SALESMANSHIP AND
BUSINESS EFFICIENCY
KNOX

i
1
The Library of
UNIVERSE
GOTHE
COMMUNE VINCULUM
OMNIBUS ARTIBUS
MINNESOTA
Class 658.89
Book
K77

JAMES SAMUEL KNOX

SALESMANSHIP
and BUSINESS
EFFICIENCY
THE
ABILITY
TO
$$$
IS THE SECRET
OF SUCCESS
NFLUENCE.
By
JAMES SAMUEL KNOX
UNIVERSITY O
KNOX BUSINESS BOOK CO.
CLEVELAND, OHIO
1919
*
COPYRIGHT 1917
The Knox School of
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England. Protected by
International Copyright in Great Britain, and all her Colonies
and under the provisions of the Berne Convention, in Belgium,
France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Tunis, Hayti, Luxemburg,
Monaco, Montenegro and Norway.
All rights reserved.
(Printed in the United States.)
658.89
K77
Contents
Purpose
CHAPTER I
12
CHAPTER II
Leadership Through Character Building.... 24
CHAPTER III
Personality and How to Develop It
52
CHAPTER IV,
Efficiency,
88
__________CHAPTER V
The Value of Time
..114
CHAPTER VI
Salesmanship Analysis
.125
CHAPTER VII
"Mental Analysis
153
CHAPTER VIII
The Mental Law of Sale
Mental Law of Sale (continued).
Suggestion in Salesmanship
..167
CHAPTER IX
..206
CHAPTER X
237
241
CHAPTER XI
Human Nature
.253
SEP 15 24
CHAPTER XII
National Cash Register Selling Methods....267.
CHAPTER XIII ·
Subscription Book Salesmanship...
319282
..296
T
Introduction
HREE MONTHS after the first edition of this
book came from the press it was used as a Text
Book in more Colleges than all other books on
the subject. It has aroused international enthusiasm
because it actually shows an individual how to develop
his personality and how to study human nature. It
teaches the Philosophy of Leadership, as well as Mental
and Business Efficiency, and the Science and Art of
Salesmanship. A prominent Educator has said that "The
average study is outside of the life of the individual, but
this study reaches down to the very depths of his life,
reveals himself to himself, arouses him and inspires him,
and for that reason it revolutionizes his life." This book
teaches the fundamental principles of Man-building and
Human Leadership.
Over two hundred years ago Pope said the proper
study of mankind is man. The educational world has
paid little attention to his advice. The reason the aver-
age man hasn't confidence in himself is because he is
not acquainted with himself. The heart-rending cry
that goes up from millions of young people today as
never before, is for more self-knowledge. Bishop Bristol
says: "Man is the great universal puzzle to himself."
"Every man possesses within himself a continent
of undiscovered possibilities, a marvelous power that
whispers to him that he is capable of almost infinite de-
5
6
Introductory
velopment if he will just wake up and give himself a
chance." This book reveals to the man the continent
of possibilities and shows him how to develop them.
The following is from a commercial student,
a young woman, who is a Normal graduate and the
holder of a Life Certificate: "I have derived more per-
sonal benefit from the work in Business Efficiency and
Salesmanship, than from any other study I have ever
taken up. The chapter on Leadership and Character
Building' has fortified my ambition to become a leader
in whatever I undertake to do, but the chapter on ‘Per-
sonality and How to Develop It,' is the one that is mak-
ing me realize how much I have to do to develop the
many positive qualities necessary to success." Another
Business College student, a young man, says: "It has
been a revelation to me, and I see myself and the busi-
ness world in a new light. I have applied many of the
things learned from the study to my daily work, and
have been greatly benefited."
¶Letters from Educators and Business men are
equally strong. A prominent Southern Educator says:
"Your chapter on Efficiency is worth the price of the
book to every young man, to say nothing of the others
which are equally strong." Another prominent Busi-
ness College President says: "The book is a gold mine
to my students.”
¶The State manager of a concern that employs over
four hundred salesmen says: "I sent a copy of this book
to the majority of our salesmen, and also sent a copy to
several of my friends. I consider it one of the best, if
not the best book it has ever been my privilege to read."
Governor W. N. Ferris, of Michigan, who is nationally
Introductory
7
known as an Educator, says: "The Business world owes
you a debt of gratitude."
We have learned that to violate part of the laws of
business means partial failure and to violate all the laws
means complete failure. We have also learned that to
observe part of the laws of business means partial suc-
cess and to observe all the laws means complete success.
We know that no man on earth observes all the laws
of business, all the laws of Salesmanship, and all the
laws relating to his highest individual development. The
aim of this book is to help him reach as near Maximum
Efficiency as possible.
It has been somewhat of a revelation to the business
and educational world to learn that the Philosophy of
Salesmanship is the Philosophy of Leadership and that
the Philosophy of Leadership is the Philosophy of Suc-
cess, and that the Philosophy of Leadership always con-
sists in keeping the man you wish to influence on the
defensive. This principle deserves your thoughtful con-
sideration. You will find it fully discussed in Chapter
Eight. One great aim of this book is to make men and
women leaders, and the world is desperately in need of
leaders at the present time.
I want to call your attention to one thing more in
this introduction, and that is in regard to thinking. The
average man is a failure because he does not know how
to think. The Bible says: "As he thinketh in his heart,
so is he." That is a great scientific truth. What is the
secret of man's ability to think? It lies in his ability to
analyze. The man who cannot analyze cannot think, and
the man who cannot think cannot succeed either as a
Lawyer, Doctor, Preacher, Teacher, Salesman, or Busi-
ness man.
Introductory
¶This book will help to make you a leader because it
will make you an analytical thinker; it will teach you how
to develop a dominating personality; it will teach you
how to develop personal magnetism; it will develop
within you the ability to influence; it will teach you how
to lead and control thought and action; it will teach you
how to persuade people to think as you think, feel as you
feel, and act as you would have them act.
Some time ago, Baden-Powell, the famous English
General, after a tour of the United States said, in an
article for an English Magazine, the predominating char-
acteristic of American life was carelessness, and that
this was due to a lack of character training in our schools.
Dun and Bradstreet's commercial reports verify Gen-
eral Baden-Powell's statement when they state that sixty
per cent. of our business failures are due to carelessness.
This book is doing a great deal, both in school and out,
to develop character and eliminate carelessness.
Character is the basis of success in business of every
kind. Character in combination with brains correctly
trained, is the highest priced, best paid product in the
world. Salesmanship is grounded upon character and
no matter what your position in life, you will succeed
in proportion to your knowledge of the principles of
Salesmanship and their correct application. Whether
you are a Bookkeeper, Stenographer, Doctor, Lawyer,
Preacher, or candidate for the Presidency of the United
States, you must know how to sell your services success-
fully or pay a big financial penalty.
¶It has been discovered by the Colleges of the country
that use this book as a text book, that it increases the
Mental Efficiency of the student up to twenty per cent.
Introductory
9
as a result of the development of the following qualities:
Health, Honesty, Tact, Open Mindedness, Knowledge of
Business, Courage, Initiative, Enthusiasm, Industry, Pur-
pose, Observation, Concentration, System, and Inspira-
tion.
The foregoing paragraphs show what the book is
and what it accomplishes in the classroom. The follow-
ing certainly emphasize the crying need in the commer-
cial and industrial world for just such training as this
book affords.
The Russell Sage Foundation report says that
ninety-five per cent. of the men in the nation are in-
competent through lack of proper education to suc-
ceed at any trade, business, or profession.
We are indeed a nation of business failures-a
nation of business guessers instead of business get-
ters. During the year nineteen fourteen, 12,182 mer-
chants failed with a loss of $164,694,777. During the
same year the wholesale business of Chicago decreased
ten per cent. while the mail order business in the same
city increased ten per cent., or from $303,600,000 to
$333,960,000.
It is said that during the past decade, ten thou-
sand towns have lost population. From nineteen
hundred to nineteen ten, 1,520 Pennsylvania towns
lost population. During the same period the follow-
ing number of towns in the following states lost popu-
lation: Ohio, 1136; Illinois, 788; New York, 746;
Michigan, 677; Indiana, 639; Iowa, 564; and Missouri,
540.
¶There are several reasons assigned for this urban
decline but the main reason is a high degree of salesman-
´10
Introductory
ship, advertising, and business efficiency on the part
of the big mail order houses, and a low degree of sales-
manship, advertising, and business efficiency on the part
of the retail merchants of the country. As a result
of careful observation, it is estimated that not more than
one per cent. of the clerks of the country receive system-
atic salesmanship instruction. The result is retail fail-
ures, urban decline, and increasing mail order prosperity.
¶A decline in the business of a town means a social
and intellectual decline and therefore a civilization de-
cline. The country, not the city, is the heart and center
of our civilization. By increasing the efficiency of the
country merchants and business men, we increase the
civilization of the country. Efficient merchants mean
successful country towns, better social life, and holding
many of the brightest young men and women at home
through offering them better opportunities.
Some time ago, Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus, Chicago's
most famous preacher, took a census of the one hundred
leading lawyers, doctors, and engineers of Chicago. He
found that between seventy-five and ninety per cent. of
them were born on the farm. He found that ninety-one
per cent. of the leading merchants of Chicago were farm
born. He states that at one time, some years ago, all
the leading ministers of Chicago were born on the farm.
The more wide-awake and progressive a community is,
the more great men it will produce.
The students of today have a great opportunity for
real leadership in the smaller towns and cities as well
as the large centers of this country. To succeed to this
leadership, they must understand the psychology of
leadership which is the psychology of salesmanship.
Introductory
11
I take this opportunity to acknowledge my indebt-
edness to scores of friends all over the country, both
commercial teachers and business men, for their many
words of encouragement. Along with a chorus of com-
mendation, there has come much in the way of construc-
tive criticism and helpful suggestion. That this has been
fully appreciated is shown by the extent to which these
suggestions have been made use of in the present edition.

Limited Vision
Means Limited
Possibilities
CHAPTER I
XXX
Purpose
The great American need is for a
vision of a larger life and its possi-
bilities. Our vision is limited, our
aspirations are limited, and there-
fore our possibilities are limited. Our vision is limited
because we lack a definite aim, a definite ambition, a
definite purpose.
Need of a
Definite Aim
What is the greatest cause of in-
efficiency in America? It is lack of
a definite purpose. The best effi-
ciency experts declare that only ten per cent. of the people
of this country have a definite object, an ultimate aim,
a genuine motive for living. This is the great tragedy
of American life. It is lack of a definite object in life
that causes so many people to drift. The man who has
no definite object in life is going nowhere, he is just
drifting, and that is the reason he never arrives. He is
sailing toward no port, and if he ever reaches port it
will be as a result of pure accident.
Illustration
of the Drifter
Suppose a boat breaks from its
mooring and drifts one hundred
miles from shore. Will it ever re-
turn to the port from whence it started? No, unless by.
1:
12
Purpose
13
sheer accident. It is tossed from the trough to the crest
of the waves. It is finally dashed to pieces by the raging
fury of the elements. The tragedy of life is to be found
in the young man who drifts aimlessly out into life's
elements, only to be dashed to pieces by the very ele-
ments which he, by divine right, should harness, master,
and utilize in furthering him on his course.
Man With A young man without an ultimate aim is
a Purpose mere putty. He is little better than a piece
of clay. But the man of definite purpose
is the man with a conquering spirit. He flashes out
upon the horizon like a fixed star. He sets the pace for
other men. He leads the way. He has a vision. He
knows which way he is traveling, and he knows why he
is traveling. He can see the end from the beginning,
because he has created it in his imagination.
The Maxi-
mum Man
t
Why is it that one man has magnetism
and another hasn't? Why is it that one
man has a distinct personality and an-
other hasn't? Why is it that one man has flashing eyes
and another hasn't? Why is it that one man radiates
courage, optimism, enthusiasm, ambition and leadership
and another doesn't? It is because one man has anchored
his life with a definite aim, an ultimate purpose, and the
other has not. The man with a definite aim is the maxi-
mum man, the hundred per cent. man, That aim
creates within him life's great positive forces. It gives
him an "energetic certitude and a fervent trust." Such
a man was created in the image of the Almighty, and
he is trying to live up to his heritage.
14
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Tragedy of
the Drifter
The person who has a definite aim in life
grasps every opportunity that will help
him achieve his end. The person who
drifts has no aim, and, therefore, sees no opportunities.
This is the tragedy of the drifter. The young man
whose ultimate aim is to be a great salesman, a great
salesmanager, a great organizer, and a great business
man, is doing everything within his power to make him-
self more efficient as a salesman, a salesmanager, an
organizer, and an executive. Such a man takes nothing
for granted. He does not guess. He prepares him-
self in advance to fill the positions he expects ultimately
to fill. What kind of a position do you expect ultimately
to fill? If you expect ultimately to fill a ten thousand
dollar position, then you will continue to prepare to fill
it until you reach your goal.
What is Your
Dominating
Motive?
True, as Harrington Emerson says,
"There is one quickest, best, easiest
method of acquiring the desirable
things of life." But you must first
decide you want and propose to get the desirable things
of life. The aim, the purpose, is the big thing. When
you once establish the purpose and then fortify it by
a burning, conquering determination, then you will
naturally begin to study ways and means, the how and
why of acquiring these desirable things of life in the
quickest, easiest, best way. When a man once decides
upon an ultimate aim he expects to make sacrifices. But
to him they do not seem sacrifices. He meets difficul-
ties with eagerness. He is willing to go through fire
and water to accomplish his end. He becomes a power
Purpose
15
G
in the world. People do not understand him because
they do not see his well-spring, his moving, dominating
motive. What is your ultimate aim? What is your
dominant, impelling motive? Remember there can be
no ultimate aim without an impelling motive. The mo-
tive furnishes the inspiration and stimulus.
Power of Every great achievement of the human race
an Ideal was made possible because it first existed as
an ideal, an ultimate purpose in the life of
some individual. Can you conceive of a man's reaching
any worthwhile goal unless he knows where he is going?
What is the greatest weakness in American life? It is
this. We are conducting our lives by guess instead of
by chart and compass. We are drifters and floaters on
the sea of life, instead of being pilots and captains. We
are followers and failures, instead of leaders and suc-
When we get a vision of the ultimate ideal, the
supreme purpose, it will not take long to revolutionize
our lives, incomes, and possibilities.
cesses.
Derelict
Hopeless
The Human A ship that is going in the wrong direc-
tion can be turned, because it is guided
by an impelling force. But you can do
nothing with a ship that is drifting. It
has no impelling force. It is tossed from the trough
to the crest of the waves. It is at the mercy of the
elements. You can convert a man who has a mistaken
purpose. You can show him the error of his way. But
you can do nothing with the human derelicts who are
drifting through life without purpose, and therefore
without hope, without courage, and without enthusiasm.
16
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
The light of their lives has gone out. They have put
it out.
Ideals Must
be Legitimate
and Practicable be legitimate. A prominent man
once said that when he was a young
It is not enough merely to have a
purpose in life. That purpose must
man his ambition was to make money and do good.
Carnegie was recently asked what his business was and
he said it was to do as much good as possible. Har-
rington Emerson says, "It is therefore not enough to have
ideals. There must be some standard or standards of
measurement and test." "To be efficient you need not
only ideals of the desirable things of life, but you need
some way of knowing that the things you wish to
achieve, attain, and acquire are legitimate, practicable,
and truly desirable."
Low Ideals
Disappointing
"The ideal of Captain Webb was to
swim the Niagara whirlpool. He
perished in the useless attempt.
Barney Barnato, the diamond king of Kimberley, had
great wealth as an ideal. But when he had become
rich as his dream he drowned himself and his wearisome-
ness of it all in the waters of the south Atlantic."
Service to
Humanity
To work for either money or fame for
its own sake is unworthy of any man.
There is only one legitimate purpose in
life and that is to serve humanity in some way. A man's
aim should be to serve his family, to serve the public,
and to serve posterity.
Purpose
17
Organize Your
Mental Forces
The greatest piece of machinery ever
constructed is not the adding ma-
chine, the typewriter, or the stenotype,
but the one within the human head. But that is a dis-
covery the average man has never made. The mind
and soul with all their thoughts, hopes, impulses, de-
sires, prejudices, and aspirations are nothing but a con-
fused jumble until organized and made effective by the
conscious power of an earnest, consecrated purpose.
Dare to Have
a lofty
Purpose
Show me a young man who has set his
mark, who has driven his imaginary
stake, who has created within his imag-
ination the position he proposes to fill
twenty years hence, and I will show you a young man
who will work out in real life the picture he first created
in his imagination. Set no mark, dream no dream,
build no imaginary air castles, have no definite aim, no
vision of a larger self and a larger life, and
you will be eternally doomed to drift and fail. You
cannot avoid it. It is the law of life. This is the
canker that is eating into the heart of American prog-
ress. This is the poison that is chloroforming the vast
majority of our men and women, young and old. This
is the subtle ether that paralyzes initiative, that para-
lyzes progress and prosperity. We were created in the
image of God. Let us arise in our might and throw off
the imaginary shackles of impossibility. Let us dare
to achieve. Let us get a vision of the blue sky above.
Let us have an aim and an ideal that is worthy of the
best men and women that ever lived. Let us look ahead
not back, up not down, and press on.
18
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
!
Warren
Hastings'
Resolve
One May morning a young man stood on
the porch of his ancestral estate in Eng-
land. It was a beautiful morning. The
birds were singing, and the air was frag-
rant with the perfume of apple blossoms. This young
man walked out into the yard and began this soliloquy:
"This great estate has belonged to my ancestors for
generations. It has been lost to me through mismanage-
ment. Oh, what a fate! But I will not be conquered
by fate. I will master it. I will win back this estate."
He clenched his hands and gritted his teeth and there
was fire in his eyes. He meant what he said, and he
kept his word. Then and there was born a great reso-
lution, a great purpose, a motive for living. He did
buy back the estate. History knows this boy as Warren
Hastings.
The Night
School Gives
Opportunity
Some years ago a boy was assisting
his father who was a janitor in an
Ohio factory. But this boy had a defi-
nite purpose in life. He created
within his imagination the position he proposed to fill
in twenty years and this imaginary position did not savor
of janitor work. He studied stenography nights and
one day when an extra stenographer was needed he
offered his services. "What do you know about sten.
ography?" said the man in charge. "Try me," said
the boy. "I have been studying stenography in the
night school." That boy became a stenographer that
moment. Later this concern wanted a bookkeeper for
extra work. The boy again offered his services, and
was asked what he knew about bookkeeping. His reply
Purpose
19
i
was that he had been studying it in the night school.
He was given charge of the extra bookkeeping work.
Study Wins
Promotion
Sometime after this, the floor salesman
was out at noon when a merchant came
in to look at a cash register. The
young stenographer, seeing that the salesman was absent,
showed the merchant the line of machines. He was
just closing the sale and doing it enthusiastically when
the salesman came in. When the merchant left, the
salesman said, "You are only a stenographer, aren't you 1?
How do you know enough about this business to sell a
machine?" The beaming young stenographer with the
order in his hand said, "I have been studying salesman-
ship at night and during my spare moments." "Why
are you doing it?" said the salesman. "Because I want
to become a salesman,” said the young man. He was
engaged for this purpose.
A Good
Financial
Plan
When this young man went into the field
to sell he was on his way up the ladder of
success, the top of which he could see from
the bottom. In order to reach the top as
soon as possible he determined to make enough sales the
first twelve days of every month to pay his expenses for
the month, as he proposed to save all the money he made
during the rest of the month. When he reached the
twelfth day of each month he said "I simply must make
this sale today, because I need the money for expenses."
When he reached the last day of the month he said
"I must make this sale today because I need the money
for my bank account and if I do not make the sale, it
20
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
+
will go over until tomorrow and the money will be used
for expenses.
Results of
an Abiding
Purpose
""
Is it any wonder that a man with a mo-
tive like this to urge him on made a great
success as a salesman? His success was
so great that they made him a district
manager at the age of twenty-three and brought him in
and made him vice-president and general manager at
the age of twenty-eight at a salary of fifty thousand
dollars a year. This young man was Hugh Chalmers
and the company was the National Cash Register Com-
pany. Mr. Chalmers is now president of his own com-
pany and is rated a millionaire and more. He was
president of his own company and a millionaire at forty.
What did it? A definite aim, a definite motive, a defi-
nite purpose. The ability of a Webster or a Napoleon
would never have enabled him to rise as he did without
the stimulus of a great purpose.
Real Living
Requires a
Definite Aim
"Many people go through life without
knowing what it is to live. Unless you
are living for something and know
what it is; unless you have a definite
aim in view; unless you are making the most of every
talent with which nature or a kind Providence has en-
dowed you; unless you are developing every day by
judicious exercise every faculty you possess; unless you
are gradually but unceasingly broadening, expanding,
achieving better and better and greater and greater re-
sults, as the days and weeks and months go by; unless
you are doing all these things, you are not living in the
Purpose
21
right sense of the word. To spend your days in any-
thing short of searching out the forces within you, and
without a daily, active, vigorous, aggressive struggle to
accomplish the aim of your life and live up to the best
that is in you, is not to live but to exist. To take things
passively as they come and get along with them what-
ever they are, is not even to exist, but to be tolerated."
To say you cannot make a success is to place yourself
on a par with the people of the middle ages. But to
say you can and you will is to place yourself in the lead
of the best men and women the world has ever known.
"I'll Find
a Way or
Make One'
Many years ago, Rear Admiral Peary
sought the north pole. Before he
started he decided to get a motto that
would encourage him in his darkest
days. He found one, the motto created by Hannibal.
At the age of twelve Hannibal swore eternal vengeance
against Rome. His motive in life was to conquer Rome.
He became a great general. Before he was thirty he de-
cided to cross the Alps and attack Rome. His generals
said it could not be done as there was no road across
the Alps. Hannibal said, "I will either find a way or
make one," and he did. When Peary turned his face
toward the frozen north he said, "I will find a way or
make one to the north pole," and you know the result.
When he was in the far north, living in his hut of snow,
and it was sixty below zero and he saw nothing ahead of
him but a great mountain of ice he simply said, "I will
find a way or mare one." When he passed the moun-
tain of ice and saw nothing ahead of him but the cold
purple waters of the north he did not falter but said,
22
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
"I will find a way or make one." For twenty-four
years he went on and on and on. He kept this one aim,
this one purpose, this one ideal ahead of him and you
know what he accomplished. I care not how much or
how little ability one may have, if he has an aim like
that, a purpose like that, an ambition like that, he will
accomplish results that will finally amaze himself and
his friends, too.
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
¶1. What is the first great need of the young man
or woman who would succeed?
¶2. How will a definite aim help you?
3. Which has the better chance, the man who is
definitely going wrong or the one who is drifting? Why?
¶4. Have you a definite, dominating purpose?
Can you state it clearly?
C5. Give some illustrations from the text of men
who won great success through the guidance of purpose.
6. Name some similar examples from your read-
ing.
'CY.
7. Secure the biography of some man who
achieved in spite of difficulties, and make a careful study
of it.
18. Who was Hannibal? Warren Hastings?
Peary? Give definite facts about each.
$
Purpose
23
}
Summary to Chapter I
1. The great American need is for a vision of
a larger life.
2. The great tragedy of life is the lack of a
definite aim, an ultimate object, a genuine motive for
living.
3. A man fired by the passion of a great desire
to achieve a worthy purpose, possesses magnetism,
personality, leadership; he becomes the maximum man.
4. A man without purpose is a human derelict
lost upon the great ocean of life.
C5. The ideals sought must be legitimate, prac-
ticable, and serviceable to mankind.
16. Some illustrious examples mentioned: War-
ren Hastings, Hugh Chalmers, Rear Admiral Peary.
CHAPTER II
XXX
Leadership Through Character
Building
Psychology
Applied to
Business
The last ten years have seen tremendous
business changes in this country. The
next ten years will see a business revo-
lution. Ten years ago there was no such
thing as a Science of Business, a Science of Salesman-
ship, or a Science of Advertising. Today these Sciences
are recognized everywhere. The student of the present
and the future must be trained to meet the new condi-
tion. This new condition has been brought about by
applying psychology to the problems of Business, Sales-
manship, and Advertising; it has been brought about as
a result of intense competition and the insistent demand
for greater individual efficiency. In the past, business
and selling were conducted by guess; today we must
know the reason why. To know the reason why is to
increase individual efficiency enormously. Efficiency is
the watchword of today.
Efficiency
The problem of efficiency today is
the Watchword the problem of getting the maxi-
mum of results with the minimum
of effort. Our problem then, to be-
of Today
gin with, is to find out how to train the human mind so
24
Leadership Through Character Building
25
*
as to attain this maximum of efficiency. To do it we
must analyze the causes of failure as well as the causes
of success. Today the average man is a failure when
he ought to be a success. We must discover the reason
and apply the remedy.
Brain
Waste
The late Professor James of Harvard, after
years of investigation, came to the conclusion
that the average man was using only one-tenth
of his brain power. To think that nine-tenths of the
average man's brain is a desert waste, is enough to arouse
the slumbering power which is lying like a sleeping giant
only waiting to be awakened.
The Great The Great American desert is not located
American in Idaho, Arizona, or New Mexico. It is
Desert located under the hat of the average man.
The Great American desert is not a physi-
cal but a mental desert. One of the aims of this book is
to irrigate this mental desert waste with the waters of
a practical and progressive education which will enable
it to blossom into a rich, luxuriant harvest.
Cause of
Low Earning
Power
The average man today may well be
called a failure because he earns little.
Eighty-five per cent. of the men of this
country earn $15 a week or less. Only
seven and a half per cent. earn between $1,800 and
$3,000 a year. The question arises; why do they not
earn more? The answer is simple. They do not know
how to think. They have never learned how to use their
minds to anything like a maximum of their possibilities.
26
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Lack of
Efficient
Men
Never in the history of the world has there
been such a famine of high priced men as
exists at the present time. Hugh Chalmers,
President of the Chalmers Motor Company,
the man who was a stenographer in the National Cash
Register factory at the age of fourteen and Vice-Presi-
dent and General Manager of the company at twenty-
eight, at a salary of $50,000 a year says: "Five great
M's go to make up the problem of every business man
in this country today. They are Money, Material, Ma-
chinery, Markets, and Men-and the biggest figure in the
problem is men. Really valuable men, high-priced men,
are the hardest things to get of all the things we manu-
facturers need. Men in the mass are the cheapest things
in the market. There are too many $1,000 men and too
few who are worth $10,000 a year."
Causes of Why does this condition of affairs exist
Failure now? It exists for just four reasons.
Here they are-viz.: Failure to think right,
faüure to talk right, failure to write right, and failure to
understand human nature. The next quarter of a cen-
tury will demand that a man receive such mental equip-
ment that he will become an analytical thinker, that he
will learn how to think from cause to effect; it will de-
mand that a man learn how to express himself intelli-
gently, fluently, and vigorously; it will demand that a
man know how to write a business getting letter, cir-
cular, and advertisement, and it will demand that a man
know the point of view of the man he does business with.
In order that we may accomplish this end we must
analyze the mind and find out why we fail and why we
succeed. The main reason why the average man fails
Leadership Through Character Building
27
today is because he has never learned how to think
analytically, consequently he guesses. There are really
just four things we do in life. We think, we remember,
we imagine, and we act. To accomplish these four things
efficiently, spells success.
Examples I know a very able young man who was
of Wrong highly recommended and who was about
Thinking to accept a very responsible position. On
his way to the office where he expected to
get the position, he thought, but he thought wrong. His
judgment had not been carefully trained. He went in
and met his prospective employer. His looks and recom-
mendations were of the best, but his prospective employer
got a whiff of his breath and said: "I cannot employ
you." The young man said: "Aren't my recommenda-
tions good?" He was told they were, but he was also
told that he had just visited a saloon and taken a drink.
of whiskey. He was told that under no circumstances
would a drinking man be hired for that position. The
whole destiny of this young man was no doubt de-
termined by that one drink. He thought, but he paid
a big price for thinking wrong.
Another One day a retail house received a telephone
Example call from an angry customer. The customer
said he had given the salesman an order for
twelve dollars' worth of goods to be delivered at once, but
a week had passed and he had not received the goods, in
spite of the fact that he was promised delivery the same
day. The house immediately discovered that the order
had never been sent in. The salesman was called up
+
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
28.
over the telephone. He admitted he had the order in his
pocket and had spent the twelve dollars but expected to
make it good in a day or two. He lost his position. He
paid an awful price for thinking wrong and using poor
judgment. The head of the concern told him he would
have been glad to loan him the money he needed.
A Problem A big concern sent a letter to four thou-
of Profits sand retail merchants who were worth
from $10,000 to $40,000 each. In that
letter the merchant was asked to solve a simple problem.
Here is the problem: "Suppose you bought an article
for one dollar and your cost of handling that article was
twenty-two per cent., how much would you have to sell
the article for in order to make a net profit of ten per
cent?" Just twenty-two per cent. of the replies were
right. The average business man doesn't know enough
about bookkeeping and arithmetic to enable him to think
right. An authority states that, "Only about ten per
cent. of retailers rated at $5,000 or less know how to
figure percentages of profit." (See note page 48.)
Wrong Thinking I could give you scores of illus-
the Cause of
trations of wrong thinking and
Failure and Crime untrained judgment, but these will
do. Failure and crime are due to
wrong thinking and poor judgment. "Sin is misdirected
energy." We must learn to think right first and when
we think right, that in itself will go a long way toward
developing a good memory.
Association An idea which is not clear to us will
Aids Memory not be remembered. The subjective
mind always retains an impression once
Leadership Through Character Building 29
it is photographed upon the negative sensitized plate of
that mind. To have a good memory you must pay at-
tention to every new idea, name, or face; you must con-
centrate your mind upon it and then associate the new
idea, name, or face with something similar you are fa-
miliar with. When you get a new idea and try to think
of that as a new idea and separate fact, you must con-
centrate your mind very strongly upon it, but even then
you are likely to forget it, temporarily anyway, unless
you associate it with something you are already familiar
with. Take this definition of Salesmanship for illustra-
tion. "Salesmanship is the manner, method, and art of
most economically effecting the exchange of an article
for money, to the equal and permanent satisfaction of
the buyer and seller." If you try to think of this defini-
tion as a whole, you may forget it, but if you associate
it with the idea of mutual benefit, which is the central
idea of the definition, you will have no trouble in remem-
bering the substance, at least, of the definition.
Illustrations
of Association
A man stopped me on the street one
day and told me to send a book to a
friend of his. The name he gave me
was familiar so I did not need to make note of it. But
I asked him what the initials were, with the idea of writ-
ing them down. He said the initials were R. A. I
realized at once that I should have no trouble in re-
membering them because I have a brother with the same
initials. I met another man whose name was Peculia.
I immediately associated his name and face with the
word peculiar. I said to myself, "Here is a man with
a peculiar name and a peculiar face. In other words,
he is a peculiar man." I concentrated my mind upon
30
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
his face until I got a complete image of it. Then I had
no trouble with either name or face.
Remembering
People's
Names
A friend of mine went into a strange
tailor shop in Chicago and ordered a
suit. The man who made the sale was
a very agreeable and attentive little
man. My friend got the suit and left the city. Three
years later he was in Chicago and decided to get another
suit at the same place. He went in and was met at the
door by the same man who sold him the suit three years
before. With a smile the tailor walked up to my friend
and said: "Why, how do you do, Mr. Jones? I am very
glad to see you." My friend said, "How is it possible
for you to pick my face out of the thousands who have
been in here since I was here three years ago, and how
is it possible for you to remember my name and asso-
ciate it with my face?" The tailor said: "That is a very
important part of my business." It was, and it will be
a very important part of the business of the future for
a man not only to remember names and faces, but facts
as they relate to every phase of his business. To develop
a good memory is to overcome indifference, carelessness,
and laxity and to develop to a large degree the qualities
of attention, concentration, alertness, and observation.
It means a big mental asset.
Value of We next come to the development of the
Imagination imagination. Imagination is the inven-
tive, creative, image-making power of
the individual. The young man who cannot look into the
future and create for himself a position of importance
will not be likely ever to have such a position. The
Leadership Through Character Building
31
young man who can see himself, ten or fifteen years
hence, the manager of a great concern with elegant offices
finished in oak or mahogany, with beautiful furniture
and elegant rugs, with a lot of clerks and stenographers
under him, will some day create just such a position for
himself. This is a creative idea, a tremendous spur to
the ambition, a goal to be reached; such an inspiration
thrills its owner and develops within him the conquering
spirit. It grips him, it arouses him, it makes a new man
out of him. Such a man with such a mission pays nò
attention to obstacles, except to use them as stepping
stones to help him reach his goal, which is always in
sight.
Use of
Imagination in
Salesmanship
Here is a simple contrast of the non-
use and use of imagination in Sales-
manship. It was Saturday afternoon
and two boot-blacks were out shining
shoes, the one on the left side of the street and the other
on the right. The one on the left side of the street
used just five words in selling his shoe shine. He said:
"Get your shoes shined here." The one on the right side
of the street used just five words. He said: "Get your
Sunday shine here." But what a difference in the re-
sults. The first boy thought only of shoes that might
or might not need to be shined. His appeal was made
only to men's feet. But today we must appeal to the
brain in order to get results. The second boy appealed to
the imagination, rather than to the man's shoes. "Get
your Sunday shine here." What train of thought did
that start in the mind of the busy business man as he was
hurrying by? This is the train of thought it suggested.
!
32
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Knowledge
Must Result
in Action
"Tomorrow is Sunday. I must go to church tomorrow,
or we are going to have company at dinner, or I will, of
course, have to be dressed up tomorrow, or I need at least
one good shine a week to keep my shoes in good shape."
These were the ideas suggested in the minds of the
different business men and with this result: the boy who
knew how to appeal, consciously or unconsciously, to
the imagination did just double the business of the boy
who simply thought of a man's shoes and not of his head.
But how much does it profit a man if he
knows how to think, remember, and
imagine if he does not know how to use
his information, if he doesn't know how
to express himself, if he doesn't know how to act? Here
are some illustrations which make clear what I mean
by action. A young man came into my office one day
and said he wanted a position as a salesman. I asked
him what experience he had had as a salesman and he
said: "I ain't had none." That is action, negative and
demoralizing action through expression. What did I
judge as to his educational qualifications? I judged he
hadn't any and told him so. "But," said he, "I am a
high school graduate." "Then," said I, "why do you
use the language of the street?" He said he did it
through carelessness. Well, carelessness is our greatest
"business criminal." According to Dun and Bradstreet,
sixty per cent. of all failures in this country are due to
that awful word carelessness. We must learn to be
accurate in our speech, in our figuring, in our bookkeep-
ing, stenography, etc. But first we must be accurate in
our thinking. If we are careless in thought we are care-
less in act, for as a man thinketh so does he act.
Leadership Through Character Building 33
Thought and action are as closely connected as cause
and effect.
Poor
Salesmanship
Again. A very competent young
woman had just finished her book-
keeping course. The president of the
college took her to the head of a concern that wanted a
bookkeeper. He said: "Miss Jones, can you do our
bookkeeping?" Miss Jones said: "I don't know."
What is the use of having trained ability unless we have
learned how to sell our services? This young woman
knew, but she neither had confidence in herself nor knew
how to express herself in such a way as to inspire con-
fidence in her ability sufficiently to sell her services. I
have taught Salesmanship to over five thousand men by
the class and personal method; I have delivered lectures
on Salesmanship to all classes of business men, and I
have found by personal inquiry that lack of confidence
has been the millstone around the neck of nine people out
of every ten.
A Case
of Good
Salesmanship
{
The President of another Business
College told me that one of his stu-
dents, a young woman who had
studied Salesmanship in his school,
sold her services as a teacher for twenty dollars a month
more than she ever received before, and that in the face
of the strongest kind of competition. So we might as
well learn right here at the beginning that it is just as
necessary for us to learn how to sell our services as it is
for us to learn that the philosophy of Salesmanship is the
philosophy of Leadership and the philosophy of Leader-
الله
34
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
ship is the philosophy of Success; we should remember
also that the ability to influence is the secret of success.
Power to Influence
is the Basis of
Leadership
No man
No man can take chances on
being a success today without
studying the philosophy of Lead-
ership and there is little philos-
ophy of Leadership taught anywhere today outside of the
philosophy of Salesmanship. Even the colleges and uni-
versities are not, to any great extent, teaching the phi-
losophy of Leadership. Leadership consists in the
ability to lead and control thought and action. It con-
sists in the ability to influence people to think as we
think, feel as we feel, and act as we would like to have
them act. This definition of Leadership is also a defini-
tion of Salesmanship; it is broad enough to apply to the
individual seeking a position, the man selling goods, the
lawyer before the jury, the governor of a state, or the
president of the United States seeking an election or a
re-election.
Man may be
Master of
Circumstances
The new and inspiring philosophy of
today is making it plain to the human
race as never before in all the history
of the world, that man is not the
slave of his environment and his circumstances; that he
can become master of himself and his circumstances;
that he can control his environment and not have his en-
vironment control him; that he is master and creator of
his own destiny.
Leadership Through Character Building
35
The Philosophy of
the Average Man
Leads to Failure
In analyzing the causes of failure,
I find that they lead right back to
man's thinking. I find that the
philosophy of the average man
is the philosophy of failure and that is the reason he is a
failure. To make a success, his philosophy must be
changed, there must be an educational revolution in his
life. Before I go, farther I want to give you my reason
for saying the philosophy of the average man is the
philosophy of failure. The average man thinks it isn't
necessary for him to develop the study habit; he doesn't
realize that knowledge is power; he doesn't realize that
time is money, in fact he places no definite value on time;
he doesn't realize that health is his greatest asset; he
doesn't realize that whiskey and cigarette smoke dimin-
ish both health and strength; he believes that success
is a matter of pull rather than push, and he doesn't
realize that all pull will ever do for a man is to pull his
character down eventually; he doesn't realize that char-
acter is the greatest asset in the business world, that it
is the corner-stone of all success, and that there can be
no lasting success without it. This is his philosophy, or
part of it, and none of it is original. In fact our average
man is not bothered with originality. This philosophy
he has absorbed from his environment; it is the result
of the impressions-the ideas which have unconsciously
forced themselves into his life through daily contact with
them. In fact this is the philosophy of the average
man's environment. It becomes his philosophy because
he is daily hearing it. He grows up with it on the street
and his only salvation is to grow out of it and grow into
the philosophy of success.
To do this he must study
36
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
!
and absorb the philosophy of character building and the
philosophy of success.
Doctor King
on Character
Possibly the best article ever written
on the subject of Character Building
and Character Analysis was written by
President Henry Churchill King of
Oberlin. The following is a quotation from the article.
Building
Character Building
In the first place, it seems to me, that at the
lower moment when it looks as if everything were going,
it is well for a man to say to himself in all seriousness,
"everything is now at stake; it is fight or die." That
is the situation. A friend of mine, with the marks of
a serious disease upon him, went sometime ago to a dis-
tinguished specialist in that disease and consulted him.
The physician, after carefully going over his case, said
to him:
"I think the disease has not gone so far but that
if you will vigorously follow this regimen which I pre-
scribe for you, you can still pull through."
My friend heard him out as to the regimen that he
proposed and said, "Why, doctor, I would simply die if
I had to live under that regimen."
The doctor somewhat gruffly turned upon him and
said, "Well, die then."
He had just one chance. Let a man say to him-
self, in like manner, in one of those lower moments when
he is likely to be engulfed by temptation, "It is fight or
die."
Leadership Through Character Building 37
Moreover, I think a man ought to ask himself in
these lower moments: "Why, the lower moments?"
And the second suggestion, therefore, that I have to
make is: Keep yourself persistently at your best. You
have no right to have these lower moments continually
breaking in upon your life. Just as in health that is the
secret, so here in character it is the secret. You are to
guard conditions and strive to keep yourself at your
very best. Not tolerable health, but superb health,
what Emerson called "plus health" must be the aim. I
know no way in the matter of bodily health except simply
to say this: I will carefully, conscientiously observe the
conditions that will keep me at my best. In the same
way, no man can be certain of character who is willing
barely to keep the breath of moral and spiritual life in
him, and not aiming persistently at the very best of
which he is capable, and therefore conscientiously ob-
serving the conditions that will keep him at his best. :
It is the subtle, gradual deterioration which we are to
fear as death.
In the third place, we are to consider the conditions
bodily, mental, and of association.
1. And, first, the bodily conditions. I suppose
there is hardly a clearer lesson in all modern philosophy
than the unity of man-mind and body. You may like
it or you may not like it; it makes no difference. You
are not now a disembodied spirit whatever you may be
hereafter; you are in the body; you have to get on with
your body, if you expect to make such achievements as
you ought to make in your moral and spiritual life. And
those conditions are not far off. Let no man think that
they are unimportant. The problem of character, what
38
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
is it? The problem of character is the problem ulti-
mately of self-control.
That which distinguishes you from the animal be-
low you, and that which distinguishes you as a sane man
from the insane man, is to no small degree this power of
self-control. The animal. James says, has a "hair-trigger
constitution." What does he mean by that? He means
simply that the animal, having an impulse, must yield
to it, but as a human being you can hold yourself in
check, and not yield to impulse, through attending to
some other consideration.
Self-control, I say, is the root virtue of all virtues.
It is the very center of character. But the center of
self-control, of course, is will. And the center of will,
what is that? Attention. For if this temptation which
now besets you is not to sweep you off your feet, what
has got to be done? You must be able in the presence
of the temptation to hold your attention fixed upon
those higher considerations that ought to prevail, but
seem now in danger of not prevailing; and if you can
do that you are safe; and if you cannot do it you are
lost.
The center of character is self-control. The center
of self-control is will. The center of will is attention.
Now what has all this to do with the body? Just this.
The greatest cause of fatigue is attention; that is what
tires more than anything else. It takes nervous energy
to attend; and the supreme condition, therefore, of power
of attention, so far as the body is concerned, is surplus
nervous energy. That is the whole problem. Charac-
ter, self-control, will, attention-its supreme physical con-
dition, surplus nervous energy. You have no right then
Leadership Through Character Building
39
as a man who means to fight an honest fight to disre-
gard the conditions through which you are to get surplus
nervous energy. That means that you are going to see
to it that you get sleep enough, to see that you get exer-
cise enough, to see that you attend to all these condi-
tions that have to do with surplus nervous energy; es-
pecially that you will avoid every species of excess, par-
ticularly emotional excess; that you will thus honestly do
what you can to keep in yourself surplus nervous energy.
Then you have a margin of capital, with power to attend,
with power to will-therefore of self-control. The dan-
ger of fatigue, then, is manifest. The record of Saturday
nights in this world of ours is a tragic record. The
problem of Saturday nights is already a national problem
in Germany because that is the time when men are run
down, at their worst physically, and when, therefore,
they are exposed to every temptation.
Now, one cannot always control the conditions.
There will be times, when, in spite of all precautions, a
man will find himself necessarily and rightly fatigued.
Bear in mind that at that time you are to be especially
on your guard against sudden onsets of temptation.
There is nothing clearer in modern psychology than that
the weakest in us bodily, mentally, morally, tends to
come out in these moments of fatigue; and, therefore,
at these moments we are to guard ourselves with special
care against sudden temptation. Sometimes you get up
in the morning with a consciousness that you are not
at your best, that you are on a low physical plane, that it
is going to be hard for you to be what you ought to be
that day. That is the day when you can know you have
1
40
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
a fight on hand... You may as well prepare for it from
the beginning and watch it to the end.
2. In the second place, there are the mental con-
ditions. For it is not only true that we are one, body
and mind, but it is true that this mind of ours is, in a
wonderful degree, one; and the unity of the mind makes
it imperative that there should be nothing lacking at any
single point. We do not know when we are sapping the
foundations. Let me take simply two or three illustra
tions of the need of heeding the unity of our mind, where
many might be taken.
! ¶And first, you cannot play with your memories and
be what you ought to be as moral men. There are men,
for example, who like, so well to tell a good story that
it grows continually on their hands, and they simply get
where they cannot tell the truth if they want to. You
know what happens under such circumstances. These
men cannot trust their memory. Now, the power of
holding yourself in the presence of temptation often de-
pends upon this; that you are able to recall vividly and
with scrupulous accuracy the exact results of your
previous experience; and if you have played fast and
loose with your memory, it will prove false in your hour
of peril.
¶And note this other danger-vagueness of thought.
If you allow yourself to remain in this condition, you
are not simply interfering with your intellectual growth;
you are doing something to sap the foundation of your
moral life, for the moral life is made of a series of voli-
tions that involve the thought; vague promises, vague
aspirations, do not go well with that direct kind of defi-
nite willing that belongs to character.
•
Leadership Through Character Building 41
Especially in this matter of mental condition, do
not forget the necessity of power of attention, and re-
member that anything you do at any time really to
strengthen your power of concentrated attention is so
much added to your mental and moral capital, and any-
thing you do at any time to break down your power of
attention is so much further preparation for disaster.
Every time you hold yourself rigorously to the task that
is appointed to you for the time, definitely attend to it
and carry it through with concentrated attention, you
are adding to your mental power. The human spirit is
nor a bundle, but an organic unity, and you cannot break
down the mental and not affect the moral.
3. Third, we are to consider the conditions of
association. Here I touch upon what is really the su-
preme condition of all conditions, and to which, here, I
can only give a word. We know but one absolutely
certain way to make character, and that is through a sur-
rendering persistent association with those who have
such a character as we seek. That is the only way.
Let me go on to say in the next place, remember
that self-control, which is at the very center of charac-
ter, in spite of its name, is always positive, never nega-
tive. I think many men have made disastrous mistakes
at this point.
1. That means, first, on account of your relation
to the body that you are to seek positive help from the
body. I think Browning has that in mind in the Rabbi
Ben Ezra when he says:
"To men propose this test:
Thy body at its best,
How far can that project thy soul
On its lone way?"
12
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
I do not think that that is a skeptical, cynical ques-
tion, but I think it is a challenge, "a God-like challenge
in the night to our too reluctant wills." Any man who
means to be the man he can be in character, must say,
"I am going to get positive help out of this body of
mine."
And if that is to be true, he must make his body the
best instrument that he can make it for the spirit-the
very best medium for the spirit to work through. I
suppose that it ought to be true that a series of photo-
graphs of a man taken from year to year through his life
ought to show that the spirit is increasingly dominating
the body, and that the light of the spirit, yea, of the
Spirit of God, is increasingly shining out through the
face, and bearing, and mien.
The man who intends to get the most help from his
body, will, besides, make his body the very best founda-
tion that he knows how to make it for the varied de-
mands of life, broadly laid, deeply laid, and well laid.
¶He will further see to it that his bodily exercise is
a direct aid, as it may be, to intellectual and will training.
For all the higher forms of bodily exercise, Romanes
tells us, are exercises even more of the higher brain
center than of the muscles. Make your body help your
soul; make your body project your soul on its lone way.
One can sit down passively before nature and regard it
as a limitation if he will; or he can say, by the study of
the laws of nature, "I will learn its secrets and I will
make nature serve me." And one can do just that with
reference to his body.
2. Moreover, if self-control is to be positive, one
must remember that control of the emotions is always
Leadership Through Character Building 43
indirect. You cannot directly determine whether you
shall feel or not. Emotion spontaneously arises in the
presence of its object. That you cannot help; but you
can direct your attention to another object. The small
boy who is looking through the fence at a patch of
watermelons that is not his, cannot prevent his mouth
from watering, but he can run. And you cannot keep
your emotions from arising in attention to the exciting
object, but you can think of something else. You are
not clay in the hands of your circumstances. You are
endowed with that which makes you akin to God in
His creative power-a will. You can use that will in
attending to something other than this object which now
works upon your emotions. We are often told today
that our environment makes us. That is a dangerous
half truth. The whole truth is this: Not your environ-
ment makes you, but that part of your environment to
which you attend makes you. The same environment
means different things to different men. Why? Be-
cause different men are attending to different things in
it. Let ten men travel over exactly the same route to
Europe; do they come back with the same things? By
no means. Each man has seen and gotten what he at-
tended to.
¶You are, then, to control your emotions indirectly
through attention to some other object. You may also
control your emotions by acting in the line of those
emotions that you think you ought to have. At a given
time, for example, a man may be feeling far from cheer-
ful and without courage. This at least, he can do; he
can take a good long breath, and stiffen up his back-
bone, and put on the micn of cheer and courage and so
1
44
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency ·
4.
doing, he is far more apt to become more cheerful and
courageous. There are two sorts of selves in you, a
lower and a higher. You can be true to your higher
self, or you can be true to your lower self. But you are
bound to be true and loyal to your higher self, to the
very highest vision that is given you. And one of the
sensible, helpful ways to get the emotions you think you
ought to have is to act in the line of them. It is to no
man's credit to act as badly as he feels. He is rather
bound often to act much better than he feels and so
acting, he will be helped to better feeling.
3. In the third place, positive self-control means
that you are to attend, as I have already implied, to
something else than the temptation which threatens to
engulf you, to replace that tempting thought with some
other. Do not merely fight a thought. You cannot get
rid of a thought-this envious, foul, hateful idea that is
in your mind-by simply saying this, you are persist-
ently keeping it in mind, you are thinking of it. You
can get rid of it in just one way: by thinking of some-
thing else. You must take the positive way out. The
law is simply this-it is a very simple law: You cannot
have an empty mind, and you cannot think of two things
with concentrated attention at the same time.
As you
try to follow this suggestion, it may seem to you that you
think of two things at the same time; you are thinking
first of one thing, then of another-letting the thought
you ought to hold be broken in on continually by the
other thought. Only keep your attention steadily fixed
upon the consideration that ought to hold, and it will
hold you.
4. And in the fourth place, positive self-control
Leadership Through Character Building
45
means that we are to heed that principle which the psy-
chologists call the impulsiveness of consciousness; that
is, that every thought, by its very presence in the mind.
tends to pass into act, and will do so, if it is not hindered
by the presence of some other thought leading in some
other direction. That principle is of very great im-
portance in all our moral and spiritual life. If you are
sitting in the parlor of a friend, while you are waiting
for him, and there is an open letter on the table, and you
are not thinking particularly of what you are doing, but
have your eyes on the letter, before you know it you will
likely put out your hand and take it up and begin to read
it, until you recall yourself with a start. The single
idea, unchecked for the moment by any other, was pres-
ent in the mind; it passed into action almost in spite of
you. The teaching of modern psychology, then, is that
a thought in your mind will pass into act unless checked
by some other thought; and for our moral life this is
strenuous counsel to withstand beginnings.
5. And positive self-control will mean, further,
that you are to resist the evil with the good; that you
are not simply to stop doing bad things because they are
bad, but you are to get into the attitude that Spinoza calls
the attitude of freeman and have done with the bad be-
cause you have something a great deal better to do.
Change your negatives into opposite positives I have
little hope for a man who goes through his life saying,
"What is the harm?" What kind of attainment can a
man make in his moral life if his one great question is,
"What is the harm?" and he does not replace the ques-
tion with this other, "What is the very best thing that
:
*
46
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
is now open for me?" For next to bad, the good is the
worst enemy of the best.
V. In the next place, remember that, body and
mind, you are made for action. The body, one of our
psychologists tells us, is only a machine for converting
stimuli, coming into the brain by the afferent nerves,
into reactions, going out by the efferent nerves. And
the principle of the impulsiveness of consciousness shows
with equal clearness that in mind, too, we are made for
action. Every idea tends to pass into action. We are
made, then, for action. This is the real justification of
the far slower methods of the laboratory and seminar
in modern education. One must do, to know. It is not
enough passively to receive an idea; if it is really to be
yours, you must express it in some way, you must put it
into act. Your idea or ideal is not fully yours until you
have expressed it. The resulting law for character is
clear and unmistakable. That which is not expressed
dies. If you would kill an idea, deny it absolutely all ex-
pression; it will die. On the other hand, if you have an
idea that you wish to live, to be a reality, you must ex-
press it. You may not rest content with fine thoughts,
and fancies, and sentiments, and feelings, and aspira-
tions. If you are not willing to become mere senti-
mentalists, you must put them into act. Some of us
have been in the nabit of speaking of the danger from
the theater and from novel reading in arousing emo-
tions and sentiments that we simply allow idly to be dissi-
pated. We need to remind ourselves that the same law
holds for emotion and sentiment, however aroused,
whether by theater, or novel, or concert, or lecture, or
sermon. If you have been stirred to moral feelings in
Leadership Through Character Building
47
any way, as you prize your moral life, see to it that your
feeling gets some real and tangible expression; put it
into act.
Give the best persistently a chance at you. The
only effective road to character we know is through per-
sonal association with the best. Fill your time with
positive service. Do not drift. Have definite things on
hand to do.
Suggestive Written Exercises and
Questions
Write an essay of one hundred words, showing
why some men fail in business and others succeed.
The following questions are suggestive:
What has caused the great business changes during
the last decade?
Why are business men compelled to study the
Science of Business, Salesmanship, and Advertising
today?
What are the four great causes of failure?
Why isn't the average man a better thinker?
How can one learn to talk better?
Can a man be a successful business letter writer
or "ad" writer without training?
tion?
How can a man train his memory and his imagina-
Why is the philosophy of the average man the
philosophy of failure?
¶Define Salesmanship.
Why is man the creator of his own destiny?
48
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Note to page 28: This problem has caused much dis-
cussion. The trouble comes from the fact that some
accountants figure profit as a percentage of the cost and
others as a percentage of the selling price. Thomas A.
Fernley in a little pamphlet entitled "The Right Way to
Figure Profits," discusses this subject from the stand-
point of those who believe that profits should be calcu-
lated on the selling price. Dr. Harry M. Rowe, in the
November 1913 issue of "The Budget," gives a thorough
discussion from the other standpoint. Practically all
text books on 'Arithmetic insist that percentages of
profit must be calculated on the cost. There is only one
text book we have seen which takes the other view, and
that is Bookman's Arithmetic, published by the Ameri-
can Book Company. We give solutions of this problem
based on each of three different theories.
T1. Article costs $1.00. Expense of handling,
22%; profit required, 10%; 22%+10%-32%. 32%
of $1.00=324.. $1.00+-324-$1.32, selling price.
12. Article costs $1.00. Expense of handling,
22%. 22% of $1.00-22¢-expense of handling. $1.00
+22¢=$1.22—gross cost. 10% of $1.22 12.2¢-10%
profit on gross cost. $1.22+12.2¢-$1.342 or selling
price. Practically the goods would be marked $1.35 by
this plan.
13. Article costs $1.00. Expense of handling, 22%
of retail price; required profit 10% of retail price.
22%+10%=32% per cent. of retail price required to
cover expense of handling and profit. 100%-32%-
68% per cent. of retail price represented by cost. That
is, $1.00-68% of selling price. Therefore $1.00÷.68
Leadership Through Character Building
49
will be the proper selling price. $1.00.68-$1.47, the
price at which the goods should be marked.
Proof of third solution. Marked price $1.47.
10% of $1.47-14.7¢ profit. 22% of $1.47-32.3¢ ex-
pense of handling. 14.7¢+32.34-47¢. $1.47-47-
$1.00.
¶The following tables, reprinted by permission from
"Price Maintenance" by Thomas A. Fernley, are given
TABLE FOR FINDING THE SELLING PRICE OF ANY ARTICLE

