for himself as a rail'Splitter, farm hand, and a pilot on boats running from Beardstown to New Orleans. He then clerked in Offult's store. 26 — the Master Salesman In the summer of 1856 he made fifty one speeches travelling by horse and buggy hun' dreds of miles throughout Illinois. The records show that from 1840 until 1861, Lincoln the circuit'riding lawyer tried 94 cases before the Illinois Supreme Court— A RECORD SUR- PASSED BY FEW LAWYERS SINCE THAT TIME! When a man hires out to sell, he goes on his own. He is master of his own time. And it is the exceptional man who can set up and punch his own time clock. That's why the profession of selling ranks with medicine and law ... it takes a superior type of man to direct himself and WORK. The SIXTH fundamental quality, ac- quired and developed which contributed to the slow, certain progress of Abra- ham Lincoln was the HABIT OF WORK. This same fundamental characteristic ta\es YOU out of the class of the cloc\- puncher and the man who cannot pro- duce without direct supervision. 27 Abe Lincoln In naming the SEVENTH and last sovereign quality of successful selling, let me say that without this quality no man or woman has any business in the profession. It destroys the unfit more quickly than a sharp hoe will kill a weed. Without it any man with a sample case is like a kite without a tail. He will dive to the ground with the first gust of wind. Possessing this sovereign quality the heights to which he can go reach far above into rare atmosphere, beyond the clouds of mediocrity . . . reach to the pinnacle of American achievement. THAT QUALITY IS THE CAPACITY FOR TAKING PUNISHMENT! He who can grin when an irate woman slams a door in his face, who can keep his shoulders back when a buyer mentally kicks him downstairs, who can go for days and weeks without an order . . . AND KEEP ON SELL- ING WITH UNSHAKABLE COURAGE . . . that man has found his true calling . . . HE WILL SUCCEED AS A SALEMAN . . . and there isn't anything which can stop him. On the other hand, if he can't TAKE IT, 28 — the Master Salesman he'd better "go in the kitchen and sit with the wimmen folks," as my grandfather used to say. President Lincoln, ashen gray, bowed with the almost unbearable burdens of a suffering people, staggering under the accumulated fail- ures of two years of a horrible war, was re- viewing the Army of the Potomac. Common soldiers turned their heads and wept as this ghost of a man passed their lines. They read on his worn countenance the an- guish in this great man's soul. They knew that he had been compelled to TAKE IT as no man has ever been asked by Destiny to suffer such punishment . . . from the day he left Springfield for the White House until that tragic moment. They read in his face, paler than death, the first defeat at Bull Run, when for twenty-four hours the Federal troops had streamed into Washington a beaten and disordered mob. They read the two years of defeat of the Army of the West and the treachery of General 29 ' Ab e Lincoln Fremont. They saw there the fear that Eng' land, France and Spain might soon join the cause of the Confederacy as they threatened to do. They saw the defeat of McClellan in Penninsuala Campaign, disaster after disaster . . . the hollow victories of Antietam and Gettysburg . . . when his generals had allowed the enemy to escape. They saw the lines of care sunk deep after Fredericksburg with its ten thousand dead and wounded . . . Chan' cellorsville with its 9,600, the bloody battle of the Wilderness with 12,037 Union men re' turned to the Capitol dead and wounded . . . and then the horrible defeat at Spottsylvania . . . with its toll of over thirteen thousand . . . TWENTY-FOUR MONTHS OF WAR WITHOUT A SINGLE VICTORY FOR LINCOLN'S ARMY! The loyal common soldier in the ranks took the measure of this man and prayed for him until the end even though he had had to face the disgrace of 80,000 privates and 2,900 officers deliberately deserting the ranks of the Union Army during these first two terrible 30 — the Master Suleiman years. They saw * X ^.z treachery of Came ron, the secretary of War, had done to their Chief, saw Lincoln at Gethsemane when his third son, Willie Lincoln, fell sick and died. And from that time on these common soldiers seldom saw the man they worshiped without a Bible in his hands. They saw him hang on and TAKE IT cour' ageously until finally Grant gave him the vie tories of Fort Donaldson and Fort Henry and the black clouds of disaster began to break and the Federal army went on to victory. Abraham Lincoln taught the Ameri- can nation the meaning of PUJ\[LSH' ME7s[T and the capacity of human en' durance for TAKING IT. This is the SEVENTH quality of this great man, by which he has attained immortality. TOU HAVE THAT QUALITY, you possess the capacity for TAKING IT! 31 OTHER BOOKS ON SELLING Published by HASKELL -OBERLIN COMPANY 1325 ELMDALE AVE. :: CHICAGO, ILL U FIGHTING PRICE WITH QUALITY" By DAVID H. COLCORD Price $1.35 u THE GREATEST THRILL IN THE WORLD" By DAVID H. COLCORD Price $1.75 "STREAMLINE SELLING" By A. J. PENNINGTON Price $1.25 "YOURSELF" MAGAZINE - - - FOR SALESMEN 12 Issues a Year — $2.00 LIBERAL DISCOUNT IN QUANTITIES