COST
TO DO
BUSINESS
2
3
4
CA
NET PER CENT PROFIT DESIRED
ས་
5
6
7
en
89
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 || 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 50
15% 84 83 82 81 80 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 70 65 60 55 50 45 35
16% 83 82 81 80 79 || 78 | 77 || 76 | 75 | 74 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 69 | 64 | 59 | 54 | 49|44|34
17% 82 81 80 79 | 78 | 77 | 76 | 75 | 74 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 63 | 58 | 53 | 48 | 43 | 33
81 80 79
18%
19%
20%
80 79 78
78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 70 69 68 67 62 57 52 47 42 32
77 | 76 | 75 || 74 73 72 71 70 69 68 67 6661 56 51 46 41 31
79|78 77 76
75 74 | 73 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 69 68 67 66 | 65 | 60 | 55 | 50 | 45 | 40 | 30
21% 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 || 64 | 59|54|49 | 44 | 39 || 29
22% 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 70 69 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 || 64 | 63 | 58 | 53 | 48 | 43 | 38 || 28
67 66 65 64
23% 76 75 74 73 | 72 | 71 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 64 | 63 | 62 | 57 | 52 | 47 | 42 | 37 | 27
24% 75 74 73 72 | 71 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 64 | 63 | 62 | 61 |56 | 51 | 46 | 41 |36|| 26
25% 74 73 72 71 | 70 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 66 | 65 | 64 | 63 | 62 | 61 | 60 | 55 | 50 | 45 | 40 | 35 | 25
RULE-Divide the cost (invoice price with freight added) by the figure in the
column of "net rate per cent profit desired" on the line with per cent it costs you
to do business.
EXAMPLE
If a wagon costs...
Freight...
$60.00
1.20
$61.20
You desire to make a net profit of.
It costs you to do business.
5 per cent.
.19 per cent.
Take the figures in column 5 on line with 19 which is 76.
76/61.2000 $80.52-the
60 8
selling price
400
380
200
152
The percentage of cost of doing business and profit are figured on selling price.
COURTESY Of cost EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION
50
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
TABLE FOR FIGURING NET PROFITS

% 10% 11% 12% 13% 14% 15% 16% 17% 18% 19% 20% 21% 22% 23% 24% 25%
25 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
2 1
·00
1 Loss 2 Loss 3 Loss 4 Loss 5 Loss
|
33|| 15 14 13 12
11 10. 9 8
་་
7
6
5
4 3 2
-
』
00
40
18 17
16
15
30
| 144 | 13; | 12; | 114 | 10;
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15
23|| 22|| 211| | 19¦| |
92 8/9/ 7: 61 5; 4;
3;
14}| 13
| 12 | 11 | 10}
12} 11}
91 81
60
27|| 26|| 25 | 24|| 23 | 22; | 21¦| 20¦ | 19;| 18;| 17
| 16|| 15; 14;
75
100
32; 31; 30; | 29; | 28; | 27; 26; 25; 24; 23; 22; 21; 20; 19; 18; 17;
40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25
કન
13;
12;
If your cost of doing business figured on sales is represented by
one of the percentages in the top row and you mark your goods at
one of the percentages in the row to the extreme left in addition to
the delivered cost, your net percentage of profit is represented by
the figure at the junction of the two columns.
Explanation-If your cost of doing business is 15 per cent
of your gross sales and you mark a line at 25 per cent above cost,
your net profit is 5 per cent on sales-as shown in the diagram. If
your cost of doing business is 18 per cent and you mark a line at
60 per cent above cost, your net profit is 19½ per cent on sales.
COUR
COURTESY OF BUTLER BROS.
as a quick and convenient method of figuring the correct
selling price or of determining just what the actual profits
are when the selling price has been calculated in the old
way.
Summary to Chapter II
1. The rapid transition taking place in the business
world due to the application of psychology to business
methods demands a leadership that is based on effi-
ciency and character.
2.
The inefficiency of the business methods of
Leadership Through Character Building
51
the past is indicated by the inadequate usage of brain
power and the meager earnings of the average man.
3. Efficiency essential to leadership may be se-
cured by correct thinking, retentive memory, creative
imagination, and decisive action.
4. Leadership consists in the ability to lead and
control thoughts and actions, to influence people to think
as we think, feel as we feel, and to act as we would have
them act.
5. Character is a second important factor in
leadership and is based or self-control, will power, and
the ability persistently to attend to right things.
6. Physical and mental exhaustion invites tempta-
tion and irresolution and must be avoided by the develop-
ment of the physical and mental strength that keeps one
at his best in the midst of long continued strain.
C
7. Surplus physical energy is secured by regular
and proper habits of sleep and exercise and by the avoid-
ance of every species of excess, either of desire or
emotion.
48. Mental vigor and unity are achieved by a vivid
and scrupulous accuracy of memory, by definiteness of
thought, and by the power of concentrated attention.
9. Right associations are supremely essential to
the formation of right character.
10. Character that is positive, creative and active
produces effective leadership.
CHAPTER III
Personality and How to Develop It
"The greatest and most vital power in influencing
life is personality. It is greater than law, instruction, or
example."-Lyman Abbott.
Defined
Personality For a good many years we have heard
the subject of personality more or less
discussed, but as far as I know no one
has attempted to tell us what personality really is.
Neither has any one told us clearly how to develop it.
This, of course, is hard to do in the absence of a defini-
tion; and since there is no definition for personality, at
least none that is adequate, I shall have to coin one. The
following definition, of course, refers to a positive per-
sonality. Personality is that magnetic outward ex-
pression of the inner life, which radiates courage, cour-
tesy, and kindness. It attracts people by producing a
pleasing effect, and is the product of the development of
the positive qualities; it makes a man a leader in the
affairs of life instead of a follower.
Meaning of
Positive
Qualities
This definition will need to be defined in
order to give an intelligent conception of
what I mean by the "Positive Qualities."
If it is hard to give a definition which
adequately defines what personality really is, it is not so
52
Personality and How to Develop It
53
hard to tell what the qualities are which are back of
personality and which produce it. We can very well say
that personality represents the flower of manhood and
womanhood in full bloom.
One Student's I was attempting to engage the serv
Weakness ices of a Northwestern University
student to sell goods during his sum-
mer vacation, when he said he did not feel competent to
do it. I immediately referred to his classmate, Mr. L-,
who made a great success the previous summer. He
said: "Oh, yes, that is all right for Mr. L. He has a
good personality; he could succeed all right, but I
couldn't. I have no personality." I asked him to tell
me what he really meant by personality. I asked him
to define it. He said he did not know exactly, that he
could not define it. I could not define it, either.
The Key to
the Problem
<
I began immediately to study and ex-
periment on the subject. The next Sun-
day after the above discussion I heard
Dr. Frank W. Gunsaulus preach. I said to myself, "He
has a good personality." During the same week I heard
Mr. Bryan lecture, and I said, "He has a most striking
personality." Well, I asked myself the question again
as I looked at Mr. Bryan, "What is personality?" And
these thoughts came to my mind: "He is kind, coura-
geous, diplomatic, aggressive, honest, enthusiastic, and he
seems to possess an unconquerable will." I immediately
got the key which offered the solution to my perplexing
problem. These qualities which I name are positive
qualities. Therefore, personality is produced by de-
·54
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
veloping the positive qualities and eliminating the nega-
tive qualities. Each positive quality has for its opposite
a negative quality, as light-darkness; heat-cold; good-
bad; honesty-dishonesty; courage-fear, etc.
Qualities that
Determine
Personality
Here is a chart giving a list of positive
and negative qualities placed under
separate headings. It is rather hard
to designate some of these qualities as
either mental or spiritual; in fact, some of them very
properly come under both heads. The positive qualities
here designated should be carefully studied and devel-
oped, while their opposites, the negative qualities, should
and must be weeded out. They are the murderous
leeches that are sucking our very life blood, and they
must be driven out of our lives with the same vigilance
that a foreign army is driven from our shores. They
are our enemies and they will grip us with the vengeance
of a pestilence.
Positive Qualities
optimism
agreeableness
tact
kindness
courtesy
enthusiasm
ambition
courage
initiative
Mind
Negative Qualities
pessimism
disagreeableness
indiscretion
harshness
discourtesy
indifference
satisfaction
cowardice
inaction
Personality and How to Develop It
55
the conquering spirit
aimlessness
confidence
fear
diplomacy
impudence
sincerity
insincerity
purpose
irresolution
perseverance
indecision
concentration
vacillation
knowledge
work
patience
decision
analysis
judgment
originality
thrift, saving
reason
wisdom
system
fair mindedness
unselfishness
openmindedness
observation
ignorance
laziness
impatience
indecision
confusion
indiscrimination
dullness
extravagance
imbecility
foolishness
carelessness
suspicion
selfishness
egotism
heedlessness
Soul
Positive Qualities
courage
desire
faith
confidence
:
Negative Qualities
fear
self-satisfaction
doubt
instability
یم
56/
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
honesty
truth
temperance
morality
unselfishness
dishonesty
falsehood
intemperance
immorality
selfishness
}
love
hate
patriotism
treason
religion
atheism
charity
malice
joy
sorrow
sympathy
incompassion
hope
despair
beauty
ugliness
loyalty
disloyalty
intuition
stupidity
cheerfulness
gloominess
trust
Positive Qualities
activity
gracefulness
physical courage
health
The Unity
of Man
Body
suspicion
Negative Qualities
indolence
awkwardness
physical fear
sickness
The physical, mental, and moral qualities
in man are so closely related that an injury
to one affects thern all; while if one is
helped, all are in some manner helped.
Personality and How to Develop It
57
The Struggle
Each normal individual when born
Between Positive into the world possesses these
and Negative negative and positive qualities, al-
though dormant, of course. The
battle for supremacy is a battle between these two forces.
The negative qualities are developed in accordance with
a definite and absolute law. Failure is the inevitable re-
sult of their development. The positive qualities are also
developed in accordance with a law which is just as
definite and just as absolute. The development of these
qualities means success and a well-rounded life. A man
fails or succeeds in life as the negative or positive qual-
ities are in the ascendency. It is, to begin with, simply
a matter of thinking. The Bible says, "As he thinketh
in his heart, so is he." The psychologist says, “Every
idea which enters into the mind immediately tends to
express itself in action." In the beginning, personality
is simply a matter of choice and thinking. If a man
thinks pessimistic thoughts, nothing in the world can
keep him from being a pessimist; and the world is not
very kind to pessimists. If one never permits pessimism
to enter his mind, but always thinks optimistic thoughts,
no fate can make him anything but an optimist. If he
thinks disagreeable thoughts, he will have disagreeable
people to deal with, and he will be disagreeable. “Cour-
age is the chief attribute of manliness," says Webster,
while fear and other negative thoughts paralyze useful-
ness.
Function of
Will Power
I state an absolute fact when I
say that
every individual possesses all the positive
qualities, although some of them may be
in embryo. It is possible so to develop all these qualities
58
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
as to drive out the negative qualities and build up a
splendid positive personality. This ought to encourage
us all, ought it not? I believe it possible in the course
of a few years' time practically to revolutionize the
whole personality. This can be done only by a course
of positive thinking and acting. It takes will-power, but
I believe will-power is a magic wonder worker. As
will-power, to my mind, is the greatest word in the
English language, so in the human life, will-power is
the greatest quality. Will-power is the engineer. We
sink or swim, survive or perish, just in accordance with
his wishes. Let us remember that thoughts are power-
ful. If we put a drop of red or black ink into a bottle
of water, it colors the water. Thought has a transform-
ing effect upon the individual. The nerves, brain cells,
and, in fact, the body, change and are continually chang-
ing at the dictation of thought. If you are angry you
lose appetite. You secrete a poison which takes the
body several hours to eliminate. Hate actually kills.
In their acute stages love, fear, and bad news are also
paralyzing to the digestion. The hair turns gray in re-
sponse to thought. Thought is the most powerful agent
known to man. It cures or it sickens. It makes man
a servant or it makes him master.
Live the
Positive
Qualities
If you would have a magnificent person-
ality, begin to live the positive qualities.
Say, "I can, I will, and I must," where
previously you said "I can't." Do that and
at the end of the year you will be doing things with ease
which it was absolutely impossible for you to do at the
beginning of the year. Remember that as surely as the
Personality and How to Develop It
59
sun shines you possess these positive qualities, although
they may be covered up and almost hidden by the moun-
tains of negative thoughts which have always been per-
mitted to have the ascendency. If you have ever seen
the gold mines in Colorado or California you will know
what I mean. Away beneath the granite rocks and mud
and gravel, the prospector finds the gold sparkling and
brilliant, and only waiting for a chance to glitter in the
sunshine. It was there all the time, but it was so covered
up that it wasn't seen. My friend, go prospecting for
the nuggets of gold which lie hidden in your own life,
only waiting to be liberated from the weight of melan-
choly boulders which have been permitted to accumulate.
It takes desire, it takes faith, it takes confidence to elimi-
nate the debris, but it can be done. The word "im-
possible” does not belong to the man of positive person-
ality. He has forced it, with every other negative qual- .
ity, to leave for parts unknown. He has eliminated the
negative qualities by substituting the better qualities.
The way to banish the negative qualities is not to think
of them at all. Do all your thinking about the positive
qualities, and the negative qualities will die a natural
death. I have given you the formula. I have told you
how it is done. The law which leads to the development
of personality is just as sure and certain as the law of
gravitation.
Develop the
Positive
Do you want to have this personality?
If you do, begin at once to develop the
positive habit. Notice these two words,
When a habit has been
Habit
positive habit.
formed it is hard to change it.
Habit is to life what
i
60
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
rails are to the railroad train. The train runs where it
has run before. Thoughts become actions, actions be-
come habits, and habits grow into character and charac-
ter is immortal. It is easy for the honest man to be
honest. It is easy for the man who is habitually truth-
ful to tell the truth. It is easy for the man who works
hard to keep on working. It is easy for the man who
gets up at six every morning to continue to get up at that
hour. It is easy for the moral man to live a moral life.
It is easy for the man who thinks and studies to keep on
thinking and studying. These things may all be hard
at first, but when the habit is formed, it is just as hard
to do otherwise. I say begin now, today, to get the habit.
Personality
the Result of
Right Thinking
Let me repeat, personality is the re-
sult of right thinking. It is not pro-
duced by following the line of least
resistance. It is produced by doing
the thing that ought to be done when it ought to be done,
whether we like it or not. Doing what most people
think cannot be done is not only the glory of living, but
is the stuff out of which personality is molded.
The Law
of Growth
Do you desire a forceful, winning per-
sonality? Do you wish to stand for
something positive, masterful, Godlike?
Do you wish to make of yourself everything which God
intended you should be? The world wants men-great
men, manly men, men in whom the fire of a great life,
burns brightly. Do you want to be the champion of
some great cause? Do you want to be a George Wash-
ington or an Abraham Lincoln to your generation? If
Personality and How to Develop It
61
you do, dare to develop your personality to its highest
efficiency. The great business men of our generation,
the men who have done things, have been men of vital,
vigorous, and aggressive personality. They have been
men who possessed the conquering spirit. They had
faith in the power of their personalities. They never
stopped at obstacles. They wrestled with the lion of op-
position and forced a victory. They developed strong,
courageous personalities, because they dared attempt to
do whatever they believed should be done. Have you
the courage to build such a personality? Most assuredly
you have, although you may not believe it. You are a
man made in the image of the Almighty. You owe it
to your fellows to begin today. It will take time, but
you have the time on your hands anyway. When nature
wants a squash, it produces it in a season. When it
wants an oak it asks for time-it wants a century. You
are not a squash, you are an oak.
The Three-Fold
Nature of Man
In order that we may better under-
stand just how the positive qualities
are developed and understand the
relation of their development to success in salesmanship,
or business in general, we must analyze man. We must
pick him to pieces, so to speak, and find out what rela-
tion his mind bears to his body, and vice versa. Man,
we all know, possesses a three-fold nature which is di-
vided into the following parts: the physical, the mental,
and the spiritual. These three natures, while separate
in one sense, bear a direct relation to one another. Let
us consider the first, the physical nature. Of course,
we have nothing to do here with the different cells,
62
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
tissues, bones, etc., but we are directly interested in
health. Health is the basis of all success in life, and es-
pecially in salesmanship, as the salesman requires a tre-
mendous amount of energy.
Health Health is that normal condition of the three-
Defined fold man which enables the physical organs
to perform their functions correctly and con-
tribute to the highest development of the positive quali-
ties, physical, mental, and moral. There is such a thing
as physical health, mental health, and spiritual health.
The salesman whose arguments are not strong, forceful,
energetic, and backed up by a magnetic, healthy body
filled with pure red blood, whose functions are performed
normally, is greatly handicapped.
Importance of But speaking more definitely, what do
Self-Study we mean by "three-fold man,"-by
so minutely analyzing the individual?
We do it in order that we may the more rationally and
carefully study ourselves. We desire to know where
our weak points are, and how to eliminate them. We
also wish to know just what our strong points are, and
how to strengthen them. We must admit we all have
our weak points as well as strong ones. The difference
between the successful and unsuccessful man lies in the
fact that the successful man has more of the positive
qualities developed than his less fortunate neighbor.
The positive qualities are a man's capital, his assets.
They are salable in any market where brains are needed.
The more they are developed, the higher the price they
command
Personality and How to Develop It
63
Elimination
by Substitution
I have known salesmen who would
over-eat and over-drink and over-
sleep, who would hardly ever study
anything relating to their business. They would talk
hard luck, and the blues, and poor territory, etc., etc.
The negative qualities were given the ascendency so long
that positive, forceful, energetic, and enthusiastic man-
hood was never permitted to have the ascendency. We
can revolutionize our lives and if we are ever going to
make the success of which we are capable, we must begin
work today, now, to stamp the negative qualities out of
our lives and develop the positive ones. This must be
done at any cost of work, determination, or sacrifice.
I believe in elimination by substitution. I believe in
eliminating the negative qualities by substituting and
using the positive ones. I believe in driving bad
thoughts out of the mind by immediately thinking of
something good. "But what has the mind to do with all
this?" you ask. I spoke of the mental nature and the
spiritual nature. You thoroughly understand what I
mean by mental nature, but you may not all exactly agree
with my third division. So for convenience, I shall
use the psychologist's terms, and instead of spiritual
nature, I shall use the term subjective mind.
Man's Two The human mind is divided into two parts
Minds
as follows: the objective mind, and the
subjective mind. The objective mind is
the seat of reason, of judgment, of logical thinking, and
of the five senses.
64
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
:
Functions of
the Subjective
Mind
The subjective mind is the habitation
of memory. It is the seat of the
emotions, love, patriotism, religion,
and some of the positive qualities
which mean most in salesmanship-qualities which a
salesman should thoroughly understand and must de-
velop. The power and secret of influencing are largely
the result of the development of these subjective posi-
tive qualities. There is a peculiar relation existing be-
tween these dual minds. The objective mind makes sug-
gestions to the subjective mind. The subjective mind
accepts and believes the suggestions and performs its
functions accordingly. "The subjective mind is con-
stantly amenable to control by the power of suggestion,"
says Dr. Hudson.
Importance
To thoroughly understand this law of
of Suggestion suggestion in its relation to business
and its power in influencing people, is
to increase one's earning capacity and ability by leaps
and bounds. What do we mean when we say that the
subjective mind controls the functions and sensations of
the body? Scientists tell us that anger, jealousy, or
hatred, which are distinctive negative qualities, secrete a
poison in the system which it takes several hours to elimi-
nate, besides leaving an indelible impression upon the in-
dividual. If you are distressed, you refuse to eat, you
k your appetite. If you get bad news after dinner,
ус food refuses to digest. Your emotions are affected,
your subjective mind has taken control of your func-
tions. Let me say in this connection that every thought
which is permitted to find its resting place in the mind,
Personality and How to Develop It
65
L
the objective mind, is communicated to the subjective
mind, and, as the subjective mind governs the functions
and sensations of the body, our every thought, good or
bad, optimistic or pessimistic, is always at work, building
up or tearing down body, nerve, and mind.
Physiological
Effects of
Suggestion
Doesn't this law of physiological effect
mean everything to us? When we get
blue, that very fact is communicated
from our objective to our subjective
mind, and from there to our body, where it immediately
begins to secrete the poison which does its deadly work
on our whole life. Didn't the ancient writer arrive at a
great scientific truth when he said, "As a man thinketh,
so is he?" In all reason, then, ought we not to begin to
think right? It follows that if we think right we shall
act right and our success will be assured providing we
exercise our will power. Knowledge is power. Defi-
nite knowledge of yourself and your business is the cen-
tral force in the development of an effective and power-
ful personality. As a matter of fact, many of the other
elements of success have their rise in this one. The
salesman who knows his business from A to Z is confi-
ient, courageous, and generally irresistible. He not only
hinks, but he knows, that he has something it would pay
the customer to buy. He has this knowledge fortified
›y a multitude of reasons which he can talk fluently,
ogically, and with the fire and enthusiasm of a “natura beo
porn orator." The consciousness of this knowled
>anishes hesitation, gives him self-possession, an easÿ
earing, and a conquering spirit. He is saturated with
onclusive evidence. He has a splendid story. He is
66
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
1
overflowing with inspiration and enthusiasm because he
knows he can tell it well. Such a man with such a per-
sonality can approach the railroad magnate as easily as
the clerk. It is simply a matter of choice, bull-dog de-
termination, and will power.
Man's
Ignorance
of Himself
}
If I were to ask a man how old he is he
could instantly tell me. If I were to ask
him where he lives he could tell me that.
If I were to ask him what nationality he
is he could inform me. If I were to ask him what his
business is he could tell me that. But if I were to ask
him to write out an analysis of his own self, tell me
about his personality, describe his mind and soul facul-
ties, I would certainly not get a very satisfactory answer.
The thing men know least about in this world is their
own individual selves, and that is what they should know
most about. The average man hasn't confidence in him-
self because he isn't acquainted with himself. He has
never analyzed himself. He knows practically nothing
about his own capacity, about his own mental and spirit-
ual faculties,
Necessity for
Self-Study
Men have learned to use the micro-
scope to study plant and insect life.
They have learned to use the telescope
to study the stars. Miners have learned to recognize
nuggets of gold in the rough. Geologists have so studied
the stones of the earth that they can easily recognize a
fortune in a few rough looking uncut diamonds. But
scientists have not yet invented a microscope or a tele-
scope that will turn the searchlight upon their own minds
Personality and How to Develop It
67
and search out the unknown continent within. It is
amazing the amount of dormant power that is wrapped
up, unused, in the 'average man's life, that he knows
nothing about. The greatest discovery the average man
makes is not through the microscope or the telescope, or
in the gold mines or the diamond beds, but in himself.
Salesmanship We are teaching Salesmanship but that
Only one is only one phase of the work we are
Phase
doing. The greatest work we are do-
ing is helping you to discover yourself.
We help you to find yourself by showing you how to
analyze yourself, how to discover your own faculties, and
then how to develop them. Our aim is to put you on
the right track. Then progress is practically assured.
Our aim is to show you that you possess in some meas-
ure both the negative and the positive qualities, and also
show you how the negative qualities can and must be
eliminated, and how the positive qualities must be de-
veloped. In this process of development the life of the
individual is necessarily revolutionized. Let me illus-
trace. Water is composed of two different gases. It is
different from either of the gases but a product of their
union. The chemical formula for water is H2O. When
two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen are
combined in that proportion they produce a third ele-
ment, different from either, and which we know as water.
Illustration
from Chemistry
The chemical name for salt is
Sodium Chloride. It is composed
of two substances which are radi-
cally different. Sodium is a soft white substance, and
f
68
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
chlorine, when separated from salt, is a green colored
poisonous gas. When these two substances unite they
form an entirely different product. That proves that
two substances may and do chemically unite and pro-
duce a third substance which is not a mixture but a re-
sult of the union of both.
A Matter
of Cell
Let us leave chemistry and get back to
the brain. Scientists tell us there are
Development over two billion brain cells and that
they are continually changing at the
dictation of thought. I am not so much interested in the
number of brain cells as I am in their development, and
how they are developed. The man of two billion brain
cells, well developed, is much superior to the man of
three billion brain cells poorly developed. The point I
wish to emphasize here is that you have enough brain
cells to make you successful if you will only develop and
use them.
Result
of Ideas
When an idea comes in contact with the
brain cells, we have two substances which
are entirely different coming in contact with
each other, and what do we find as a result? In chem-
istry we find a chemical change, in man we find a physi-
cal change. We find that the union of the two products
produces a third which may be different from either.
We find, in other words, that if a negative idea comes
into the human mind, the action resulting from that
negative idea will be negative, and the mind is to that ex-
Personality and How to Develop It
69
tent paralyzed. Let me illustrate.
A fear thought
The
comes in contact with a brain cell. The two unite.
result is inaction and the paralysis of initiative. Had
the idea been positive and the opposite of fear, the mind
would have produced an immediate desire for action.
Initiative or action is the result of reason, reason is the
result of thinking, and thinking is the result of an idea.
And let us remember that whether negative or positive,
"Every idea that enters into the mind immediately tends
to express itself in action."
Positive or
Negative
Thoughts
of action.
If the thoughts are negative and along
the line of dishonesty, immorality, fear,
failure, falsehood, etc., the brain cells will
inevitably be demoralized into that kind
But when a positive idea comes in contact
with a brain cell there is created a positive force that re-
sults in positive actions, and the individual becomes to
that extent a new individual and possesses new power
that he knew nothing of before.
Effect
of Right
Thinking
Therefore, if enough of these positive
ideas are brought in contact with the brain
cells, a revolution is bound to take place
in the human life, and the individual de-
velops from a man of mediocrity to a man of great
power. He changes from a rollicking, good-for-nothing
Webster on the farm, to Webster the statesman, and
one of the greatest orators the world has ever known.
But what brought about this revolution? A certain
kind of thinking.
1
70.
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Emotion
Essential
to Growth
Unusual In this connection and to emphasize what
I have said, I desire to quote the following
from the pen of Lyman B. Sperry, M. D.
Dr. Sperry has an international reputation
as a writer and lecturer. He says: "Ordi-
nary, habitual, unemotional mental activities do not per-
ceptibly influence the action of the organic nerves; but
whenever mental activity rises to a point which pro-
duces unusual emotion, then countless vibrations or
thrills, which are in effect definite messages, flash from
the cerebrospinal nerves over into the organic nerves,
and increase, diminish, or in some way modify their
action.
Effects "All forms of fear, and all passions in which
of Fear fear is an essential element, such as anxiety,
worry, grief, envy, jealousy, anger, hatred, re-
venge, remorse, despondency, and despair, are mental
emotions of such a nature that their nerve vibrations or
messages, flowing over upon the sympathetic system,
necessarily derange its action. Some of the vital func-
tions may be unduly stimulated by certain emotions,
while others may be benumbed, even to the point of
paralysis. Every form of fear ends to depress organic
energy, derange the nutritive processes, produce disease,
and shorten life; hence, fear is the natural and constant
foe of vitality, health, longevity, and efficiency of every-
one who experiences it.
Reasons for
These Effects
"This is true, remember, because of
the fact that all such emotions or
passions produce discharges of
nerve force, which inevitably interfere with the normal
Personality and How to Develop It
71
workings of the organic nervous system-the special
machinery that directs the vital functions of the body.
Depressing
Feelings De-
range Organic
Processes
:
"All mental states characterized by
even a slight degree of anxiety, sor-
row, or regret, not only naturally and
inevitably tend to produce disease,
but also to prevent recovery from dis-
eased conditions, however they may have been produced.
All anticipated harm, all trouble, whether real or imagi-
nary, and all forms of discontent, inevitably devitalize
and derange the organic processes.
Faith Tends "On the other hand, faith, by which I
to Healthy
Growth
mean the assurance of things hoped for
-trust, confidence, contentment, peace,
good-will, loving kindness, and an ap-
proving conscience is a constant friend, a healthful
regulator, and a positive energizer of the organic system.
It is a physiological law, as well as a psychological law,
that all emotions akin to faith contribute not only to
one's daily comfort and happiness but also tend to es-
tablish habitual health, insure mental and physical
efficiency, and promote longevity. Hence such Scrip-
tural declarations as 'A merry heart doeth good like a
medicine'; 'Godliness, with contentment is great gain';
"Thy faith hath made thee whole'; etc., are scientifically
sound."
The Evil I would like to discuss every positive quality
Effects in this lesson-show how it can be devel-
of Fear oped and also show how its opposite, the
negative quality, can be uprooted and elimi-
G
72
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
nated. But it would take a book of several hundred
pages to do all this. The quotation from Dr. Sperry
shows you the physiological effect of fear. Just realize
that every other negative quality affects you similarly.
You will notice also the physiological effect of faith, ac-
cording to Dr. Sperry. Just realize that you are affected
in the same way by every positive quality. I desire to
emphasize further what Dr. Sperry says about fear.
It robs us of the best there is in life. It steals from us
so much per day or week or month of the earnings
that rightfully belong to us. If we submit, it will hold
us in poverty, misery, and despair; it will dig a bottom-
less pit under us and equip it with a suction pump that
continually pulls us down. Fear is the fatal bugaboo of
the imagination. But thank the Lord we can drive it
out of our lives. We can release, and forever, its slimy
But it takes courage to do it.
hold upon us.
Knowledge Knowledge is the antidote for fear as
is Antidote surely as light is the antidote for dark-
for Fear ness. Courage and self-confidence are the
results of knowledge. Fear is the result
of ignorance. We are afraid of the darkening shadows
in a room, but turn on the light and fear vanishes. Fear,
if we will permit it, makes cowards of us all. There are
multitudes of men who could increase their earning ca-
pacity in a better position, but they are afraid to try it.
They are afraid to leave the position they have, even
though it is not worthy of their best efforts, for fear
they will not get a better one. Isn't that so? Hasn't it
been true in your own case during some period of your
life? Stop and think! Isn't it true right now? It is
Personality and How to Develop It
73
fear, fear, fear all the time. Fear is based upon ignorance
as courage is based upon knowledge. Eliminate igno-
rance and fear will vanish. Acquire the right kind of
knowledge, then courage and self-confidence become a
possession.
What Will
You Do?
What are you going to do about it? I
know what you are going to do, you are
going to summon your will power, throw
off this slimy incubus, and fight life's battles like the
real man God intended you to be. The developed posi-
tive qualities will help you do it. They will become a
real mental battery of invincible personal power.
Use a
I am going to indicate a Character Chart.
Character I want you to make one for yourself. I
Chart want you to check up every positive quality
every day for a month, then keep it up
Find out your weaknesses and eliminate
for a year.
them.
Illustration
of Its Use
Let us choose nine positive qualities and
consider that they make the following in-
dividual average for a month-Optimism
71 per cent., Enthusiasm 70, Energy 70, Honesty 95,
Cheerfulness 85, Carefulness 80, Neatness 90, Initiative
75, Courage 75. By adding these percentages together
and dividing them by nine, as we find there are nine
qualities, we find that we get an average of 79 per cent.
That means we were 79 per cent. successful that month,
that we were only 79 per cent. of our maximum possi-
bility that month. It means that we were 21 per cent.
2
74
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
failure during that month. It means we were only a
little more than three-fourths as successful as we should
have been and could have been. It means we must be
mentally systematic; it means we must check up our
weaknesses, catalog them, and then kill them.
How it We kill the negative by practicing the positive.
Works We kill laziness by continually hustling. We
kill cowardice by doing the thing that needs
to be done, regardless of whether we like it or not. We
kill dishonesty by compelling ourselves to be honest about
every transaction.
Possibilities
Possibly you never before realized it
Are Unlimited was possible to check up and speed up
your brain forces and increase your
efficiency and therefore your income, at least 21 per
cent. Did you? You possibly did not realize that a
study of this science meant such an analysis of your
brain forces that you could literally check up and finally
control them. This is only a beginning of what you can
do for yourself as a result of this marvelous study of
Mental Science. Apply this same process of elimination
and substitution to every negative and positive quality
you possess, and you will notice a marvelous change in
yourself within a very few months. Your possibilities
are really unlimited.
How Salesmen Many salesmen get the foolish notion
Waste Time that Monday is not a good day for
business, consequently they use that
as an excuse to waste the forenoon around the house
Personality and How to Develop It
75
:
and the afternoon around the pool halls, or other places.
From Tuesday morning until Friday night they waste
enough odd hours to amount to another whole day.
They do not pretend to work at all on Saturday. Half
of the week is absolutely lost.
Loss to
Employer
Let us suppose a salesman is selling type-
writers and is working on a salary of
thirty dollars a week. He works only
half of the week. He therefore earns only fifteen dol-
lars instead of thirty. He defrauds his employer out
of fifteen dollars.
Loss to
Salesman
But suppose he is working on a commission
and his commission amounts to thirty dol-
lars for half a week's work. He is
satisfied with what he has made and justifies himself
by feeling that he has done better than a great many
other salesmen anyway. What about him? He has de-
frauded himself out of thirty dollars that he could have
earned, and possibly more, as a man can do more when
he is working under a full head of steam. He has also
defrauded his employer out of the profits he would have
made on the sale of the extra goods.
Enormous My experience as a salesman and as a sales-
Waste
manager has convinced me that most of the
salesmen of the country waste anywhere.
from one to three days a week. Such men always won-
der why they do not get along faster.
>
76
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Personality 'A recent writer has said: "In the solicit-
Vitally ing business, the one force or quality
Important that counts for more than all others in
getting business is personality. We do not wish to enter
into a discussion of what personality really is or how it
is developed, but suffice it to say it is the sum-total of
our personal attractions or winning qualities, but in
many of us they have been so sadly neglected they
cannot be recognized. You cannot be a great success
as a salesman until you bring these winning qualities out
where they can be seen. They vouch for your honesty,
your sincerity, and are a proof of your interest in others.
They are your letter of introduction and will gain you
admission when everything else fails."
Personality
is Capital
A writer in "Success" says: "A pleas-
ing personality is of untold value. It is
a perpetual delight and inspiration to
everyone who comes in contact with it. Such a per-
sonality is capital. Very few people ever come into
your home, or see your stocks, or bonds, or lands, or
interest in steamship lines, or corporations, but your per-
sonality you carry everywhere. It is your letter of
credit. You stand or fall by it."
A Matter of
Cultivation
Another recent writer has said: “A
man's personality does not come by ac-
cident; it is a natural gift, just as his
mind and muscle are natural gifts, and, like them, it
must be cultivated. Develop it by eliminating everything
that is bad and cultivating everything that is good. Cut
out the blues, and worry, and jealousy, and envy, and all
Personality and How to Develop It
ryny
their relatives; they are man's worst enemies. Fill
your whole mind and life with energy, hope, and sun-
shine, and an invincible determination to do things. Feel
every minute of the day that it is the best day you ever
had. Like thoughts are always attracted to each other.
To think and feel enthusiasm, confidence, and success
will develop in you a splendid personality and set in mo-
tion the forces that will bring prosperity and power.
Every man carries the price of a splendid, noble, and
successful life within himself. Be in dead earnest and
your prize can be the world.”
Relation to But what direct relation do these posi-
Salesmanship tive qualities bear to salesmanship?
They bear the same relation which
blood and nerves bear to the human body. Let us con-
sider one of these positive qualities which I have named,
viz.: preparedness. Around this quality adhere the
principles which are the very heart and soul of Sales-
manship. In further analyzing the word preparedness,
which means the state of being prepared, a sub-division
is necessary, together with an analytical outline showing
how to begin the preparation.
Preparedness When an individual is prepared, it
Means Success means these three things to him:
Faith, confidence, and his ability to
sell goods. It means confidence in himself and both
confidence and faith in his business, together with a
knowledge of the construction and selling qualities of
his goods, of which the following is the analytical out-
line. This outline is deemed broad enough to cover al-
most any kind of manufactured product.
*
778
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Analytical Outline
1. Who produced or manufactured it?
(a) What was the method of production?
(b) Where was it produced?
(c) of what is it composed?
¶2. How does it compare, as to finish, material,
workmanship, and price, with competitive articles put
out for the same purpose?
¶3. Can it be shown that its value to the purchaser
compares favorably with its cost?
4. What is its purpose? In other words, what is
it good for?
5. How can it be analyzed in such a way as to
appeal by a logical process of argument to the reason
and judgment of the customer? What portions of it
can be used to appeal to the emotional or spiritual na-
ture of the customer?
6. To what class of people can it be sold?
7. If it can be sold to several classes of people,
is there a distinctive line of argument for each class?
Always Study and apply analysis in order that you
Apply may be able to analyze all kinds of goods,
Analysis your competitor's as well as your own.
What appears to be a small point of differ-
ence will often close the sale if the point is shown to be
superior. The ability then so to analyze two or several
propositions, that the point of superiority, although
small, is clearly brought out, very often closes the sale.
Personality and How to Develop It
79
"Everything Everything else being equal, a customer
Else Being buys where he can buy cheapest. Be
Equal"
sure to watch the "Everything else
being equal." People will not buy at a
cheaper store if it is dirty, or the service poor, or the
clerks incompetent. They will not buy from a traveling
salesman who is slouchy and poorly groomed, or dis-
courteous, or a poor salesman, if he has a good com-
petitor.
}
Other
Elements
Than Price
Everything is not equal as long as you
have a better personality and are a better
salesman. A dollar a day hotel may serve
just as good meals as the $3.00 a day
house. In fact the meat and groceries may have been
bought from the same store, and be of the same grade,
but if the bill of fare is fly specked, the napkins dirty,
and the table cloth stained with, coffee, the traveling
public will go to the $3.00 a day house and pay the
difference, because it is clean.
Lack of
Confidence
Without this preparation, failure would
be almost sure and inevitable. My
reasons are based upon the following
conclusions: I have hired hundreds of men and trained
or supervised the training of thousands of inexperienced
college men in the United States and Canada. I picked
the very best class of young men living in this genera-
tion. This I proved by comparison with other men
from other walks of life whom have hired. Out of
every hundred men I hired, I feel safe in saying that
ninety-five lacked confidence in themselves to begin with
80
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
and said they believed they couldn't do the work. They
would invariably say, "I have never sold goods and I
don't believe I have any ability along that line. I'm
afraid I'd make a failure of it. I haven't much confi-
dence in myself. I'm afraid to try it."
-
Reasons for What is this first step in the development
This Lack of the confidence which this man must
have; first, in himself, and secondly, in
his proposition? He knows absolutely that he cannot
talk the goods, either successfully or at all. He tries.
to think what he might say or how he might say it, and
his imagination conjures up failure because he cannot
yet see through the misty labyrinth of argument which
he knows is necessary in order to convince a customer
that he ought to buy his goods. He cannot see into or
through this argument to begin with, because he does
not know it and hence he lacks confidence. You can
not convince a man that cake is made out of the product
of wheat by showing him the wheat and letting him taste.
the cake, if this man has never seen or heard of wheat,
flour, and cake. He would ask for evidence. He would
have to be shown.
How to The first thing for you to do in beginning
Develop this study, which leads both to confidence
Confidence in your goods and confidence in yourself,
is to begin an analytical study of your
subject. The whole thing must be picked to pieces in
the same way a jew picks a watch to pieces, a me-
chanic a self-binder, or a grammarian a sentence. If
you are selling a binder you must know what each piece
Personality and How to Develop It
81
$
is composed of, why it is made so and so, and why it is
made of a certain kind of iron or wood, and why it is
made in just that shape. You must thoroughly under-
stand the construction of your machine. You must
learn to think the same thoughts which the man had who
made it. If you can do that, if you can find out his
reasons for taking every step, you are getting a basic
knowledge which, after you have learned how to talk it,
will fill your heart with courage and confidence, and
your mouth with words which are not only the result
of skill but which will be skillfully put. It is a great
thing to understand thoroughly every point in the talk
or argument you are going to make, but it is a much
greater art to be able to talk these ideas effectively.
How many times have you seen a man get up in a meet-
ing and in a stammering way say, "I know what I want
to say, but I can't find the words," and then sit down
in confusion? I have even known college graduates to
be affected in this way.
Principles The fundamental principles of salesman-
Apply
ship are all the same. A principle which
Everywhere can be used in selling one article can be
used in selling any other article, no
matter whether it be real estate or chickens. A friend of
mine sold books successfully as a student. The book had
different bindings. He developed skill in changing from
a higher to a lower, or a lower to a higher priced binding.
Later he went into the horse business. He sold a team
one day. The man came back the next day to trade
one of them for another, which he thought would make
a better matched team. He traded and gave a nice sum
C
82
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
to boot. The horseman turned to me and said, “I did
that just as easily as changing from a two-fifty to a
three-fifty binding.
Faith the
Basis of
Confidence
""
In order to have this confidence in your-
self you must have faith in what you are
going to sell. Faith is the essential con-
dition of confidence, and confidence is the
essential condition of success. This is not merely
opinion or guess work, it is a scientific fact. Faith is
the mental attitude essential to successful business-get-
ting. "Faith is the central idea and essence of the law
of suggestion." Without this faith, without this belief
there would be no basis for suggesting to the other man
that he should make the purchase. "The prayer of faith
shall be answered" has a firm, scientific basis.
Be sure
you have absolute faith in the article you are going to
sell. If you have not that faith, if you do not think the
article is worth the money, your conscience will go back
on you, and you will most assuredly end in failure, to-
gether with a considerable loss of self-respect. No man
can long succeed in selling goods which he knows are
not worth the money. His better nature soon revolts
Certain Qualities
While there are a great number
Specially Important of positive qualities, they are
not all of equal importance in
the development of the salesman. I shall name here
some of the positive qualities and faculties which it is
absolutely essential a salesman should develop to a high
degree: Preparedness, faith and confidence, the conquer-
ing spirit, cheerfulness or good cheer, courtesy, initiative,
1
i
Personality and How to Develop It
83
courage, perseverance, determination, concentration, will-
power, desire, health, character, judgment, and expres-
sion.
;
Some Great America's great men have been of com-
Examples manding personality. What were the
qualities in the life of James G. Blaine
which made him great? What were the qualities of per-
sonality which made Grant and Lincoln and McKinley
great? What are the qualities which made Roosevelt
great in spite of his party leaders? What are the qual-
ities which made Mr. Bryan the leader of his party for
a longer time than any other man the party ever pro-
duced? We have stated all these qualities of superb.
marhood in this lesson. We will approximate unto the
greatness of these men as we develop self-mastery and
use our will power, not only to develop these qualities
but to drive out the negative qualities.
2
Beware of A salesman's general education may be
Even One poor, while his special education may be
Weakness good enough to make him a great salesman.
Every quality of the individual except in-
itiative, might be marked 100 per cent. but if that is poor,
if the salesman is lazy, he will still be a failure. If
every quality but appearance is marked 100 per cent. the
salesman will still be a failure if he presents a seedy and
uncouth appearance. The same is true in regard to
personality-the salesman might be able to speak or read
a dozen languages and still be a failure if his person-
ality is weak, vacillating, and negative. One thing in
this connection is worthy of the salesman's careful con-
F
84
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
#
sideration, that is this: a salesman may have developed
every positive quality but one, honesty for instance, and
that one negative quality may defeat him in the long run.
Look out for every quality. Be sure that you do not
harbor any enemies. You simply must weed out the
negative and develop the positive qualities. A great and
glorious success depends upon it. Pick out one new
positive quality every Monday morning and determine
that at any cost you will live that quality during the
week and forever afterwards. It may hurt a little at
first to pull up some of the weeds, but your manhood
demands that you do it. You can do anything you de-
sire.
Building
Steel Rails
Steel rails are made in accordance with
certain definite, scientific specifications.
Every ton of steel that is made today, is
analyzed and tested. Every pound of
steel that is made for steel rails must have a definite
percentage of phosphorus in it; it must have a definite
percentage of silicon, made from sand; a definite percent-
age of sulphur; and a definite percentage of manganese.
If that steel has too much phosphorus, the rail is too
hard and when the frosts of winter come it goes to
pieces under the weight of the train. If it is too soft
it will not stand up.
Analogy With
Human Life
When we build human life, manhood
and womanhood, in accordance with
as careful scientific specifications as
we follow in building steel rails, we shall enormously in-
crease our efficiency and our civilization will go forward
Personality and How to Develop It
85
by leaps and bounds. This lesson furnishes you the
specifications for building the type of man that will
stand the test.
Below are the positive qualities of the Intellect,
of the Sensibilities, and of the Will, which must be
highly developed in order to insure a man of (1) 'Ability,
of (2) Reliability, and (3) Leadership:
Observation
Concentration
Memory
1
Imagination
Judgment
Reason
Honesty
Loyalty
Sincerity
2 Faith
Ambition
Enthusiasm
Optimism
Decision
Punctuality
3
Courage
Initiative
86
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
(1. What is personality?
12.
13.
What is meant by positive qualities?
What is meant by negative qualities?
(4. Which positive qualities do you think are most
important?
T5. Name the three different qualities of man.
[6.
parts?
€7.
18.
The human mind is divided into how many
What are the functions of each?
What effect, according to Hudson, does the
subjective mind have upon the body?
19. Why is good personality dependent entirely
upon the development of the positive qualities?
10. Why is a good personality absolutely essential
in order to become a success?
C11. Why is "preparedness" or preparation essen-
tial to success in Salesmanship?
12. Give from memory what you can of the ana-
lytical outline.
13. What do you mean by confidence?
14. How is faith developed?
15. Is it possible to develop all the positive quali-
ties but one and then fail as a business man? Give
example.
16. Write one hundred words on the positive
qualities which you consider most important in the devel-
opment of your personality.
17. Write one hundred words showing the ne-
cessity of preparation for success.
1
1
Personality and How to Develop It
84
Summary to Chapter III
1. Positive Personality is the magnetic outward
expression of an inner life dominated by positive and
pleasing qualities.
2. The meaning or nature of personality is ascer-
tained by a study of the qualities, positive and negative,
that control men.
3. The battle for supremacy in life is a battle be-
tween the positive and the negative qualities; the as-
cendency of positive qualities means success; of negative
ones, failure.
¶4. The negative qualities are eliminated by think-
ing, living, and acting the positive qualities until the
positive habit is formed.
5. Man possesses a three-fold nature which must
be studied, analyzed, and charted to determine the strong.
and the weak qualities.
6. The three-fold man-mental, moral, physical-
must be kept in health by elimination of negative quali-
ties through substitution of positive qualities: a process
greatly facilitated by the use of suggestion.
7. Every idea, emotion, or passion that enters into
the mind tends to express itself in action: if positive, it
results in helpful, successful action; if negative, it de-
presses, deranges, and demoralizes action.
8. The development of positive qualities will
change a mediocre mind into a mental battery of invinc-
ible personal power.
19. The principles governing personality constitute
the very heart of Salesmanship and are well illustrated
by the use of the positive quality-"preparedness."
10. Failure by even one weakness must be avoided.
A Mental
Revolution
CHAPTER IV
XXX
Efficiency
In the first chapter I said we were in the
midst of a business revolution. That
means that we are in the midst of a mental
revolution. This is the age when the business man
studies. He must. Competition has driven him to it.
One of our prominent thinkers has said that the human
mind, as a result of a knowledge of modern psychology,
has made more progress during the last thirty years than
during all previous history. In this chapter I want to
discuss some of the positive and negative qualities which
go to build up or tear down character.
Loyalty Loyalty consists in giving faithful allegiance
Defined to your employer; it consists in giving whole-
hearted, untiring service to the concern that
furnishes you with bread and butter. Loyalty consists
in working during business hours and after business
hours and before business hours for the best interests of
the concern. Loyalty consists in doing everything within
your power to figure out some new idea or some new
method that will in some way advance the interests of
your concern. Every wise manager is on the alert to
get a new idea or a better method of doing business. He
88
}
Efficiency
89.
is also on the alert to promote any employe who is so
loyal as to render such service. I know a young college
professor who was so loyal to his university, who re-
sponded to so many calls for help that he not only re-
flected glory upon the university, but was offered the
presidency of four different colleges.
Loyalty Helps
to Build a Life
But loyalty is its own reward. The
man who will not do his best under
all circumstances, who will not render
the highest service of which he is capable, is not only
disloyal to his employer, but he is disloyal to the dic-
tates of his own highest self. Remember that it is an
infinitely greater thing to build a life, than to make a
living. Remember that whatever you do for the in-
terests of your employer reacts upon your own life
and character. Remember that every new idea or new
method you originate, and every bit of exceptional serv-
ice you render, is worth infinitely more in the way of
building your own character and developing your own
ability for a larger future service than it can possibly
be worth in the way of immediate financial reward.
The man who is disloyal to his employer defrauds him,
but what is much worse, he goes a long way toward
ruining his own character.
True Loyalty The salesman or employe who extrava-
is Profitable gantly spends his employer's money for
high priced meals and high or highest
priced hotel rooms is not loyal to his house. I know one
traveling man who rarely pays more than a dollar for a
room in a hotel, often eats a twenty-five cent meal, and
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
walks when he might pay bus fare. He is getting a
salary of over four hundred dollars a month and ex-
penses and many side privileges which cost his associates.
money. But he is loyal to his house. On the other
hand, I know scores of salesmen who pay from $1.50 to
$2.50 for a room and from seventy-five cents up for
meals, but they are getting from seventy-five to one hun-
dred dollars a month and expenses. They are disloyal
to their concern and, therefore, disloyal to themselves.
They pay their own expense accounts in reduced salary,
but they do not realize it.
Get Out or
Get in Line
If you cannot render your employer the
most enthusiastic, loyal service, then quit.
But while you are taking his money, your
own self-respect requires you to boost for him and his
business. You owe it to your employer and to yourself
either to get in line and stay in line, or get out.
Honesty
Commands a
High Premium
I do not believe there ever was a
greater demand for men who are
thoroughly honest and reliable, than
there is today. I do not believe there
ever was a time when business men were willing to pay
such a premium for honesty as they are today. There is
a mania to get rich quick in these days and in practically
every case it ends in failure, remorse, and despair. It is
said that a young man in Marshall Field's store had made
an exceptional record. He was marked for a prominent
position. They decided to test him in every way, during
a period of six months, before promotion. They tested
him as to his morality, his ability, and his honesty. They
}
Efficiency
91
i
left money lying around in order to tempt him. One day
he picked up and kept a fifty-cent piece that was put in
his way in order to tempt him. He never got the pro-
motion. Your character will be submitted to the same
gruelling tests in the future. Don't you think it will pay
to develop the character to pass the required tests?
Honest
Employes
Exceptional
A prominent retail merchant recently
told me that dishonesty caused more
trouble in his store than anything else.
He said, "We used to expect twenty-
four honest men out of every twenty-five, now it seems
difficult to find more than one out of the twenty-five
who is thoroughly honest." Of course his case is ex-
treme, but I know he lost considerable money in his
business through theft on the part of his clerks. The
first qualification for success, in his mind, is honesty.
The manager of one of the great department stores in
the middle west, a store employing nearly a thousand
sales people, told me that dishonesty and indifference
were the "twin demons" in his store.
Loyal Service
·
When you work for a man on a
Due to Employer salary, you owe him all your
loyalty, all your ambition, all your
enthusiasm, and all your ability; and to engage in any
outside enterprises when all your time and efforts are
sold to him, is not honest. I know a young man who
works in an office where his employer is absent a good
deal of the time. It is necessary for him to be in the
office at eight in the morning, but he is seldom there
before ten, although he tells his employer he is always
92
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
there at eight. This is another phase of dishonesty to
be deplored. But the employe who resorts to it is
wreaking vengeance on his own life and character, and
it is simply a question of days until he loses his position.
Initiative One of the qualities most highly valued and
Defined most highly paid for by the business world
is initiative. Initiative is going ahead and
doing the thing that needs to be done without being
told. Hubbard says, "The world reserves its big prizes
for but one thing and that is 'initiative."" Initiative is
the result of constructive thinking. In fact, constructive
thinking plus initiative gets results. A country banker
said to me one day, "Can you send me a young man of
initiative, a young man who will sweep out without being
told, who will do his bookkeeping without being told, who
will do his own work of his own accord without being
told, over and over and over again?" The young man
who lacks initiative is lazy, purposeless, and unwilling to
do his part in life's work. Initiative is going ahead and
doing to a finish what you ought to do in the position you
are now in, and doing it without being told. When you
do that and do it well, you will have a chance to do the
big things later on.
How to
Acquire
Initiative
Not many young men have enough initia-
tive to stay at home in the evening, after a
hard day's work, and study, when the lure
of the park, the pool hall, and the skating
rink is upon them. Those who have that kind of initia-
tive are eagerly snapped up by the business world.
Efficiency
93
Success
Based on
Service
A great philosopher has said, "He that is
greatest among you shall be your servant.”
I believe the time is near at hand in this
country when that matchless philosophy
will be fulfilled. The man today who renders the great-
est public service is the public's greatest benefactor, and
such a one is entitled to the greatest profit. Today we
ask, “What kind of service can you render?" not "How
much money do you want?" If you render the service,
you are sure of the money. We constantly hear the
remark, “It isn't a question of what it costs but a ques-
tion of what it is worth."
A Good I know a bright ambitious young man who
Illustration said to the superintendent of a great con-
cern, "I will come in and work for you
two months, you to pay what you think I am worth at
the end of that time. Then we will talk over a propo-
sition for the future. I know I can satisfy you. All
I want now is an opportunity to prove my value to you."
That young man wasn't thinking of money, but of serv-
ice. The young man who thinks only of his salary and
the clock, hasn't yet learned the meaning of the word
service.
Habits
The employe who is careless or indiffer-
That Lessen ent or who thinks of his own affairs
Service during business hours, is not giving good
service; neither is the employe who
chews gum or uses tobacco in any form during business
hours. I honestly believe that to smoke during busi-
ness hours is to reduce your value at least ten per cent.
94
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
or more. President John H. Patterson of the National
Cash Register Company has possibly preached as much
against smoking as any great executive in this country.
He says: "Don't do it, boys, it will make you satisfied.
I gave it up for that reason. I couldn't afford to be
satisfied."
He Profits
Most Who
Serves Best
The measure of your service will be the
measure of your future profit. The
hardware company that sent a team two
miles for a broken boiler lid and made
one to order for a quarter, then delivered it, was render-
ing a service with an eye to future business.
Two Obstacles
to Success
}
Self-satisfaction and indifference are
two of the greatest obstacles that
stand in the way of success today.
I sometimes think that seventy-five per cent. of the people
of this country are asleep half of the time. You will
find evidence of self-satisfaction among people who
work inside more often than those who work in the
open air. Possibly the most indifferent class of sales.
people to be found anywhere are found in the retail
stores.
Deadening
Power of
Indifference
The indifferent man is unconcerned
about either the present or the future.
He is satisfied to exist. I have spent
some years analyzing indifference and
I am convinced that it is due largely, if not altogether,
to ignorance. The indifferent man doesn't know and he
doesn't know he doesn't know, and furthermore he
Efficiency
95
doesn't care. He permits little mental stimulus to enter
his life. His brain is dormant and undeveloped. He
has no ideal. He has little purpose and he has little am-
bition. I have talked to thousands of such people.
They have simply blinked at me. They did not really
understand and they were too lazy to investigate. In-
difference is a habit born of laziness. It is the natural
result of an untrained and sluggish brain. Most men
are constitutionally lazy. It requires the spur of ne-
cessity to make them active. The only hope for such a
man is to wake up and feed his impoverished brain;
otherwise he is doomed. I often step into a retail store
and ask if they have a certain article. The clerk says,
"Yes," and sometimes stirs himself enough to say, "Did
you want one?"
Ambition a
Matter of
Development
The world hasn't yet realized that am-
bition is quite largely a matter of de-
velopment; that the brain must be fed
or it will die just as surely as corn
tassels die before a hot wind in July. When an idea
comes to the brain, the blood brings nourishment to that
brain cell and it develops, but when no ideas come, the
blood does not flow that way and the unnourished cell
atrophies and dies. Many men do not realize that the
head was made to think with, and that success depends
upon how we use it.
The Importance
of Thrift
We are living in an extravagant,
spend-thrift age. That is one rea-
son so many men are penniless at
the age of sixty. The idea of poverty in old age ought
96
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
1
to haunt every young man and make him feel the ne-
cessity of saving every dollar he can possibly get along
without. When you receive an income from money in-
vested, you multiply your earning power. When you
have money invested you have more respect for your-
self. You feel you are a capitalist. You are a better
citizen and a better patriot. If eighty million people
save a nickel a day it would amount to $1,460,000,000 a
year. Save ten cents a day and invest it at six per cent.
compound interest and it will amount to $6,000 in forty
years. And yet we handle the nickels and dimes as if
they did not amount to anything.
Avoid
"Wild Cat"
Schemes
Look out for "wild cat" investment
schemes that offer big dividends. There
is an enormous amount of money lost
that way every year.
Insurance Every young man should take out some
a Safe
insurance. That is a safe investment.
Investment An insurance agent once crossed the
Atlantic Ocean with Cyrus W. Field in
order to get a chance to talk insurance to him. He was
rewarded with a $450,000 policy. Field was worth
twenty millions then, but afterwards lost it all except
the insurance policy.
Wealth an
Intellectual
Achievement
Money is not everything, but we need
some of it in order to enjoy happiness
and the comforts of life. Gage Tar-
bell, the great Life Insurance man, has
said that "Wealth is an intellectual achievement."
Efficiency
97
agree with him and so do you.
intellect cannot produce wealth.
The man of untrained
To be able, therefore,
to produce wealth honestly and legitimately is certainly
an intellectual achievement to be coveted.
Chin Upper
or
Chin Downer
A man is worth only two dollars a day
from his chin down selling muscle, but
as high as a hundred and forty-four
thousand a year from his chin up
selling brains, as President of the National Cash Regis-
ter Company. Which do you want to sell, brains or
muscle? It pays a good deal better to sell brains, so you
better decide to be a chin upper, rather than a chin
downer.
Definition A large prize was once offered in England
of Money
for the best definition of money. Many
definitions came in but the one that won
first prize was written by a woman who was a bedridden
invalid. It is as follows: "Money is a commodity that
will buy anything but health and happiness, and is a
universal passport to everywhere but heaven."
Man's Duty
to Himself
Every man owes it to himself so to
equip himself that he can support him-
self and family if he has one, take a
vacation when he needs it, retire any time after sixty
if he so desires, and have enough left to provide for his
needs during the remaining years of his life.
Courtesy
an Asset
i
There is no other one thing which costs so
little and is worth so much as courtesy. It
is an outward expression of inward kind-
98
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
ness.
It is an indication that the heart is right and that
we delight to serve.
A Lesson
in Courtesy
A young man by the name of John Boyd
was brought up in Pella, Iowa. He had
a high school education and believed he
could succeed in life. He believed in courtesy. In fact
it was a part of his particular philosophy. He received
an appointment as assistant doorkeeper in the House of
Representatives. One day a prominent looking business
man approached the doorkeeper and asked if he knew
where he could find Senator Sargent of California.
This doorkeeper did not particularly believe in the phi-
losophy of courtesy anyway, and in a very pompous
manner gave the stranger to understand that they had all
they could do to take care of the members of the House
without running after Senators. Mr. Boyd heard the
conversation and it did not agree with his theory of
courtesy, so he followed the stranger and told him he
could find the Senator for him if he was in the building.
His kindness was greatly appreciated. He hurried
away, soon found the Senator, and took the stranger to
him. Boyd then started to leave. The stranger gave him
his card and asked him to meet him that afternoon at
the hotel. When Mr. Boyd looked at the card, he was
surprised to learn that the stranger was none other than
Collis P. Huntington, the famous railroad president.
Consequences When they met at the hotel that after-
of Being a
noon, Mr. Huntington learned that
Gentleman Mr. Boyd was getting twelve hundred
a year. He immediately offered him
Efficiency
99
$1,800. "But," said the young man, "I don't know
anything about the railroad business." "But you do
know how to be a gentleman," said Mr. Huntington,
"and that is what a lot of fellows around here don't
know enough to be." Mr. Boyd accepted the position.
His salary was raised to three thousand within a year
and finally to ten thousand. Does it pay to be courteous?
It pays bigger dividends in proportion to the investment.
than anything else I know of.
How to
Concentrate
It takes the average young student
nearly a year to learn how to concen-
trate his mind upon his work. I know
a boy of thirteen who is an expert with the typewriter,
considering his age. He was demonstrating at a county
fair and a business man tried his best to disturb him.
The man asked him several questions but the boy never
looked up or paid the least attention to the questions.
until he was through. He then asked the man what he
wanted. The man at once offered him a position and
asked him how he could work that way while being dis-
turbed. The boy told him he had learned to concentrate
his mind by continual practice.
Importance of
Concentration
I saw a machine at the World's Fair
in St. Louis that so concentrated the
sun's rays that it actually melted iron.
The mind which concentrates is powerful, and usually
routs opposition. You must first pay attention to what
you are doing, then concentrate the mind upon it. This
takes both energy and will power. This will be taken
up in a later lesson.
100
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Concentration
Under
Difficulties
I have discovered that I can write
just as well with a crowd talking or
playing all around me, but I have also
discovered that it doesn't pay to do
it as it takes energy to counteract the disturbance. In
studying, in writing, or in making a sale, I focus all
the power of my mind on what I am doing. I entirely
shut out the outside world. It takes practice to do this,
but it pays big. Begin immediately to concentrate upon
what you are doing. Concentration means success,
while "scatteration" means failure.
+
Habits That Reduce Efficiency
Ingersoll on The business world judges a man
Strong Drink either favorably or adversely because
of his qualifications or his habits. As
a whole, the business world looks
askance at a man who drinks. A prominent business
man of Omaha, Mr. F. W. Heron, president of the
Royal Indemnity Company, says, “Liquor and business
will not mix between seven o'clock in the morning and
seven in the evening, if at all." Col. Ingersoll very well
voiced the opinion of the business world when he said,
"I am aware there is a prejudice against any man en
gaged in the manufacture of alcohol. I believe that
from the time it issues from the coiled and poisonous
worm in the distillery until it empties into the stream of
death, dishonor and crime, it demoralizes everyone
who touches it, from its source to where it ends. I do
not believe anyone can contemplate the subject without
Efficiency
101
becoming prejudiced against the liquor crime. All we
have to do, gentlemen, is to think of the wrecks on
either bank of the stream of death, of the suicides, of
the insanity, of the poverty, of the ignorance, of the des-
titution, of the little children tugging at the faded and
weary breasts of weeping and despairing wives, asking
for bread; of the talented men of genius it has wrecked,
the men struggling with imaginary serpents, produced
by this devilish thing; and when you think of the jails,
of the almshouses, of the asylums, of the prisons, of the
scaffolds on either bank, I do not wonder that every
thoughtful man is prejudiced against this stuff called
alcohol."
Testimony of
Insurance
Statistics
In a paper read before the Association
of Life Insurance Presidents by Mr.
'Arthur Hunter, actuary of the New
York Life, some remarkable facts were
presented. The paper was based on a study of the ex-
perience of forty-three leading life insurance com-
panies, covering a period of twenty-five years, and in-
vestigating the deaths of two million policy holders.
One of the facts shown by this investigation is that
"Total abstainers have a mortality during the working
years of life of about one-half that of those who use
alcohol to the extent of two glasses of whiskey a day."
Do facts mean anything to us?
Prejudice The gospel of maximum efficiency, as
Versus preached by the big leaders today, finds no
place for either strong drink or cigarettes.
This is not a question of morality, but of
Fact
102
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
=
business efficiency. Neither you nor I can afford to
receive this information with prejudiced minds. In fact,
we cannot afford to let our prejudice either stand in the
way of our opportunities or chloroform our judgment.
It takes a wise man to profit from the experience of wise
men. Any fool can learn from experience, no matter
how costly it may be.
The following quotations on the cigarette are from
the pens of Elbert Hubbard and Orison Swett Marden,
both world-famed writers and employers of men.
The Cigarette
Elbert Hubbard says, "If you want a man who
will train on, flee the cigarettist as you would a pesti-
lence. As a close observer of men and an employer of
labor for over twenty-five years, I give you this: Never
advance the pay of a cigarette smoker-never promote
him-never depend upon him to carry a roll to Gomez,
unless you do not care for Gomez and are willing to
lose the roll.
"I say, do not promote the cigarette smoker fur
the time will surely come when you will rue the day
you ever placed him in a position where he can plague
you by doing those things which he ought not, and by
leaving undone those things he should have done.
¶"I am aware that in some parts of Europe ciga-
rette smoking is almost universal and that no special
deleterious effects are noticeable. This immunity is
owing to the temperament of the people and the peculi-
arities of the climate. My argument herein has America
3
Efficiency
103
and Americans in mind. Poison affects different people
differently, and American nerves cannot stand artificial
stimulants. The dull and phlegmatic Russian can do
things we cannot. The Don, Dago, Greaser, and Turk
are built on different lines from us. Americans need
all the brain power they possess in their business.
"Cigarette smoking it not periodic-it is continu-
ous-a slow, insidious, sure poison. Its results can be
foretold as accurately as the expert chemist can foresee
the end of incipient locomotor ataxia.
"But for the young man who has become so cal-
loused that he smokes cigarettes in the presence of his
mother, sister, or sweetheart, there is little hope. The
poison has already tainted his moral nature and for him
the work of dissolution, disintegration, and degeneration
has begun. He is a defective-a physical, mental, and
moral defective. Hope is only for the youth who is
ashamed of his lapses.
¶“In preparing a culture bed for vice germs, do not
omit cigarettes. Cigarettes stupefy the conscience,
deaden the brain, place the affections in abeyance, and
bring the beast to the surface. The burning of tobacco
and paper together in contact with the saliva distils a
subtle chemical poison that has its sure effects even upon
the strongest constitutions.
¶"One marked peculiarity of the cigarette fiend is
that invariably he makes a great discovery. It is that
cleverness, astuteness, trickery, and untruth are good
substitutes for simplicity, frankness, and plain, com-
mon honesty.
<
104
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
"The difference between mine and thine is a very
hazy proposition to the cigarettist. Larceny and lying
are sprouts that grow from the same soil.
"Dishonor, perfidy, disappointment, disgrace are
the end of all. And so I close by again sounding a warn-
ing note to the employer of labor. Place no confidence
in the cigarettist, never promote him-he is an irrespon-
sible being a defective. Love him if you can; pity him
if you will, but give him no chance to clutch you with
his nicotine fingers and drag you beneath the wave."
¶The above from Mr. Hubbard is very strong lan-
guage. The following from Orison Swett Marden, him-
self a doctor of medicine, and also one of the world's
greatest writers on Success, is even stronger.
THe says, "I leave it to others to discuss the moral
side of cigarette smoking. I denounce it simply because
of its blighting, blasting effect upon one's success in life.
"The whole tendency of cigarette nicotine poison
in youth is to arrest development. It is fatal to all
normal functions. It blights and blasts both health and
morals. It not only ruins the faculties, but it unbalances
the mind as well. Many of the most pitiable cases of
insanity in our asylums are cigarette fiends. It creates
abnormal appetites, strange longings, and in many cases.
an almost irresistible inclination to crime. The moral
depravity which follows the cigarette habit is something
frightful. Lying, cheating, impurity, loss of mind, of
courage and manhood, a complete dropping of life's
standards all along the lines are its general results.
"Magistrate Crane of New York City, says:
'Ninety-nine out of a hundred boys between the ages of
ten and seventeen years who come before me charged
!
Efficiency
105
with crime have their fingers disfigured by yellow ciga-
rette stains. I am not a crank on this subject, I do not
care to pose as a reformer, but it is my opinion that
cigarettes will do more than liquor to ruin boys. When
you have arraigned before you boys hopelessly deaf
through the excessive use of cigarettes, boys who have
stolen their sisters' earnings, boys who absolutely refuse
to work, who do nothing but gamble and steal, you can-
not help seeing that there is some direct cause, and a
great deal of this boyhood crime is, in my mind, easy
to trace to the deadly cigarette. There is something
in the poison of the cigarette that seems to get into the
system of the boy which destroys all moral fiber.'
"He gives the following probable course of a boy
who begins to smoke cigarettes: 'First, cigarettes. Sec-
ond, beer and liquors. Third, craps, petty gambling.·
Fourth, horse racing-gambling on a bigger scale. Fifth,
larceny. Sixth, state prison.'
"Dr. J. H. Kellogg says: A few months ago I had
all the nicotine removed from a cigarette, making a so-
lution out of it. I injected half the quantity into a frog
with the effect that the frog died almost instantly. The
rest was administered to another frog with like effect.
Both frogs were full grown and of average size. The
conclusion is evident that a single cigarette contains
poison enough to kill two frogs.'
"A boy who smokes twenty cigarettes a day has
inhaled enough poison to kill forty frogs. Why does
the poison not kill the boy? It does kill him. If not
immediately, he will die sooner or later of weak heart,
Bright's disease, or some other malady which scientific
106
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
physicians everywhere recognize as a natural result of
chronic nicotine poisoning.
1
¶"A chemist, not long since, took the tobacco used
in an average cigarette and soaked it in several tea-
spoonfuls of water and then injected a portion of it
under the skin of a cat. The cat almost immediately
went into convulsions, and died in fifteen minutes.
Dogs have been killed by a single drop of nicotine.
/
Killed Both
"A young man died in a Minnesota State institu-
tion not long ago, who five years before had been one
of the most promising young physicians of the west.
'Still under thirty years at the time of his commitment
to the institution,' says a newspaper account of the
story. He had already made three discoveries in nervous
diseases which had made him well known in his pro-
fession. But he smoked cigarettes-smoked incessantly.
For a long time the effects of the habit were not apparent,
in fact, it was not until a patient died on the operating
table under his hands, and the young doctor went to
pieces, that it became known that he was a victim of
the paper pipes. But then he had gone too far. He
was a wreck in mind as well as in body, and ended his
days in a maniac's cell.
Efficiency
107
Effect of Cigarette Smoking
"You smoke thirty cigarettes a day?'
'Yes, on the average.'
¶'You don't blame them for your run down condi-
tion?'
'Not in the least. I blame my hard work.'
The physician shook his head. He smiled in a
vexed way. Then he took a leech out of a glass jar.
¶'Let me show you something,' he said. 'Bare your
arm.'
The cigarette smoker bared his pale arm, and the
doctor laid the lean, black leech upon it. The leech fell
to work busily. Its body began to swell. Then, all
of a sudden, a kind of shudder convulsed it, and it fell
to the floor-dead.
'That's what your blood did to that leech,' said
the physician. He took up the little corpse between
his finger and thumb. 'Look at it,' he said. 'Quite
dead, you see. You poisoned it.'
'I guess it wasn't a healthy leech in the first place,'
said the cigarette smoker, sullenly.
'Wasn't healthy, eh? Well, we'll try again.'
And the physician clapped two leeches on the
young man's thin arm.
'If they both die,' said the patient, 'I'll swear off—
or, at least, I'll cut down my daily allowance from
thirty-to ten.'
Even as he spoke the smaller leech shivered and
dropped on his knee dead, and a moment later the
larger one fell beside it.
108
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
}
'This is ghastly,' said the young man; 'I am worse
than the pestilence to these leeches.'
'It is the empyreumatic oil in your blood,' said the
medical man. ‘All cigarette smokers have it.'
'Doctor,' said the young man, regarding the three
dead leeches thoughtfully, 'I half believe you're right.""
University Records
"It is said that within the past fifty years not a
student at Harvard University who used tobacco has
been graduated at the head of his class, although on the
average five out of six used tobacco.
"An investigation of all the students who entered
Yale University during nine years shows that the ciga-
rette smokers were the inferiors both in weight and
lung capacity of the non-smokers, although they averaged
fifteen months older.
"Dr. Fiske of the Northwestern Academy has
asked all pupils who will not give up cigarettes to leave
the academy. In one year, not one of the boys who used
cigarettes stood in the front rank of scholarship.
"This is our experience in teaching more than
fifty thousand young people,' says the principal of a
great Business College, 'cigarettes bring shattered
nerves, stunted growth, and general physical and mental
degeneration. We refuse to receive users of tobacco
into our institution.'
"Cigarette smoking is no longer simply a moral
question. The great business world has taken it up as a
deadly enemy of advancement and achievement. Lead
Efficiency
109
ing business firms all over the country have put the
cigarette on the prohibited list. In Detroit alone, sixty-
nine merchants have agreed not to employ the cigarette
user. In Chicago, Montgomery Ward & Company, Hib-
bard, Spencer, Bartlett & Company, and some of the
larger concerns have prohibited cigarette smoking among
all employes under eighteen years of age. Marshall
Field & Company have this rule: 'No cigarettes can be
smoked by our employes.' One of the questions in the
application blanks at Wanamaker's reads: "Do you use
tobacco or cigarettes?'
+
"The superintendent of the Lindell Street Railway,
of St. Louis, says: 'Under no circumstances will I hire.
a man who smokes cigarettes. He is as dangerous on
the front of a motor as a man who drinks. In fact, he
is more dangerous; his nerves are apt to give way at any
moment. If I find a car running badly, I immediately
begin to investigate to find if the man smokes cigarettes.
Nine times out of ten he does, and then he goes for
good.'
"E. H. Harriman, the late head of the Union Pa-
cific Railroad system said: 'We might as well go to a
lunatic asylum for our employes as to hire cigarette
smokers.'
"The New York, New Haven and Hartford, the
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Lehigh Valley,
the Burlington, and many others of the leading railroad
companies of this country have issued orders positively
forbidding the use of cigarettes by employes while on
duty.
"If there is anything the youth should regard as
sacred and should preserve intact at all hazards, as it
:
110
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
affects his future more than anything else, it is his will
power, and this is affected very early in the cigarette
smoker, so that he finds himself a slave to a practice
which was once absolutely within his volition.
"Cigarette smoking early impairs the digestive
organs. It causes a gradual loss of appetite, and the
wretched victim substitutes more cigarettes for food.
In fact, he finally gets to a point where he becomes such
a slave to the cigarette that he cannot do without it.
"Herein lies one of the greatest dangers of the
cigarette. It creates a longing which it cannot satisfy.
¶"A physician in charge of a large sanatorium in
the West says that three-fifths of all the men who come
to the institution within a year, to be cured of the opium,
morphine, or cocaine habit, have been cigarette smokers,
and that sixty per cent. of these pleaded as their only
excuse, the need of a stronger stimulant than the ciga-
rette.
"Excessive cigarette smoking increases the heart's
action very materially, in some instances, twenty-five or
thirty beats a minute. Think of the enormous amount
of extra work forced upon this delicate organ every
twenty-four hours! The pulsations are not only greatly
increased, but also, very materially weakened so that the
blood is not forced to every part of the system, and
hence the tissues are not nourished as they would be by
means of fewer but stronger, more vigorous pulsations."
Why Commit
Business
Suicide?
We are willing to give so much space
to this discussion of the cigarette, be-
cause no intelligent young man wants
to continue a habit that will jeopardize
Efficiency
111
his whole career. The young man who persists in
smoking the cigarette in the face of this violent opposi-
tion of the greatest business men of the country, is will-
ing to commit business suicide rather than give up the
little "coffin nail."
Facts
Versus
Health is the first requisite of success in
this strenuous age, and no man who is wise
Opinions will do anything to impair his health and
therefore handicap himself. Many ciga-
rette smokers are not aware of the fact that the cigarette
is harmful, and they will welcome this authoritative dis-
cussion. It isn't a question of opinion but a question of
facts and the facts seem to be against the cigarette. As
Luther Burbank said to me, "The young man who smokes
cigarettes will burn out his nervous system and never
blossom into full grown manhood."
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
¶1. Discuss the meaning and importance of Loyalty
in the business world.
2. What is meant by Initiative?
13. What bearing has the idea of Service on busi-
ness success?
4. Define Courtesy. Give illustrations from your
own experience and from your reading of the value of
Courtesy.
5. Name some habits that reduce efficiency.
16. What is the attitude of the business world to-
ward these habits?
112
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
¶. Debate the question: Resolved that cigarette
smoking is more injurious to humanity as a whole than
the use of alcohol.
18. Write an essay of one hundred words showing
how you would increase your efficiency.
19. Write an essay of one hundred words on the
value of rendering good service.
Summary to Chapter IV
1. Among the qualities essential to efficiency is
loyalty which requires faithful allegiance, untiring serv-
ice, thoughtful consideration of the employer's business,
with methods and ideas for the economic promotion of
the same. Its rewards are promotion and the develop-
ment of character.
2. Honesty is the best policy; it is greatly de-
manded and is the foremost qualification for permanent
success.
3. Initiative is the result of constructive thinking;
it is doing things without being told and doing them in
a large and efficient way, and entitles one to the greatest
profits.
4. Self-satisfaction and indifference are the ob-
stacles that deter seventy-five per cent. of people from
advancement; only by the development of ambition
can their deadening influences be overcome.
5. Thrift, in an age of extravagance, multiplies
earning power, enabling one to become a careful in-
vestor, a respected citizen, and a benefactor of man-
kind.
Efficiency
113
6. "Wealth is an intellectual achievement," dis-
criminating between trained and unskilled labor, and
making possible financial independence and comfort
in old age.
7. Courtesy costs little, but is worth much: it
opens new doors of opportunity and pays dividends
out of all proportion to the investment.
18. The power and habit of concentration pre-
vent disturbance, and insure success.
9. Among the habits that destroy efficiency and
must be avoided, if one is to achieve preeminence in
the business world, are intoxicating liquors and ciga-
rettes: to use either is commercial suicide.
!
1
CHAPTER V
XXX
The Value of Time
¶Shall we have clerks and order-takers, mere auto-
matons—or live salesmen who can create business and
are expert advisers?
One Type of
Salesman
clerk, a man
Stepping into a large furniture store
one day to make a purchase and while
waiting for the change I asked an idle
about forty, the price of a handsome
leather chair. He looked it all over for the tag,
couldn't find it and said: "Bill, what is the price of
this chair?" Bill said, "You will find it marked on
the tag." He looked again, found the tag and said,
"Fifty-nine dollars." That is all he had to say and
he was a so-called salesman in one of the finest furni-
ture stores on this continent.
Study the
Goods
Let us analyze this situation just a little.
If you were to ask this man-I will not
say salesman-to make a scientific study
of salesmanship he would likely tell you he did not
believe in it. But this same man spent several hours
each day in that furniture store doing absolutely
nothing. When I came into the store he and several
others were sitting in the corner talking. Instead of
114
The Value of Time
115
wasting his time that way let us suppose he had been
making a careful study of every piece of furniture in
his department. In that case he would have been
within call when needed. Let us suppose he had
studied the price of every article in the room. Then
suppose he had gone further and found out where each
article was manufactured, just what material it was
made of, what was the process of manufacturing, and
everything which he could possibly have found out
about the manufacture of this furniture. This would
have necessitated his writing the factory for informa-
tion. You may say all this would have required some
time, and work, and study. The reason men get
small salaries all their lives is because they do not
utilize their time in proper study. And then when a
crash comes they are out in the street helpless.
Study
Human
Nature
ٹ
Let us suppose this man had gone still
further and made a study of the furniture
in relation to a color scheme, either in a
home or office. Then let us suppose he had
gotten clear over on his customer's side of the fence,
on my side of the fence, and taken a personal interest
in me. He could have induced me to sit in that large,
comfortable chair and suggested the comfort I would
get out of such a chair at home in the evening; how
easy it would be to enjoy life and forget my cares
while thus resting. Or, if I desired to study, how de-
lightful it would be to sit in that chair. Why, I could
think much better thoughts. I could think out more
ideas in one hour while sitting in that chair than is
two hours in any other kind of chair. Let us sup-
116
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
:
pose he had used his imagination and made me feel
these things and led me to believe I couldn't afford
not to get it, and then had told me what kind of
leather the chair was made of, how it was tanned and
how durable it was and how long it would last me-
but he didn't. He didn't even know the price of the
chair. This incident occurred in San Francisco a few
days before the earthquake. How competent do you
think he was to face the future while looking into the
ashes of his employer's store? Is it any wonder some-
one has said, "Not one salesman in a hundred behind
the counter is any good?"
I
Utilize The hardest thing to teach a young man
Spare is to appreciate the value of time. It is
Moments said that Joseph Cook, the great thinker
and lecturer, carried a little dictionary in
his pocket when a student, in order to have some-
thing to study when waiting for his meals or at other
odd moments of leisure. Many of the world's great
men, Gladstone among them, have carried books in
their pockets in order to utilize spare moments, but
we fritter away diamond minutes and golden hours
doing nothing of value, and our conscience doesn't
hurt us.
Time is money and knowledge is power. But
we shall never get either the money or knowledge until
we learn how to utilize our time and especially our spare
moments. A reputation for ability as a pool player
will not help us any and it may advertise us adversely
sometime when we want a position.
The Value of Time
117
Time After Business Hours
Most Valuable
Time is What is the difference between a pauper at
Money sixty-five and Edison at that age? The
difference is largely in the way each utilized
his time after business hours.
Use of
Spare
Time
You and Edison and a pauper have each one
hundred and sixty-eight hours a week, no more
and no less. The average man works eight
hours a day, or forty-eight hours a week. He
is paid for this time and he works under some one's man-
agement. He has one hundred and twenty hours a
week at his own disposal. How he utilizes that time
determines his destiny.
Four Hours
Daily
Let us do a little analyzing. Suppose
you work eight hours a day, sleep eight
hours, and spend three hours on your
meals, toilet, etc. In that case you have five hours a
day left. Suppose you spend one hour a day in recrea-
tion. You still have four hours a day left. Your des-
tiny is going to be determined by the way you use or mis-
use those four hours a day.
Capitalize
Your Spare
Time
Suppose that during two years you de-
vote six hundred and twenty-five hours
to conscientious study and that your
salary is raised ten dollars a week as a
result of it, what do we find? We find that ten dollars
118
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
a week amounts to five hundred dollars a year, and five
hundred dollars a year is a dividend of five per cent. on
ten thousand dollars. Five hundred dollars a year for
twenty years equals ten thousand dollars. Your invest-
ment of six hundred and twenty-five hours in study, ac-
cording to these figures, would earn you a dividend of
sixteen dollars an hour. Isn't it worth while? Suppose
your earning capacity at twenty-five is fifty cents an
hour or twenty-four dollars a week; then your unused
hour a day that you waste or utilize should be actually
worth sixteen dollars or thirty-two times as much as the
hour you get paid for. Do you realize the potential
possibilities of the hours which so many young people
carelessly toss aside with as much disregard as they
would a bit of waste paper?
Some
Notable
Unutilized time is the most valuable by-
product in this country. Let us see what it
Examples has done for some men. As a working
man and a clerk, Lincoln utilized his spare
time, and his name will ever live in the history of this
country. Lincoln and Washington, the two greatest men
America ever produced or possibly ever will, were self-
taught. They appreciated time and utilized it. When
a telegraph operator, Edison utilized his spare time
studying electricity, and has become the world's fore-
most inventor. As a laboring man on the railroad, J. J.
Hill studied railroading during his spare time, and has
become world famous as a railroad builder. Carnegie
utilized his spare moments studying Salesmanship, busi-
ness organization, and manufacturing, and became the
world's greatest iron master. Elihu Burritt, the black-
The Value of Time
119
smith, spent eleven hours a day at the forge, but mastered
nineteen languages. Whitney, the inventor of the cotton
gin, was a teacher, and Morse, the inventor of the tele-
graph, was an artist. But these men prized and utilized
their precious by-product-spare time-and joined the
world's immortals.
Time
Lost on
Street Car
In literature what do we find? Shake-
speare managed a theater, Charles Lamb
and Nathaniel Hawthorne were clerks,
while Robert Burns was a farmer and a
tax collector. But for their use of spare moments the
world would never have heard of them. Possibly one
man out of a thousand studies a book on a street car.
The amount of valuable time lost on the street cars can
never be estimated. This time could and should be util-
ized. It would be utilized if the men who wasted it
ever realized its value. If an individual's eyes are weak
and make car study impossible, one can think instead of
gazing into space. A young friend of mine whose eyes
are poor commits a few lines each morning and evening
while on the car.
A Man's Estimate
of Himself
Determines His
Use of Time
The man who does not appreciate
his own value does not realize
the value of time. The value
which a man places upon himself
can be easily determined by the
value he places upon time. The man who properly
utilizes his time will place himself in a class by himself.
It is difficult to get an interview with a great executive.
Luther Burbank says he can not afford to give more
120
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
than five minutes for an interview, as his time is too
precious. The millionaire is a conservator of time,
which he translates into money. The average youth is
a spendthrift of time, the result of which is not bankable.
A Practical I suggest that you make a program cover-
Plan of ing your entire twenty-four hours. Then
Procedure work in accordance with this program.
Before you go to bed at night, think over.
the day's work just finished, and plan for the next day.
On your way to your work in the morning, whether you
walk or ride, either study something you have with you
or concentrate upon some problem. You will find it
difficult to concentrate upon one subject for twenty or
thirty minutes whether walking or riding. Your mind
is likely to go off on a tangent many times. Force it
to concentrate on the one subject. We must learn to
meditate and to concentrate in order to gain mental
control.
Danger of
too Great
Sociability
If you were robbed of a dollar you would
likely call the police. Suppose your time
is worth just one dollar an hour. How
many of your friends do you permit to
rob you of one dollar's worth of time without a protest?
Beware of the social instinct. Too many friends will
rob you of your time and make ultimate success im-
possible. Do not become too friendly with anyone
unless that one realizes the value of time.
Have Book
at Hand for
Emergencies
How often do you permit a street car,
a train, or some individual with whom
you have made an appointment to
short change you a quarter or half an
!
The Value of Time
121
hour, simply because you have no book in your pocket
and therefore must waste the time? I know a college
student who carried a book of synonyms in his vest
pocket for four years in order to utilize spare moments
while waiting for meals, etc.
Utilize Our
Time Capital
Everyone has a definite income of
twenty-four hours each day. This in-
come is constant and is the same for
rich and poor alike. It can be neither increased nor
diminished. Out of this income must come certain
fixed charges. The amount of these charges will differ
somewhat, though not widely, with different individuals.
From sixteen to eighteen hours will cover them in almost
every instance. There remains a minimum of six hours,
out of which must be met certain necessary time ex-
penses, such as exercise, meals, and recreation. From
these six hours a daily margin can be saved whose use
largely determines one's success or failure. A system-
atic saving of a substantial margin of time out of these
six hours, and a wise investment of that time in definite,
personal development, will enable anyone to achieve suc-
cess, regardless of his limitations.
સ્વ
122
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
*
Suggestive Time Chart

11
10
Period of Destiny
12
น
Sleep
8 Hours
-5-
·6-
Breakfast Hr
7
Work
6
-5-
4
Recreation
and
Study
4 Hours
Dinner 1Hr
Work
4½ Hours
Lunch 1Hr
4/2 Hours
8.
12
11
10
Sleep...
Breakfast.
Work.
Lunch...
Work...
Dinogr..
Recreation and Study.
Total....
.. 8 hours.
1 hour.
4½ hours.
1 hour.
4½ hours.
1 hour.
4
hours.
.24 hours.
The foregoing chart indicates in a graphic way
one plan for the distribution of time capital. It is merely
suggestive and must be varied to meet individual con-
ditions. It covers in a general way the activities of the
majority of men
The Value of Time
123
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
¶1. How should a clerk best occupy his idle time
in a store?
2. What advantage is there in having a definite
daily program?
3. Here is the daily program of one of our stu-
dents in Iowa. Discuss it as applied to your own case.
A. M. 6:00 to 6:30 Morning toilet, including cold
shower or plunge if possible.
Read morning paper.
Breakfast.
6:30 to
7:00 to
7:00
7:30
7:30 to 8:00
8:00 to 12:00
12:00 to 1:30
P. M. 1:30 to
1:30 to
5:00
5:00 to
6:00
6:00 to 7:00
ry:00 to
7:30
1
7:30 to 9:30
Walk to work. (If you live
close to your work, take a
half hour's walk anyway.)
Daily work.
Lunch hour. (Circum-
stances vary this hour.)
Daily work.
Take some form of physical
exercise, out doors if possible.
Dinner and social hour.
Read evening paper.
Study some line pertaining to
your work.
9:30 to 10:00 Read some good, inspiring,
and helpful book or maga-
zine.
10:00 P. M. to 6:00 A. M.-Refreshing sleep.
4. The above program allows one hour a day to
the daily papers. Is this too much or too little or just
right? We think it too much.
124
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Summary to Chapter V
1. The use of time, the richest legacy bequeathed
to man, determines whether a salesman shall become a
mere order-taker, an automaton, or, by scientific study
of goods and human qualities, become an expert ad-
viser, creating and multiplying business.
2. Leisure time outside of business hours may be
capitalized to great profit through useful study and
mental improvement.
13.
One's use of time determines his estimate of
himself, his life work, and his destiny.
4. Systematic saving and investment of time will
enable one to achieve success, regardless of seriou
limitations.
CHAPTER VI
XXX
Salesmanship Analysis
Does the Science
of Salesmanship
Really Amount
to Anything?
In beginning this study, you ask
the question a good many ask who
say, "What is there in this Science
of Applied Salesmanship anyway?”
An insurance man recently said to
me, "There is absolutely nothing to salesmanship but a
knowledge of human nature." He was partially right.
But the average man knows very little about human
nature. The ability to understand human nature thor-
oughly, to organize, manipulate, and control it, is the
most valuable knowledge a doctor, lawyer, preacher,
salesman, or business man can have. This knowledge
cannot be gotten by experience alone. It requires scien-
tific knowledge of the individual. But a knowledge of
human nature alone will no inore make a man a success-
ful salesman than it will make him a successful lawyer.
He must learn how to sell, just as he must learn how to
practice law.
What is
Salesmanship is the power to convince.
Salesmanship? Salesmanship is the power, or ability
to influence people to buy at a mutual
profit that which we have to sell, but that which they may
not have thought of buying until we called their atten-
tion to it.
125
126
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Mutual
Profit Idea
This definition brings out an idea which
joins honesty and business in an indis-
soluble union. I have reference to the
mutual profit idea. Profit means mutual benefit. Suc-
cess in business is based upon this idea. The old busi-
ness philosophy as practiced by many and as practiced
by some today, had as its cardinal principle: “Do the
other fellow and do him first and do him just as long
as he will stand for it." Moraily, this idea is wrong.
In practice, it leads not only to failure, but to human
degradation.
Profit In order to make my meaning clearer, I will
Must be illustrate: If I make a sale and make all the
Mutual profit, I am not a salesman, I am a robber.
On the other hand, if I make a sale and you, or the party
of the second part, make all the profit, I am still not a
salesman. I am either a philanthropist, an advertiser,
or a fool. A sale must be made at a profit or it is not
a sale, but a sacrifice. On the other hand, the sale must
benefit the one who buys or it is taking money without
rendering an equivalent, and this is robbery, even if
sanctioned by law.
He Profits This idea of mutual benefit goes even
Most Who deeper; its tap root is embedded in the
Serves Best very heart of brotherly love. It is in
harmony with the highest development of the individual
and of humanity. Its outward manifestation is found
in human service. The highest type of service is shown
in man's desire to benefit and help his fellows. It has
therefore come to be a truism that the man who gives
Salesmanship Analysis
127
the best service makes the most profit. In other words,
"The man who serves best, profits most." This is as
true of the professions as of business. The highest
appreciation as well as the most profit should be given
to the man who serves the public best.
Salesmanship is
the Ability to
Manipulate the
Other Man's Mind
My next definition brings out a
different idea. The definition
follows: Salesmanship is the
ability to manipulate the other
man's mind so as to make him
think as you think, feel as you feel, and act as you would
like to have him act. This definition indicates that the
salesman has a training in logic, psychology, and ex-
pression, otherwise he would not be able to manipulate
the other man's mind. It also indicates that the sales-
man is the party of the first part, and that the individual
or group he is talking to is the party of the second part.
This is true whether the party of the first part is a clerk
behind the counter, a salesman on the road, a lawyer
before a jury, a Governor of a State, or a President of
the United States seeking an election. Don't you see
that in each case the party of the first part is doing the
same identical thing? He is trying to convince and in-
duce action in his behalf.
Ability to We now discover that the ability to in-
Influence, fluence is the secret of success, and that
every man and woman in the country is a
salesman, as every individual has to use
Secret of
Success
salesmanship in selling his services. The principles of
Salesmanship are operative in every transaction wherever
128
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
it is necessary for one individual to influence another.
Salesmanship is the ability to tell the truth about your
proposition and tell it effectively. Salesmanship does
not consist in putting something over, as so many people
seem to think. This statement is suggestive of dis-
honesty. Salesmanship consists in truthfully and effec-
tively describing or demonstrating the article for sale,
and showing its usefulness. The greatest compliment
any salesman can pay to the work he is doing is to tell
the truth about it and tell if effectively.
Salesmanship The next definition broadens our
a Battle of vision still more. It is this: Sales-
Organized manship is a battle of organized knowl-
Knowledge edge against unorganized ignorance.
Let me illustrate: I was very much
interested one time in "The Horse Fair" by Rosa Bon-
heur in the Vanderbilt Art Gallery in New York City.
These beautiful horses with champing bits and flowing
manes were just as clear in the mind's eye of the artist
before the picture was painted as they are to the human
eye now. And why? Her art was organized in her
own mind; all she had to do was to transfer the picture
from her mind to the canvas. The doing of that is
what we call art. The salesman must have his own
knowledge as thoroughly organized as the artist. He
must then be as able to transfer the picture from his
own mind to the mind of his would-be customer as the
artist is able to transfer the picture from his mind to
his canvas.
Salesmanship Analysis
129
A Broader
Definition
The last definition is more complete and
more scientific. It includes both the man
side and the material side of the subject.
It shows that man must develop his positive qualities
in order to be able to lead and influence to a maximum
degree. The definition is as follows: Salesmanship is
that power or ability which is the product of the develop-
ment of certain positive qualities and faculties which en-
ables its possessor to influence and convince a large per
cent. of those whom he solicits to buy at a mutual profit
that which he has to sell, but that which they may not
have thought of buying until he called their attention to it.
This definition includes so much that it will take several
lessons to really make its meaning clear. The power to
influence and convince people is not only the result of
the development of certain positive qualities and facul-
ties in the salesman, but it is the result of a great deal of
knowledge, not only in regard to the article to be sold, but
a knowledge of commercial conditions in general. The
direct result of the development of these brain forces is
character; a real, positive, aggressive, magnetic, and dyna-
mic character. The direct result of character is the
power or ability to influence.
The Four
Factors
The study of this definition leads us im-
mediately to analyze salesmanship. In
Analyzed making a sale there are four factors to take
into consideration.
The Salesman
A Trinity
Let us analyze the four factors: __the
salesman, the customer, the goods, and
the sale itself. In analyzing the
130
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
salesman we divide him into three parts, viz.: the physi-
cal, the mental, and the spiritual.
Importance No man can expect to make much of a
of Health success who has not good health. The
body is the dwelling place of the mind,
A strong mind is not possible without a strong body.
The salesman, whether behind the counter or on the
road, who moves about with vim and vigor, whose eye
flashes and whose every motion denotes energy, who
walks with head erect and shoulders thrown back, in-
spires confidence and courage and can get business where
the weak man fails.
Our Two Minds
Objective-
Subjective
In analyzing the mind we find that
in reality there are two minds, the
objective or reasoning mind-the
mind which makes use of the five
senses-and the subjective mind. The subjective mind
is the seat of the emotions and the finer sensibilities. It
is the abiding place of the soul. The subjective mind
can only reason deductively, while the objective mind
reasons both inductively and deductively. The subjec
tive mind is the seat of love, joy, patriotism, religion,
ambition, intuition, and many of those qualities which
mean most to the salesman. Too many salesmen state
their proposition to the objective mind alone. Their
argument is directed solely to the head when, if they
only knew it, their appeal to the heart would be far
more effective. A salesman should state his proposi-
tion in such a way as to appeal to the reason. But his
solar-plexus blow, his real appeal, is made to the heart.
Salesmanship Analysis
131
Value of Suggestion is, in my mind, one of the
Suggestion most powerful factors in salesmanship.
It is a marvelous power, and that power
is exercised through the subjective mind, the mind
that never sleeps. We cannot devote space in this
chapter to discuss suggestion and autosuggestion so
they will be taken up in a later chapter. The man who
understands this great power of suggestion can not
only double his income but his influence. A sugges-
tion is made to the objective mind; the objective mind
conveys it to the subjective mind, and the subjective
mind tends to produce action. You may make a prop-
osition to a man tCday and it will have no effect upon
hin. The suggestion is lodged in his subjective mind.
He cannot shake it off. Tonight, while his objective
mind sleeps, the subjective mind considers the sug-
gestion. Tomorrow he has changed his mind and
comes around to your way of thinking because he
could not help himself. But the salesman must un-
derstand suggestion and understand just how to give
this suggestion properly, if it is to have the proper
effect.
Covers a
Vast Field
*
Salesmanship This subject of salesmanship is such
a broad one that it is impossible to do
more in this lesson than touch some
of its many and varied phases. Sales-
manship not only covers the work done by the man
behind the counter, or the one who goes from door
to door, or from office to office; but it enters into all
the activities of the selling end of business. It does
more than that; its roots permeate every avenue of
132
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
the factory and go clear back and are deeply embedded
in the subsoil of the producer.
Advertising
and Business
Letter Writing
Advertising is one form of sales-
manship. It is salesmanship by the
literary method. The principles
which hold good in salesmanship
are also fundamental in advertising. Business-getting
letters are purely salesmanship by another form.
Strange as it may be, many salesmen who seem to
understand how to arouse the interest in a personal
interview forget, when writing a letter, to use the
same method. The man who has mastered the science
of selling by personal contact, by letter writing, and
by advertising, and has developed a strong personality,
wields a power that few possess.
Four Classes
of Business Men
Knowledge is the basis for all ac-
tion. The man who acts success-
fully does so because he knows and
feels. Action is always the result of knowledge. En-
thusiasm is the direct result of intelligence. An in-
dividual must know in order to do. So let us dig down
a little deeper and consider four more factors. These
four factors are so broad that they cover the whole
field of business activity. They are as follows: The
producer, the manufacturer, the trader or salesman,
and the consumer.
All These
Classes are
Salesmen
The producer may be a Chinaman who
produces silk from the worm. He may
be a Southern cotton raiser who pro-
duces the raw cotton. In either case, his
Salesmanship Analysis
133
raw product is sold to the local dealer, from him it
goes on to the larger dealer, and from there to the
factory. From the factory it goes to the jobber or
wholesaler, from him to the retailer, and from the re-
tailer to the consumer.
The Salesman The merchant and salesman of the fu-
An Expert
ture will understand, as far as pos-
Adviser
sible, every process through which
this material goes from the time it
leaves the producer until it is sold finally to the con-
sumer. The salesman-and when I say salesman let
it be understood that I consider every man who has
handled these goods a salesman, from the producer
who sold them first, to the retailer who finally sold
them to the consumer-the salesman who under-
stands all these processes, together with the process
of manufacture, as far as it is possible for him to learn
them, knows what he is talking about. When he is
selling a suit of clothes, he will know just what they
are made of and something about the weave forma-
tion. He will be able to give the customer expert
advice in regard to them. He will be able to give him
the reasons why. His aim will be not only to satisfy
the customer then, but to have that satisfaction con-
tinue until the goods are worn out, so that the cus-
tomer will return again for another suit.
Knowledge
Begets
Enthusiasm
Let us remember that no salesman can
be enthusiastic over selling anything
unless he thoroughly understands it.
The salesman who knows and is en-
thusiastic, other things being equal, is the one who
134
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
gets the results. Let us suppose our salesperson is
selling lace. This point was brought up in one of our
classes in San Francisco by the head of a department
in a large store, who was one of our students. He
wanted to know what good it would do for a sales-
woman to know where the lace was made or how
it was made. He said she might have three different
kinds of lace before her when the customer came in.
The customer didn't know the difference between lace
manufactured in Zion City, in England, or in any other
part of the world and neither did the saleswoman,
and he didn't see why she needed to know. The reply
to that question is very simple. The aim of the sales-
person should be to act as an expert adviser to his or
her customer. How can the salesman be an expert
adviser if he doesn't know? Furthermore, how can he
have any interest in the article, or any enthusiasm in
making the sale if he doesn't know? This same prin-
ciple holds good no matter what you are selling. It
is fundamental. Just stop a moment, my reader, and
apply this test to the work you are doing and see how
nicely it will fit. Once we learn the fundamental prin-
ciples of salesmanship and learn how to apply them,
we are in a fair way to master this great Science of
Distribution.
Salesmanship In studying this great subject we take
Touches all excursions into nearly all the fields.
Fields
of learning and of life. We must
make a scientific study of man, and
a scientific study of selling, and a scientific study of
the goods, so you see this study of salesmanship is
not only broad and deep but very interesting. In
studying the individual we are led into making a
Salesmanship Analysis
135
scientific study of human nature. We are obliged to
call to our aid the principles of logic, of psychology,
of philosophy, and of ethics.
First Many salesmen have never thought there
Principles was such a thing as a psychology of sell-
in Selling ing, a series of mental processes through
which the mind of their customer must
be taken before the sale was consummated. I have
asked many of them, and some who were college grad-
uates, how they make a sale and they said they didn't
know they just made it—if they could. If I were to
ask a physician what he would do in treating a case
of diphtheria he would soon tell me. If I were to ask
a lawyer what kind of a brief he would make out in
preparing to defend a man accused of murder, he could
easily tell me as soon as he had all the facts in the case.
If I were to ask a famous pianist how he became noted
he would tell me he first made a study of the under-
lying principles of music, of harmony, and when that
was done he practiced. But when a salesman is asked
how he makes a sale he says he just makes it-if he
can.
The Seven Here are the seven mental processes
Mental through which the mind of the prospec-
Processes tive customer must be taken before the
sale is made:
First. He must be met; the introduction is the
first step.
Second.-His attention must be attracted favor-
ably toward the article to be sold. To do this the sales-
man must be able to create immediately a favorable
mental sensation in the Prospective Customer's mind.
136
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
The reason many salesmen do not get a hearing is be-
cause they are unable to create this favorable mental
sensation immediately.
Third.-The salesman must arouse the Prospec-
tive Customer's interest.
Fourth. He must convince him that it is to his
advantage.
Fifth. He must create his desire for it.
Sixth. He must make his prospective customer
resolve to get it.
¶Seventh.-And most important, he must know
how to close the order.
Many salesmen succeed in doing six-sevenths of
the work very well but fail on the last seventh.
Each Step
Distinct and
Each one of these processes is
separate and distinct. The man
Vitally Important who does not understand them
and understand just how to carry
his customer through each step is simply working at
random. Remember that to fail in handling one step
is to fail in all of them. You may do everything but
fail to produce an absolute conviction as to the value
of the product, and that one little failure will cost you
the sale. Remember that no chain is stronger than its
weakest link; and remember that all the mental processes
are no stronger than the weakest one. In other words,
your ability to handle all the mental processes is no
stronger than your ability to handle the one you are
least able to handle. No mental process is stronger
than its weakest mental link. Failure, therefore, may
be the result of a little weakness. BEWARE OF
THAT LITTLE WEAKNESS! These mental pro-
Salesmanship Analysis
137
cesses are not only fundamental in salesmanship and
advertising but in oratory as well.
Get on the
Customer's Side
of the Fence
While these processes will be dis-
cussed fully in future chapters, we
wish to call attention to one or two
interesting features here. The first
thing for a salesman to do is to get over on the customer's
side of the fence. This is very vital. Your prospective
customer doesn't care one cent for you or for what
you have to sell until you can show him that you have
something that will benefit him. Your customer is
not working himself gray-headed for his health. He
is doing it for what there is in it, for money to sup-
port himself, or himself and family. The first state-
ment you make to this man must be a statement
which you know will interest him. That statement
will not be about yourself and it will not be about
your goods. The patent medicine ad is a good illus-
tration of this. It just makes a man feel sure he has
consumption. When it has done that the poor victim
will ask for a remedy. If you can prove to a man
that a certain proposition will enable him to earn a
good per cent. on his investment he will ask you what
it is and where he can get it. If you first try to sell
him such an invention he will laugh at you. You
must first create his desire for what you have to sell
before you begin your appeal. The appeal should
never be made until the argument or evidence is pre-
sented.
138
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Must be
Mastered
Principles Only a few salesmen have the right con-
ception of just how to become salesmen.
No man can become a great artist, a great
husician, or a great orator who works
contrary to the laws of nature. Trained men have
studied the action of the human mind for centuries
and they have worked out what is called psychology,
which is a study of mind, a study of the mental pro-
cesses. Every salesman should make a study of psy-
chology because he is succeeding only as he is work-
ing in harmony with the laws of the human mind. He
may break a good many of those laws and still make
a fair success, but if he disregards too many of them
he will end in failure and the worst of it is he doesn't
know why. "The Science of Applied Salesmanship"
applies the principles of logic and psychology in mak-
ing every conceivable kind of a sale, but it does vastly
more than that. Our aim has been to teach the stu-
dent the fundamental principles of salesmanship and
psychology so that he would always know how to
organize his own mind so that he might work in
harmony with and take advantage of nature's laws as
they govern the human mind. The human mind
should be an organized file instead of a disorganized
pile.
Illustration My teacher of oratory, who is himself
From the a brilliant orator and lecturer, told me
Lecturer once that no lecturer could prepare a
good lecture in less than two years-a
lecture that would stand the test and win popular
favor. A lecture is after all simply a selling talk that
produces results. If a lecturer must spend in the
Salesmanship Analysis
139
neighborhood of two years preparing his selling talk
before the public will accept it and pay him from fifty
to a hundred dollars a night for it, how in the world
do you expect to win maximum success as a salesman
after spending but a few days at best on your argu-
ment?
Scientific
Arguments
The first thing you must do is to pre-
pare your material. When you have
Get Business that done you must analyze it and
organize it. You must remember that
your customer's mind is a blank to your proposition.
If you would create a perfectly clear picture in the
mind of your customer, that picture must first stand
out clearly and distinctly in your own mind. If the
picture of the sale you wish to make is in a hodge-
podge, unanalyzed condition in your own mind, your
prospective customer will get a muddy, hodge-podge
idea of it and, of course, you will neither create his
desire nor bring about his conviction.
Necessity for There is a good and a best way to
Preparation present every argument. You can't
expect to sell many goods until you
have built up such a logical selling talk and know how
to present it in such an earnest, enthusiastic manner as
thoroughly to convince your prospective customer as you
go along. Before you approach your customer you must
have your arguments so logically arranged that they stand
out as clear as crystal in your own mind. If an objection
comes up it should be disposed of at once, but the
talk should be so clear and convincing as to antici-
140
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
pate and answer any possible objection before it is
made.
Committing a
Selling Talk
to Memory
One great value of committing a sell-
ing talk to memory lies in the fact
that such an argument is supposed
to be the best argument, one that is
getting the best results, and an argument which is
logical develops a logical mind in the one who com-
mits it and uses it. No man can, or should, expect.
great success as a salesman until he so learns the laws
of the human mind, the great principles of logic and
psychology, that he can prepare and present a logical
argument himself, and know just what kind of an
argument is needed in order to produce conviction. A
good salesman, a good talker, must first be a clear
thinker. Remember always that your customer's mind
is a blank. Think of yourself as an artist. Remember
that an artist sees the completed picture in his mind's
eye, his imagination, before he begins to paint. He
sketches the outline first and then begins to fill it in.
If he daubed on the paint promiscuously he would
spoil the picture; a little touch here and a red line
there put life and reality into the picture and soon it
stands out as plain and natural to the onlooker as it
first appeared to the painter. The aim of the sales-
man should be to paint his picture on the human mind
with the skill of the artist; every argument should
come in the right place. The salesman should not pre-
sent his strongest points first as that might excite sus-
picion. He should work up to a final climax.
Salesmanship Analysis
141
Analysis The student should study this course in
Necessary the same way. He should become
thoroughly grounded in the basic princi-
ples first, in order thoroughly to understand and ap-
preciate the framework later on. No salesman can
become a good talker until he first becomes a clear
and logical thinker. He must know his goods, he
must have his knowledge analyzed and know how
to present it simply, clearly, and logically. He can-
not do this unless he develops a logical mind and
becomes a clear thinker. With this as a basis he can,
with the aid of trained expression, become a great
salesman.
The Salesman
an Educator
The schools and churches and places
of public entertainment might close
for one month and there would be
little suffering, but let the salesmen of the world all
go on a strike for one month and the industries of
the whole round world would be paralyzed. The sales-
man supplies the necessities of life; he is one of the
world's greatest civilizers and educators.
How to
Convince
The salesman convinces the customer
when he makes him see the situation as
he sees it; just as the lawyer convinces
the jury when he makes them see the crime as he sees
it. Merely pounding away at a man will not con-
vince him. To convince a man you must make him
believe what you believe. To do this you must give
him the same evidence which compelled your con-
viction.
142
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
ķ
་
Logical Evidence
Produces Conviction
Can
you so express your
thought that your customer
will see the same mental pic-
ture you see and feel the same conviction you feel?
We convert men to believe as we believe, not by urg-
ing them but by giving them the evidence, the reasons,
in such vivid language, so logically arranged, so skill-
fully organized and grouped, and with so much burn-
ing enthusiasm that they appeal to the imagination,
the mind's eye, as vividly as a work of art appeals
to the human eye.
Orders Lost
by Failure
to Convince
Don't try to get the order until you
have your prospective purchaser con-
vinced. Thousands of orders are lost
by so doing. If you do by chance get
his order before he is thoroughly convinced, he may
back out later. When a man is under the power of
conviction he is bound to act. Convince him.
.
Avoid
all Negative
Suggestions
When trying to sell an individual
goods never make a negative sugges-
tion to him. Untold thousands of dol-
lars' worth of sales are lost in this
way. If you are showing him hats and think you
might sell him a panama, don't say, "I don't suppose
you would want a panama?" How do you expect to
sell a panama if you suggest to him that he doesn't
want it? Instead you might say, "I have some hand-
some panama hats here that I consider very fine."
Some
Don't say to a person when showing
Illustrations an article, "That doesn't look bad."
It would be better to say, "That looks
Salesmanship Analysis
143
very fine." When you think he has bought all he de-
sires don't say, "Now will that be all?" This is a sug-
gestion that it is all he wants. It is better to say,
"Now what else?" or, "Isn't there something else you
would like?" This last induces the mind of the cus-
tomer to think of what else he might want. Always
ask the question in a positive manner.
Conviction
in Selling
Insurance
Many insurance men are bores, not be-
cause they do not understand insurance
but because they do not understand the
human mind. They continually say,
"Take some insurance; you ought to have some in-
surance." They might just as well go out and bay
at the moon. They don't seem to realize that the
prospect's mind is an absolute blank as far as insur-
ance is concerned; just as much a blank as a painter's
canvas before the painter applies the brush. The in-
surance man must learn how to sketch the picture
of insurance on the blank mind of his customer with
as much skill as the artist uses on his canvas.
He
paints in vivid and brilliant colors the customer's
duties to his wife and family. He draws in brilliant
lines the value of his particular policy. Stroke by
stroke he fills in the picture until finally his prospect
sees the need for insurance just as clearly as the sales-
man. Conviction has been produced and the policy
is issued.
Importance of
Imagination
ness.
·
Imagination is the image-making
power of the human mind. Imagi-
nation is the seat of constructive-
Our great railroads and steamships and fac-
144
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
tories and corporations and inventions were at one
time simply air castles of the imagination. The man
who builds no air castles, who dreams no dreams, who
sees no great possibilities for himself in the future,
who does not think of himself as one of the leaders
in some great enterprise in the future, will in all
probability never be a leader. Columbus discovered
a new world by using his imagination. The student
who reads and studies these lessons should feel hourly
and daily that this Science of Applied Salesmanship
will enable him to ascend the ladder which leads to
great success. He should daily suggest to himself
that he can and will become a great business man and
a great leader. If he does this he will see himself
day by day growing into the image which his imagina-
tion created. It takes imagination to plan. No suc-
cessful planning is done without it.
The Will Means
Most to the
Salesman
Imagination, Will, Reason, and
Judgment are primal faculties of
the human brain and can be de-
veloped by proper use. Of all the
faculties of the human mind the "Will" means most
to the individual. The man of aggressive determina-
tion can compel himself to do whatever he desires to
do. There is the aggressive will, the punctual will,
the conquering will, the dogged, persistent will, the
assent-compelling will, and the tactful or diplomatic
will which enables one to adjust himself to another
who may be distasteful to him, for the other's pleas-
ure and their mutual profit.
Salesmanship Analysis
145
Salesman Must
be a Traveling
Educator
The traveling salesman of the fu-
ture must not only know his goods
and how to sell them, his cus-
tomers and how to convince them,
but he must be a traveling educator in addition. Our
salesman must know how to teach the merchant the
best methods of selling goods. In this way the mer-
chant will sell more goods, the salesman will sell more
goods, the house will sell more goods, and they will
all profit by it. The salesman who knows how and
acts upon this suggestion will find competition dwind-
ling to the vanishing point. Who wants to quit deal-
ing with a salesman who has business-getting ideas to
offer free of charge?
A Constant The greatest salesman is the one who is
Student learning all the time and thinking all
the time, continually digging deeper
into his subject for better ideas and better arguments.
The cry of the hour is for a broader knowledge and
more thoroughness.
Study to
The ability to use the English language
Improve in well is one of the great objects of a prac-
English tical education. A salesman should con-
tinually study to improve his English,
and his method of expression. He should strive to
increase his vocabulary. Nothing so marks the man
of good education as his ability to use good English
and give good expression to his thoughts.
Do It
Now
Inability to close an order today-now-is
the millstone around the neck of nearly every
salesman. Men and women refuse to decide
{
146
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
today they want to put it off. After making your
plea and coming up to the order point you may be
met by this common objection: "Well, I will think
it over and let you know in a few days." The sales-
man who can produce conviction and compel decision
immediately is earning a large salary. The following
line of argument is very effective in meeting this ob-
jection.
An Effective I appreciate your desire to give the
Argument matter further thought, Mr. Blank,
but you are really better prepared
to make a decision today than you will be in a
week from now. You see we have talked over
every point carefully. The points are clearer in
your mind now than they will be later. Your good
judgment tells you that to decide NOW is the wise
thing to do. It may take a little courage on your
part to do it. You know it is the easiest thing in
the world to put off making a decision. But you
will agree with me, Mr. Blank, that one of the
strongest characteristics of successful men is their
ability to decide and act after once deciding that
it is the wise thing to do; and that is just what you
are going to do. Your judgment and intelligence
tell you this is the thing you ought to do; your
feelings and best interests make you realize it. It
is only necessary now for your will to act and that
can be done by putting your name on this line
right here.
How to
Defeat
Competition
The best way to defeat competition is
not to talk about it. Do all your talk-
ing about your own proposition. Re
Salesmanship Analysis
147
member that every knock is a boost. I believe in elimin-
ation by substitution. Eliminate the other fellow's prop-
osition by putting up one which is so much better that
your prospective customer will forget all about what the
other salesman said.
Make Use of
Every Minute
Watch every minute in the day as
carefully as if it were actual money.
You would have a man arrested who
deliberately stole your money but how often do you
permit your friends to steal your time, and how often
do you permit yourself to idle away an hour without
accomplishing anything?
Qualities
Remember that good appearance, good
That Win personality, aggressiveness, enthusiasm,
earnestness, sincerity, and hard work will
+
work wonders. Cheerfulness, courtesy, and tact are
the lubricators of business. Cultivate a smile and a
cheerful countenance. It pays.
Study and
Practice Will
Bring Success
I care not whether you have much
or little talent for selling goods, the
only way you will ever make a great
success as a salesman is to study
carefully and assiduously the science and art of sales-
manship and put into practice at the first opportunity
the new ideas you have learned. Thousands of sales-
men cannot originate first-class, business-getting ideas
but they can use to great advantage ideas which have
beer originated by others. One aim of this course
is to furnish salesmen with some of the best selling
arguments ever originated, but another and larger aim
148
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
is to teach salesmen how to originate and how to use
first-class, business-getting arguments of their own.
Believe in Men in this day and age haven't time
Your Goods to hear long arguments and long de-
bates. Boil down what you have to
say. Remember that ideas sell goods always, but long
drawn-out words never do. Be brief and to the point.
Try your best to make your sale at the first interview.
First sell the article to yourself. Believe in it. Be-
lieve in your company and believe in yourself. Be
full of conviction, then you will saturate your argu-
ments with conviction. Determine always to make
the sale now. Let your mental attitude be one of posi-
tive conviction.
Example Lincoln took up the study of geometry
of Lincoln when in the midst of a busy life in order
that he might be more logical in answer-
ing the arguments of his adversaries. If the study of
salesmanship ever appears dry to you remember the
value which the great Lincoln derived from studying
a subject as dry as geometry. Our success is largely
in proportion to the efforts we put forth. By putting
forth great efforts we shall accomplish great results.
Distinction
Between
There is a science of salesmanship
and there is an art of salesmanship..
Science and Art They are both vital, essential, and
distinctly separate from each other.
Science, according to Herbert Spencer, means "Organ-
ized knowledge." Science as it relates to salesman-
ship means the organizing, correlating, and system-
Salesmanship Analysis
149
atizing of the principles of salesmanship which have
stood the test of reason and experience. Art consists
in doing. As it relates to salesmanship, art is the ap-
plication, or making such use of the scientific princi-
ples of salesmanship as to gain the largest measure of
success, or make the highest possible percentage of
sales to those solicited.
Knowledge of
Principles Makes
Results Certain
Every successful salesman,
whether consciously or uncon-
sciously, uses some of the scien-
tific principles of salesmanship,
but not being understood, they are used at random and
the results are uncertain. A clear understanding of
the science of salesmanship, and of the best methods
of applying that knowledge, produces double the re-
sults with half the effort.
Character the In this lesson we have stated some of
Corner-Stone the fundamental principles of sales-
manship, but the corner-stone upon
which this beautiful super-structure must rest is char-
acter. The finest trained mind in all the world is
simply a mockery if it is not builded on the solid rock
of character. Of what value is a brilliant intellect, a
great fortune, and national fame, if the guilt of graft-
ing drives its owner to a premature grave? Such a
life is worse than wasted. When young men learn that
trickery, crooked dealing, and graft are in every case.
absolutely suicidal, and that true and lasting success.
never has been and never will be builded on anything
less than absolute old-fashioned honesty, they have
taken the first step toward a successful and self-satis-
fying career.
150 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
1. What do you expect to gain from this study?
2. What is salesmanship?
3. How many factors enter into the making of a
sale?
C4. What have you to say about health as it relates
to success in business?
5. What do you believe the study of this subject
will do for you?
6. In making an exhaustive study of business,
what four classes of business men do we discover?
7. What can you say about selling goods which
the salesman knows little about?
8. Why should a salesman work in accordance
with the laws of the human mind?
9. What can you say about holding the picture
of the sale in your own mind?
10. Why should a salesman commit a selling
talk to memory?
art?
11. What is the difference between science and
12. Write a fifty word essay on how you would
introduce yourself and apply for a position.
Salesmanship Analysis
151
¡
Summary to Chapter VI
1. An inclusive definition of salesmanship in-
volves the idea of (1) mutual profit, benefit, and serv-
ice, (2) ability to influence, based upon scientific
knowledge, fidelity to truth, effectiveness in presenta-
tion, (3) character that is positive, aggressive, and
magnetic, and results in beneficent power over men.
2. A sale involves four factors: the salesman,
the customer, the goods, and the sale itself.
3. The salesman, to be successful, must have a
strong, healthy body full of vigor and nervous energy;
a clear, logical mind capable of accurate reasoning; and
a strong,, emotional nature that can feel and inspire
enthusiasm.
4. The good salesman must know his goods,
their origin, structure, composition, and usage; he
must know his customer, his nature and needs, that
he may serve him as expert adviser for mutual profit.
¶5. Seven processes are involved in a sale: the
introduction, the securing of attention, the arousing
of interest, the producing of conviction, the creating of
desire, creating resolve to buy, and the closing of the
order.
16. The customer's interest or benefit must be
kept foremost in every process of the sale.
7. The selling talk must be carefully prepared
in accordance with the principles of salesmanship; the
line of argument must be kept clearly in mind; and
the presentation must be made in a clear, logical, and
convincing manner. The appeal must be made to the
heart as well as to the head.
152
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
18. Well developed reason, imagination, judg-
ment, and will are essential to the largest success.
9. The traveling salesman must be a traveling
educator, instructing his customers in the character
and use of his goods, and in the best methods of sell-
ing them. Thus the sales to merchant, salesman, and
house will be increased and competition forestalled.
10. The greatest salesman is one who is thirst-
ing after a broader knowledge and more thoroughness,
who seeks to improve his method of expression, his
vocabulary, his command of good English, who culti-
vates tact, courtesy, and cheerfulness, good appear-
ance, right character, and strong personality.
Need of
Mind Study
CHAPTER VII
XXX
Mental Analysis
A great thinker has said, "The greatest
of all industries is the making of men,
to strengthen, ennoble, and render
mighty the race of human intelligence. The rational
mode of procedure must depend upon a knowledge of
the faculties of the mind and the most effective condition
for their employment." To do this we must study and
think. Theodore Roosevelt said in one of his foreign
lectures, "Now I am fifty years old, and if I had stopped.
learning, if I felt now that I had stopped learning, had
stopped trying to better myself, I feel that my useful-
ness to the community would be pretty nearly at an end."
Conditions We see it is absolutely necessary to study
Constantly and keep up with the times as well as
Changing
down to earth. You cannot afford to
worship your ideas and methods because
they are good. The fact that they were good yesterday,
and are good today does not mean that they will be
practical and most successful five years from now.
Business conditions and business methods have under-
gone a great change in the last ten years. Conditions.
in this country are changing so rapidly that business.
153
154
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
1
:
methods are likely to be revolutionized during the next
ten years. Only those who have sufficient courage and
foresight will be successful. The others will fall by the
wayside. Some of the greatest selling organizations of
the country have almost entirely changed their methods
during the last five years. They have been successful
because they changed in order to meet changing condi-
tions. Others clung tenaciously to the old methods, be-
lieving they could be applied to the new conditions.
They failed before they realized what was wrong.
Analysis Man is the foundation of all business suc-
of Man cess. If he is built right and works right
he is bound to be successful. I am going
to analyze man so that you can readily tell how to
analyze yourself, eliminate your weaknesses, and de-
velop your strong points.
Objects of One of our great thinkers has given us
This Course this analysis. He says, "By means of
the intellect we know, by means of the
sensibilities we feel, and by means of the will we choose;
and in their co-operative action there is the movement
and experience of man's mental life." The objects
of this course are: (1) The development of a keen
analytical intellect as a result of a study of knowledge
that is organized, tested, practical, and successful.
(2) The ability to appeal to people and persuade them
through an analytical knowledge of the emotions or
sensibilities. (3) The ability to choose and decide and
induce other peop'e to do the same at our suggestion,
as a result of a developed will that makes a man a com-
manding leader in the affairs of life.
1
Mental Analysis
155
The Great
Mental
Trinity
These three are the great mental trinity.
As a result of their proper development
and use, man can transform himself from a
weakling into a brilliant, capable leader.
Dare to let this thought grip your life. Use it as a
leverage to place yourself in the position which you
know in your heart you are capable of filling. Remem-
ber, "No being can be great without making himself
great." He is, therefore, forced to depend upon his own
resources so that there may be a continuous develop-
ment of his powers.
Study In order that I may help you to get a clearer
of Types idea of the three great mental factors, the
intellect, the sensibilities, and the will, I
have prepared the following chart for you. It shows
the proportionate development of the three great mental
factors in the various types of people. It is understood
that will means both choice and action, as it requires
will to choose, decide, and act.
Know
Analyze yourself in accordance with this
Yourself chart and determine to which of the seven
types you belong. Determine which type
you will strive to belong to. Determine which brain
force now dominates you, and where you are deficient.
When you find out where you are weak, do everything
in your power to overcome it.
Weakness
Due to Lack
of Will
From the mental types indicated you
realize that a man may have a splendid
intellect but still be a failure because he
hasn't developed leadership. He does
156
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
not take the initiative because his will is not developed.
Every man who has ever spent four years in a college or
university will tell you about some of the brightest
students in school, young men who were brilliant
students of Latin, Greek, or mathematics, young men
who, the student body thought, had great careers ahead
of them, but who later on were found raising a few
chickens, doing carpenter work, or something similar.
And why? Simply because they had only developed
their intellects. They had done nothing toward de-
veloping their wills. A man without a will is about as
helpless, as a ship without a rudder.
Ideal
Symmetrical One more illustration. You occasion-
Development ally hear a scholarly sermon from a
preacher who does very well in the
pulpit, but who is a failure as a leader
and an organizer. He, too, has failed to develop his
will. Again you hear a poor sermon from a preacher
who is a splendid leader and organizer. His will is
developed but his intellect is neglected. The ideal man,
like the ideal preacher, is the man whose intellect, emo-
tions, and will are developed equally; the man who can
both think and act. He is a thinker of thoughts and
a doer of deeds.
Mental Analysis
157
Summary of
Three Great Mental Factors
Intellect, Sensibilities and Will as Found in Different Indi-
viduals. Choice and Action Are a Part of Will.
Types
Thought
Emotion
Will

Small decision and
action.
Thought Emotion
Will

2
Thought Emotion Will
Aggressive and im-
pulsive but with poor
judgment and poor
sense.

The theorist, who
thinks much, has slight
emotion and does little
-small action.
Thought
Emotion
Will

Influenced by envi-
ronment. Goes
with
the crowd.
Thought Emotion
Will

6
The man who suc-
ceeds, right or wrong.
Thought Emotion
Will

ช่
Posi-Nega- Posi-Nega- Posi-
tive tive tive tive tive Nega-
tive
Thought
Emotion
Will
The man who is al-
most as much negative
as positive-a failure.

The equally devel-
oped man, who suc-
ceeds according to the
Golden Rule.
Intellect
and
Thought
Feelings
and
Emotion
Choice
and
Action
158
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Analysis of Types
1. Thought and Emotion Developed but
Weak Willed
¶Weak in decision and action, and without definite
purpose. Such a man may be bright, intelligent, and
capable except that he is lacking in initiative, lacking
in constructiveness, and perseverance. He does not seem
to possess the mental energy to decide and act promptly.
He lacks nerve. He is apparently either too much
afraid or too lazy to try.
2. Thinks Little but has Strong Emotion
and Action
¶The loud-mouthed man who is lacking in judg-
ment and common sense.
3. The Thinker Who has Little Feeling
and Will
The thinker, philosopher, theorist, talker, and per-
petual motion man, who has a fantastic remedy for
everything; who is lacking in feeling but not aggressive
enough either to decide or to act.
4. Has Excess of Feeling but Thinks
Little and is Weak Willed
¶The sentimentalist swayed by his emotional nature,
lacks concentration and ability to think logically. Is
slow to decide or act, and because of untrained judgment
is as likely to make an unwise decision as a wise one.
Drifts with his environment Such people are effemi-
Mental Analysis
159
}
nate, changeable, and capricious. They lack the power
to think or act. They are harmless, purposeless people
who depend upon luck and whine because of their bad
luck. They lack the ability to recognize an opportunity,
and the courage to act if it is pointed out to them. Such
men lack thought, originality, concentration, purpose,
and perseverance. They look for something to turn
up instead of turning it up.
5. Thought Power and Will Power Large,
Emotion and Conscience Small
¶The man of intellectual equipment and strong will,
the man of keen analysis, good judgment, concentration,
ambition, determination, and unlimited will power. The
man who cares little for conscience, whose ideal is the
dollar and who proposes to get it by fair means if he
can, but some other way if he must. The man who
thinks business is war, and that all is fair in war. The
man of the cold, intellectual type of Cæsar and Na-
poleon and some of our modern Captains of Industry.
6. Where Negative and Positive Qualities
Nearly Equalize Each Other
This is simply an illustration of the negative quali-
ties to be found in the other six types. A man's in-
tellect, sensibilities, and will are strong simply in pro-
portion to the development, separately or unitedly, of
their positive forces and the elimination of their nega-
tive qualities. The object of this chart and analysis
is to give you a better foundation for your study of
man building, and a clearer understanding of person-
ality development through the development of the posi-
160
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
}
tive qualities and the elimination of the negative, as
found in Chapter II.
7. The Man of Symmetrical Development
The all-around, normally developed man. The
man of intellect, the man of heart and conscience, and
the man of will. The man who wins success in accord-
ance with honesty and not in spite of dishonesty. The
man who is the brains and conscience of this country.
The man, who, like Marshall Field, built a reputation
for absolute reliability and honesty rather than the man
who disgusts trade and drives it away by marking
$1.00 shirts up to $1.50 and then marking them down
to ninety-five cents. Honesty of the Marshall Field
kind made Field the greatest merchant in the world.
Dishonesty of the other kind, while sometimes tempo-
rarily profitable, usually drives a man, either out of
business entirely, or else into the junk dealing class.
Law of The law of mental growth is the same as the
Growth law of physical growth. It is this: "Correct
exercise of any organ develops that organ."
Importance This subject could be continued indefi-
of Business nitely, but enough has been said to show
Building you that to be successful a man must
build himself and his business upon the
foundation shown in type seven. In building a business,
we consider the profit we make today as incidental to
the profit we expect to make. It is one thing to get
business, but it is quite another thing to hold it. If we
are ambitious to get all the profit we can cut of today's
*
Mental Analysis
161
transaction, regardless of the effect upon the future, we
cannot call ourselves business builders, but business.
killers. Business building is based upon the law of
mutual benefit, good service, and satisfaction. Business
killing aims to "do the other fellow" as soon as possible
and as long as he will stand for it. It registers its own
doom.
The Best
Salesmanship is a mental battle between
Arguments the man who wishes to sell and the man
Win
who isn't sure he wants to buy. When
a salesman and a prospect come to-
gether, the one with the best and strongest arguments
usually wins. A salesman always meets an argument
and a lot of objections in opposition to his own. A
strong salesman always batters down these objections
and overcomes the arguments. The weak salesman
listens to them and forgets his own. Instead of in-
fluencing his prospect, he permits his prospect to in-
fluence him. When two men come together to consider
a proposition the best man usually wins. Be that best
mon.
Methods of Developing the Will
Prompt Whenever you are inclined not to do
Action a disagreeable task which you know should
Necessary be done, do it at once for that reason.
Whenever you dislike to go out after busi-
ness, go immediately for that very reason. Do in-
stantly any disagreeable task which should be done, be-
162
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
cause you know it is to your advantage to do it. Re-
fuse at once to do any agreeable thing simply because
it is agreeable, if it is injurious to yourself or business.
Concentrate Concentrate and use daily in making
and Plan
sales every requisite power you possess;
you will then daily grow into a logical,
scientific, and successful salesman. Make a habit of
sitting down and thinking deliberately prior to every
important interview. Think the thing out in advance
and then when you undertake it, do your level best.
In the meantime burn deeply into your inner con-
sciousness this resolution: "I will, I am invincible; fail-
ure is an impossibility and not to be thought of."
Decision
One Mark
of Strength
Decision marks the strong man from the
weak man. "Indecision is the paralysis.
of usefulness." Get what information
you can get, or need to get, upon the
subject and then decide, once for all, either yes or no.
Entirely too large a per cent. of the average man's life is
wasted through continually putting off the moment of
decision. Failure to decide promptly, and then execute
immediately the thing they are convinced ought to be
done, robs mer. of opportunity and time which would
mean fortune. Vacillation will not do; you must de-
cide one way or the other after the evidence is all in.
Decision is the mark of strong men, men of courage.
In making a decision, add up every point in favor of the
proposition and every point against it, just as you would
two rows of figures. Put them under two heads,
affirmative and negative, just the same as a jury does
Mental Analysis
163
in an important case. After you have the reasons all
down, add up the two columns, and if the affirmative
has one more point in its favor than the negative, you
are mathematically compelled to make your decision ac-
cordingly. This is the method followed by Senator
Elihu Root. Don't think for a minute that you can re-
consider it, or that sentiment has anything to do with it.
It has not, except with a weakling, and you, my reader,
are no weakling, or you wouldn't be studying this book.
Types of
the Will
There are a great many different types of
will which are worth studying. We say one
man is slow but sure. He is not afraid of
drudgery. We might call his the slow but sure will.
There are several other kinds of will which a salesman
must understand and cultivate. Considering the types
of will in salesmanship, the following list will give an
idea of my meaning.
1. The slow but sure will; developed by constant
study, constant work, and attention to details.
2. The persistent will; developed by aggressive
thought and the habit of sticking to it—a determination
to hang on and never let go.
3. The loyal-fidelity will; developed by thinking,
by devotion to another, and ceaseless effort to help him.
4. The courageous will; developed by autosug-
gestion of courage, confidence, and determined effort to
succeed.
5. The alert will; developed by wide-awake ob-
servation of details and people, concentration on future
work, while not neglecting present work.
6. The tactful will; developed by the thoughtful
164
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
і
practice of adjusting one's self to others for their pleas-
ure and one's own profit, as well as theirs.
7. The assent-compelling will; developed by con-
tinually thinking what people are going to assent to in
one's proposition.
¶8. The intuitional will; developed by an unabated
desire to be a business diplomat, being continually cour-
teous, alert, desirous of adjusting one's self to circum-
stances, and always on the alert to develop intuitional
ability.
Eliminate
Your
Weaknesses
lowing methods:
pay.
Remember that the thing men know least
about is their individual selves. Cer-
tain qualities may be developed and
others eliminated. We suggest the fol-
1. Correct your faults. It may hurt but it will
2. Strengthen your weak places.
3. Banish fear, worry, blues, jealousy, hatred,
depression, etc. These are to you what salt is to iron.
They corrode and kill both you and your business.
4. Cultivate and practice the habit of construc-
tive optimism. Make yourself feel cheerful, courageous,
and happy.
5. Cultivate the habit of quick deliberation and
prompt decision.
6. Cultivate the habit of persistence, by carefully
attending to details.
Finally, make such a study of yourself and so ad-
just yourself to others that you will be well thought of.
Remember that "two-thirds of your success lies in mak-
ing people think you are all right."
Mental Analysis
165
Suggestive Written Exercises
1. Write a hunded word essay on the mental
factors you feel that you need to develop.
2. Write a hundred word essay on the man whose
intellect predominates.
3. Write a hundred word essay on the man whose
emotions predominate.
14. Write a two hundred word essay on the man
whose will is his predominating characteristic.
5. Is a man whose will power is highly developed
best adapted for an inside detail position or an outside
leadership position?
16. Give a specific method of developing will
power.
7. Write one hundred words showing how you
developed will power by doing what you should have
done, but did not like to do.
18. Write a two-page letter to a prospective buyer
of a sewing machine who has written a letter of inquiry. ·
Make your letter sell the machine. Develop your will
power by going to the sewing machine office and getting
the necessary information.
166
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Summary to Chapter VII
1. As the making of men is the greatest of all
industries, so the time has come that the same scien-
tific study must be made of the mental plant-the
mind-brain apparatus, for its understanding and im-
provement, that has been made in recent years for
the improvement of the physical plant, the apparatus.
and machinery, the office organization and manage-
ment.
¶2. Since mental life plays so significant a role
in commerce and industry, it must be brought to the
psychological laboratory for analysis, for the discovery
of the qualities or dispositions or processes that make
for success and efficiency.
3. The three great mental factors are intellect,
sensibilities, and will, and the manner in which these
are coordinated determines the different types of men.
¶4. "Correct exercise of any organ develops that
organ," and so the correct exercise of the qualities or
dispositions that predominate in the better types of
men may transform the weaker into the better type.
Likewise the weaker qualities or dispositions may be
eliminated by non-exercise.
5. In the conflict of business life, the best types
win whether of men, arguments, or methods.
¶6. Will may be developed by prompt action in
the midst of disagreeable circumstances, and by quick
and definite decision after reasonable consideration.
The types of will are, the slow but sure, the persistent,
the loyal fidelity, the courageous, the alert, the tact-
ful, the assent-compelling, and the intuitional.
1
CHAPTER VIII
XXX
The Mental Law of Sale
Mental Science I am going to make the state-
Behind
ment, and I do not expect to have
Physical Science it disproved, that Material or
Physical Science is at least fifty
years ahead of Mental Science, which includes Busi-
ness Science. By the knowledge and use of physics
and chemistry, mineral ore is made to give up the last
particle of value. As a result of the same knowledge,
every particle of the steer and the hog is utilized.
As a result of the knowledge of the science of me-
chanics, machines have been invented which have
doubled and quadrupled production. As a result of
this same knowledge, machines, like the cash register
and the adding machine, have been devised which have
revolutionized modern systems and modern business
organizations.
Lack of
Individual
Efficiency
But during all this time the efficiency of
the individual worker back of the ma-
chine has not been greatly increased.
Go into any first-class store and you
will find an up-to-date National Cash Register stand-
ing in front of the counter. The tools to make this
machine cost $600,000.00. It cost nearly half a mil-
167
168
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
lion more to invent and perfect it. Here is a machine
that has cost a million dollars, and look what it does!
It gives the merchant a complete system, an absolute
record of his day's business. It gives a total record
of cash sales, credit sales, money received on account,
and money paid out, for the day. It even gives an
itemized record of each transaction for the day and
who is responsible for it. It has been called "A human
brain in a steel box."
Machine More
Perfect
Than Man
Here is this machine in front of the
counter, that has cost a million dol-
lars and simply records the sales, but
how about the man behind the
counter who makes the sales? Practically nothing has
been spent on him in special training in order to make
him as efficient in getting the business as the machine
is in recording it. Don't you see the inequality and
business absurdity in the comparison? Will copper
and steel alone do the work of the Cash Register? No,
certainly not, unless they are first mixed with the
million dollars' worth of brains. At first they are
only the raw material. Will raw brains do the work
of a first-class salesman or business man? Why it is
unreasonable to expect it until this raw grey matter
is first mixed with the right kind of education.
Man Can
Increase His
Efficiency
Steel rails are worth in the neighbor-
hood of $28.00 a ton. This same steel,
when put through the proper processes.
of refining, is worth $12,000,000 a ton
when made into watch springs. The average man
apparently does not realize that he, too, can increase
The Mental Law of Sale
169
his value similarly by proper processes of refining,
But it can be done. A man can either remain in the
steel rail class and be good only for things to run on,
or he can get into the watch spring class and run the
whole works. I wish I might in some way so im-
press this statement that you-just you-who read it
now could and would take this home to yourself and
realize that it means you. That you can do it if you
will.
Machinery I will now show you why the mental
Contrasted world is sc far behind the mechanical
With Mind world. "Mechanics is the science of the
actions and functions of machinery."
"The science of mind action and function is psy-
chology." Machinery is something practical, tangible,
something that for generations men have been able
to see and feel and handle with the hands. There-
fore the rapid advance. The mind has been something
intangible, unseen, therefore unknown, and by the
majority, supposedly unknowable.
Man
Ignorant
of Self
The reason man has failed to advance
mentally is because he has failed to un-
derstand himself and his fellows. He has
failed to understand the laws governing
his mind. He has failed to understand human nature,
the feelings, habits, instincts, and thought processes
of himself and his fellows. Of course, we have had
psychologists but most of them have been theoretical
men and for that reason they have been unable to
show the average man how to connect their theoretical
principles to his practical job. In other words, the
170
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
psychologists have been, in large part, so far "up in
the air" that it has been almost impossible for the
average man to see any relationship between their
theory and his practice, and there is a good reason
for that, too-a reason which neither class has ap-
parently understood.
Limited
I am safe in saying that fully 90% of the
Education business men of this country have re-
ceived little better than a grammar school
education. For that reason they have difficulty in
learning the principles that underlie business, and how
to apply a principle to different transactions. Right
here is a good principle. I have found that the retail
salesman cannot at first appreciate the mental law of
sale when applied to specialty salesmanship, and that
the specialty salesman does not appreciate the value
of the mental law of sale when he sees it applied to
the sale of goods at retail. Neither class of men is
able at first to make the application of the principle
until shown how. For that reason we make the appli-
cation so clear that it is easily understood by all
classes.
•
Mental Law With this preliminary explanation I
of Sale
propose to discuss the Mental Law of
Sale, the mental processes through
which the mind must be taken while the sale is being
made, and make the application so clear from many
points of view that anybody can understand it.
Two
Valuable
Opinions
In order that I may throw a little more
light on this subject, right at the begin-
ning, I am going to quote from two great
specialists. The one is Professor Walter
The Mental Law of Sale
171
Dill Scott, head of the Department of Psychology of
Northwestern University, the other, Hugh Chalmers,
President of the Chalmers Motor Company. Prof.
Scott has made a deep study of business and has
written more on the subject of business psychology than
any other psychologist. Hugh Chalmers, on the other
hand, is one of the most brilliant young salesmen, gen-
eral managers, and business generals of this generation.
Their opinions are valuable.
Neglected Prof. Scott says: "Man is the one neg-
Factor in lected factor in business, and the most
Business important. Men who know how to get
maximum results out of machines are
common. The power to get the maximum of work out
of subordinates or out of yourself is a much rarer pos-
session. Of the elements involved in production or
distribution, the human factor is today the most seri-
ous problem confronting the business man. The indi-
vidual remains to be studied, trained, and developed-to
be brought up to the standard of maximum results already
reached by material and processes. The development
of the efficiency of the individual worker has remained
stationary. The reason lies in man's lack of real knowl-
edge of his fellows-knowledge of their feelings and
mind workings, habits and instincts."
Making Easier Hugh Chalmers says: "I have been
Than Selling in the manufacturing business
nearly all my life and I have found
that it is much easier to make things than it is to sell
them. It took me some time to figure that out. It
172
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
finally dawned upon me that the difference is caused
through the fact that in one case you deal mostly with
machinery and metals while in the other you deal
entirely with the mind. Machinery is a fixed quan-
tity. You know exactly what a machine can do and
exactly what it will do under given conditions. It is
very often automatic and requires little attention
from anyone. It is nearly always the same. It never
changes its mind. It is seldom influenced by outside
conditions. When you get on the other side and try
to deal with humanity, you face very different prob-
lems. Humanity thinks. It has feelings. It has sen-
sations, decisions, prejudices. It changes its mind.
It is influenced by environment and the conditions
surrounding it."
¶Do you realize how similar the two opinions
are? The one from a professor, the other from the
president of a great manufacturing concern.
A Sale
Takes Place
in the Mind
:
I believe with Hugh Chalmers that "a
sale does not take place in a man's
pocket, or in his pocket-book, or his
check-book, but it first takes place in
his mind. In order to make a sale you must convince
a man's mind. When you approach him he feels that
he does not want your goods. You feel that he should
have them and would buy them if he knew as much
about them as you do. In order to sell him you must
change his mind and bring i. around to agree with
yours. When we once put salesmanship on this broad
plane of convincing the other man's mind, it doesn't
make any difference whether we are trying to sell a
house and lot or a paper of pins."
The Mental Law of Sale
173
The Mental
Processes
I will now enumerate the mental pro-
cesses through which the mind goes
while the sale is being made. These
processes are so important that if one of them is
skipped the result will very likely be failure. The first
step in making the sale is the introduction or ap-
proach, the next is getting the attention, then arous-
ing interest, producing conviction, creating desire,
creating resolve to buy, and last and most important,
closing the order.
Processes
Closely
Connected
There are several processes here enum-
erated and some of them blend very
closely into the others, but I consider
them all essential in order to make this
law as clear as crystal to every salesman who studies
it. It can be abridged as follows: Attention, inter-
est, conviction, close, but in so doing it omits the in-
troduction and the desire to purchase. It gives only
one kind of conviction and there are really two. The
man is first convinced that the proposition is a good
one. He becomes satisfied of this, then he desires it.
He next resolves to get it, which means that he is
convinced he ought to get it.
The Intro- We will first consider the introduction
duction and what may be called the approach.
The two individuals meet. The sales-
man greets his prospective customer and sometimes
shakes hands with him, but not always. I want you
to think of this salesman as the party of the first part.
His sole object is to convince and persuade the party
of the second part to think as he thinks, feel as he
1
174
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
!
feels, and act as he would like to have him act. But
how? Here is where the laws governing the mind
must be considered. If they are not considered, either
consciously or unconsciously, or if only part of them
are broken, the interview is likely to result in `failure.
A Poor When the party of the second part is met
Approach he is curious. He is anxious to know
what his visitor wants. If the salesman
sells pianos, and says: "My name is Jones, and I want
to show you a piano, or I want to know if you don't
want to buy a piano," his prospect will very likely
say, "No, I do not," and walk away, simply because
the salesman has failed to approach him in the right
way, and has therefore broken one of the first laws
leading to the successful culmination of the transac-
tion. He has failed to address his prospect favor-
ably. He has antagonized him just a little, by failure
to get over on his side of the fence and address him
from his point of view.
A Decided Let us suppose that he addressed him
Improvement like this, "Mr. Brown, my name is
Jones, I represent the Blank Piano
Company and I was referred to you by Mr. So and So
who said you were in the market for a piano. The
object of my visit is to show you that the Blank Piano
will give you better service for the money than any
other piano."
Customer's Don't you see that in this case the sales-
View-Point man immedia ely talks to his customer
from the standpoint of his customer's
interests and needs, and not from the standpoint of his
The Mental Law of Sale
175
desire to sell? It is one thing, therefore, to meet a
man and greet him, but to get his attention away
from you and directed favorably toward your goods
is a different thing. Getting the attention, therefore,
I consider the second step. But what do we really
mean by attention? It is "The application of the mind
to any object," "Earnest consideration," "Conscious-
ness voluntarily applied to some determinate object,"
it is "Consciousness concentrated."
A Graphic In order to illustrate these mental pro-
Chart cesses graphically, I have prepared the
chart on page 176. Note that the minds
of the two parties are together, at least momentarily,
at the introduction. Usually the customer's mind goes
off on a tangent directly afterward, as he has his own
problems and plans to think about. To bring his mind
back so as to secure favorable attention to the goods
is the salesman's problem, and it is a most delicate one.
*
176
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Salesman and Customer
The crooked lines on the left indicate where the
prospective buyer's mind left the Arrow as result of ob-
jections. The straight lines back to Arrow indicate
power of Salesman.
INTRODUCTION
Mind goes off on tangent.

Too busy
ATTENTION
Called to
phone
Mind goes back to arrow,
but leaves when called
away.
Continuity
Broken
INTEREST
Price too
high
CONVICTION
Interested, but price too
high.
Mind brought back to ar-
row when convinced of
value, but not sure he
wants it.
Don't want
it
DESIRE
Desires it, but not sure he
can afford it.
Can't af-
ford it
RESOLVE
Decides to buy-later on.
Mind forced to arrow at
Not now
Resolve, but left it by
Later on
deciding not to buy till
later.
SIGNED ORDER Decides to do it now.
BULLSEYE
The Mental Law of Sale
177
Negatives
Repel
Suppose we see how to gain the attention
in selling goods at retail. I heard a clerk
say to a customer one day, "You wouldn't
want any oranges would you?" Of course the custo-
mer said, "No." Didn't the clerk tell him he did not
want any by giving him a negative suggestion?
Positives
Attract
Here is the way a trained salesman at-
tracted the attention and made the sale of
a dozen oranges. Note the contrast. "We
have just received a carload of large, juicy, sweet
oranges direct from Florida. They are only forty cents
a dozen and I believe you would like them." While say-
ing this he picked up an orange and handed it to his
prospective customer.
Negative
Here is another comparison. The one
and Positive is negative, the other positive. The one
Compared is contrary to the Mental Law of Sale,
the other is in harmony with it. The
negative is doomed to fail. The positive leads in the
direction of success. The following is the negative.
The Weak A traveling man walked into a store and
Negative said he represented So and So handling
a certain line of goods, and said to the
merchant, "Are you in need of anything in my line?"
The merchant said, "No." "Well," he said, "I have
a very good price." The merchant said he wasn't in-
terested, so the traveling man said he would call again.
The positive comparison follows.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
The Strong There was a circus in town and the small
Positive boy rushed up to his father and said,
"Papa, give me a quarter. I want to go
to the circus." The father said, "Go away and don't
bother me." "But," said the boy, "the parade is com-
ing right down Main street now, elephants, lions, tigers,
and everything, and I've just got to go." The father
said, "Here, take the quarter and go on." The average
boy uses better salesmanship on his father when a circus
comes to town, than does many a salesman in selling
goods.
Continuity We will now go back to our diagram.
Broken You will remember that both men's
minds are together at the introduction
and the salesman aims to hold his pros-
pect's mind on the arrow until the arrow hits the bull's
eye-which is the prospective buyer's will-and clinches
the order. But he cannot always do it. For instance,
just after the salesman commenced to discuss his propo-
sition the proprietor was called to the phone, or to wait
on a customer, thereby taking his mind off on a different
angle. When he was through, the continuity of the
salesman's talk having been broken, the proprietor would
likely say, "No, I don't care anything about it." The
salesman would have to commence a new line of vigor-
ous talk in order to get his prospect's mind back to the
arrow.
Arousing
Interest
The next step is to carry his prospect's
mind from attention to interest. In other
words, attention sustained ripens into in-
The Mental Law of Sale
179
!
terest, and what is interest? It is "Excitement of feel-
ing, whether pleasant or painful, accompanying special
attention to some object; to arouse; to excite to action;
to excite emotion or passion in behalf of a person or
thing. Interest expresses mental excitement of various
kinds and degrees. It may be intellectual, or sympathetic
and emotional, or merely personal." But notice, inter-
est means to excite to action. I want you to notice
something very carefully right at this point. You must
interest an individual either in what you are saying or
in how you say it-your method of expressing it. You
must do this in order to keep his attention. Concentrate
on what you are saying. It takes will power to do it,
as attention is the center of the will.
Conviction
Precedes
Desire
:
Interest sustained soon ripens into con-
viction that the article under considera-
tion is a good thing. After a man is
convinced that it is a good thing for him,
then the next step is for him to desire it. A good many
salesmen try to jump from interest to desire without ever
convincing the man. That is a fatal mistake, as con-
viction as to the value or personal advantage of the ar-
ticle must mentally precede desire. But before I go into
this further, I want to go back and make the subject of
interest plainer to you. I can do this by illustration
better than any other way.
Interest
and Desire
Not Identical
A great many salesmen have a fatal
weakness in their selling talk right at
this point and I want to point it out
so clearly that every reader, no matter
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
whether a salesman or not, will fully appreciate it.
This fatal mistake consists in thinking that because an
individual is interested in a proposition he desires it, and
for that reason it is unnecessary either to produce con-
viction or create desire. I have gazed upon a pure white
thoroughbred Arabian hotse and I was deeply interested,
but had no thought of desiring the horse. I have stood
before Niagara Falls for hours and gazed upon nature's
marvelous work. I have stood there because I was in-
terested-not because I had any idea of desiring the
Falls. I have stood on the top of Pike's Peak and
viewed the surrounding country with a great deal of in-
terest, but there was no semblance of desire mingled
with my interest. Don't think for a minute that, because
you show your goods to an individual and he is inter-
ested in them and greatly admires them, he is going to
buy them without first being convinced that they are
worth the money, or to his advantage. Conviction and
desire are the result of an appeal to entirely different
mental emotions from the appeal to mere human inter-
est. The whole world can be and is interested through
curiosity—mere curiosity. Please remember that and
try it, but do not jump to the conclusion that because
they are curious they are necessarily going to buy.
All the Steps
Covered
Quickly
The steps in the Mental Law of Sale
are so closely connected that the mind
goes inrough the processes sometimes
with almost electrical rapidity, but it
consciously or unconsciously takes the steps just the
For instance: a grocery clerk sold a customer
all he wanted and when he was going out the salesman
same.
The Mental Law of Sale
181
called his attention to a basket of beautiful, ripe peaches.
He interested the man by taking a peach out of the
basket and telling him how beautiful it was. It was
sunkissed on one side and an autumn brown on the
other. He held it up in his hand for the man to look at.
As soon as the customer saw it his mouth watered and
he desired it. He was convinced that it was good, and
good for him. At this instant the clerk said, "Take a
bite of it." One bite was enough to whet his appetite
and make him resolve to satisfy it. He asked the price
of the basket, paid his money and took the peaches. You
can easily trace every step in the Mental Law of Sale
in this simple sale of a basket of peaches.
Producing
Conviction
له
I come now to the subject of conviction,
and conviction is the heart and center of
the Mental Law of Sale. If you fail
here you fail entirely-at least for the time being. This
same thing can be said about the approach. If you can
not induce your prospect to listen, you have no oppor-
tunity to sell him. You are beginning to realize the im-
portance of each step or process in the Law of Sale. Con-
viction comes next. Well, what do we mean by convic-
tion, and how do we bring it about? I have asked two
very hard questions and I will try to answer them satis-
factorily.
Conviction "Conviction is the result of the operation
Analyzed of the understanding; persuasion of the
will; conviction is a necessity of the mind,
persuasion an acquiescence of the inclination." Black-
stone, the legal authority, says, "Conviction may accrue
182
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
two ways, either by the act of convincing of error, or
compelling the admission of a truth; confutation." "To
convince is an act of the understanding; to persuade, of
the will or feelings." Therefore, a man must know
how to manipulate the understanding in order to pro-
duce conviction. "The one is affected by argument;
the other by motives. There are cases, however, in
which persuasion may seem to be used in reference only
to the assent of the understanding, as when we say,
'I am persuaded that it is so and so'; 'I cannot persuade.
myself of the fact.' But in such instances there is
usually or always a degree of awakened feeling which
has had its share in producing its assent of the under-
standing." The foregoing may seem a little technical
to some so I will try to make it clearer.
Two Methods
of Producing
Conviction
There are just two methods by means
of which we can induce a man to act,
and action is what we are after in
salesmanship. The one is to convince
his understanding and his judgment and thereby get the
consent of his will to act; the other is through persuad-
ing his emotions and inducing his feelings to control his
will and therefore his actions.
Evidence
Must Be
Organized
The problem of producing conviction is
the greatest problem in all salesmanship.
This is true because the reason and judg-
ment must be satisfied. Judgment is the
supreme court of the human mind. There is no higher
court; reason and judgment must be satisfied. It is one
thing to have ideas but it is another thing to organize
them and still another thing to present them to the mind
The Mental Law of Sale
183
in such a way as to satisfy reason and judgment and pro-
duce conviction. Let me illustrate. Suppose I ask a
grocer for two pounds of sugar and he places the weights
on his old-fashioned scales and pours in the sugar, the
beam will come up when the two pounds are poured in.
But suppose he stood ten feet from the scales and tossed
the weights on the scales instead of placing them
properly. The chances are that one or both weights
would fall off and the sugar would not weigh right. So
it is with evidence. If disorganized and thrown at the
mind in any way it certainly will not satisfy the scales
of judgment and produce conviction.
Effect of
Judgment
on Success
I want you to pay particular attention to
that word judgment. Don't you know
that judgment is one of the greatest
causes of success or failure in life?
I knew a man to refuse a position that would have
paid him $500.00 per month when his time wasn't
worth $100.00, simply because he thought someone he
did not like might make a little profit out of his work.
His judgment did not dictate his decision but his preju-
dice did. Men will make decisions based upon prejudice,
jealousy, spite, hatred, like or dislike, and numerous
other negative qualities. But just as surely as man
throws judgment to the wind when he makes a de-
cision he is leading straight toward the rocky reefs
of destruction. You must take this into consideration
when making a sale.
Judgment But let us go back to judgment. How do
Defined we form a judgment? Judgment is "that
act of the mind by which two notions or
i
184
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
;
ideas which are apprehended as distinct are compared,
for the purpose of ascertaining their agreement or dis-
agreement. It is that power or faculty by which knowl-
edge, dependent upon comparison and discrimination, is
acquired. It is the act of judging; the operation of the
mind involving comparison and discrimination, by which
the knowledge of the values and relations of things,
whether of moral qualities, intellectual concepts, logical
propositions, or material facts, are obtained."
Judgment
Based on
Comparison
reason.
Comparison is the basis of judgment.
You must compare one thing with an-
other in order to arrive at a judgment.
In order to do that you must exercise
We notice then that comparison is the basis of
reason as well as of judgment. You cannot reason or think
about an idea unless you have some other idea to compare
with it. Your judgment or conclusion will not only be
based upon reason but upon your past experience. If I
ask you to pass judgment on a horse, your opinion or
judgment will be valued in accordance with your previous
knowledge of horses. If I ask for your judgment
in regard to a suit of clothes, a farm, or a business policy,
the value of that judgment will depend upon your prev-
ious experience and your ability to draw accurate con-
clusions from it, as well as your ability to reason.
Poor
Judgment
Illustrated
Here is an illustration of poor judgment,
and it may show how judgment can be
developed. A country store-keeper bought
a ton and a half of raisins. The town he
lived in had a population of only 500. Had he consulted
The Mental Law of Sale
185
either his reason, judgment, or the needs of the town he
would have known that he was buying too many raisins.
He evidently did neither. He put nearly all the raisins
down cellar and they spoiled. At another time he bought
enough window curtains to do the community five years.
No wonder he did not make money. The man who sold
him apparently did not need to appeal to his judgment.
He simply enthused and persuaded him into over-buying.
Apparently he had little buying judgment to appeal to.
But a salesman who will overload a buyer to the buyer's
evident loss, and the wholesale house that will fill the
order, are both guilty of legal robbery. The salesman
who profits most in the end is the one who serves best
and gives the best expert advice. But this is simply an
illustration on the development and value of judgment.
Reasoning In passing I want to call your attention to
Power
the word reason. Reason exercises such
Analyzed a great part in forming a judgment that
I want to spend a little time in getting a
clearer understanding of reason and how we go about it
to reason. Comparison forms the basis of judgment.
It also forms the basis of reasoning. We compare hard
woods with oak as a standard. We compare a good
orator with Bryan. We compare one hotel with an-
other. We compare one line of goods with another that
is well known. This gives us a basis of comparison as
to which is better or worse. We compare two ideas
and therefore get reasons for forming a judgment. We
compare two more ideas and get reasons for forming
another judgment. We then take the final judgments
186
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
and compare them. We again have reasons for making
or forming a later judgment.
Reason Reason is "the faculty or capacity of the hu-
Defined man mind by which it is distinguished from
the intelligence of the lower animals; the
higher as distinguished from the lower cognitive facul-
ties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to
the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception,
judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. We
have no other faculties of perceiving or knowing any-
thing, divine or human, but by our five senses and our
reason."
"Due exercise of the reasoning faculties; accord-
ance with, or that which is accordant with and ratified
by, the mind rightly exercised; right intellectual judg-
ment; clear and fair deductions from true principles;
that which is dictated or supported by the common sense
of mankind; right conduct; right propriety; justice."
"To exercise the rational faculties; to deduce in-
ferences from premises; to perform the process of in-
duction or deduction; to reach conclusions by a system-
atic comparison of facts."
Two Kinds
of Reasoning
Before we finish this subject of con-
viction we must go one step further
with the subject of reason. There are
two kinds of reason-inductive and deductive. I simply
want to define them and give this explanation here. The
objective mind reasons both inductively and deductively,
but the subjective mind reasons only deductively.
The Mental Law of Sale
187
Inductive Inductive reasoning is "the act or process
Reasoning of reasoning from a part to a whole, from
particulars to generals, or from the in-
dividual to the universal." John Stuart Mill says: "In-
duction is the process by which we conclude that what
is true of certain individuals of a class, is true of the
whole class, or that what is true at certain times will be
true in similar circumstances at all times." It is "a
process of demonstration in which a general truth is
gathered from an examination of particular cases, one
of which is known to be true." "In induction we ob-
serve a sufficient number of individual facts, and on the
ground of analogy, extend what is true of them to others
of the same class, thus arriving at general principles or
laws. This is the kind of reasoning in physical science.
Deductive "In deduction we begin with a general truth,
Reasoning which is already proven or provisionally
assumed and seek to connect it with some
particular case by means of a middle term or class of
objects known to be equally connected with both. Thus
we bring down the general into the particular, affirming
of the latter the distinctive qualities of the former. This
is the syllogistic method. By induction Franklin estab-
lished the identity of lightning and electricity. By de-
duction he inferred that dwellings might be protected by
lightning rods."
Deductive I wish to give two illustrations of deductive
Logic logic. The first is true-the second is not,
but they are both logical. Logic is the
science of correct reasoning. But logic does not stop to
ask whether the statement is true or false.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Here is the first syllogism:
Man is mortal.
Roosevelt is a man.
Therefore, Roosevelt is mortal.
You see my first statement or premise is correct,
therefore, the conclusion is correct.
Here is the other:
Every salesman is rich.
You are a salesman.
Therefore, you are rich.
You see my first premise or statement is wrong,
and, therefore, my conclusion is wrong.
Truth the
Basis of
Confidence
If the basis of your argument or selling
talk is wrong, your conclusion will be
wrong and your work will end in failure.
Analyze your statements. See that they
are true. Unless they are, you will end in failure. You
see how honesty leads to success. A very able salesman
has offered this advice and it is pertinent here. "You
must get a man's confidence, but you will never get a
man's confidence by lying to him. You must tell
him the truth, but what good will it do to tell him
the truth when he doesn't know you are telling the
truth? Tell him something he absolutely knows is true
and then he will believe the rest."
Conviction This may seem like a long and difficult
Vitally discussion on the subject of conviction,
Important but it is absolutely essential in order to
do justice to the subject and justice to
the student. It will need a good deal of study in order
The Mental Law of Sale
189
:
to be thoroughly understood. From the time you get
your man interested until he is thoroughly convinced,
he makes a great many objections, and it is difficult to
bring his mind back to the arrow.
But conviction as to
the value of the goods will do it.
Conviction
and Desire
Contrasted
The next step for us to consider is creat-
ing the desire. But some of us will say
if we have already produced conviction
we must of necessity have created desire.
But that is not always true. I may be convinced that
a threshing machine is a good thing and still not desire
it. I may be convinced that an automobile is a good
thing and still not desire it, because I may not think it
is to my advantage. I may be convinced that a certain
retail business is a profitable business and still not de-
sire it. And yet conviction and desire are so closely
related in the human mind that in many cases they may
seem almost inseparable.
Conviction
Must Precede
Desire
In many cases an individual desires an
article as soon as he is convinced that
it is a good thing and to his advantage.
But even then the conviction precedes
the desire if only by a small fraction of time. I want
to make this so clear that there will be no misunder-
standing, so that the student may be able to bring about
the desired result, not only because he understands the
processes but because he knows how to create them by
bringing about the correct influence.
190
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Desire We have seen that the mental emotion that
Defined arouses interest is an entirely different emo-
tion from the emotion that creates desire.
One may be interested through curiosity or because the
subject or proposition is new and attractive, but still not
desire it. Desire is "to long for, to hanker after, re-
quest, solicit, entreat. The natural longing that is ex-
cited by the enjoyment or the thought of any good, and
impels to action or effort for its continuance or posses-
sion; an eager wish to obtain or enjoy."
Creating When you create the desire and make the
Desire sale, you do it because of what the individual
thinks and feels. When you fail to create
the desire and therefore fail to make the sale, you fail
because of what your possible customer thinks and feels.
You cannot sell to an individual until that individual is
willing to buy, because making a purchase must be volun-
tary on the part of the purchaser.
¶In planning a sale you must decide upon two
things: first, what must your prospect think and feel
before he is willing to buy; and, second, how can you
persuade him to think those thoughts and feel as you
want him to feel? The first question that arises is, how
are you going to determine just what you would like
the prospect to think and feel?
Motives
Classified
Some motive dictates the decision made by
every individual who makes a purchase.
When an individual decides that he is will-
ing to buy, that he desires to buy, it is because an effec-
The Mental Law of Sale
191
tive appeal has been made to some one of the following
five motives:
€1.
1.
Profit.
€2.
2.
Pleasure.
13.
Caution.
4. Pride or Vanity.
15.
5. Utility or Usefulness.
Sometimes two or more motives influence the pur-
chaser in making the sale. But there is usually one pre-
dominating motive.
Illustrations Every wide-awake business man fights
of Motives for half of one per cent. profit. If you
can show a business man that the money
invested in your proposition will bring him a bigger
dividend than the money he now has invested is paying,
you have given him a motive for buying. Motive is
the leverage you must use in creating the desire.
Many automobiles are bought as a result of the
appeal to pleasure.
A man insures his life, his home, or his business
because of his Caution Motive.
I saw a silver fox muff that cost seven thousand
dollars. Did this woman buy the muff simply to keep
her hands warm? Don't you think pride and vanity had
something to do with it? I also saw a woman's sable
cloak that cost thirty thousand dollars. Do you think
the utility motive was the only motive that appealed to
that woman? Don't you think the vanity and pride
appeal had much more to do in making the sale than the
utility appeal?
192
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
f
In buying furniture, a typewriter, an adding ma-
chine, or a home, the utility appeal is the major appeal.
Motives
Stimulate
Desire
In order to create desire the salesman
must arouse a motive and use it as a lever-
age. The motive stimulates desire and
provides a willingness to purchase. As
soon as the individual shows a willingness to buy, that
willingness should immediately be ripened into resolve.
An individual's motives-his desire for profit, pleasure,
his pride, caution, and love of what is useful these
things are alive and interesting; they furnish a strong
leverage; they make a vigorous appeal and they create
desire.
Salesman
Must Know
Motives
A salesman may know his goods, he may
know everything about them in fact, and
still his selling talk may be very ineffec-
tive because he does not know how to
analyze the human mind and appeal to the proper motive.
The salesman who tries to sell an article to an individual
without knowing the motive which should prompt him
to buy it is almost as helpless as the salesman who at-
tempts to sell a book to a man who cannot read or a
horse liniment to a man who has no horses.
A Striking
Illustration
I will illustrate this part of the Law of
Sale. A young man came into a cloth-
ing store and asked the clerk to show
him a $15.00 overcoat. The clerk showed it to him but
did not exhibit much enthusiasm in doing it. After he
had tried on that overcoat the clerk induced him to put
The Mental Law of Sale
193
on a $20.00 coat. He then commenced to use salesman-
ship. He showed him it was a better fit, better cloth,
and better made, and that he would have a better stand-
ing among his business associates with this particular
coat than were he to take the cheaper one. He asked
the man to view himself in the glass. Finally he said,
"Come up to the fitting room." He did not ask the
young man if he would go to the fitting room. He did
not ask him if he were going to take the coat, all of
which would have been negative suggestions and might
have killed the sale. He not only took it for granted.
the man was going to the fitting room, but he took it
for granted he was going to buy the coat. So in starting
to the fitting room he not only said "Come" but made a
gesture for him to accompany him. The cutter meas-
ured the coat, taking it for granted all the time that the
man had bought the coat, and consequently made sug-
gestions accordingly. The man took the coat off and
left it to be adjusted, paid his $15.00 (all he had with
him) and left, saying he would pay the $5.00 yet due
when he came for the coat.
That salesman made a $5.00 sale. The customer
came in after a $15.00 coat, bought a $20.00 coat and
was better satisfied. He sold himself the $15.00 coat.
The clerk sold him the extra $5.00 worth.
But somebody says: "That won't happen very
often." Well, suppose it doesn't. How often has a
man been elected President of the United States in re-
cent years without putting forth every possible effort
in order to win? Let us suppose this method wins only
once out of three times, or even once out of ten times
without in any way antagonizing his customers. It just
194
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
adds that much more value to the selling ability of the
salesman.
Appeal to
Spirit of
Ownership notice. This salesman created his custo-
mer's desire for the coat after the custo-
mer put the coat on. Do you realize that as soon as an
individual puts on a garment and looks at himself in the
glass, that garment immediately and unconsciously be-
comes part of him? A feeling of ownership immediately
asserts itself. Put on a hat, a coat, a pair of gloves, of
a pair of shoes, and if they fit, you want to keep them,
Your spirit of ownership unconsciously asserts itself.
That is the reason every good salesman induces his cus-
tomers to put on the shoes, gloves, or garments, although
he may not know himself what the psychological effect
is. If you, as a salesman, are not selling goods that can
be put on, a somewhat similar effect can be produced by
letting him handle them.
I want to call your attention to one thing
in this connection that might escape your
Operating
Machine Aids
Interest
If I were selling automobiles I would
get the man into the car-not in the
back seat-but into the front seat, and
if practicable, would let him run the
machine part of the time. He would, in this way, have
his hands on the most vital part of it. The vibration
and pulsation of the machine would enter into his whole
system. He would unconsciously become a part of it
and it would become a part of him. There would be an
attraction between the two, an affinity, if you please,
and there would be an unconscious assumption of owner-
The Mental Law of Sale
195
ship. Can't you apply this same principle to the sale
of any kind of goods? Certainly you can.
Have you
ever seen a successful candidate for office shake hands
with his left hand the day after election? His right
hand was lame from shaking. Don't you see the same
principle operating? Human nature likes contact with
the thing it is interested in. If I were selling any kind
of a machine, typewriter, cash register, adding machine,
etc., I would have the prospect operate it.
Value of
Confidence
A clothing salesman from Northern Mis-
souri telephoned to a merchant in South-
ern Iowa that he was coming up to see
him. The merchant said there was no use in his coming
as he had just bought all he needed. He had bought
$200.00 worth. This salesman was a man who under-
stood the Mental Law of Sale and he came anyway. I
wanted to sell this merchant a cash register, and I
finally did, but when I went into his store he was busy
with the salesman to whom he had telephoned not to
come. I waited half a day before I could see the mer-
chant. Finally the salesman got through and I asked
him how much he sold and he said $650.00 worth.
What did it? A good personality and the Mental Law
of Sale, for he admitted to me that his goods were no
better than his competitors'. What will an individual
not do when desire has been aroused to white heat?
After the salesman left I thought I would find
out from the merchant just why he bought so heavily
when he had not intended to buy anything, so I said
to him: "That salesman is a very nice fellow, isn't
he?" The merchant said: "He certainly is. He is the
196
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
finest traveling man that makes this town." You see
he had the merchant's confidence, and confidence is the
corner-stone of success in both salesmanship and busi-
ness. This merchant felt that the salesman was
square, that he was honest, that he was interested in
him and in his success.
Changing
Desire into
Resolve
Desire sustained ripens into resolve to
possess, and that is the next step in the
Law of Sale. Resolve to buy very often
follows so closely upon the heels of de-
sire to possess, that some may think that resolve is a
part of desire. But it is not. It is a distinct step in
itself. I may be convinced that a certain house and
lot would be a bargain. I may desire it and still not
resolve to get it because I do not care to assume either
the responsibility at that time or be bothered with the
property; or it may be fear that keeps me from buy-
ing—a negative, baseless fear. My mind, therefore,
goes off on a tangent and it must be brought back to
the arrow. How can it be done?
A Success-
ful Method
Here is a strenuous method that I some-
times use. I say something like this:
"Let us suppose that you and I are off
here in the corner of this room trying to figure out to-
gether a method whereby we can both make some
money. Now if I make this sale I will make a little
money, a small profit once, but it will be very small
in comparison with your profit which will be continu-
ous. You have made a careful study of this proposi
tion. You are absolutely convinced it is to your ad
vantage. Your reason and judgment absolutely as
The Mental Law of Sale
197
sure you that this is to your advantage. Your judg-
ment is your court of last resort. You are compelled
to act in accordance with it in order to do yourself
justice. If you fail to act in accordance with your own
best interests and your own best judgment, you be-
come at once an enemy to your own best interests.
You stand in your own light. You simply rob yourself
of so much money that rightfully belongs to yourself,
your wife, and your children. When I am abso-
lutely assured that my proposition is to a man's ad-
vantage and will make him money, and then fail to
urge him to take it, I feel that I am not doing him
justice. I am not giving him a square deal. I feel
just that way about this proposition, and that is the
reason I am so insistent. When you get it and make
the profit out of it these other men are making whose
recommendations I have shown you, and who are
similarly situated, you will thank me for inducing you
to decide and inducing you to decide now."
This argument arranged to suit the particular
situation has helped me to induce a lot of people to
make the purchase.
Closing "All right,” the prospect says, “I will take
the Order it but not before the Holidays," or spring,
or some such time three or four months
in the future. His mind goes off on another tangent-
away past the bull's eye. You have approached him
correctly. You have gotten his attention, aroused his
interest, produced conviction, created his desire, pro-
duced resolve to buy. In other words you have done
six-sevenths of the work. Are you now going to lose,
the sale after doing all the hard work and getting so
198
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
close to the order? Here now comes your supreme
effort. You are to exercise the supreme resolution of
your mind to make the sale and make it now, if it is
best.
Do it Let us examine the situation a bit. If you are
Now selling a specialty, whether you have competi-
tion or not, you should close the order and
close it now if you can. Right here is where the good
salesman adds largely to his income. But let us sup-
pose that you are not a specialty salesman. Let us
suppose, for illustration, you are selling paint. Selling
paint is very much like selling any line of goods to
the retailer. Let us suppose that Mr. Merchant says
he will take the paint but he won't take it until such
and such a time. What are you to do? In some few
cases it is wiser not to push the sale than to push it.
Let us suppose you let him go, and when you come
back three months hence you find him stocked up with
the other fellow's paint. What would you think?
That very thing will happen many times unless you
are such a master of suggestion and can paint such a
vivid picture on the tablets of his memory that no other
salesman can possibly sell him.
Sell SERVICE In order to hold a merchant you
With Your must sell him more than mere paint.
Goods
You must sell him both service and
information. In order to appeal to
him in such a way as to hold him, you must show him
that you are not only willing but able to give him
such selling information that you will actually help him
to sell the paint. If you can show him that a certain
The Mental Law of Sale
199
kind of paint applied to a certain kind of shingle con-
taining a certain kind of natural oil, will rot and ruin
the shingle, but that another kind of paint acting in
conjunction with the natural oil of the shingle will
preserve it, you have given that merchant an idea that
will aid him greatly in selling paint. The merchant
likes to deal with such a salesman. His competitor
who does not have this information will have no chance
to sell.
Success of The above is one of the methods used
This Method by the star salesman of one of the great
paint concerns. This man captures the
yearly prizes offered by his company for their best
salesman in the United States. He never urges a
sale when he is convinced the time is not ripe to sell,
but he is such an artist in the use of suggestion that
the merchant waits for him to return. It is a rare
thing for a competitor to sell to one of his customers.
That is the reason he gets such a big salary.
Danger of
Being too
Easy
What is true of the paint business is
equally true of shoes, dry goods, cloth-
ing, groceries, and similar lines. If you
persist in selling a man when your good
judgment tells you that it isn't wise for him to buy
until you come around next time, the chances are you
will make him "sore." But if you are not extremely
wise and careful you will be too easy and lose heavily
for that reason. The fact that a man says he does not
want anything, does not mean much. The salesman
who sells only to the man who already wants some-
thing will not make money enough to pay his railroad
200
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
fare. Be diplomatic, but firmly persistent. If you
are going to overdo either side, by all means overdo
the side of persistence. I have spent seven days in
a man's store on five different occasions before I sold
him a Cash Register. If I had not fought it out with
him in this way I would not have made the sale. I
have known a specialty salesman to follow a man all
day in his store, watch every move in order to get
information that would help him close the sale. Per-
sistent concentration and bulldog determination did
it.
Evidence This chapter would not be complete with-
and How out a short discussion on the subject of
to Use It evidence. Evidence is that which is
"clear to the understanding and satisfac-
tory to the judgment." Hume says: "To conform our
language more to common use, we ought to divide
arguments into demonstrations, proofs, and proba-
bilities; by proofs meaning such arguments from ex-
perience as leave no room for doubt or opposition."
Evidence I hope the above statement will give a
Illustrated fairly clear idea of what is meant by
evidence. I will use illustrations in
order to make this subject of evidence absolutely clear,
practical, and helpful to every salesman. There are
two kinds of evidence, viz., evidence which is sworn
to by eye-witnesses, or direct evidence, and circum-
stantial evidence. I want to illustrate what I mean
by circumstantial evidence. Part of a bolt of a pecu-
liar colored silk, forty inches wide, was stolen from a
store. A certain man's house was searched and what
The Mental Law of Sale
201
seemed to be the silk was found, but the man declared
he bought the silk in a certain store in another town.
The silk was taken to the store and it was found that
it did not conform in either color or width to the silk
in the store where the man said he got it, as the silk
in that store was thirty-six inches wide, while that
particular bolt was forty inches wide. The silk was
brought back to the store from which it was supposed
to have been stolen and it was the same color, the same
width, and the two torn ends exactly matched. This
is circumstantial evidence.
•
Evidence Here is the way I have used evidence in
Applied selling National Cash Registers. I have
made a demonstration and shown how
valuable the Register would be to the merchant; then
shown a list of recommendations and said: "If what
1 have said is true and what these people say is true,
it would be to your financial advantage to have this
Register, would it not?" "Yes, but how do I know it is
true?" "Mr. Blank, here is a list of merchants who use
this kind of a Register and who live within twenty
miles of here. I will make you this proposition; visit
any or all of these merchants. If they tell you their
Registers are as profitable to them as they have indi-
cated in their endorsements, and even more so, you can
afford the trip because it is to your financial advantage
to be sure of it, isn't it? If, on the other hand, they
are not so enthusiastic as I have indicated, or if they
tell you their Registers are not so profitable as I have
tried to make you believe, then I will pay your car
fare and $10.00 a day for your time when gone. That
is fair, isn't it? In the face of my offer you cannot
202
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
afford to turn this proposition down, can you?” You
see my proposition establishes the confidence that
might otherwise be lacking.
The evidence which I have to offer comes from
a multitude of merchants similarly situated. The evi-
dence is absolute, and no man or group of men could
or would ignore it in any court of law in the land.
And when a man does ignore it, he prostitutes reason
and judgment. He admits he is not considering the
proposition on the basis of intelligence and profit, un-
less he has some particular reason for not buying.
The Mental Law of Sale
203
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
1. Why is the science of mechanics so much
better understood than the science of Salesmanship?
2. Why has the business man failed to advance
as he should?
3. Which step in the Mental Law of Sale do
you consider most important? Why?
14. How do you prove to a man that it is to his
advantage to buy?
5. Illustrate the difference between interest and
desire.
6. What two methods of producing conviction
are described?
7. Give an illustration of how value may be
added to given material by processes of refining or
manufacture.
18. Is it possible to increase mind values pro-
portionately?
9. Write a selling talk of one hundred words.
Use as your subject a pair of shoes, a suit of clothes,
a typewriter, or some familiar article. Go to the shoe
shop, clothing store, or typewriter office and have the
salesman give you a careful demonstration. Make a
critical study of your subject.
204 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Summary to Chapter VIII
(1.
1. The business world, that has made such
marvelous strides forward in material equipment, is
just beginning to apply scientific psychology to the
human element, with the prospect of greatly increas-
ing mental efficiency.
2. A sale takes place in the mind, so efficient
salesmanship necessitates a knowledge of the mental
processes performed by the mind in the making of a
sale.
3. The first step in the mental process of a sale
is the introduction or approach-the meeting of minds
in such a tactful and agreeable manner as to awaken
the curiosity of the prospect.
4. The second step in the mental process of a
sale is the securing and maintaining of favorable at-
tention. Attention may be maintained even in the
midst of interruptions by referring to new features of
the goods that enhance their value to the prospect.
5. The third step in the mental process is the
arousing of interest, which results from sustained at-
tention and which excites to action. The interest that
excites to action for the purpose of possession must
be distinguished from the interest of curiosity; the
former may be aroused through the suggestion of
the adequacy of the goods to meet the needs of the
purchaser.
6. The fourth step, the very heart of the mental
process, is conviction, a firm belief founded on suffi-
cient evidence; evidence so logically organized and
persuasively presented as to satisfy the requirements
of sound reason and procure favorable judgment.
The Mental Law of Sale
205
7. Judgment is a mental operation in which
facts are weighed, comparisons made, conclusions
reached, and a decision formed.
18. Reasoning is the mental process of going
from the known to the unknown by basing judgments
upon judgments, by arriving at new beliefs through
old beliefs; and is either inductive or deductive in its
manner of proof: inductive, if the conclusion is
drawn from the study of particular cases; deductive,
if drawn from a universal truth.
9. The fifth step in the mental process of a sale
is the creation of desire-an earnest wishing for some-
thing to satisfy a want and the excitation to action
for the purpose of procuring it. Desire is created by
an effective appeal to one or more motives: profit,
pleasure, caution, pride, vanity, utility.
10. The sixth step is the creation of a resolve
to buy the procuring of a decision-and may be ob-
tained by tactful appeal.
11. The seventh and final step in the mental
process of a sale is the closing of the order and this
may call for supreme effort. Here the personality and
the service of the salesman may be used as decisive
factors.
12. Evidence is a fact or belief upon which a
proof or judgment is based, and it may be either di-
rect or circumstantial.
Business
CHAPTER IX
XXX
Mental Law of Sale
(Continued)
Selfishness is the controlling emotion in
for Profit the average man's life-in other words,
the desire for profit. Proof of this is seen
in the fact that the prosperity argument controls a
national election. A man is in business for profit and
not for pleasure. As soon as you show him your
proposition will profit him you have given him the
main reason why he should buy. Did you ever real-
ize that prosperity always follows good judgment and
that "out-of-date methods do not satisfy up-to-date
employers?"
Reserve
Selling Talk
1
Get the order as quickly as you can
and with as little talk as possible. Do
not go into details at first. Sketch the
outline of your proposition, simply giving the main
points. If you fail to get an order as a result of this
preliminary selling talk, then call on your reserve
which should be almost unlimited. Your first talk
should be crisp and right to the point. If you fail to
land the order with this talk, you will discover the
objections and that will guide you as to the kind of a
206
The Mental Law of Sale
207
reserve talk to make. There are several good reasons
for making your first talk brief. First: what is the
use of wearing yourself out giving a long demonstra-
tion if it is not necessary? Second: you cannot inter-
est a boy for an hour by showing him an elephant's
head when the rest of the body is near, but covered.
He will get anxious to see the whole elephant. Third:
give a bird's-eye view of your whole subject first, or
your hearer will tire and you cannot hold his interest.
Fourth: going into details as you go along gets tire-
some; there is not a mental conception of the whole,
and a part will not hold the interest. Fifth: when
you give a bird's-eye view at first you find out how
and why your hearer is interested. This gives you a
clue to his interests, desires, and needs.
Meeting
Objections
When a man makes an objection for not
making the purchase, answer the objec-
tion and close the order at once. When
you answer his objection, you remove his reason for
not buying, then why shouldn't you close the order
at once? Ask yourself this question: What reason has
my prospect for making this purchase? You must know
the reasons, and then give them to him in such a way
that they are bound to produce conviction.
Illustrative Objection: "I feel that I know a good
Answer deal now." Yes, so do the Mayo broth-
ers of Rochester, Minnesota. They are
the greatest surgeons in the world, but in order to re-
main great they find it necessary to have twenty-five
assistant doctors. Some of these doctors are away all
the time. They send them all over the world in search
208
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
of new ideas and new methods in surgery. In that
way they have won a large part of their international
fame, and in that way they propose to keep it.
Be When coming up to the order point, do not
Serious joke or act as though you were working the
fellow. Do not make any remark about hav-
ing a nice pen and you want to see how it will write his
name. That is distracting and more or less hurtful.
You ought to act with the same seriousness as when
presenting your arguments.
A Suggestive I will give you a method that you can
Closing
use in selling any line of goods. At
this point the prospect is very much.
interested and acts as if he might buy, but he hasn't
said so. "Mr. Brown, this machine has three finishes,
the nickel, bronze, and gold. Which finish appeals
to you most or which do you like best?" If he says,
"Well, which do you consider best?" Give him your
opinion and your reason. That induces him to ex-
press a preference one way or the other. Fall in line
with his opinion immediately, and say, "All right, I
will just make it this finish." When he asks your
preference you are pretty sure he has decided to buy
and if he permits you to put down that particular
finish without a protest, you are about nine-tenths
sure of him. You come in a little closer with your
next question. You might say, "Most people are sat-
isfied to wait and get their machine by freight, but a
good many are anxious to get it as soon as possible,
and so have it come by express. Would you want
it by express, or are you willing to wait for about
thirty days until you can get it by freight?"
The Mental Law of Sale
209
Observe the
Affirmatives
You see here I have given him two
methods of decision, but notice, neither
one gives him a chance to say no in
regard to the proposition. I have absolutely taken it
for granted he is going to buy. I have taken the idea
of buying entirely out of his mind. I have concen-
trated his mind on something else the method of
getting it. This is a great point. Study it carefully.
Here is the way the greatest newsboy in the world
handles the same point. He meets me and says, "Want
a paper?" Oh, no, he doesn't. He would not be the
richest newsboy in the world if he did. He says, "Which
do you want, a Herald or a Tribune?" He takes it for
granted I want one of the papers, not that I might want
a paper. I have given you the principle. You can
easily apply it to any kind of a transaction.
A Far-Reach- When you satisfy curiosity you lose
ing Principle interest-a law of human nature.
Here is one of the most interesting,
practical, and far-reaching psychological problems to be
found in all salesmanship. The man who thoroughly
understands and applies the philosophy of this illustra-
tion will greatly increase his selling ability.
The Principle An automobile salesman had a pros-
Illustrated
pect so thoroughly convinced that the
prospect said: "How soon can you de-
liver it?" Look at that question and think. Nine out
of ten of the best salesmen in the country give the
wrong answer to it. The tenth makes a lot of extra
money by knowing how to answer it. This salesman
210
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
said, "I can get it for you right away," and he lost the
order, for the prospect said, "I'll think it over and see
you next week." When I am asked that question I
should immediately take it for granted that he has
decided in his own mind to buy. I should immediately
answer his question by asking him another one. His
question is, "When can you deliver it?" My answer
is, "How soon do you want it?" or "How soon do you
have to have it?"
Keep Prospect Remember, that the philosophy of
on Defensive salesmanship is the philosophy of
leadership and the philosophy of
leadership always consists in keeping your prospect
on the defensive. When a prospect asks that ques-
tion he asks you to make a decision for him, aud
he will then do just as he pleases as to accepting it.
When he does that he immediately becomes the
leader, and puts you on the defensive. My husi-
ness as a leader and a salesman is not to let him
lead me into such a corner, but immediately to assume
leadership and put him on the defensive. I do that
while answering his question by asking him another one.
He asked me to make a decision and leave him free to
act. I change the tactics by asking him to make the
decision, leaving me free to take immediate advantage of
his decision.
The Principle I want to show you the psychological
Explained significance of this. It is a law of
psychology that every idea that enters
the mind immediately tends to express itself in action
unless another idea coming from another direction cuts
The Mental Law of Sale
211
1
it off. As he heard the automobile described this man
undoubtedly said to himself, "This is a fine car. I be-
lieve I would like to own it." Then suddenly his voice
gave utterance to his desire in the expression, "How
soon could you deliver it?" Instead of giving the pros-
pect an opportunity to act immediately upon the idea
that was uppermost in his mind, the salesman, by answer-
ing his question, eliminated the idea of buying from the
prospect's mind and substituted for it the idea of delivery.
The prospect's mind was on a direct line for the bull's
eye when the salesman unconsciously and immediately
turned it off on a tangent and lost the sale by injecting
an irrelevant idea. This is what I call selling strategy,
and selling strategy is as much ahead of ordinary sales-
manship as wireless telegraphy is ahead of the stage
coach.
Continuity In this chapter I have referred slightly
of Thought to thought continuity, but I want you to
realize how very important it is. Sup-
pose, for illustration, that a train is running at the rate
of forty miles an hour. Then suppose it comes to a
broken rail. You know as well as I do that the train
would land in the ditch in a broken heap. Suppose you
get a man greatly interested in a rain of thought. Sup-
pose this train of thought is bringing him your way at
the rate of an order in half an hour; then suppose he
is abruptly called away for a few minutes and must
therefore concentrate his mind on something else in the
meantime. What happens? Your train of thought is
thrown into a heap in the ditch. I might also say it is
as hopelessly ditched as the train of cars.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Ideas I will go back to the beginning and show you
Produce how this works. Every idea which enters
Action the mind immediately tends to express itself
in action, unless some other idea going in another direc-
tion cuts it off. Or, as the psychologists say, “Inhibits
it." To my mind this is the most fundamental principle
in psychology for the salesman to consider.
If we
could just get this principle thoroughly grounded in our
lives it would mean a great deal to us intellectually, and
financially as well.
Application
to Selling
Remember when you are trying to sell
a man a bill of goods every idea you
plant in his mind immediately tends to
make him act in accordance with your suggestion, pro-
viding you give him real, vital ideas; then stop when
you have given him enough to make him want what you
have to sell. When you do this watch your customer,
notice the effect of every idea you give him; just as
soon as you have his desire created so that he is aroused
sufficiently to act in accordance with the ideas you have
given him, close the order at once before another idea
going in another direction makes him determine to
change his mind.
Breaking You have had innumerable experiences of
Chain of the kind indicated where your prospective
Thought customer was called away from you. He
had time to think independently for a
minute. The continuity of your argument was broken,
another idea flashed through his mind, and he said, “No,
I guess I'll not decide today." You have oftentimes lost.
}
The Mental Law of Sale
213
your sale right on that incident. Sometimes you have
convinced him over again, after using more effort than
you did the first time, but usually you lost the order. The
loss of this sale was due to the fact that the continuity of
your thought was broken, in fact, the spell, the atmos-
phere which you had created around him, was broken. A
new idea flashed through his mind and you lost your
order. I consider the subject of continuity worth a year's
study and experiment in order to perfect it.
In this connection I wish to consider two other
points of vital importance, the ignorance of which causes
a salesman much loss.
Irrelevant
The first consists in introducing an
Idea Dangerous irrelevant idea, an idea that bears no
direct relation to the subject under
discussion. This something which you inject may seem
insignificant, it may seem trivial, it may be only a joke,
but it breaks the continuity of your thought. Your
main argument is sidetracked. The man changes his
mind in an instant as if by intuition, because you
aroused a different emotion, and remember, you, were
the one who gave him the negative suggestion, which
sent his mind running in a different channel. You were
the unconscious cause of losing the sale. You did not
even know how it happened. Learn to concentrate.
Adrian M. Newens, nationally known as a platform star,
teacher of oratory, and famous as a lyceum and chau-
tauqua coach, says the irrelevant idea is the one funda-
mental cause of failure in a lecture. The same thing
is exactly true in salesmanship, as the psychological
principles of salesmanship and oratory are the same.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Talking The other point I referred to consists in
Too Much talking too much, getting so much inter-
ested in your proposition that you are not
paying attention to the effect your talk is having upon
your listener. A prize fighter doesn't pound his antag-
onist until he is down and out and then keep on pound-
ing him. Even he knows better than that, but many
salesmen do not. A carpenter doesn't drive his nail
after it is clear in and clinched, or he will loosen it.
Many a salesman pounds away at an order after it is
thoroughly clinched in the other man's mind. He talks
the man into it and then bores him so that he talks
him out of it. Such a man fails without ever knowing
why, and believes that no one could have gotten the
order. He made the sale and lost it but did not realize it.
Many such men do not believe that salesmanship can be
taught. They are ignorant of certain laws of sale, and
what is far worse, they are ignorant of their igno-
rance. We do not need "human windmills and verbal
cyclones" but salesmen of alert brains and quick judg-
ment.
Knowing
When to
Close
I have field-trained salesmen who did not
know when to take an order. I have seen
them come up to the point where their
prospect was ready to buy, then talk in a
circle for two minutes and talk the prospect out of buy-
ing. I found it necessary to form a signal code with
the salesman in order to get him to close when he should.
The salesman who works out his own salvation on the
field loses much business and, therefore, much profit
that might be his.
The Mental Law of Sale
215
Explanation,
Then Proof
"Every salesman knows the value of
the actual demonstration-of having
his goods on the ground so that the
prospect can see and feel and understand. Give your
man a definite idea of what you have to offer. Pic-
ture the article, its use, its advantages so vividly that
it swims before his mental eye. But your prospective
customer must have proof of your statements. Proof
or argument follows logically after explanation. Its
object is to create desire. It is not enough to give your
prospect an idea of the nature or make-up or working
principles of the thing you are selling him. You must
reinforce these by arguments, proving to him the ad-
vantage of the purchase, the saving that he will effect
in his business, the increased efficiency he can attain
in his work, the pleasure he will derive from the arti-
cle Proof may be presented by showing the satis-
faction which the article has given to other buyers or
by some novel demonstration of its quality and value.
Persuasion
Intensifies
Desire
"Persuasion, on the heels of argument,
intensifies desire. Here the prospect
must be shown tactfully how possession
of the article will bring benefit to him
personally. Possibly the best kind of persuasion is the
subtle suggestion which pictures to the prospect the
satisfaction or actual gain which ownership would bring.
Argument is giving a man evidence that will prompt him
to act of his own volition. Persuasion is the added in-
fluence of the salesman's personality that brings action
when the man himself hesitates.
216
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Clinching "You know how the clever salesman
Resolve manipulates his talking points, always hold-
ing back till the last some extra reasons
why you should accept his proposition. And it culmi-
nates in the climax or the clincher. As you hesitate,
undecided whether or not to order, the shrewd salesman
shoots at you one last advantage which he has held in
reserve."
Law
Has Wide
Application
This study of the Mental Law of Sale
will enable you to influence people in
every walk of life and every phase of
society, business, politics, and diplomacy.
The world's leaders are not necessarily the great scholars,
nor the men of commanding intellect, but rather the men
who understand human nature-how to interpret it and
how to influence people. Hugh Chalmers says, "Next
to the importance of what you say, is the way in which.
you say it. It is so in talking. It is so in advertising.
It is so in salesmanship."
Importance
of Definite
Object
Remember the arrow in the Mental Law
of Sale chart. You must have a defi-
nite object in mind when you attempt
to make a sale. Why are you going to
make the sale? Get the object fixed definitely in your
mind and then work with all your might to carry it out,
or hit the bull's eye. If you haven't a definite object
in mind you won't get anywhere. It will be like shoot-
ing with your eyes shut. This "Object" business is ap-
plicable to advertising, salesmanship, addressing an
audience or committee meeting, writing a book, or selling
The Mental Law of Sale
217
anything. Why? Don't you see it is because it is in
harmony with the Mental Law of Sale?
Salesmanship "Whenever we have dealings with one
Determines
Success
another, whether on matters of busi-
ness or otherwise, the natural laws of
salesmanship are operating, and the
ultimate result-whether success or failure-depends
upon the quality of salesmanship exercised on our part.
"The impressions which we convey to others govern our
progress financially and otherwise. To make the right
kind of an impression, therefore, is the all important
thing." Ex-Secretary Shaw says: "I have won more
lawsuits by my opening statements than in any other
way." Why did he exercise such care in his opening
statements? Remember, he sold books and fruit trees
several summers when he was a student. He says he
succeeded by gaining the customer's confidence. All
through life he has realized the great value of these fun-
damental principles which I am emphasizing so strongly,
and he has used them to great advantage in winning na-
tional fame as a lawyer, governor, cabinet officer, orator,
and financier.
Shaking
Hands
When you call upon a business man, intro-
duce yourself in a kindly, agreeable way. It
is not always best to shake hands with him.
That must be decided by circumstances. Some men will
resent it, others will appreciate it. The egotistical and
self-important man is likely to resent it. But if you do
not shake hands with a man when you meet him, you
may do so when the interview ends. In that way you
leave a stronger impression.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Keeping
Appointments
Always make an appointment with a
man to see your samples as soon as
possible and at a time that will be
convenient for him. If the appointment is during busi-
ness hours, do not go to your sample room and wait,
for half of the business men will forget about an ap-
pointment or forget to look at their watches, and you
cannot afford to lose the time. In order to save time,
call at his place of business at the appointed time and
have him go with you.
House to House
Salesmanship
If you are making a house to house
canvass, the ideal way is to ring the
bell, step back about six feet from
the center of the door, or if anything a little nearer the
opening side. When the woman comes to the door she
is mentally expecting a friend. She is obliged to oper
the door wide in order to see you. The moment you
see her, catch her eye and hold it for a moment; at the
same time raise your hat, bow politely, and move toward
the door. You go through these motions during a time
that is too short to describe. In most cases, where you
are not working in larger cities, the woman will expect
you to go in. You expect to go in and you do go in.
At the
Door
Sometimes the individual who comes to the
door will ask you what you want. You should
know the name of the individual you wish to
see. You will very often get in by saying, "Is this Mrs.
Brown? I want to talk with you for a minute on a
matter of business." While saying this, indicate that
you wish to go in. Don't say, "I want to see you,"
The Mental Law of Sale
219
}
otherwise she is likely to say, "You can see me right
here." If she still persists in keeping you out and wants
to know what you want, give her a general answer.
Do not be specific if you can help it. If you are selling
literary works of any kind you might say, "I am en-
gaged in educational work. You have some children,
haven't you? I was referred to you by Mrs. So and So
who thought you might be interested in what I am do-
ing." If she is still curious and says, "Well, what is
it?" you can very easily say, "I will just step in and
show you." You can apply this method to almost any-
thing you are selling, changing it to suit your proposi-
tion and the circumstances, but do not discuss your
proposition on the doorstep unless as a last resort.
A Clever Here is a clever method used by a salesman
Method for a large concern, when the girl comes to
the door. The home was a prominent one
and the girl said, "Have you a card to send up?" He.
said, "No, just tell Dr. Blank that Mr. So and So is
waiting for him in the library. He will understand.”
His name was so peculiar he knew the girl could not
possibly remember it. The fact that he told her to tell
Dr. Blank he would be waiting in the library and that
Dr. Blank would understand, made it imperative on her
part to let him in. He had been there before and failed
in his mission. He succeeded this time. Study this
rnethod. It is clever.
Radiate
Good-Will
In introducing yourself be natural and
agreeable. That is, be natural if you are
agreeable, and know how to smile.
You must learn how to smile or you will never succeed
220
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
as a salesman. I do not mean a sickly, forced grin,
but a smile that indicates that its owner is living in
peace and harmony with all the world. Some faces
radiate disagreeableness, others good-will; some mean-
ness, others kindness. You cannot think an evil thought
and smile at the same time. You cannot think of de-
frauding someone and smile at the same time. If you
try it, the smile will be transformed into a cynical sneer.
Your face is a looking-glass that reflects the images
within. You cannot get away from it. To look at
some men's faces you would think they hadn't laughed
for a year and you would think if they did laugh it
would crack the enamel upon their faces. The agree-
able face is another evidence of honesty-and honesty,
character, and success go together.
Mental If you take on the actions and bearing of a
Attitude tramp or a clown, your mind will almost im-
mediately gravitate toward your bearing.
If, on the other hand, you draw in the chin, expand the
chest, and attempt to look the part of a successful busi-
ness man, your mind will immediately respond to the
autosuggestion. A man's mental attitude determines
his dress and appearance, his environment and his suc-
cess. I cannot emphasize this thought too vigorously.
The Busy If you approach a prospect and he is busy
Prospect and you know it, ask him when it would
be most convenient for him to give you
(state the length of time) say, five minutes, if you need
only a little time. You can nearly always make an
appointment. When you do, leave at once, but the
The Mental Law of Sale
221
fact that you ask only five minutes will induce your
prospective customer, in many cases, to offer you the
time right then. If he does, get busy at once. Cut
out preambles and useless introductions. Plunge into
the heart of the matter in language that is logical and
carries an unmistakable power to convince. When
your five minutes are up, do one of three things-get
the order, get out, or get an invitation, either verbal
or assumed, to stay longer.
A "No" Must
Not Discourage
Introducing yourself properly, and
getting the attention of your man
directed your way, are two entirely
different things. A majority of the people you meet
will say, "No, I do not want anything, and do not care
to look at it." Of course they do not want anything
about which they know absolutely nothing. A man
wouldn't want a million dollar gold mine unless his at-
tention was cleverly attracted to it. Remember, that no
man is interested in what he knows nothing about. And
right here I am going to crystallize this law. It is a
law of the human mind which directs the mind to say
"no" to what it does not understand. Chauncey M. De-
pew says it is forty years from the time an idea is origi-
nated among the people until it is incorporated into
national law. So do not be discouraged when you hear
the word, "No." In most cases it does not mean that
you cannot sell. It means that the man is not aware of
the value of your product. You must make him realize
its value. If you cannot get his attention it means that
you have not yet mastered the secret of successful per-
sonal appeal. How can we expect prominent business
222
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
men to take an interest in our proposition unless we
are first interested enough in their business to study
their needs?
:
Important Never stay with a man after you have
Hints taken his order and thoroughly clinched it.
If you do you are killing his time and
your own, and he might change his mind and cancel the
order. There are a great many new inventions on the
market that are revolutionizing business. Every busi-
ness man is under obligation to himself to see what you
have. Few first-class salesmen use cards to introduce
themselves. When you present a card your prospect
looks at the card and away from you. In so doing you
lose his eye and your influence is sidetracked.
Closing the The following is the best method of end-
Interview ing an interview which you desire to end
immediately. There is nothing in the
world which business needs more than courtesy, and we
have all too little of it. I have known a traveling man
to enter a store when the proprietor was busy waiting
upon a customer. The proprietor would see him but
pay no attention to him. When through with the cus-
tomer he would go over to his desk and busy himself
with his books-that is, apparently he would, but in
reality he was simply killing time with the hope that
Mr. Traveling Man would leave without approaching
him. Finally when he was approached he would act more
like a bear than a civilized man. Without looking up he
would say something like this, "No, I don't want anything
today and I haven't time to talk to you." He would
leave the traveling man standing by his desk without a
The Mental Law of Sale
223
:
word of civilized greeting or dismissal. This gave the
traveling man either a chance to begin a verbal battle,
or retreat in confusion.
A Courteous In contrast with this uncivilized, un-
Contrast businesslike, and unprofitable method of
handling the public, I wish to show you
how a gentleman and a diplomat accomplishes the
same end. Here is the method used by the late Senator
Gorman of Maryland in dismissing a salesman. The
salesman approached the Senatcr and stated the object
of his visit. The Senator said, "I am very glad to meet
you but I am very sorry that my time is so taken up
that I am unable to devote the time to look into your
proposition." The Senator then arose and walked to
the door with his visitor. When he reached the door he
extended his hand very cordially and said, "I am very
glad to have met you and only sorry that I cannot give
your proposition the consideration which I am sure it
deserves," and then ushered him out. This is the kind
of diplomacy that transformed Senator Gorman from a
page in that great body into one of its great leaders.
What a blessing to this country such courtesy and such
diplomacy would be!
Appeal
Logic The successful salesman is the one who
Precedes knows how to combine successfully the log-
ical with the emotional argument. Remem-
ber that every proposition you present
must be launched with a logical, reasonable argument.
After that you can make your appeal. Most people
want facts and they base their decision upon these
facts.
224
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Secret of The ability to influence is the secret of
Leadership leadership, and the ability to influence is
based upon the knowledge of human na-
ture and how to manipulate it. If you know human na-
ture and thoroughly understand the scientific principles
of salesmanship you can play upon the keys of human
nature with the same marvelous skill that a brilliant
pianist plays upon the keys of a piano. (See Knox's
Complete Course.)
Examples of
Great Orators
Why was Wendell Phillips such a
great orator? Why was John B.
Gough able to play the whole gamut
of human passion and emotion? Why was he able to
play upon the keyboard of human nature with such
marvelous results? Why was he able to touch a sympa-
thetic chord in every human heart? It was because he
knew human nature in all its forms. He knew its
strength and he knew its weakness. He knew men and
he knew women. He knew how to convince by his logic,
and persuade by his eloquence. He knew how to make
people laugh and cry. Do you? He knew their pas-
sions and he knew their impulses, and he knew what
to say in order to reach and influence their minds and
hearts. Do you? It will pay you to read the speeches
of the world's greatest orators. In this way you will
learn the secret of an orator's power. The secret of a
salesman's power is much the same. Profit by the suc-
cessful experiences of others. It is not what you know
that will keep you down, it is what you do not know.
The Mental Law of Sale
225
}
Note Book
Habit
Every time you hear a sermon or lecture,
or get an idea from a newspaper or maga-
zine which will help you in your business,
take out your notebook then and there, no matter where
you are, and jot it down. If you wait you will forget
it. Talk that point at your first opportunity. It will
be fresh and you can use it enthusiastically.
Value of
Illustration
Every salesman should have a good il-
lustration or two to use with every sell-
ing point. He will have them if he
jots them down as he finds them. I have carried a note-
book for several years. It has been worth hundreds
of dollars to me. I could not have prepared these chap-
ters without it. I have not only used it to keep a record
of the good ideas I have found, but I have used it to
capture my own ideas. Every man will originate a good
idea occasionally. In most cases he cannot retain it
unless he writes it down. I aim to commit to memory,
not only my own ideas but all the other good ideas I
can. If you will follow this method carefully for a
year, it will greatly enrich your mind, increase your
efficiency, and show you the necessity of continuing it.
It is said that Bishop Vincent's great lectures and ser-
mons grew out of this method. The man who gets the
notebook habit will make himself greatly superior to the
man who does not. And the man who gets the study
habit is the only man who has a chance of success in the
future.
The Why of We will next consider the subject of
Objections objections. Why does a man make an
objection? Does he not usually do it
226
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
because he is still more interested in his money than he
is in the article you are trying to sell him? Do you
see the underlying principles here? Then the proper
thing to do in most cases is to find out the reason for
that objection and go after that. When we remove the
objection we make the sale. We must go deeper than
the objection itself. The thing for you to do is to dig
back into your reserve and give him such an inspiring
talk that he will get so interested in what you want
him to buy that he feels bound to get it because he hasn't
any excuses left. Of course, people make excuses
sometimes because it is a habit and because they haven't
anything else to say, or because they want to feel satis-
fied with the proposition. Do not take objections too
seriously is my advice. You know men often buy to-
bacco and drink, even though they have to beg the money
to get it. They get it because they are intensely inter-
ested in it. Get them to desire your goods and you will
sell them.
Language
Epigrammatic The answer to an objection in one
epigrammatic sentence very often
gets the order, because it absolutely
clinches the idea in the man's mind and routs his un-
belief, while if your answer had been stated in different
language you might have lost your order. For example:
It isn't what it will cost that you want to consider, but
what it will cost you if you do not get it. That is what
you want to think about.
Antagonism A salesman should never argue. Burn
Kills
this into your memory. You cannot
Influence influence and antagonize at the same
time. A salesman is not in the field to
The Mental Law of Sale
227
run counter to individual opinions and prejudices on
political, religious, and a thousand other subjects. He
is out there to sell goods, and to argue is fatal. A sales-
man should give assent as much as possible to what is
said, providing it is not important, and when he cannot
do that he had better not say anything. You can lead
the conversation and do it so skillfully that the other
fellow thinks he is leading it. For instance, when you
know a certain insurance policy is best for a man's
needs, talk that and nothing else. Concentrate his mind.
upon it and you eliminate competition.
Intercepting The skillful salesman nearly always
Objections intercepts and answers an objection be-
fore it is made. When an objection
does come up he answers it at once and turns it into an
advantage. When you are asked the price of an article
I do not mean to say you are to consider that an objec-
tion and answer it immediately. It is not always wise
to tell the price at the beginning of your selling talk
because the prospect will likely think of the price in-
stead of what you say. When the subject of price
comes up you might say something like this: "I will go
into that a little later," or, "If I were to give you the
price now before you had looked into the benefits of
this article, you might be thinking about the price and
not about the profit to be derived from it. On the
other hand, after you have investigated it you may
not want to get along without it, regardless of
price. It is not a question of price that you care
about. It is a question of how much profit it
will make you, how big a dividend on your money in-
'228
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
vested. You don't care what an article costs provided
it pays you from twenty-five to fifty per cent. dividend
on the investment, do you?" I do not mean that all
this is to be used at any one time, but it is suggestive.
Every objection should make a salesman stronger.
Where the cost of the article is very small and it takes
only a short time to consider it, of course, it is wise
to state the price when asked, or make a point of telling
it before you are asked.
Two Kinds of
Objections
There are two kinds of objections-
the personal kind and the critical kind.
The personal objection is always hard-
est to answer, as the person who makes it is usually
stubborn or prejudiced. A man sometimes says he has
made up his mind and could not be induced to change
it. You might remind him that there are exceptions
to every rule, and you believe, if his judgment tells him
that it is to his advantage to make the purchase, he
is too wise a man to let any personal opinion or preju-
dice stand in his way. Or you might remind him of Lin-
coln's saying that, "The foolish and the dead alone
never change their minds." It is plain then that it is
the wise man who changes his opinion.
Illustrative Here are some common objections and
Answers their answers: "It costs too much."
"However, Mr. Blank, if you could
figure out that it will make money for you, you would
look upon it as a good investment, would you not?
Really, it is not what an article costs but the profit there
is in it that you always consider. If this article costs
The Mental Law of Sale
229
you $500.00, but earned you from 20% to 40% on the
investment, you would consider it a good investment,
would you not? You would consider it a good invest-
ment if it made you only 10% as you can get only 3%
or 4% from the bank. An article that makes or saves
you money is not an expense. It is an investment.
Note carefully the difference. The clothes you wear
are an expense, but of course a necessary one. So is
the house you rent or own. But this article, as you
can see with your own eyes, will make you such a sav-
ing that you cannot otherwise possibly make, that it
will pay for itself within five years and go on repaying
for itself every five years thereafter. This, then, is not
an expense, as you can see, but a big dividend-paying
investment." You can use the same argument when
the article increases his business.
1
Expense or "Do you say you would like to hire
Investment, assistants but they cost too much? No.
Which?
An assistant is an investment. The one
and only reason you have for paying
him wages is that he will earn money enough for you
to pay back his cost and a profit besides. This
article will do the same thing. If I offered to sell it
to you for 10 cents and it would not make or save you 10.
cents you would not want it. But
But if I should ask you ten
times as much as I do ask you and it would make or save
you a good profit, then you ought to get it, ought you not?
This article will pay for itself and make you a good profit.
This you realize. When it will do that you ought to
have it, no matter what it costs. If it will not do that
you do not want it as a gift. Isn't that right? Re-
i
230
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
member there are two values to every purchase. What
it costs and what it saves or earns. Please do not con-
fuse them. Cork costs four cents a pound but if you
were drowning its value would be, not what cork costs
you but what cork saves you. Do not confuse the
two values by seeing what you pay and overlooking
what you save. You judge a man or a dollar by its
earning power. You pay a man wages according to
the results he gets. Judge this proposition in the same
way. What would be a high price for one man would
be a low price for a better man."
Selling The young man applying for a position can
Your make splendid use of every principle taught
Services in this course. How good a position a young
man gets or how much money he earns, de-
pends upon his ability to sell his services as well as
his ability to do the work. Very few young men real-
ize that in selling their services they are selling goods
just as surely as if they were selling cotton, corn, silk,
or automobiles. And the man who buys their services
does so with the idea of profit just the same as buying
any line of goods.
Valuable In seeking a position I would never ap-
Suggestions proach an employer with a cigar or
cigarette in my hand. I would never
want an employer to see the color from a cigarette on
my fingers. I wouldn't say, "I reckon you don't want
another man, do you?" I would be dressed like a
prosperous business man, not at all flashy, but neat
and clean, and have my shoes shined. I would see
that my clothing harmonized. I wouldn't match blue
The Mental Law of Sale
231
eyes with a red necktie, a spotted vest, black coat, and
gray trousers. I would not offer to shake hands with
the man from whom I sought a position. I would not
be egotistical and put up a bigger talk than my past
record justified, especially if he knew my record.
Neither would I be backward or diffident. I would
state my case clearly and vigorously. I would make a
great deal bigger hit by saying my "long suit" was hard
work, rather than by saying I was a little brighter than
the average fellow. I would never exhibit pessimism
or any of the negative qualities. They are not good
selling points unless you want to get turned down.
Be Confident · If you are asked if you can do the work,
and Positive don't say you think you can. Be sure
to say you can and say it positively, if
you think you can. Many a man has gotten a position
through sheer nerve and made good after he got it.
That possibly is easier when your record to the contrary
is not known. An applicant for a bookkeeping position
said to his prospective employer: "If I take care of
your books you can sleep like a baby every night. No
worry about what your monthly balance sheet will show
because you will find on your desk every morning an
accurate statement showing just where you stood at
the close of business the night before." He painted an
attractive picture and got the job. Selling services is
comparatively easy, but making good, "that's the rub."
$25,000
According to a writer in "Success" here
a Minute is an argument that paid handsomely.
"One of the buildings of Wooster Univer-
sity burned down one night. The next morning the
232
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
youthful, boyish-looking president, Louis E. Holden,
started to New York City to see Andrew Carnegie.
The next day he called upon Mr. Carnegie. Without
useless preliminaries he said, 'Mr. Carnegie, you are
a busy man and so am I. I won't take up more than
five minutes of your time. The main building of
Wooster University, burned down night before last,
and I want you to give us $100,000.00 for a new one.'
'Young man,' replied the philanthropist, 'I don't be-
lieve in giving money to colleges.' 'But you believe
in helping young men, don't you?' asked President
Holden. 'I'm a young man, Mr. Carnegie, and I'm
in an awful hole. I've gone into the business of manu-
facturing college graduates from the raw material and
now the best part of my plant is burned down. You
know how you would feel if one of your big steel mills
were destroyed right in the busy season.' 'Young
man,' said Mr. Carnegie, 'raise $100,000.00 in thirty
days and I'll give you another.' 'Make it sixty days
and I'll go you,' replied Professor Holden. 'Done,"
said Mr. Carnegie. Professor Holden picked up his
hat and started for the door. As he reached it, Mr.
Carnegie called after him, 'Now, remember it's sixty
days only.' 'All right, sir,' said Professor Holden.
Holden was already half way down the stairs. His
call had consumed just four minutes. The sum was
raised within the specified time, and when handing
over his check, Mr. Carnegie said, laughing, 'Young
man, if you ever come to see me again, don't stay so
long. Your call cost me just $25,000.00 a minute.""
The Reasons
Why Holden Won
First. You will notice that Mr.
Holden dispensed with all the
The Mental Law of Sale
233
preliminaries and began to talk business from the first
sentence.
Second. I want you to notice Mr. Carnegie's
objection and Mr. Holden's answer. Holden's sen-
tence reply to Carnegie's sentence objection won the
$100,000.00. Don't you think Holden could well have
spent five years of his life in special study in order
to win the $100,000.00? Suppose President Holden
had tried to answer Carnegie's objection, that he did
not believe in giving money to colleges. If he had
he would have begun with a tiresome defense of the
value of a college education. But he didn't. He knew
human nature particularly, and Carnegie's nature es-
pecially, too well to make such a blunder. He knew
that Carnegie's system of making such young men as
Schwab and Corey his business partners was the
wonder and admiration of the business world. He well
knew that Carnegie wasn't much interested in col-
leges but that he was immensely interested in young
men and had a tender spot in his heart for them.
Holden touched this tender spot. How did he do it
so spontaneously? He was prepared.
Proper
Preparation
Pays
He had studied his proposition in ad-
vance. You see President Holden used
the language that the great Iron Master
was familiar with. He met him on his
own ground. He did not use a single logical argument.
He knew Carnegie had money to give, and that he would
get it if he made the proper appeal. He made the
emotional appeal and it did the business. He won this
money, not because of his ability as a student of Latin,
Greek, or Mathematics, but because of his ability as a
234
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
salesman. Doesn't it pay to prepare in order to win
the big prizes? Notice that Holden immediately took
Carnegie's mind away from the subject of helping col-
leges, as he was prejudiced on that subject, and directed
his thought to a subject that Carnegie liked. That was
the subject of young men. Notice further that Holden
not only did that, but he did something else of strategic
importance. He answered the objection by asking a
question. He used our interrogative method. That
immediately placed Carnegie on the defensive. That
sentence answer crystallized what might have been an
hour's argument.
Honesty the The Mental Law of Sale would not be
ONLY Policy complete were I to finish this lesson
without discussing honesty as it re
lates to truth and falsehood. Some good and otherwise
well-meaning people seem to think that a man's ability
to sell goods successfully depends upon his ability to
lie successfully. A prominent woman once told me that
her son was a poor automobile salesman because he was
too conscientious, he wouldn't lie sufficiently to be suc-
cessful. This idea is so absurd that it is preposterous.
Nevertheless some people and some light-weight sales-
men are possessed with it. The best thing that can
possibly be said about a proposition is to tell the truth
about it, and tell it so clearly that it can be understood.
The man who lies, can not do this because he hasn't the
ability. He tries, therefore, to substitute falsehood for
lack of knowledge, and just as soon as he does this his
prospective customer realizes it and loses confidence in
him. A salesman cannot lie and get away with it. The
The Mental Law of Sale
235
man who tries it writes falsehood, insincerity, and dis-
honesty in every line of his face. Every man who sees
him may read it. The greatest compliment a man can
pay to the proposition he is handling, is to tell the truth
about it and tell it well. If the proposition will not jus-
tify it, you cannot afford to sacrifice your manhood in
trying to sell it. No man will handle a poor proposition
unless he values his manhood less than his profit.
Honest Men
in Demand
There never was greater demand than
there is today for men who are abso-
lutely honest and whose word can be re-
lied upon. There are not enough of these men in the
business world today. The great need is for salesmen
who know how to analyze and organize the truth in re-
lation to a proposition, and drive this truth home to the
minds and hearts of men in such a way as to produce con-
viction. When a salesman leaves the truth and begins to
base his talk on falsehood, his statements are fanciful,
foolish, illogical, and nonsensical. The one who hears
them knows they are false. He also knows that the tone
of the salesman is false. When a salesman disregards his
brains and the brains of his listener, which he does when
he tries to win by lying, he is on the road to failure.
.
236
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
1
1
?
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
1. Is it wise to go into details in your first selling
talk? Why?
2. What can you say about having a definite ob-
ject in mind?
3. Why do people turn you down when they are
ignorant of your proposition?
4. What is the difference between an expense and
an investment?
5. Why did President Holden close the sale in so
few words?
6. Write an essay of one hundred words on the
bad effects of lying in order to close a deal.
7. Discuss the importance of the notebook habit.
8. Is it well to argue with a customer? Give
reasons for your answer.
man.
19. Mention some magazines of value to the sales-
Do you read them?
10. What is the effect of one's mental attitude on
his success?
The Mental Law of Sale
237
Salesmanship Score Card
(Courtesy of Geo. L. Crisp.)
First Step-The Approach.
1
Timid.....Confident.....Dignified.....Strong....
Pleasing....Disgusting....Weak....Confused....
Second Step-Getting the Attention.
Did the salesman get on the customer's side of the
fence?...... Was salesman apparently indifferent
to the needs of his customer?...... Did he make
any positive suggestions along this line?......
Negative suggestions?...... Was his manner con-
fident?......
Third Step-Arousing Interest.
Did salesman hold the customer's attention concen-
trated until it ripened into interest?......
he fail?......
Or did
Fourth Step-Demonstrating to a Point of Conviction.
Was salesman's preparation for his sales talk
good?....... Or was it poor?....... Or just
fair?...... Did he understand his customer?.....
Did he understand the article he was trying to
demonstrate?...... Was he well acquainted ap-
parently with any similar article his customer
seemed to know about?....
Was his speech
forceful?....... Clear?....... Elegant?......
Fifth Step-Creating Desire.
Evidence of reserve talk: Was there no evidence?
Was it just barely noticeable?......
Was it strongly evident?....... Was customer's
curiosity maintained?...... Or lost?...... Did
salesman introduce any irrelevant ideas?.
!
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
288
Or did he skillfully avoid them?..
Objections:
Personal: Well answered? Poorly answered?...
Critical: Well?...
High cost: Well?.
Poorly?.
Poorly?.
Other objections: Well?.......
Well?....... Poorly?.
Sixth Step-Developing Resolve to Buy.
How did salesman answer these objections:
"Cannot afford it." Well?......
"Guess not now."
Well?....
"Oh, I don't know." Well?..
"Maybe some day." Well?...
Poorly?.
Poorly?..
..
Poorly?.
Poorly?.
What was the cause of the customer's hesitancy?
Unwilling to take the responsibility?.....
Baseless fear?........ Or other cause?.....
Did salesman seem to judge the customer's hesi-
tancy as you think he should have? Yes....
No...... In your judgment did he treat the
customer's hesitancy as you think he should have?
Yes..... No......
Seventh Step-Closing the order.
Did he dispense any information that would help
the buyer while he was trying to close the deal?
Yes..... No...... Was he serious in closing?
No...... In closing did he give some
No.....
Yes...
affirmative suggestions? Yes.……...
Questions:
Did salesman actually win an order? Yes.....
No...... If not did he leave some suggestions
that would win an order later? Yes.....
No.....
The Mental Law of Sale
239
Summary to Chapter IX
1. Self-interest is the dominant emotion in the
average man's life, and the salesman's proposition must
satisfy this self-interest in the way of profit if a sale
is to be made.
2. The preliminary sale's talk should be brief,
clearly stating the main points of the proposition.
This saves time and energy, makes clear the proposi-
tion, sustains the interest, and, in case of failure to
sell, it leaves a large reserve talk from which to meet
objections.
3. When an objection is made answer it and
close the order at once. To answer objections the
salesman must know and use reasons that outweigh
the objections.
4. The same seriousness should be used in clos-
ing the order that is used in presenting the arguments.
5. The prospect may be kept from a decisive
refusal to buy by securing an affirmative choice of
grade, color, time, or method of delivery.
6. The salesman should control the interview
and be free to act on the decision of the prospect.
¶. Every idea that enters the mind tends to pro-
duce action unless inhibited, therefore continuity of
thought is imperative until the order is closed.
8. Irrelevant ideas, or too much talking, tend
to confuse thought; they postpone closing and are
likely to prevent a sale.
9. Explanation of a proposition is necessary to
make it plain, proof or argument to create desire, per-
240
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
suasion to intensify desire until it culminates in a
resolve to buy.
10. The successful salesman must be tactful in
securing an audience with a prospect and in retiring;
prompt and businesslike in meeting his appointments;
agreeable and courteous in his manner; and neat and
clean in his appearance.
11. A good salesman should have in mind fresh
and apt illustrations to reinforce his selling points. A
note-book should be carried in which to jot down new
illustrations or ideas,
12. The salesman should avoid antagonizing in-
dividual opinions and prejudices. He should direct the
conversation without seeming to lead. This is espe-
cially necessary in meeting the personal kind of objec-
tions.
13. It is not so much what an article costs as
what it saves or earns.
14. The greatest compliment a man can pay to
the proposition he is handling is to tell the truth about
it and tell it well.
:
CHAPTER X
Suggestion in Salesmanship
Power of The word suggestion means very little
Suggestion to the average man, and yet suggestion
exercises a marvelous power in politics,
religion, medicine, business, salesmanship, and adver-
tising.
Suggestion In order to understand it thoroughly, it
Defined will be necessary to define it and an-
alyze it in such a way as to understand
clearly its action upon the mind. The following defi-
nitions by two of our great psychologists will help us.
"By suggestion is meant nothing more than the in-
trusion of an idea into the mind with such skill and
power that it dominates and for the moment disarmıs
or excludes all other ideas which might prevent its
realization." Let us remember that the tendency of
every suggestion is to result in action which is in har-
mony with the suggestion.
Another
The following definition of suggestion is
Definition even stronger. “A suggestion is a state-
ment made by one intelligent being to
another presumably intelligent being. Of all the laws
of the human soul, the law of suggestion is the most
241
;
1
242
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
important." In order that we may thoroughly under-
stand this power we must first understand its relation
to the dual mind. The law is stated as follows, accord-
ing to Hudson:
Hudson's 1. "Man is endowed with a dual mind,
Three Laws objective and subjective."
2. "The subjective mind controls the
functions, sensations, and conditions of the body."
3. "The subjective mind is amenable to control
by suggestion."
The Mind In order that we may get a clearer idea
Analyzed of suggestion and its action upon the
mind, I shall here at the beginning de-
vote a little time to an analysis of the mind. I can
then make the practical application clearer.
Dual Mind
Functions The objective mind is our every day, rea-
of the soning mind which takes notice of things
by means of the five senses. The objec-
tive mind is the seat of judgment and rea-
son. The objective mind reasons by all methods, in-
ductive and deductive, analytic and synthetic. The
subjective mind can reason only by deduction. The
subjective mind never classifies a series of known facts,
and reasons from them up to general principles; but
given a principle to start with, it will reason deduc-
tively from that down to all legitimate inferences with
a marvelous cogency and power. It is the seat of the
emotions and the storehouse of memory. It performs
its highest functions when the objective senses are in
abeyance. It also has the power to read the thoughts
Suggestion in Salesmanship
243
of others, even to the minutest details. Notice also
that the subjective mind is dependent for information
upon the objective mind, "on all subjects of human
knowledge not governed by fixed laws."
Subjective Another important peculiarity of the sub-
Mind Can- jective mind is that it is incapable of con-
not Argue troversial argument. This is an ex-
tremely valuable law for the salesman to
keep in mind. Let us remember that we cannot an-
tagonize and influence at the same time. For this
reason a good salesman will, under no circumstances,
controvert what his prospective customer says, or
argue with him in any way. If he wishes his pros-
pect to see the situation as he sees it, he will call his
attention to a new phase of the subject and ask him
if he will not kindly look at the matter from that point
of view. In fact the objection of a customer can be
thoroughly neutralized and overthrown by the subtle
law of suggestion.
Effect of Suggestion continually repeated finally
Repetition results in action, because every idea that
enters the mind has an immediate tend-
ency to result in action unless eliminated by a com-
peting idea. Psychologically the secret of influencing
the mind is to keep your idea continually before people.
Advertisers and manufacturers who have advertised
extensively have made a fortune out of the use of this
idea. The salesman uses exactly the same method.
He knows how to make suggestions so adroitly and
skillfully that he finally clinches the order.
244 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Interrogative A suggestion has a powerful effect
Method Most
Effective
when used interrogatively.
This
method is not only used to induce a
customer to commit himself affirma-
tively, but to keep him interested and thinking as well.
After a customer commits himself a few times, the
suggestion has a chance to work and it does induce
action. Here are some applications of suggestion by the
interrogative method. It is no wonder so many people.
are interested in this line of goods, is it? If there wasn't
a single special feature but this one right here, this one
idea would be worth the price, wouldn't it? I guess you
feel as thousands of people do, that it is an opportunity
to get an article like this, don't you?
Four Kinds of
Suggestions
There are four kinds of suggestions,
positive and negative, direct and in-
direct. The positive suggestion
says, This hat will give you excellent satisfaction;
the negative suggestion says, You wouldn't want this
kind of a hat would you? The positive suggestion
says, You can get two collars for a quarter and save
a nickel; the negative suggestion accepts the fifteen
cents for one collar and says, That's all, is it?
The Direct
Versus the
Indirect
The direct suggestion is a suggestion
made by one man to another.
The in-
direct suggestion is a suggestion made by
a third party.
For instance: I ask my
friend Jones how he likes a certain magazine. Jones
tells me it is fine, that he couldn't get along without it.
That suggestion coming to me from Jones is ten times,
as effective as if coming from the man whose business
it is to sell the magazine.
Suggestion in Salesmanship
245
:
Positive and
Negative
Suggestion
I will contrast the results of the posi-
tive and negative suggestion. I will
show you how sales are made by using
the positive method and how they are
lost by using the negative method.
Bad Effects
of Negative
Suggestion
I was in a grocery store one day and
the clerk said to his customer, “You
wouldn't want any oranges, would
you?" She said, "No." Didn't he tell
her she didn't want any? When the human mind is
in a state of indifference, it can always be counted
upon to act negatively in response to a negative sug-
gestion. Every negative suggestion is an apology, and
yet nine-tenths of the salesmen of this country use the
negative because' they have been educated that way.
The man who is so ashamed of his proposition that
he makes his approach with an apology, is not making
a sale, but killing it.
Other
Examples of
Negatives
An artist came to my office once with
a picture in his hand and said, “I
don't suppose you want to buy a pic-
ture, do you?" I told him I didn't. He
said, "I didn't suppose you did." I was in an imple-
ment store one day when a farmer came in. The dealer
said to him, "You don't want to take a buggy out with
you today, do you?" The farmer answered in the neg-
ative. Why shouldn't he? Isn't that the answer the
dealer expected? Let me illustrate a negative sugges-
tion in another way. Suppose a young man decided
to get married, and suppose he edged his way up to his
lady love and said, "Mary, you wouldn't want to get
!
246
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
married, would you?" Do you think he would get her?
Not unless she thought it was her last chance.
Positive
Works
How the A retail store has been very successful sell-
ing oranges by putting a beautifully decor-
ated card in the window which said, "The
doctor says, eat oranges, twenty-nine cents a
dozen." The suggestion which that statement made
to my mind was this: If the doctor says, eat oranges,
I better do it or I may get sick and have a doctor bill
to pay.
A Shrewd I wanted to buy a black, light-weight
Use of
overcoat and I called upon several of the
Suggestion clothing stores to see if they had what I
wanted. In one store the clerk said,
"We haven't what you want in black. You wouldn't
want a grey oxford, would you?" I took his word for
it and said, "No." I then called upon a tailor and dis-
covered that he understood the difference between pos-
itive and negative suggestion. I didn't tell him I
wanted a coat, mind you. I told him I was just look-
ing, and that was the truth. After satisfying me with
the goods, he said, "Do you want a velvet collar or a
collar made of the same material as the coat?" A pair
of positives, notice, and I hadn't yet told him I wanted
the coat. Then he said, "We will make you a collar
of each kind and you can have it changed when you
desire it."—A positive clincher. Then he showed me
styles and wanted to know whether I wanted it made
loose or have it close fitting. He landed me with five
positives and while I went in with the intention of not
buying, he got some of my money before I got out.
Positive suggestion did it.
Suggestion in Salesmanship
247
Another
Illustration
I went into a store one day to buy a
collar. I told the proprietor the size
and style I wanted. Ignoring my state-
ment that I wanted one collar, he opened the collar box
and said, "How many do you want-four?" I said,
"How did it happen that you asked me if I wanted four
collars when I said I wanted only one?" He said, "Well,
I thought maybe you could use them." Suggestion, you
notice. I told him I would take two. He said, "The next
time I will ask you to take eight."
"Something?'
A Bad Approach
I went into another store one time
to buy a collar. The clerk said,
"Something?" I told him I
wanted a collar. Now, why didn't that clerk take it
for granted that I was there for something and ask
me a positive question instead of a negative one? If
that clerk woke up at three in the morning and found
someone going through his pockets, do you think he
would rise up on his elbow and say, "Something?"
No, he would know the man was in there for some-
thing. If the salesman were in the mental attitude
of positive expectation, he would be more likely to
ask the man what he could do for him than to offer. a
suggestion of indifference. Indifference is always
negative and it is one of the most negative and de-
moralizing influences among the salespeople of this
country today.
Chloroform- But to go back to the collar. I handed
ing the Mind him the fifteen cents and he said,
"That's all, is it?" and I walked out.
Instead of chloroforming my mind into inaction by
1
248
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
i
;
saying "that's all," suppose he had offered me two
collars for a quarter and called my attention to ties,
shirts, etc., some of which articles the average man
is usually in need of. It is the business of the sales-
man today to do some thinking for his customers. If
he doesn't, someone else, whose mind is awake, will get
most of their business.
Thinking for A clerk told me a man came in one
the Customer day to get a $1.50 shirt. The clerk
showed him the shirt he asked for.
He and his wife were both satisfied with the shirt and
decided to take it. The clerk, however, wasn't quite
satisfied. He decided to use suggestion. He brought
down a $2.50 shirt and placed it by the side of the
$1.50 shirt. The customer talked about the cheap shirt,
the clerk talked about the higher priced one. Result:
He sold the man two $2.50 shirts and the man liked
them so well that he came back the next morning and
bought another at the same price. That is suggestion
that got results and gave greater satisfaction.
The Negative Here is an illustration which shows
Queers the
the effect of negative suggestion. A
Sale
farmer came to town to buy a self-
binder. He looked at one binder and
was so well satisfied that he was about to buy it. At
this point the salesman, thinking he would make a hit
and close the sale immediately, said, "I'll tell you, this
binder has given us very little trouble." Now this
farmer wasn't looking for a binder that was going to
give him even a little trouble. He had troubles of his
own. That one suggestion scared him away. He went
Suggestion in Salesmanship
249
3
out and bought a binder from a salesman who said,
"This binder has given us excellent satisfaction."
A Keen,
Positive
I once saw the advertisement of a top-
buggy in a mail order catalogue. The
Suggestion price printed under the buggy was
$39.00. Alongside the buggy in big let-
ters was this statement: "Don't buy a cheap buggy."
The whole ad carried the idea of exceptional value.
This ad sold a great many buggies. It gave the im-
pression of big value at a low price.
Man a
Professor Walter Scott says: "Man
Creature of has been called the reasoning animal,
Suggestion but he could, with greater truthful-
ness, be called the creature of sugges-
tion. He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent.
suggestible."
Reactive
The character of the salesman is affected
Effect of by the use of good or bad suggestion.
Suggestion No matter whether the suggestion is
good or bad, it is bound to react upon
the character of the one who made it. It is impossible
for one to suggest life-giving, invigorating, positive,
moral principles without being helped himself. It is
impossible for one to think and talk and act in accord-
ance with the great forces of life without being lifted
up and inspired by his own message.
Importance Just as it is possible to influence the
of Auto- subjective mind of another by sugges-
Suggestion tion, so it is possible to influence our
own subjective mind by autosugges-
250
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
tion. All we have to do is to determine on a certain
course, make up our mind that we will follow it, our
subjective mind accepts the suggestion, and we carry
out our determination. In order to gain results which
are worthy we must think in harmony with the great
principles of truth. Truth perpetuates itself by virtue
of its own inherent vitality. Every truth is itself a
part of an organized system which is co-extensive with
the Universe of God. On the other hand, every false-
hood, every error, every wrong idea is a prolific source
of possible evil, "for no correct conclusion can be
drawn from a false premise."
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
1. What is meant by suggestion?
2. What is meant by the objective mind? By
the subjective mind?
43. How can you use the law of suggestion in
creating desire?
4. How can the same law be used in closing an
order?
5. What four kinds of suggestions are there?
6. What is meant by indirect suggestion?
C. What is the effect of environment on growth?
8. What is an autosuggestion? How may it affect
one's health?
9. What value has it in personal development?
410. How is suggestion used in advertising? Give
some well known instances.
Make some careful experiments with autosug-
gestion. When you retire at night, impress your sub-
Suggestion in Salesmanship
251
jective mind very strongly with the fact that you must
awaken at a certain hour. Note the result. Try im-
pressing some particular subject on your mind to be
thought of when you first awaken. Repeat some
formula of "good cheer" daily on arising, earnestly and
honestly desiring it to be lived out. The following
formula is suggested: "I will get all the comfort and
pleasure possible out of this day and I will do some-
thing to add to the measure of the world's happiness
and well being. I will control myself when tempted
to be irritable and unhappy and I will look for the
bright side in every event." Persevere in these and
similar exercises in autosuggestion.
Q
252
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Summary to Chapter X
1. Suggestion is a stimulus to action which over-
comes all antagonistic influences that would prevent
its realization.
12. The mind may be divided into objective and
subjective. The objective mind is the seat of reason,
of judgment, of logical thinking, of the five senses. The
subjective mind is the seat of memory, of the emo-
tions, and may be controlled by the power of sugges-
tion.
3. Suggestion continually repeated results in
action. The salesman and the advertiser make use of
this principle.
4. Suggestion has a powerful effect when used
interrogatively to secure assent.
5. There are four kinds of suggestion: positive
and negative, direct and indirect.
16.
6. The salesman's success and character are
affected by the use of good or bad suggestion.
The Five
Senses
CHAPTER XI
1
XXX
Human Nature
I have never been told by any student
that he has made a careful, analytical
study of the five senses, with the idea of
increasing his business efficiency. We were taught in
our youth that the five senses are seeing, hearing,
smelling, taste, and touch.
Educating
the Eye
Emerson says we get nine-tenths of our
education through our eyes. That being
the case, we should devote a great deal
of painstaking thought and attention to the eye, its
use, and the best methods of observation. Some people
have a large development of the observation qualities,
others seem to have little aptitude along this line. This
latter class should especially concentrate their thoughts
upon remedying the deficiency. But this idea has
never been called to the attention of most people. In
fact, in many cases the quality of observation is less evi-
dent when they finish school than when they enter.
Observe
Trained
Speakers
In listening to a sermon or a lecture, you
should watch every gesture, every move-
ment, and every attitude. You should
especially note this in trained speakers.
253
254
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Learn a lesson from them. Many can appreciate a
successful effect of any kind, but they cannot give
the reason why, as they cannot analyze it. Observe
closely and look for the reason why.
Study Faces
Intently
When you are selling a man you should
study his face with a hawk-like inten-
sity. In this way you will profit by
every expression of interest, take advantage of every
favorable movement. By observing an individual's
dress and general appearance you can draw a pretty
accurate conclusion as to his habit of thought. You
can tell his temperament and quite correctly judge his
inclinations. Study faces and try to remember them.
Take a personal interest in people. Try to determine
how old people are when you meet them. Try to de-
termine their business or position in life. Too many
people go through life without seeing any more than
they have to. That is one of the main reasons they
do not amount to more than they do. When an in-
dividual does not use his eyes it means that he does
not use his brains. A young man came up behind me
one day in a strange city and said: "Why, how do
you do, Mr. Knox?" I had seen that young man only
a very few times, and that was over a year previous
to this meeting. I asked him how he recognized me
and he said he had a good eye for faces. He developed
his qualities of observation.
Observe
Window
Displays
When you go down the street you. should
study the windows in the stores. When a
window trimmer trims a window, he has
a special reason for so doing. Figure out
Human Nature
255
his reason. A window trimmer desires to trim his
windows so that the goods will sell themselves
through an appeal to the eye. He has studied other
people's eyes as well as his own or he would not know
how to make this visual appeal.
Keen Why is it that a stock buyer is such a good
Eyes judge of the weight of cattle and hogs? It is
because he studies animals and estimates them
with the idea of weight in mind. You notice that he
pays attention. He concentrates his mind upon his sub-
ject and learns to estimate. We often hear the remark
that So-and-so has very keen, alert eyes. He has made
them so. He has learned to observe. Gladstone said he
judged people more by what they looked than by what
they said.
Opportunity It will pay you to study advertisements
For Practice with the same idea in mind. Look at
a new automobile. See how it has been
made to appeal to the eye. Notice how a beautifully
gowned woman appeals to the eye. When you go
to the circus you will see about five trapeze perform-
ers in the same group. You will usually notice that
three of them are men and two are women. You will
notice that the men do all the difficult work; that the
women are very fair to look upon, but that the per-
forming they do amounts to little. They are up there
to be seen and to fill space that would otherwise not
look well. In the eyes of the onlooker they uncon-
sciously accentuate the clever acrobatic effects of the
other performers.
=
256
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
}
Please Both
Eye and Ear
Why do people spend years in study-
ing oratory? They do it to please the
eye and the ear. Did you ever stop to
think of that? Beecher practiced oratory for years.
Why? In order to please people. Demosthenes stut-
tered. He knew that stuttering did not please people,
so he went down to the beach, placed pebbles in his
mouth, and practiced until he overcame his difficulty.
He did it to please people rather than to displease
them. We must please people in order to succeed in
life. It pays. How we look and how our samples look,
will give pleasure or displeasure to the eye. The sales-
man who does not keep his samples looking their best
is going to lose business, and a lot of it. A self-respect-
ing man will not buy from a sloppy salesman whose
samples are not clean. By all means see that your
› appeal to the eye is as good as it can be made. When
a man looks at you he sees a picture that is either pleas-
ing or displeasing. If that picture has unpolished
shoes, a dirty collar, and finger nails decorated with
mourning, do you think it is good to look upon? I
recently saw a man eating with his knife.
That one
act told my eye a definite story about that man.
An Extreme A prominent concern wanted a first-
Case
class city salesman. They received
many applications. But one man's
recommendations stood out so much stronger than all
the rest that they sent for him. He was an able look-
ing young man. The president of the concern took
him to the club for dinner. He tucked his napkin
around his neck when he ate. He finished his dinner
sooner than his prospective employer. As soon as he
Human Nature
257
had finished he tilted his chair back and began to pick
his teeth. Then he took out his knife and cleaned his
finger nails. In spite of his fine qualifications as a
salesman he was not hired, as this concern expected
their salesmen to dine with many of their prominent
customers, and they could not afford to be humiliated
by such a representative. They hired an inferior man,
but he finally became a member of the firm. If the
first man had developed his qualities of observation
he would have learned that he could not grossly offend
the eye and not lose prestige. His one weakness cost
him a great opportunity.
Value of a
Pleasing
Voice
A voice that is harsh or that grates will
not long be listened to even by a good
prospective customer. In hiring a man,
many concerns consider his personality
first and his voice second. Many concerns will not
hire a man unless he has a pleasant voice. The busi-
ness world is keyed up to a high pitch. It will listen
to a musical voice but never to a harsh one. Every
salesman should therefore train his voice if he ex-
pects maximum pay.
Guard You may not think the sense of smell has
Your much to do with salesmanship, but it has.
Breath Many people will not do business with a
barber whose breath smells of cigarettes or
chewing tobacco. The same is true with a dentist.
Many people will not buy from a salesman who has
an offensive breath of any kind. Many men have
such breath but they do not realize the bad effect
of it. A prominent doctor was sick almost unto death
258
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
{
with pneumonia. Leading physicians called upon
him. They came into his presence smoking, and it
nearly stifled him. Up to this sickness he had been
a constant user of tobacco; but he vowed never again
would he be so unconsciously brutal as to offend a
sick person with smoke.
Some men be-
Taste The matter of taste has very little to do with
and
ordinary salesmanship, as very few goods are
Touch sold on the basis of taste. But one should
develop the sense of touch.
come so expert through the sense of touch that they
can determine a good deal about a man's character
by shaking hands with him. The characterless man
has a weak handshake.
In the future, the man who guesses as to the use
of the five senses will be left far behind the man who
knows. Use your senses. They were given to you
for that purpose.
The Human
Instincts
The following list of human instincts
and their action is taken from a prom-
inent work on psychology by Profes-
sor James R. Angell, head of the Department of Psy-
chology, of Chicago University. These instincts are:
"Fear, anger, shyness, curiosity, affection, sexual love,
jealousy and envy, rivalry, sociability, sympathy,
modesty, play, imitation, constructiveness, secretive-
ness, and acquisitiveness.
"Curiosity is simply another name for interest.
Curiosity is the racial instinct to which our sedate
citizen is yielding.
"Many persons feel an ineradicable impulse to
Human Nature
259
}
conceal their plans, their actions, and their character
behind a screen of non-committal silence and reserve.
But this is temperamental and may be felt in the ab-
sence of all explicit justification. Acquisitiveness is
selfishness; the impulse to get and hold.
¶"Rivalry is closely allied with emulation, and
runs to excess in anger, hate, jealousy, and envy. Its
stimulus is found in the successful achievement of
any one coming within our own social circle, by virtue
of which we are likely to be relegated to inferior po-
sitions.
"Envy is generally applied to our covetousness
of the prosperity or possessions of others. This covet-
ousness is often accompanied as in jealousy, by more
or less malignity. Jealousy we commonly apply to
a similar feeling toward persons who are our sup-
posed rivals, whether actually successful or simply
feared. Its characteristic expressions are similar to
those of anger and hatred, but commonly occur in
milder form.
"Adult constructiveness is exercised under the
stress of fear, pride, or similar emotions.
"Impulse as a mental affair may be defined
broadly as the consciousness of tendency to movement.
The disposition to movement is instigated by some
stimulus." We know that thought plus feeling equals
action.
"The first time one of the strong racial impulses
is felt, the individual's consciousness contains little
or no anticipation of what is about to occur. He is
simply aware of an unusual thrill, a passing interest,
which comes to him disclosed in part by muscular
movements-half mechanical in their nature.
}
260 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
¶"Instinct and emotion are both psycho-physical
processes. The instinct refers primarily to physical
phenomena, and the term emotion to psychological."
¶No matter how brainy a man may be, no mat-
ter how well educated he may be, he will be a failure
as a leader of men unless he thoroughly understands
these human instincts and how to manipulate them
so as to induce action in his behalf.
Related
Subjects
Three Closely As previously stated, the psychologi-
cal principles of salesmanship and
oratory are the same. Advertising is
one form of salesmanship. Hence
Salesmanship, Advertising, and Oratory are very closely
related. The salesman should seize every opportunity
to study good speakers and to practice speaking in
public as an aid to his specific work of selling. As
Arthur B. Freeman says: "Salesmanship is a form of
advertising and public speaking; advertising is a form
of salesmanship and public address; and public speak-
ing is salesmanship as well as advertising. Each has
its place in the business world. Each needs the other,
and it is only when two or more of these forces are
working in conjunction that the most good may be
expected."
Rhetorical The great trinity of rhetoric is clearness,
Trinity force, and elegance. They are stated in
the order of their importance. Clearness
appeals to the intellect. Force appeals to the emo-
tions. Elegance appeals to the taste, it appeals to the
æsthetic. Therefore, if an argument is clear, it ap-
peals to the intellect; if it is forceful, it appeals to the
Human Nature
261
emotions; and if it is elegant, it may neither appeal
vigorously to the intellect nor to the emotions.
Force and
Elegance
Contrasted
Billy Sunday is clear, forceful, and in-
elegant, but marvelously effective. Of
course he is out of the ordinary-un-
usual, but it takes the unusual to be
most effective. That is due to the fact that folks are
lazy. They must be shocked into action. The
polished orator, William M. Evarts, was clear, fairly
forceful, and elegant. But he was so elegant that his
very elegance robbed his speech of its force and killed
its effect upon the emotions, leaving it nothing but
a dead, rhetorical master-piece, devoid of the power
to stir the human soul.
Force is
Vitally
Necessary
Most advertising, most salesmanship, and
most oratory that fails to bring results,
fails because it lacks force. Your writer
or speaker may tell a clear story. It may
be elegantly written or delivered, but if it lacks force
you may as well bid a fond farewell to the hope of
results. To get results it must stir people and to do
that it must be forceful. Charles W. Mears, the
famous advertising man, says, "The public is both
inherently selfish and inherently lazy. Too selfish
to be interested in the merely ordinary or casual. Too
lazy to take other than routine action unless the un-
usual action is forcefully urged. And in order to stir
this selfish, lazy public into the buying mood, and
into action, copy must of necessity shock or challenge
the emotions."
1
262
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Force Based
on Character
Genung, an authority on writing,
says: "Force must shock or challenge
the emotions." He also says: "Gen-
uine force in style cannot be manufactured; if the
style has not serious conviction back of it, it becomes
contorted; if it has not a vivifying emotion, it becomes
turgid. Force is the quality of style most dependent
upon character. The writer's culture for force, there-
fore, is, in its deepest analysis, a culture of character.
To think closely and seriously, to insist upon seeking
fact or truth for one's self and not merely echo it as
hearsay; to cherish true convictions, not mere fashions
or expedients of thinking-these are the traits in the
culture of character that make for forcible and virile
expression."
Analysis A speech can be analyzed under the fol-
of Speech lowing heads: Impressiveness, clearness,
force, belief, action, elegance, and enter-
tainment. The object of most salesmen is simply to
get the order-in other words, to get action. But the
salesman who does not do more than simply get the
order is not the highest type of salesman. The man
who makes the right kind of an impression as to the
character of his house, who makes clear what the house
stands for and is doing, who establishes belief in the
house's reliability, and who is able to entertain the
buyer and get him into the right mental attitude, is
a hundred times more a salesman than the mere order
taker or order filler.
Belief
Versus
Action
Professor Phillips says, "The carefully pre-
pared, half-hour effort of many a preacher
has been wasted, because the burden of his
Human Nature
263
talk was believe, when what he really desired
was action. Already they believed, but they did not
do; and every phrase, sentence, paragraph-every
argument should have been selected with special re-
gard to its power to influence the will." The sales-
man very often talks his prospect into buying and
then out again by trying to get him to believe in the
article, when the man already understands it, and
already believes in it, and is waiting to be told to act.
Appeal to The salesman or the public speaker must
Experience make what he says come vividly into the
life and experiences of the listener. The
more vividly and closely the ideas touch the life, be-
liefs, and experiences of the listener, the more effec-
tive they will be and the more likely will he be to gain
his end. The more he theorizes and generalizes, the
less effective he will be. In order that you may be
clear and reach the point of contact in the mind of
your listener, show him how the unknown is like the
known. In order that you may be impressive, com-
pare the new feeling or emotion to the feeling or emo-
tion he is already familiar with. To induce belief,
compare the new idea with the one he is already fa-
miliar with. Do the best you can to get out of the
listener's experience the thing that has impressed him
most. Make your comparative plea upon the strength
of that emotion.
Speaker
Must Know
Human Nature
Oratory is the ability to influence
and control thought and action. But
no man will become highly efficient
as a speaker who does not know the
}
264
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
human emotions and the best methods of influencing
them; who does not become a highly efficient mental
manipulator.
*
For a more complete study of Human Nature as
related to Salesmanship and oratory, see Volume Two
of the Science of Applied Salesmanship, published by
the Knox School.
Human Nature
265
་
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
€1.
1. When you see a horse do you ever stop
to think what breed it is or how much it might weigh?
2. When you pass a corn field in the summer
do you estimate its yield?
3. When you read an advertisement do you
wonder why it was so written?
4. When you look into a man's face can you
tell why he is or is not a leader of men?
5. With these questions in mind ask questions
of your friends to determine whether or not they are
good observers; then write an essay of one hundred
fifty words on the value of developing the qualities
of observation.
6. How may the salesman offend the eye or
the ear of his customers?
€7.
7. Name some of the human instincts to which
the salesman may appeal.
8. John Brown has written a letter asking about
the book entitled Salesmanship and Business Effi-
ciency. Write him a letter giving him ten reasons
why he should buy the book.
9. Write an essay of three hundred words giv-
ing your reasons why it is to the advantage of a
business man to be able to make a good, clear, effec-
tive speech.
10. Before you write above essay ask advice of
business men, lawyers, preachers, etc. Get into the
habit of seeking information.
266 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
1
Summary to Chapter XI
1. The five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling,
taste, and touch, should be studied for the purpose of
increasing business efficiency.
2. As a great part of education is secured
through the eyes the power of observation should be
developed.
13. The salesman should observe the faces and
the appearances of men to remember them, and to
learn their habits of mind, their temperaments, their
position in life, and their manner of living.
14. The salesman should observe the window dis-
plays in stores, and advertisements of all kinds, to learn
how they appeal to the eye.
5. The salesman should learn to please his pros-
pect by personal appearance, by the condition of his
samples, by his voice, by cleanliness of body, by sweet-
ness of breath, by the character of his handshake.
16. The salesman must know the nature and
workings of the various human instincts and how to
influence them so as to induce action in his behalf.
7. Salesmanship, advertising, and oratory are
closely related. Each requires clearness, elegance, and
force, and the greatest of these is force.
CHAPTER XII
XXX
National Cash Register Selling
A National
Cash Register
Approach
Methods
Here is an approach I have used with
success in selling National Cash Reg-
isters: "Mr. Blank, my name is Knox.
I represent the National Cash Regis-
ter Company, (wait a couple of seconds), and I want to
show you how a modern National Cash Register will
increase your profits, stop losses in your store, and in-
crease your business."
In that short opening statement, I appeal to his
pocket book and his curiosity. Both are quite neces-
sary. He is interested in knowing how any machine
will increase his profits. Furthermore, he knows he
has some losses in his store. He would like well enough
to see them stopped. So far so good. The two ap-
peals are addressed to his self-interest and he under-
stands them. But when I tell him I want to show him
how to increase his business, he is immediately curious
and will most likely say, "Well, I can see where you
might increase my profits and stop losses in my store,
but what I can't see is how you can increase my sales."
This is just what I want him to say. If I can get a
man so interested as a result of my first statement that
267
}
268
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
he is asking me for information, it is proof that I have
so aroused certain emotions in his brain that I have
in reality created a mental sensation favorable to my
proposition.
When a merchant asked me how the thing could
be done, I would immediately tell him that I could not
very well explain it to him without showing him the
Register, and inasmuch as I had the Register set up in
the sample room, I would ask him to come over with
me then, or come just as soon as he could. In case he
did not go with me, then I would make a definite appoint-
ment with him, and call at his store at that particular
hour so as to remind him in case he had forgotten. You
can't depend upon people to keep their appointments.
You must keep after them. They forget.
I am going to give you two or three practical
illustrations at this point, where I made sales as a re-
sult of an approach that made the proper appeal, and
let me say also that if your approach is not a good one,
the chance of making a sale is lost for the time being
at least, providing you are turned down. In making
the sale there are seven distinct steps, as you have al-
ready learned. You must make the approach, get the
attention, arouse interest, produce conviction, create de-
sire, produce resolve, and force decision, which is closing
the order.
¶Your selling and closing arguments may be bril-
liant. It may be impossible for a prospective purchaser
to get around them. But of what value are they to you
if you are turned down before you get a hearing, a
chance to use them? My definition for approach, there-
National Cash Register Selling Methods 269
fore, is this: The ability to create an immediate favor-.
able sensation in your Prospective Purchaser's mind.
I had apparently made a successful approach to
a merchant in New York City, and made an appoint-
ment with him to meet me at the National Cash Register
office at the corner of Broadway and 28th street, at 3
o'clock in the afternoon. Inasmuch as I did not want
to take chances on his not coming, I called at his store
just before three. He was out, but came in shortly.
When he saw me he frowned and said he hadn't time to
go with me, as he was very busy, and had decided he
didn't want a Register anyway.
I came back at him this way: "Mr. Jones, I made
an appointment with you to meet me at 3 p. m. at the
National Cash Register office. But that was not all.
I arranged with our greatest systems expert, a man who
I believe is one of the greatest systems experts in the
world, to give you half an hour of his time, in order
to study your system and help you in any way he can.
Now, then, if you do not keep your appointment, and
our Mr. Blank loses his valuable time that he has kindly
reserved for you, just see where it will place me. In
fact, he will be likely to lose confidence in me. For my
sake, under the circumstances, as well as your own, I
want you to come. The elevated will be at the corner
in half a minute, and if we hurry we can catch it." I
said, "Come on," and reached toward him as if to catch
him by the arm, and started for the door. The sugges-
tion was potent. When we got outside I wanted to
keep his mind busy, and I was anxious to catch the
first car, so I said, "Let us run." We ran, caught the
car and before we got to the demonstrating room I had
དོ
270
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
sold him a $500 Register, from my catalogue. I showed
him the Register in the office. He signed the contract
and gave me his check and I turned him over to our
systems expert. You see I did not antagonize him. I
did the reverse. My statement was such that it shamed
him just a bit.
Here is another: I stepped into a store, introduced
myself to the proprietor, a fine old gentleman of about
sixty or sixty-five. He smiled when I told him my busi-
ness and said: "You are just wasting your time on me.
Every National Cash Register man in this territory has
tried his best to sell me for twenty years, but they have
all failed. I know it is a good thing and I may take a
notion to buy one some time, but I am not interested
now." It was Christmas week, and I came back at him
like this: "For twenty long years you have been thinking
about buying a National Cash Register, but you have
not done what you know in your heart you should have
done. You have paid the price of a Register, in losses,
and no doubt a good deal more, too, every year during
those twenty years, and still you did not get what you
paid for. When I pay for a thing I need, I propose to
get it.
This is the last week in the year.
You are
going to pay for another nice new Cash Register next
year, whether you get it or not. If I were in your
place, I wouldn't be buncoed out of getting it any longer.
I would get it and start the New Year right."
I arranged with him to bring my sample into his
store. I demonstrated it. He signed the order and
kept the register. The price was $300.00. Another
case when a short, simple, but effective approach landed
a good commission.
National Cash Register Selling Methods 271
Here is another one. A little town in Iowa de-
cided to have another store. It was blessed with only
one. I heard about it and went out.
A Fire Insurance agent and I reached the store
at the same time. He said he was in a hurry for he
wanted to go out on the next train, which was due in an
hour. I told him to go ahead. He insured the store
and left. I approached the farmer who was starting the
store and he said: "No, the Register costs too much and
I can't afford it." I said, "You have just insured your
store for forty-six dollars and twenty-five cents a year.
In ten years that will amount to over $460 and what
chance do you think you have of burning out?" He
said he did not know. "Well," I said, "according to
Fire Insurance statistics you have just one chance in
sixteen hundred of being burned out. Think of it!
Only one chance in 1,600! And yet you are not
willing to take that chance, and I think you are wise not
to. But look here. You cannot expect to run a store
without losing at least a quarter a day as a result of
mistakes in change, and twenty-five cents a day more
for forgotten charges, can you?" "No."
"No." "That is
an absolute loss. You believe the Register will stop
these losses and absolutely pay for itself in a short time.
If you lose half a dollar a day, and there are 312 work-
ing days in a year, you lose $156.00 a year. In ten years
your absolute loss is $1,560 at least, and yet what do I
ask for my Register, which is an Insurance Policy against
this loss of money? I do not ask $460 for ten years
with only one-sixteenth of one per cent. chance of loss.
All I ask is $425. 'At the end of ten years it will not only
have saved you many times its cost, but it will then
}
272
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
be worth at least half of what you paid for it, or $212.50.
Now, then, I put it up to you as a good business man,
can you afford to pay $460 Fire Insurance for ten years
and get nothing for it, and not pay $425 for a system that
your own good judgment tells you will pay for itself
many times and insure your money against loss, not only
for ten years, but for forty years? As a level-headed
business man, you can't, under the circumstances, afford
to turn my proposition down, can you?" He said, "No,
I can't. I'll take the Register," and he smiled when he
said it.
¶Now, then, what got me this order so easily?
Simply my knowing the statistics in regard to Fire In-
surance and applying that knowledge at the opportune
time. You may ask why I should spend time getting
such information. I say just for such emergency as this.
A man, to be largely successful today, must "know
everything of something and something of everything."
¶Every man with any intelligence at all who studies.
this approach, can figure out an approach applicable to
his own particular line of business. This approach fur-
nishes the model. It is no theory. It has been used
with great success by the greatest selling organization in
the world.
Selling The following are the selling methods, sell-
Methods ing arguments, selling points, and closing
arguments that have made the National
Cash Register Company the greatest and most successful
selling organization in the world, the envy of competitors,
and the marvel of the rest of the selling world.
¶"Self-Respect. This element should stiffen the
National Cash Register Selling Methods 273
backbone of every salesman. Never forget that your
business puts you on a level with any merchant and that
you are (or should be) doing good to everybody you sell.
You are asking no favors, you have nothing to apologize
for, and everything to be proud of. Servility will lose
more sales than impudence, and is quite as detestable.
Treat your prospective purchaser with the courtesy due
an equal.
¶“Knowledge.—This is the first step in salesman-
ship. You can never reach any of the others till your
feet are first firmly planted on knowledge. The first
rule for selling National Cash Registers is, know your
Register. The second is, know your store. Learn ab-
solutely everything to be known about the Register.
Never stop studying it. Never be afraid you will learn
too much. Never stop looking into its possibilities.
"Know all that is possible to learn about the store
when you want to sell a Register, before you approach
the prospective purchaser. Then learn all that he will
tell you before you proceed to attack him. Knowledge
is power. It will put strength into your efforts and
help you to place them where they will tell.
"When the salesman has secured a hearing, he must
make the most of his opportunity and put his case well.
He must hear the prospective purchaser patiently, and
answer his questions fully. If objections are raised, he
must meet them.
¶"Industry.—The habit of getting at it quickly and
pegging away all day long, without stopping to swap
yarns or talk politics, is the saving grace that makes
millionaires and winners out of ordinary men. When
added to talent, the combination gets pretty near to
274
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
genius, and commands its reward. There is a whole.
cyclopedia of wisdom in the terse admonition, 'Follow
the rules and plug.'
"System.-Doing things in the way that is most
economical of time, effort, and money, multiplies a sales-
man's effectiveness many fold. It prevents much waste
of energy. The Spanish fleet at Santiago had courage,
weight, and speed, and threw metal enough to have sunk
our whole navy; but our gunners had system.
"No need of genius.-There is no secret or mystery
about selling our Registers. It only requires hard work
sensibly directed. Any man can sell them if he is in
earnest, uses common sense, and makes the most of his
opportunities.
"When the clock strikes three, each stroke is as
full and complete as when it strikes twelve. When you
undertake a small matter, give it the same good attention
you would a larger matter.
"Why some salesmen fail.-It is often difficult to
analyze the personal qualities and methods which make
one salesmen successful and another a failure.
1. "A salesman may fail from lack of tact in
introducing himself.
2. "He may fail if he is slovenly and careless in
his dress and habits, because this leads other men to
suspect that he is not prosperous and does not represent
a first-class concern.
13. "He may fail because he does not answer the
prospective purchaser's questions and objections intelli-
gently, concisely, and without too much detail.
T4. "He may fail if he speaks indistinctly, or too
rapidly, or if he lacks animation and earnestness.
National Cash Register Selling Methods
275
5. "He may fail because he indulges in ungentle-
manly, awkward expressions and gestures, or offends the
prospective purchaser by undue familiarity.
16. "He may fail for lack of dignity.
7. "He may fail because he gives an indiscreet
answer to the prospective purchaser's question.
¶8. "He may fail because he does not fully under-
stand the Register himself, or cannot describe it in suit-
able language.
19. "He may fail for lack of knowledge of the
prospective purchaser's business, and the way in which
our Registers would help him.
10. "He may fail by neglecting to do or say one
or more of a hundred different things in the right way.
Also by doing or saying a thing at the wrong time, in
the wrong way.
¶“A satisfied user the best advertisement.-Probably
there is no other mistake which good salesmen make so
much as the failure to get all the advantages out of a sale
once made. Even good salesmen are apt to think when
a contract is once signed that that is the end of the profit
for them in that direction. As a matter of fact, there is
no other assistance which a salesman can turn to his
account which is so valuable as the good will of a satis-
fied customer. It is, if properly used, a perpetual stand-
ing advertisement right in the locality where he needs it
most.
"We do not advise salesmen to introduce them-
selves by sending in a card, but prefer that they should
depend wholly upon what they are able to say to secure
a hearing. We strongly disapprove of all obscure in-
troductions and all tricks, and believe that a man who
276
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
has something worth saying and is not ashamed of his
business, can make known his errand in a bold, straight-
forward manner.
"Have a fixed idea.-A salesman should adapt
himself to his man, but at the same time he should have
a fixed idea of what he has to say. He should be digni-
fied and earnest.
¶"A merchant should never be approached the first
time with a funny story or an attempt at wit. The
first impression should be that the salesman sets a dis-
tinct value upon both his own time and the storekeep-
er's; that he has something of importance to say and
does not intend to trifle about it.
"You must not proceed on the theory that store-
keepers usually know what their own best interests are.
They don't. No man always does. The majority of
men are going contrary to their best interests every day.
They seem to be almost wilfully blind to the things that
would help them and make them better off.
¶"Gaining a hearing.-The first point in approach-
ing a prospective purchaser is to look like a gentleman,
act like a man, and make him listen to you.
"Enough importance has not been attached to the
value of proper approach. So many times we hear it
said by an agent that he never knows what he is going
to talk about when he enters a man's store, until he
meets the proprietor. We trust too much to catch-as-
catch-can methods in approaching. You ought to have
a point in view when you enter a store, so as to get to
the point quickly. The first thing after the introduction
is to impress the merchant as to just what you are there
for.
National Cash Register Selling Methods 277
"Getting at the proprietor. After making as
thorough an investigation as possible, you should go di-
rectly to the proprietor, and say, 'Is this Mr. Johnson?"
Mention the name. Don't say, 'Is this the proprietor?'
If it should be a clerk, he will be flattered by being mis-
taken for the proprietor.
"Getting the attention-Do not attempt to talk
to a man who is not listening, who is writing a letter,
or occupying himself in another way while you are
talking. That's useless, and is a loss of self-respect and
of his respect. If he cannot give you his attention, say
to him, 'I see you are busy. If you can give me your
attention for a few minutes I shall be pleased; but I
don't want to interrupt you, if you cannot spare the time
now, I will call again.'
¶"Try to understand and feel thoroughly the dis-
tinction between confidence and familiarity. Never fail
in respect either to yourself or to the man with whom
you are talking. Never be familiar with him. Never
put your hand on his shoulder or on his arm, nor take
hold of his coat. Such things are repugnant to a gen-
tleman—and you should assume that he is one.
"Never pound the desk or shake your finger at
a prospective purchaser. Don't shout at him as if sound
would take the place of sense. Don't advance toward
him and talk so excitedly under his nose that he will
back away from you for fear of being run over, as if
you were a trolley car. One sales agent backed a pros-
pective purchaser halfway across the room in this way.
"Don't compel a man to listen to you by loud or
fast talking. Don't make him feel that he can't get
a word in edgeways and has to listen until you are out
278
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
1
of breath. This is not the sort of compulsion that makes
customers. But make him believe that you have some-
thing to say and will say it quickly.
¶"Put yourself in his place from the very start.
Make him feel, not that you are trying to force your
business upon him, but that you want to discuss how
his business may be benefited by you.
¶"The instant a prospective purchaser shows a
readiness to listen, give him your story in a nutshell.
Don't make a long preamble. Don't waste a lot of
words saying, 'If you will only listen to me I will tell
you this,' or 'If you will free your mind from prejudice
I will explain that,' or 'If you will only give me your
attention for a few moments, I propose to tell you the
other.' Don't propose, but tell him.
"Convincing a man that he needs help is nine-tenths
of the battle. If you were trying to sell a consumption
cure, there would be no use in telling how wonderfully
effective it is, to a man who doesn't believe he has con-
sumption. Your first effort must be directed to point-
ing out the prospective purchaser's complaint. Unless
he sees this, he isn't ready for the remedy.
Meeting
"Objections and meeting them.-'I can't
Objections afford to buy a Register as I have a good
system already.'
"You can afford a thing that pays a good profit,
can't you? If this Register is only an expense and
doesn't pay you a profit, you don't want it. You can't
afford to have any useless expense in your business. On
the other hand, if it will be a profitable, money making
National Cash Register Selling Methods 279
investment, you want to look into it just as much as I
want to have you do so.
¶""If I were trying to sell you a class of goods that
you had never sold in your store, and showed you how
one million merchants were making more money out of
them than out of any other goods in their store, you
wouldn't say, without looking at the goods, 'I can't afford
them.' You would be glad to come up to the hotel to
look at them and see what they were.
¶"❝If one million merchants have found this Register
to be a money saving investment, there must be some-
thing in it worth investigating, and you can't afford as a
business man to turn it down, without at least looking
into it and deciding for yourself.'
¶"Prospective purchaser: 'My father made money
before me.'
6
¶""True, but did he have the competition then that
you have now? Were goods sold on such small mar-
gins? In these days of sharp competition, you must be
more up-to-date than your competitor or you fall behind
in the race.'
¶"Prospective purchaser: 'No, I can't go today; I
am too busy.' 'That may be true. If so, I shall be
pleased to make another appointment with you. But
unless your work is unusually urgent and important,
allow me to suggest that if I were selling you a line of
merchandise which you could examine and purchase at
once, and sell at a sure profit, then you would make ar-
rangements to examine or purchase without delay. You
would do so because you are here to make money, all
you can legitimately, and you would feel you were doing
yourself an injustice, especially if numerous merchants
280
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
?
in your line were handling my line at a nice profit. You
simply cannot afford to drop out of the procession and
leave the field to your rivals.'
"Nowadays, if you want to make more than a
fair living, you have to be brighter than your neighbors.
You have to be ready to accept new ideas and make the
most of everything good that is offered to you. It is just
as unreasonable to stick to the old ways simply because
you are used to them, when new ways would bring you
better results, as it is to climb ten flights of stairs when
you might be carried up in an elevator, or to swim away
from a life preserver when you are nearly exhausted, just
to show that you are able to swim alone even if you do
drown for it.'
"I'll get along all right.' 'It isn't a matter of
getting along. You ought to let your competitor get
along. You ought to be ambitious to get ahead.'
"Some men look at an idea to see how they can get
along without it. Others look at it to see how they can
apply it to their business. The latter are the ones who
are preparing to enlarge their business.
Approach Don'ts.
¶"Don't disparage the prospective purchaser's opin-
ion or methods. It is better to keep him on good terms
with himself.
¶"Don't antagonize him. Approach him in a
friendly, agreeable manner. Act as if you know you
are going to get on with him all right.
¶"Don't take an argumentative attitude, but don't
fail to have your arguments at hand in case of need.
National Cash Register Selling Methods 281
It is a trait of great men worth imitating to seem to
be going along with the other fellow while they are really
making him come their way.
"Don't assume to know more about his business
than he himself does, for you cannot make him believe it.
"Don't tease him to go and see the Register.
When a salesman begins to beg, it is evident that he has
no more arguments to present.
"Don't flatter. Sincerity in business is as com-
mendable as sincerity in religion.
¶"Don't put on a civil and formal politeness, which
is not natural.
¶"Don't trust to persuasion alone to land your pros-
pective purchaser. Convince him. Persuasion is the
soft glove; conviction is the iron hand underneath. Let
your manner be as conciliatory as possible, but put into
your arguments a firm grip of conviction so that he can-
not get away from you.
"Don't dodge a question or objection. Answer it
fairly and squarely.
thing.
"Don't talk for the sake of talking. Say some-
"Don't talk all the time. Give the prospective pur-
chaser a chance. When he opens his mouth to make an
objection, let him make it. It is better out and an-
swered than sticking in his mind.
¶"Don't forget that all men have certain common
ideas which can be answered by the same argument.
"Don't forget that every man has his own pecu-
liarities which should be met in a different way.
"You start the argument. Lead your prospective
purchaser, then when he talks, get in your conviction.
282
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
}
¶"Don't underestimate your difficulties. Don't
overestimate them. Don't think you are up against
an impossible proposition.
"Don't be a quitter. Never say: "This is too tough
a proposition for me.' It is a mistake to say, 'It cannot
be done.' The right thing to say is, 'This may be a
hard nut to crack, but there is a way to do it. I'll keep
at it with courage and patience and do it.'
"Learn to size up your man, his peculiarities and
moods. All men like honesty, politeness, and earnest-
ness. All men admire persistence. Most men want
facts.
"Nine times out of ten, you can bank on facts to
fetch your man. Make them as clear as glass, strong
and few. Don't bewilder a man with a mass of trif-
ling facts. Tie to a few important points, drive them in
and clinch them, but tell him what he needs to know.
If a trifle will close him, it's no trifle.
"A few men can be driven; the majority must be
led. Look him in the eyes steadily and friendly. Learn
to read the expression in a man's face which says, ‘Al-
most persuaded,' and the other which says, 'Hang the
fellow! I wish he were in Hades!' Act accordingly.
"Some men like a little oratory or spice of humor,
but that is dangerous ground. Beware of the man who
smiles and nods and never buys. Put your trust in
earnestness, candor, and facts..
"Speak deliberately. If you see from a puzzled
or doubtful look on his face that some point is not quite
plain to him, stop and make it plain. Take time enough
to stop and explain each point thoroughly. Whenever
you make a statement that is open to question, be sure
National Cash Register Selling Methods 283
to get his assent to it before you proceed. If he will
not assent to it exactly as you make it, modify it until
he does. Get him to assent in some degree to every
proposition you make, so that when you get to the gen-
eral result he cannot go back and disagree with you.
Don't do this, however, as if you were trying to corner
him, but with a simple desire to reach a reasonable basis
of agreement.
¶"You should be just as sincere about it as if you
were a clergyman preaching the gospel. If you go at
it in this sincere spirit, the prospective purchaser will
feel the importance of what you say and it will carry its
due weight.
"It is a simple proposition that if a thing will save
him money every day, the quicker he gets it the more
it will save him, and the longer he delays getting it the
more he will lose.
"He should be impressed with the fact that a
thing which pays for itself is never an expense; that
not only can he always afford a thing which makes
money for him, but he cannot afford to go without it
a single day.
"Prove one thing at a time. Don't try to prove.
several things at once. The average mind cannot think
of several things at once. Prove one thing at a time
and make the proof of that one thing so strong that no
man can dodge it. If needs be, use fifty arguments and
take all day to settle that one question; but settle it so
that your man will never open it again, even in his own
mind.
"Settle each point thoroughly. Don't fire your
arguments along too fast; fire a good one into him and
284
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
see if he feels it. Let it sink in. If it isn't enough,
give him another-on the same question though. Don't
change from one point to another and then back again.
Stick to each point till you've made it; then when your
man is convinced, drop it. If you hammer a nail after
it is driven home, you only loosen it.
¶"Try to get a man's mind completely satisfied and
convinced of the logical truth of what you say. That
is vastly better than merely getting him to say 'yes' to it
when a doubt lingers in his mind. 'A man convinced
against his will is of the same opinion still,' and he may
countermand his order.
¶"Weigh every word or phrase that may possibly
influence a prospective purchaser. The value of words
is in their truth or aptness. Have them ready, but
never force them in where they don't belong. If their
exact value is well fixed in your mind, you can safely
trust the occasion to bring them out spontaneously.
Then they will have double value. A word fitly spoken
is a keen weapon.
Demonstration Dont's
"Don't mispronounce words.
"Don't talk too fast.
"Don't speak in a monotonous tone.
"Don't speak indistinctly.
"Don't pass from one thing to another.
"Don't emphasize too strongly.
"Don't fail to emphasize important points.
"Don't seem at a loss for something to say.
National Cash Register Selling Methods 285
"Don't fail to hold prospective purchaser's inter-
est while calling attention to good points.
"Don't repeat as from memory.
"Don't fail to improve the first opportunity to
present the order.
"Don't refuse to break off in your demonstra-
tion and answer the prospective purchaser's questions.
"Don't fail to stop and get the prospective pur-
chaser's assent to a statement that is open to ques-
tion.
"Don't imagine, because the prospective purchaser
listens in silence, that he agrees with you, or even
understands all you say.
"Don't fail to draw out the prospective purchaser's
objections.
"Don't present your arguments in a cut and dried
style.
"Don't try to be magnetic or eloquent.
"Don't fill up your mind with words or phrases,
but with ideas.
"Don't try to impress the prospective purchaser
with what a fine talker you are.
"Don't fail at the critical moment, when the pros-
pective purchaser is hesitating, to follow him up and
land the decisive blow.
Closing
"The whole art of salesmanship is sum-
Arguments med up in the four words: 'Getting the
order signed.' Your approach may be
perfect, your demonstration clear and well made, but
if you cannot put a climax upon the presentation of
your case by bringing up unanswerable closing argu-
1
286
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
ments, your efforts have been useless and your time
lost.
"The time has come for him to put his name
to the order. If necessary, fill out two or three blanks
before he arrives, if you are in doubt as to which
Register he will buy. You are then prepared to pre-
sent an order, ready for signature, with perhaps the
change of but a few words.
"Sometimes a prospective purchaser who seems
almost persuaded appears to be suddenly overwhelmed
by the price. That will stand up before his mind's
eye to the exclusion of everything else. It is a good
idea to put the question to such a man in a way some-
thing like this:
"Mr. Blank, when you open your ledger to a
certain account, you look at both sides of it. You
strike a balance and if that balance is in your favor,
that is all you care about. You don't look merely
at the expense charged to any account and say, "This
is tremendous. I can't afford it.' You look to see
whether that expense is bringing you a profit. If
it is doing that in a good measure every month, and
every year, you are satisfied. While you do not want
to spend a single dollar that is not going to bring back
a dollar, you would just as soon spend a thousand
dollars a minute if each thousand would bring you back
a thousand dollars and more. It isn't a question of
how much money you put out for anything. The real
question is, what does it bring in over and above what
you put out for it?'
¶""Two hundred dollars is a good deal of money,
as you say; but if this Register is going to wipe out
its own cost while you are paying for it, and then
National Cash Register Selling Methods 287
pay a continual profit in excess of the outlay, you are
a gainer by the transaction. Look at this question just
as you would at a ledger account-debit on one side,
credit on the other. You'll see that this isn't an ex-
pense at all, but an investment, and a paying one.'
"It is not what the Register costs that you
should consider, but how much money it costs you
each year to be without one."
"Our company has spent thirty years-half a
business lifetime, and more, perfecting this machine.
This Register you see before you represents an outlay
of a quarter of a million dollars. This one machine
could not have been made without putting out that
capital. It also represents all these years of hard
work, costly experimenting, and the taking of all the
business risks which a manufacturer of a new thing
must take. Do not look at it as so much metal. What
it will accomplish-that is the point; and that repre-
sents brains, labor, study, experience, and commercial
courage, all of which are expensive.'
"You ask too much money for that machine.'
'When you bought your insurance you did not buy the
paper the policy was written on, but you bought the
protection it was to give you.'
"You believe in insurance, do you not, Mr.
Blank? That is what we are offering you, and a
kind, too, that you and your family can enjoy the bene-
fits of together. Doubtless you can recall cases where
rejection of fire insurance was regretted on account of
losses following caused by fire, or where the dying man
realized too late the mistake he had made in not taking
out life insurance when the opportunity was presented.
The use of a National Cash Register means an insur-
288
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
ance on the money invested in your business, on the
money that comes over your counter in exchange for
goods; in fact, it means a general protective insurance.
Why reject it??
The following information in regard to the retail
business very appropriately follows the N. C. R. sell-
ing methods, as these selling methods have to do with
selling goods to the retail trade.
Analyzing The following analytical outline will
a Retail
Business
prove very helpful, especially to inside
salesmen. This outline is based upon,
and the illustrations drawn from, a gen-
eral clothing and furnishing store, but the same prin-
ciples of analysis apply to any line of goods.
CI.
I. The purpose of a retail store should be to
sell goods to the customer to his satisfaction and to
their mutual profit.
II. The special aim of a clothing store is to
give good service, dress the customer in the best style,
and give expert advice as to style, value, appropriate-
ness, etc.
¶III. The principle which must animate every
salesperson in order to carry out this aim is a real
desire to take a personal interest in the customer and
give him the best service, together with kind and
courteous treatment.
CIV. The salesperson is the trained representa-
tive of the store. His purpose is to assist the customer
in choosing the goods that have been collected from
different sources at different times and at variable
costs and arranged for distribution to the customer
at reasonable prices.
National Cash Register Selling Methods 289
CV. Therefore, the relation of the salesperson
to the customer should be that of an expert adviser,
in the same way that a physician is an expert adviser
to his patient, and a lawyer an expert adviser to his
client.
1. In order to sustain this relation the sales-
person must develop a pleasing personality that will
not only gain the customer's confidence and hold it to
the end of the transaction, but such a personality as
will induce the customer to return again.
Principle: No customer shall be permitted to
leave the store without receiving expert attention to
his needs.
2. Calling the buyer. The buyer or assistant
buyer should be called, before permitting a customer
to leave with his wants unsatisfied, in order to find
out why his wants are not being satisfied and to make
an immediate sale if it can be done to his entire satis-
faction. A sale should not be made to a customer if
the salesman knows it will disappoint rather than sat-
isfy the purchaser.
Principle: The reasons that induce the buyer
to invest in the goods are the very reasons that will
convince the customer to purchase them, providing
the counter salesperson is as good a salesman as the
traveling salesman.
3. The salesperson shall understand the cus-
tomer through a correct knowledge of human nature;
through developing intuition; through a study of types
and classes.
4. A salesman must have a thorough knowl-
edge of the goods (see analysis, Chapter II) in order
to be an expert adviser.
290
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Reasons:
Ca. To have faith in his goods.
b. To have confidence in himself.
c. To assure his customer.
Cd. To arouse enthusiasm.
Ce. To show the customer the special features
that give the article its style, durability, and value.
Cf. To be prepared to answer any questions
which the customer may ask.
Cg. To assist the buyer in his plans to satisfy
future needs.
What to know.
Ta. Fit: An article must fit. This is a first es-
sential. A salesperson should look farther ahead than
the profit on that particular article or sale. He should
aim to satisfy future needs as well as present. For
this reason an article should not be sold to a customer
unless it fits. Fit includes every portion and detail
of a garment, as well as its general adaptability to
a customer.
b. Style: Style is sometimes to be desired
above quality, as upon that depends the effect. It
should bring out the strong points of the wearer and
aid in covering up the weak ones.
¶Study all the goods in stock in order to learn the
difference. Then systematize these goods in your
mind. Plan ahead and determine what types of cus-
tomers can best wear each. Then find out by ex-
perience what your results are.
Study different kinds of wearing apparel. If a
woman buys a waist be able to suggest to her what
kind of neckwear would be appropriate and bring out
National Cash Register Selling Methods 291
the beauty of the waist. Thus you can sell more
goods through power of suggestion.
c. Finish: If there is anything about the finish
of the article that enhances its value or adds to the
style, call attention to it. Note the quality, gloss,
special stitches, or anything that adds to the quality-
special finish, etc. (If the article is imperfect, call the
buyer's attention to it that it may be improved upon,
or returned if necessary.) If sold cheap for this rea-
son, give the reason. These things give the customer
confidence.
d. Quality: If you can't find out from your
employer what the goods are made of and something
about the textile value of such goods, send to the fac-
tory for information.
Ce. Color and color combination: Should be
studied with reference to harmony, age, size, eyes,
hair, and complexion.
If. Fabric: Learn name, manufacturing process,
and composition.
VI. Special points to be studied.
1. Commercial geography for the purpose of
learning source and transportation of products either
raw or in their different stages.
¶2. Habitation of plants and animals from which
raw products are obtained.
Ca. Study producer and production to learn how
products are obtained.
Cb. Study facts about manufacturing to learn
how goods are prepared for use.
3. Commercial conditions and causes which en-
ter into the making of prices.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
4. The general principles of commercial law.
5. Store construction: (a) How to build, ven-
tilate, light, decorate, and make convenient; (b) sys-
tem, cost, credits, collections, buying, and selling-
study different stores; (c) management, how to hire,
train, and manage employes.
Illustrative The principles or maxims that have
Principles enabled others to accumulate an im-
mense fortune or build up a great busi-
ness are worthy of consideration. We may close this
lesson on the Principles of Retailing in no better way
than by succinctly stating the principles that guided
Baron Rothschild to success in Europe and the Butler
Brothers in America. The maxims of Baron Roths-
child were:
are.
39
"Carefully examine every detail of your business.
"Be prompt in everything."
"Take time to consider, then decide quickly.”
"Dare to go forward."
"Bear troubles patiently."
"Be brave in the struggle of life."
"Maintain your integrity as a sacred thing."
"Never tell business lies."
"Make no useless acquaintances."
19
"Never try to appear something more than you
"Pay your debts promptly.'
"Shun strong liquors."
"Employ your time well."
"Do not reckon upon chance."
"Be polite to everybody."
"Never be discouraged."
National Cash Register Selling Methods
293
"Then work hard and you will be certain to suc-
ceed."
are:
The principles laid down as "The Butler Way"
"Handle many lines."
"Make every dollar of your capital turn as fre-
quently as possible.”
"Seek the trade of all classes of buyers."
"Buy in small lots and often."
"Buy, through man or catalogue, by value and
not by favor."
"Discount your bills."
"Give good values in worthy goods."
"Offer bargains and make them, always, actuai
bargains."
"Cheerfully exchange goods, or refund money paid
whenever a customer is dissatisfied with a purchase."
"Get rid of stickers by cutting their prices until
they do sell."
"Maintain your stock in a clean and orderly con-
dition."
"Treat your clerks in a way to insure their in-
terest in your welfare.”
"Create and jealously guard a reputation for ab-
solute squareness in all your dealings."
"Advertise by printer's ink, special sales, show
windows, and every other legitimate means."
"Recognize no dull season as a necessity, but push
for trade all the time."
}
Į
294 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Suggestive Questions and Exercises
1. What are the two appeals in the approach
given in National Cash Register Methods?
2. What four important elements necessary to
success are named and analyzed?
3. What importance is attached to securing at-
tention?
¶4.
State some important "Approach Don'ts.""
5. What sums up the whole art of Salesman ·
ship?
16. Give a few "Demonstration Don'ts."
7. How would you answer the objection, "I
can't afford it?"
18. How meet the objection, "I am too busy?"
9. What should be the relation of the sales-
person to the customer?
10. Visit various stores, make purchases or look
at goods, then write an article showing some of the
weaknesses of retail salesmen.
National Cash Register Selling Methods 295
Summary to Chapter XII
1. A salesman in approaching a prospect should
create an immediate favorable sensation in the mind
of the prospective purchaser. This can be done by
appealing to his desire for profit and to his curiosity.
2. The efficient salesman must maintain respect
for himself, his business, and his prospect; he must
possess knowledge of his goods and his prospect; he
must be industrious, and he must have a system.
3. Salesmen fail because of some fault in their
appearance, lack of knowledge of their goods, or in
their manner of presenting their proposition.
14. A satisfied customer is the best advertisement.
5. In answering objections, it should be borne
in mind that all men hold certain common ideas which
can be answered by the same arguments, while each
will have some objections which require special treat-
ment.
6. The whole art of salesmanship is summed up
in the four words: getting the order signed.
C. Every salesman should take a personal in-
terest in the customer, giving him good service and
courteous treatment.
8. The salesman should act as expert adviser
to the customer as to the character, style, quality,
finish, and utility of the goods.
CHAPTER XIII
XXX
Subscription Book Salesmanship
Building A short time ago I met a man who is building
a Career a remarkable career. Eight years ago at the
age of thirty he was a successful Subscription
Book Salesman. He was selling business books to busi-
ness men. In other words, he was selling ideas. While
these ideas were inspiring business men, they were also
inspiring him. They were giving him a vision of his
possibilities. In fact, he had become so enthusiastic over
what he was doing that he was continually bubbling over
with enthusiasm.
One night at a banquet he was asked to make a
talk, and here he failed for he had never made a public
address. He had not been blessed with the college train-
ing and experience that might have enabled him to get
upon his feet and talk easily, gracefully and fluently.
He floundered around for a minute or two and had to
quit. Then he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
Then and there was born a resolution not only to talk,
but to talk so successfully that the world would be will-
ing to pay him well for it.
¶ At that moment he must have felt very much like
Disraeli did at the end of his maiden speech in the House
of Commons, when the members of the House laughed
296
Subscription Book Salesmanship
297
1
at him. He stopped and said, "I will sit down now, but
the time will come when you will hear me." The time
did come.
He became Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Prime Minister of England and finally a great orator.
This young man was not a Disraeli, but he had
Disraeli's determination to succeed as a speaker. On his
way home that night he began to work out a speech. For
weeks he spent every spare moment working on that
address. He had no audience to give it to, so he practiced
it on the poor, helpless bed post. Then he went out into
the woods and practiced it on the trées, until the leaves
began to flutter and fall,
Prepared
For
One day a speaker failed to arrive. This
young man stepped into the breach. He
Opportunity talked for half an hour and did so well
that he was immediately engaged for
several addresses. That was eight years ago. The place
was a Middle Western city of 100,000 inhabitants. Now
he lives in New York. Last year he sold his own ad-
dresses and delivered them himself for $16,000 during
nine months of the year. He took a vacation during the
other three to rest and study. A few weeks ago I met
him and he said that eight years ago he determined to
use the brains he had to get what he wanted in the way
of success. In one moment he determined to become a
speaker. He knew that he had the brains and it was just
a question of using his brains to get the results.
He did not stop to think that he might be handi-
capped by lack of a college education. He did not think
of any handicaps. He thought only of perfecting him-
self. He was positive instead of negative, and now at
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
thirty-eight he says he is just fairly started. He is only
part way up the ladder. He has a splendid vision and
feels he has a great work to do. He is going upward
step by step. This man is a leader of men, a creator
rather than a creature of environment.
To begin with, this young Book Salesman received
a thorough book training. He committed his selling talk
to memory. He went over it and over it until it was
entirely his own. He secured the fundamental training.
Then he went out and practiced these ideas until he
became a star salesman.
¶ Salesmanship and oratory are two parts of the same
thing. The principles are exactly alike. The application
only is different. Both the salesman and the orator deal
with human nature. One talks to the individual; the
other, to the group or mass. This young man is still a
salesman. He is selling ideas-his own ideas rather than
another's. Instead of talking to one man, he talks to
hundreds of men at a time. His addresses are on busi-
ness subjects.
Result of In writing this chapter on Subscription
Experience Book Salesmanship I am obliged to give a
great many of my experiences covering
the past twenty-three years. This chapter deals not only
with book selling experience but it compares it with
commercial salesmanship.
As a student I sold books five summers and that
selling experience revolutionized my whole after life.
I have sold insurance, National Cash Registers and
several other lines of goods, besides helping to organize
and promote different concerns. I have sold goods per-
Subscription Book Salesmanship
299
sonally in New York City, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago,
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Winnipeg, Toronto, Kings-
ton and in some Southern cities, as well as in the country
and in a great many country towns. All this selling
experience has been based upon my fundamental Sub-
scription Book Training, the greatest salesmanship train-
ing any man can get.
¶ Twenty-three years ago I signed my first contract
to sell books. I was in the Preparatory Department of
a Middle Western University, having come directly from
the farm, and was as green as any half grown pumpkin
could be. I knew nothing about Book Salesmanship, or
any other kind of salesmanship, but thought I could sell
the book without much training. I received little train-
ing, hardly enough to be called training. My profits that
summer amounted to three dollars a day. The profit
was small but the experience gained was valuable.
This experience helped me sell my services to a
school board that fall. I was given the position in spite
of the fact that I had had only a few months training
outside of the country school, and in spite of the fact
that I was in competition with a University Graduate
who had had some years teaching experience. In my
judgment, there is one reason why I secured the position,
and that is because of the Subscription Book Experience.
It had taught me something about selling my services.


Value of The next year, about the middle of February,
Training I signed a contract. By the first of March
I had the selling talk committed to memory.
Nine or ten others signed similar contracts. All of us
trained a great deal, but I did about twice as much as
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
the others. I spent about four times as much time on
my canvass as some of the other boys. I practiced by
the hour, by the day, and by the week on the bed post.
I practiced with the other boys. Some of them were
better students of Latin, Greek and Mathematics than I
and, therefore, felt they did not need so much training.
¶ When school closed in June I spent four days in
special training before I went into the field. When I
went out I sold books successfully. That selling talk
taught me the quickest and easiest method of making
the approach, getting the attention, arousing interest,
producing conviction, creating desire, producing resolve,
answering all conceivable objections, and closing the
order. In the field I could do these things successfully,
and my profits averaged $9.00 a day for the summer.
I worked two months, which was the length of my
contract. In other words, with this training I made $6.00
a day more than I did the previous summer without
much training. Of course, the selling talk I committed
was based upon the prospectus.
Let us say the prospectus contained one hundred
selling points and that the selling talk referred only to
ten of those points. After practicing that canvass hun-
dreds of times it became sccond nature to give it. It be-
came my own. I knew what to do and how to do it, not
only because I had committed the selling talk to memory
but because I had practiced it. After becoming perfect
with the ten points, the trainer showed us how to apply
this same knowledge to five extra points in the prospec-
tus. He then increased the number to ten, then to twen-
ty-five, to fifty, and finally to one hundred. He would
bring up all kinds of objections himself. At first they
Subscription Book Salesmanship
301
1
would be hard to answer. Finally he would canvass
some member of the class who would give him the ob-
jections. We would see how he answered them and
profit by the experience. When the training was
finished, I knew the selling talk and the selling plan
perfectly.
Evolution of
Selling Talk
But this selling talk was not written by
one man alone. It was the best experi-
ences of thousands of star salesmen for
that concern. It contained the selling strategy and tactics
of all those men. It was, as such selling talks are, a text
book on psychology, logic, human nature, and leader-
ship. I did not realize this when I committed it. I took
it on faith, just as I did the first six chapters of Cæsar.
I commenced the study of Latin by what the professor
called the inductive method. I was compelled to commit
the first six chapters of Cæsar, and every term there-
after was obliged to pass an examination on these six
chapters. The professor said, "If you get this Latin
into your system it will become a part of you and the
study will be so much easier."
The same thing was true of the model selling
talk. At that time I did not know why I did so and
so, but I did know how to do so and so. Today we learn
the why as well as the how. We are far in advance
of the old method of teaching salesmanship. I had
learned how to approach an individual, what to say, how
to get his attention away from me to the book, how to
interest him, how to convince him, how to create his
desire, and how to close the order. But I did not learn
why I did these things. In fact, the why has evolved
;
302
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
since that time. To-day we know the how and the why
of every step. I know that I went out with this informa-
tion and training and sold books successfully. An ounce
of results is a stronger argument than a carload of theory.
The method got the results. And after all, there is just
as much, or more, in method as there is in matter.
¶ It had taken these Book Salesmen years to work
out the method, the strategy, the psychology of the sell-
ing talk. Years passed before all unnecessary words and
phrases were eliminated, and all the necessary words,
phrases, sentences and statements were worked out.
What was true then is true now, only the modern selling
talks are better than the former ones.
For two summers I sold the same book. Then
I sold others, committing new selling talks. Afterwards
I spent some time selling insurance. Before going out
I told the State Manager that I wanted to study his selling
talk. He asked me what I meant, as he had never heard
of any such thing. I told him I would not consider the
proposition unless he wrote out a selling-talk-just the
talk he would give to a business man. This he did, and
I learned it. Furthermore, I went with him for a week
to learn how he applied his selling knowledge not only
to the business man but to farmers, working men, me-
chanics, etc. At the end of the week I had this infor-
mation and while selling insurance I used my own strat-
egy. I was twice as successful as was the State Manager,
because I eliminated his weaknesses and used better sell-
ing methods. I used his knowledge but improved upon
his selling methods. That taught me as a student that
if a salesman once learns the fundamental principles of
salesmanship, he can successfully apply that knowledge
Subscription Book Salesmanship
303
:
to the sale of anything. Seventeen years selling and
training experience since then with different propositions
has proven that my conclusion then was right.
The last selling talk I ever committed to memory
was for the National Cash Register Company, and in
spite of the fact that I had been a Sales Manager and
personally hired and trained hundreds of men and han-
dled several times that number, I was obliged not only
to commit a selling talk to memory, but to spend three
months in the National Cash Register Training. Schools of
New York City, Dayton, and Buffalo. When I went out
I sold registers.
Training The reader might be interested in knowing
Pays that at that time the income of the average
National Cash Register Salesman was $7,000
a year. This income was out of all proportion to the
incomes of untrained salesmen in other organizations of
this country. This is the final answer to the theorist
who does not believe in committing a selling talk. This
is the answer of fact to fancy, of science to haphazard
guessing.
They are
Often a
The men who go through this rigorous training
succeed. They know, and know they know. Others do
not know. They know they do not know.
business guessers instead of business getters.
salesman says he does not believe in memorizing a selling
talk. Students have made the same objection. To-day
when confronted with that objection, I come back with
something like this, "Is your opinion based upon igno-
rance, prejudice, or scientific investigation?" In every
304
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
!
case it is found that it is not based upon scientific inves-
tigation.
A
¶ Every statement in this chapter has been tested by
myself and by thousands of other salesmen. I have
personally hired and trained over one thousand College
and University Students from practically all the leading
universities of America and Canada. For various rea-
sons some of them were poorly trained. In nearly every
case where a man was poorly trained, he failed. But
usually when he was carefully trained, he succeeded if
he worked. Experience in training men and handling
general agents has convinced me that the subject of
training men is almost a mathematical certainty.
ruling was made that no man could work for us who
did not commit a selling talk to memory, and who was
not so thoroughly trained that he could give this selling
talk so clearly and so vigorously that it appeared original.
Absolute necessity drove us to this decision. We reached
the point finally where we knew that one hundred men
thoroughly trained would sell a certain per cent of the
people they called upon. What was true then, is true
to-day. Doesn't this prove that salesmanship is a science,
because you can depend upon the mental reactions as
certainly as upon chemical reactions?
Once or twice we hired men by mail who were so
peculiarly adapted to such work that they succeeded
without special training. Such a man once became a
general agent for us. During his first year he did not
see that it was necessary for his men to commit a selling
talk. Nearly all of them failed. He learned his lesson.
After that he trained his men as carefully as anybody
else, because training meant success.
Subscription Book Salesmanship
305
Origin of
Selling Talk
The business world is not aware that the
Subscription Book People are the origin-
ators of the best selling methods known
in this country. The National Cash Register Company
was the first great commercial organization whose sales-
men committed a selling talk to memory. This was in
1887. But the Subscription Book People were teaching
their men to use selling talks a decade before that.
The way the N. C. R. Company originated their
great selling methods, which have made them the great-
est commercial sales organization the world has ever
known, has often been told. The Cash Register was a
new and unknown machine. The retailers were opposed
to it because they did not understand it. They had been
following certain methods so long that they were quite
satisfied with them. The National Cash Register Com-
pany had a hard time to get its business started. The
problem was to find methods that would actually sell
their products. The analytical work of one salesman,
by the name of J. C. Crane, together with the president's
ability to recognize a good idea when he saw it, was the
basis of their great selling methods. Mr. Crane became
very successful. His sales were out of all proportion to
the sales of the other salesmen. John H. Patterson, the
president of the company, called him in one day and
asked him to demonstrate a National Cash Register to
him. Mr. Crane immediately complied.
¶ Mr. Patterson was so delighted with the demon-
stration that he offered the salesman $10.00 if he would
repeat it verbatim. This Mr. Crane did. In the mean-
time a stenographer was called in who took down the
selling talk. It was immediately transcribed. Mr. Pat-
306
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
terson saw the solution of his selling problem. He
discovered that this salesman had found the quickest,
best, easiest method of selling a Cash Register. He said
to him, "How did you discover it?" Mr. Crane replied
that he very often lost a sale. After carefully thinking
over his methods he discovered that he had overlooked
some point or points in his demonstration that should have
resulted in a sale. He decided then to make a systematic
study of the machine. He began at one corner of the
machine and carefully studied every feature around to the
starting point. He got all this information clearly in
mind. Then he studied out the best method of conveying
this information to the merchant. In other words, what
he tried to do was to tell the whole truth about the
machine, tell it effectively, and show the prospective
buyer how the machine could be of service to him. Isn't
that all salesmanship is anyway-telling the truth, telling
it effectively and showing how the buyer will profit by
that particular article, because it is to his advantage to
have it?
¶ Mr. Patterson immediately called in part of his
sales force and told them about his wonderful discovery.
He asked this salesman to make a demonstration so his
men could see why he was succeeding the way he was.
He told his men he was going to have this selling talk
printed so they could commit it to memory and use it.
They immediately told him they would not consider
any such thing, that they did not propose to be parrots.
They did not propose to use any methods but their own.
They proposed to depend upon the "spur of the moment"
for their inspiration and not upon anybody's previously
cut and dried selling talk.
am
L
Subscription Book Salesmanship
307
Being a diplomat Mr. Patterson temporarily con-
curred with the men. But he asked each of them to
make a demonstration before the group. He very wisely
put a screen back of the man and a stenographer back
of the screen. The stenographer took down all of these
selling talks. As soon as they were transcribed Mr.
Patterson went over them carefully and blue penciled
all the statements that, as the lawyers say, were "incom-
petent, irrelevant and immaterial."
Value of
After a few days Mr. Patterson ap-
Selling Talk proached one of the salesmen and said,
“Mr. Blank, in your demonstration day
before yesterday you made this statement." Mr. Blank
said, "I didn't make any such statement. I am not such
a fool as to make a statement like that." Mr. Patterson
said, "Possibly you would like to know exactly what
you did say. You are possibly not aware that we had
a stenographer behind the screen and that your demon-
stration was taken down verbatim. Perhaps you would
like to read it." The man did. Each salesman was
given his blue-penciled selling talk, and then he saw for
himself how weak he was. This converted those present
and they were immediately willing to commit the new
selling talk to memory. As a result of this new selling
talk the sales began to increase by leaps and bounds and
in a few years the N. C. R. Company was known as the
greatest sales organization in the world. From time to
time the selling talk was changed to meet new conditions
and also because new and better selling methods were
being evolved.
I had the satisfaction of knowing that, when I
•
308
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
!
used their verbatim selling talk in New York City, all
their salesmen in every state in the Union were using
the same one. Not only that but every salesman in
Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Scandi-
navia, Russia, and the Orient were using the same selling
talk as far as the demonstration of the machine was con-
cerned. Why? Because the National Cash Register
Company had found the quickest, best, easiest method
of demonstrating the machine. They learned that a sale
was made in the mind and not in the order book or the
pocket book. They learned that if they had an idea
that would help a man's business, their business was
to change that man's mind and bring it around to agree
with theirs. That with them was salesmanship. They
worked out selling arguments that had proven time and
again to be very successful in answering objections and
convincing people. The National Cash Register Com-
pany has had thousands upon thousands of salesmen
during their history, and the selling talk is based upon
the combined experiences of these men.
¶The same is true of the great Subscription Book
Houses in this country. The National Cash Register
Company and other big concerns, as well as the Sub-
scription Book Companies, have found there' is only one
safe method to use in training men and that is to have
them commit a selling talk to memory. They must
understand the fundamentals and then work for success.
Many salesmen propose to say what comes to them on
"the spur of the moment," and depend for success upon
that. Great success has never come that way either with
the salesman, the orator, or the actor.
¶ Suppose a stenographer were to follow the average
Subscription Book Salesmanship
309
insurance man all day, take down every word he said,
type it, and have it blue-penciled by a salesmanship
engineer. The result would be that a great deal of the
talk would be "incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial."
Some of it would be destructive, hurtful. Much of it
would have to be eliminated and a great deal of it would
need to be improved. This is not only true of insurance
salesmen, over seventy per cent of whom are highly
incompetent, but it is true of all sales organizations in
the country whose men are not highly trained. A prom-
inent Equitable Life Insurance man says ninety per
cent of their insurance is sold by ten per cent of their
salesmen.
The Actor's Let us consider the situation for a minute.
Selling Talk from the standpoint of an actor. Have
our great actors created their speeches on
the "spur of the moment?" Never. The late Joseph
Jefferson charmed the public when he recited Rip Van
Winkle. He not only memorized Washington Irving's
little story, but he studied and practiced it so much that
he actually, for the time being, became the character. He
assumed the identity of Rip Van Winkle. He assumed
his tone of voice, his dress, his gestures, his mental
attitude, his everything. He did it so well that he made
something like one million dollars out of it. The little
story of Rip Van Winkle was nothing more nor less
than Joseph Jefferson's selling talk. Did it ever occur
to you in that way?
A decade ago Richard Mansfield was the world's
greatest Shakespearean actor. I presume he had com-
mitted to memory nearly everything Shakespeare wrote.
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Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
When he gave Richard III he was Richard III. He
spent days, weeks, months, and years preparing to play
this role. He studied gestures, tones, and bodily ex-
pression until he became the world's greatest living
Shakespearean actor. He did not create this material.
Shakespeare had done that. He simply used it as his
selling talk, and he made a fortune.
¶ Leland T. Powers, the well known teacher of oratory
and reader of Dickens' stories, spent much time for
months trying to perfect one gesture. He was once a
clerk in a Boston store, but later learned to use Dickens'
material as his selling talk, and by that won fame and
fortune.
Nat Goodwin and Raymond Hitchcock were two
other clerks who became great actors not by using their
own originality, but by committing the thoughts of
others to memory and giving them such expression that
these men became famous actors. If the average sales-
man devoted as much time to working upon his sales
talk as these great actors have given to their sales talks,
he, too, would be famous. There is no inspiration that
does not come through perspiration. The man who fails
to pay the price of success succeeds in paying the pen-
alty of failure.
¶ When you hear a great actor you feel that he is
speaking from the depths of his heart. You feel that
he originated every word he speaks, but this is not so.
The words are committed, but he has studied them and
practiced them so long and so carefully that they become
his very own. His appeal comes from the heart.
•
¶ A young man once asked Henry Ward Beecher
if he should take a course in oratory. Mr. Beecher said,
Subscription Book Salesmanship
311
"Yes, take the course, make it a part of yourself, and
then forget that you took it." What he meant was that
one should be natural and unaffected, but trained. This
advice is exactly suited to a Book Salesman.
Trained
Salesman
an Artist
The salesman who memorizes the selling
talk and practices it, as successful salesmen
do and as successful actors and orators do,
is a great artist. He is an orator; he is a
student of human nature; he is an actor; he is a dram-
atist; he is a psychologist; he is a logician; he is a
leader of men; he is a great salesman.
The man, who by using a haphazard method, is
in a degree successful, would be five times as successful
if he used the scientific method, which has been used
and is being used by the greatest sales organizations in
the world. The half trained salesman finds, when it is
too late, that the profits are in the other half, the half
he hasn't learned.
Salesmen A prominent jobber said that four per cent
Inefficient of the traveling men of the country are
efficient. The agency director of one of the
big eastern insurance companies made an analysis of
his sales force. He said he found that sixty-six per
cent of them were selling ten per cent of their insurance,
and thirty-four per cent of them were selling ninety
per cent of the insurance. He was so amazed that he
made a similar investigation in five other big insurance
companies of the East, and he found that the situation
with them was just as bad or even worse. He decided
1
312
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
to eliminate from his company the sixty-six per cent-
the business guessers-and to devote his time and atten-
tion to helping the thirty-four per cent-the real pro-
ducers. In one month their business increased ten per
cent. They were now selling as much insurance as the
whole organization had been selling before this time.
And from then on, every new salesman with this concern
was obliged to study a course in salesmanship and give
the name and address of every man called upon each
day. This great insurance company has eliminated the
haphazard method and has adopted the scientific meth-
od. It has paid them well.
Since beginning to sell I have observed not only
thousands but tens of thousands of College Students. I
have observed thousands who received the kind of train-
ing indicated and who sold books successfully. I have
observed other thousands who did not receive the train-
ing and who did not sell books. I am convinced as a
result of this observation, covering nearly a quarter of
a century, that the College Student, who commits a selling
talk to memory, who receives a thorough Subscription
Book Training and who sells books three or four sum-
mers, will have twice as much influence in life. He
will later make twice as much money either as a doctor,
a lawyer, a preacher, a teacher, or a business man, as
he would have made had he not received this training
and done this selling.
¶ Of course my statement is not absolutely scientific.
To be scientific it should have been tested in at least a
thousand instances covering a period of ten, fifteen, or
twenty years. I have not made such a scientific test,
but my judgment is based upon observation. I have

Subscription Book Salesmanship
313
}
spent twelve years in the colleges and universities of
the country as a student and in hiring, training, and
handling college students. In this way I became ac-
quainted with a very large number of college men.
Doubling Let us say that the average income of the
Life
average college graduate who has been thor-
Efficiency oughly trained, and has sold books three
or four summers, will average at least
$4,000.00 a year instead of $2,000.00. Let us say that
this college graduate earns $2,000.00 for a period of
thirty years. That amounts to $60,000.00 during that
time. Then let us say that the college graduate with the
Subscription Book Training averages $4,000.00 a year
for thirty years. That amounts to $120,000.00 or $60,-
000.00 dividend on his Subscription Book Experience.
For fear this is too large, let us cut it in two. Let
us say that he only increases his income fifty per cent
over the college man who has not received such a train-
ing. His net income for thirty years, according to my
figures, would then be $1,000.00 a year extra, or $30,000.-
00. How many college and university students realize
that three or four summers spent in selling books is worth
to them at least $10,000.00 a summer as a lifetime in-
vestment, in addition to the amount of money they make
immediately? While these figures concerning the income
of college graduates are approximate, the results are not
in any way affected.
This country has tens of thousands of college
graduates who are business wall flowers-men who have
no technical skill and who do not know how to utilize
what ability they have. Here is a practical illustration.
1
314
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
}
In Bridgeport, Connecticut, a Yale graduate, who was
getting a salary of $12.00 a week, took the Knox Course
in Salesmanship under our instructor, who two years.
before had graduated from college, having worked his
way through by selling books. He was then making
$75.00 a week. In one year this Yale graduate increased
his income from $12.00 a week to $1500 a year.
¶The head of the English Department in a prom-
inent Ohio college says that the graduates of his school
know nothing about selling their services. "Why," he
added, "they do not even know how to dress." What
good does it do for a "flower to blush unseen and waste
its sweetness on the desert air?" What good does it do
a man to have potential ability if he cannot co-ordinate
that ability with the world's opportunity?

Selling
Ability
an Asset
While dictating this material I am thinking
about some of my old classmates in the Mid-
dle West who became lawyers and teachers.
Some of them were better students than I.
They are not to-day averaging $2,000.00 a year. These
were men who did not sell books, who never received this
training in leadership. Most of them have not to a
great extent influenced public thought. Their influence
is hardly broader than the community in which they live.
My influence would not be greater if I had not secured
this extra training and experience. The Subscription
Book Business and the training I received furnished the
real opportunity of my life. It was the link that con-
nected me with larger things. It furnished my oppor-
tunity and prepared me to take advantage of it. I realize
to-day that I would not be making more than $2,000.00
Subscription Book Salesmanship
315
a year, or even that much, if I had not had this experi-
ence. On the other hand, as it is, on more than one
occasion I have been offered $10,000.00 a year. I be-
lieve that my Subscription Book Experience and training
has increased my earning power many hundred per cent.
¶ And again, money is not everything. When a man
has ability he may utilize it to make money or he may
utilize this ability in the capacity of a teacher, a preacher,
or a missionary-positions where money is not the su-
preme motive but where ability to serve humanity is
greatly needed and is in great demand. Money after all
is simply the measure of a man's ability or efficiency in
the business in which he is engaged. We are interested
in this discussion in the development of ability which
may be profitably used in any trade, business or pro-
fession.
Oratory and
Salesmanship
Similar
In the beginning of this article I re-
ferred to a young book man who has
become a prominent orator. I once
took a course in oratory under a man
who for the last ten years has devoted his entire time to
the platform and is one of America's greatest orators.
In the study of that course I learned that the principles
of salesmanship and oratory are fundamentally the
same. The orator must get the attention of his people;
be must interest them; he must convince a large majority
of them to act as he would like to have them act. An
orator is a salesman who is selling an original selling talk.
His success depends upon his ability to sell this talk.
Many years ago I was told that if I wanted to become a
successful speaker I must commit the best quotations
316
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
{
from the world's great orators. I was told that if I did
this I would develop a mental mold which would enable
me afterwards to create material which would harmonize
with what I had committed to memory, and which would
raise the standard of my addresses. I did what I was
told. Nearly two years of my life were spent in a school
of oratory committing and practicing such material, just
as I had committed and practiced selling talks before this
time. The problem in the school of oratory was to learn.
the best method of creating and delivering addresses, and
of winning success as a speaker.
The problem of the general agent who teaches a
man how to sell books is the problem of teaching him the
best method of selling them. No training is worth so
much to a man who aspires to become a speaker as that
which a properly trained Subscription Book Salesman
gets. The first selling talk I committed became so thor-
oughly fastened in my subjective mind that every ad-
dress I have delivered since has followed the same out-
line. When I say that the best experience for prospective
speakers is to sell books after being thoroughly trained,
I speak again from experience. The salesman is taught
how to use his voice, how to use the conversational tone,
how to use the confidential tone, how to use the low
instead of the high and harsh tone. He is taught how
to use his eyes. He learns how to develop personal mag-
netism. He learns how to think. He learns what to
say and what not to say. He learns to say the right
thing at the right time. He becomes a very keen student
of human nature. Great success in life is impossible
for the man who does not know human nature. Henry
Ford considers it the greatest requisite of success in his
Subscription Book Salesmanship
317
business. No business furnishes as great an opportun-
ity to study human nature as the Book Business.
The man who has received this Subscription Book
Experience and Training, and then goes to a school of
oratory after having finished his college course, will
not need to spend many months there, because he has
already received a large amount of the training. It is
possibly not out of place to say that I paid $50.00˚ a
term of only two months duration, in this school of
expression, and that I paid $5.00 an hour for private
work. Neither is it out of place to say that there are
general agents in this country working for Subscription
Book Companies who are doing just as much for the
college students who are training under them without
charge, as the school of oratory is doing for its students.
I have in the past spent an hour making one selling talk.
I believe now that that selling talk, as well as others,
was just as valuable as the one hour talks which I now
give for a consideration of $75.00 to $100.00.
When I make the statement that the man who is
thoroughly trained from a Subscription Book point of
view learns the fundamentals of oratory, the fundamen-
tals of public expression, I am speaking from experience.
On the one hand, I have talked to all kinds of business
organizations. On the other hand, I have talked to
nearly all kinds of educational organizations. I have
addressed many conventions, business and otherwise,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Canada to
the Gulf, and I have addressed hundreds of Chautauqua
audiences. Therefore, I am not talking from hearsay
but from experience.

J
318
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
10
The
The fact that a young man is a college
Inexperienced graduate is not prima facie evidence
Graduate
that he is going to succeed in life. It is
prima facie evidence that he has spent
many years in school, that he has learned to concentrate,
to think, to study, and that he has a magnificent founda-
tion. But, in the words of Charles M. Schwab and our
big captains of industry, he must begin at the bottom.
Temporarily his education does not help him much.
Afterwards it does, because it enables him to advance
with greater rapidity. The college graduate who has
never sold anything is an untried quantity. I know many
of them who are driving dray wagons, acting as motor-
men and conductors on street cars, or doing other forms
of manual or semi-manual labor.
The Tested On the other hand, the college graduate
Graduate who has sold books successfully develops
a poise and confidence that makes him a
different type of man. He is recognized as a man who
has been tested and not found wanting, a man who has
delivered the goods, a man who has courage, initiative
and creative ability, a man who is on the way to be a
Master of Men, a man who understands the psychology
of leadership, the philosophy of action. He has laid the
foundation which should later make him a hundred per
cent man. He is already a success. The Knox School
is in a position to recommend and place thousands of
such men every year with the great concerns of the
country with which the school is in contact. Such men
would be hired with enthusiasm by business concerns.
Subscription Book Salesmanship
319

¶ When a college student who has sold books all
summer comes back to school his fellow students notice
a marked difference in him. But they rarely stop to
analyze the change. Of course they see that he has more
poise, greater confidence, and a winning way that is
characteristic. They notice, too, that his work in the
literary society and in debating has improved. An im-
provement in his use and command of English is noticed.
These are outward and immediate manifestations of his
training.
He has also developed an inward power that is
harder to analyze. Let us try to analyze it. Turn to
page 154 of "Salesmanship and Business Efficiency.'
Near the beginning of the last paragraph we find this
quotation: "By means of the intellect we know, by means
of the sensibility we feel, and by means of the will we
choose; and in their co-operative action there is the move-
ment and experience of man's mental life." In the next
paragraph we find these two sentences: "These three
are the great mental trinity. As a result of their proper
development and use, man can transform himself from
a weakling into a brilliant, capable leader."
Salesmanship
Develops
Action
It says that as a result of their proper
development and use man can do so
and so. What has the college course
to do with the proper development of
these three great mental factors? In a college course the
emphasis is placed upon the thinking and knowing part
of the mind. The higher feelings and sensibilities are
developed through Y. M. C. A. work, the study of ethics,
English, and the humanities. But what does the univer-
320
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
}
*
sity do toward developing the philosophy of action?
Admittedly it does practically nothing. This is a funda-
mental weakness. When a student enters college he finds
every recitation period arranged. He knows when he
will have to go to class for the entire four years. As far
as initiative and will are concerned they have little chance
for development. Of course college activities outside of
the class room furnish some opportunity for the develop-
ment of initiative on the part of a few students. But
even that is limited.
On the other hand, let us see how selling books
furnishes the development of the third factor which the
colleges and universities at the present time are unable
to furnish. When a college student signs a contract to
do a certain piece of work that act alone requires courage
and initiative. When he buys his ticket to his destina-
tion he develops these qualities. When he raps on the
first door or rings the first door bell in the country, the
small town, or the great city, will power and initiative
are required. These qualities are needed when he goes
into the home or office to convince the occupant that he
needs a book. It takes will power to tell him at the
proper moment to sign his name. When the first trans-
action is closed and victory is won the will has been
developed. The consciousness of victory gives the stu-
dent a new power and a new ambition. It lifts him a
step higher. He is put in a new class. He can never
quite get back where he was before he won this victory.
He gets a taste of the conquering spirit which makes
him unafraid to approach the greatest man in the uni-
yerse. This feeling comes after years of defeat and
victory.
*

Subscription Book Salesmanship
321
The student also uses will power and poise when
he goes into a home or office, makes the selling talk of his
life, and comes out defeated but confident that he will
sell thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy homes out of
every hundred as the case may be. When he learns that
he is going to sell thirty, forty, or fifty people out of
every hundred, that he intelligently canvasses, he is over-
whelmed with the consciousness of victory. The idea of
defeat and failure is banished. The will has overcome
lack of confidence. Such a man becomes a leader instead
of a follower-master of himself and other men. A
victory like this is worth thousands of dollars to the
average man. The beauty of it is that the victory is a
life victory.
¶ When the young salesman has made one hundred.
selling talks and finds that he has made a certain number
of sales, he determines to do everything within his power
to increase this percentage of sales with the next hundred
selling talks. He keeps this up until the season ends.
¶When a student finds the thermometer registering
ninety-five or one hundred in the shade, his folks may
write him telling him how cool and inviting are the shade
trees on the lawn. But if he fights on he is developing
power that will show itself in the larger deeds of later
life. When he works on a rainy day he is developing
will power. When he goes out after supper feeling that
he can close one more sale, he develops will power.
When he works Saturday afternoon in order to swell his
record for the week he develops will power. When he
works with might and main after meeting with failure
and defeat all week he develops will power. Having
signed a contract for sixty days, he may find at the end

322
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
of forty days that he has made as much money as he
expected to make in the sixty. If he then in the face of
hot weather and importunities from his best girl, his
young men friends, or his folks, grits his teeth and says,
"No, I signed a contract to work sixty days and I will
work sixty," he is developing the will power the world
greatly needs. Can you see now why our student who
sells books gets poise and power he did not have? He
has learned to think and feel, but what is of equal impor-
tance, he has learned how to put his thoughts and feel-
ings into action. The college man who knows how to
think and feel but not how to act, is like a powerful
engine on the side track with the fire out. The one who
has learned to use his will is like that engine with steam
up, pulling the Empire State Express at the rate of a
mile a minute, passing every slow train on the way.
Thought and The man who studies the regular text
Action
books in the universities, studies what, for
Combined lack of a better name, may be called the
philosophy of meditation. The college
man who studies salesmanship and practices salesman-
ship is studying and practicing the philosophy of action
the psychology of leadership.
¶ Let us say that on the one hand we have the philos-
ophy of meditation in the college course. On the other
hand we have the philosophy of action in the salesman's
course. The salesman who receives this training and
does this selling without any college education is a one-
sided man. The college graduate who gets the college
training and no salesmanship training is a one-sided man.
He knows the philosophy of meditation, but nothing



Subscription Book Salesmanship
323
about the philosophy of action and little about leadership.
Colleges and universities which have not taught sales-
manship have failed also to teach leadership, since sales-
manship and leadership are synonymous. Senator Bev-
eridge is reported to have said that the two summers he
spent selling books were as valuable to him as his entire
college course. But it is impossible to make such a com-
parison:
The college graduate who has received the educa-
tional foundation as well as the salesmanship training
and education, has doubled his possibilities. He is a
two-sided man. He not only knows how to think, but
he knows how to act. He knows how to influence, lead
and manage.
¶A college education forms the foundation for
thinking. A salesmanship education is a foundation for
A
action. It is action itself and the foundation for leader-
ship.


Business A selling talk, together with the list of
Psychology objections and answers it contains, is a
and Logic treatise on logic. Because it is both
theory and practice. The man who com-
mits this material on psychology and logic learns how to
apply this knowledge. He learns the how and the why
of each process. Such a man has already taken a course
in logic and psychology that, practically speaking, is supe-
rior to his university work covering these subjects. By
following this method a salesman learns from the experi-
ence of thousands of other successful salesmen. When
he subjectively absorbs the principles of the memorized
L
324
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
talk and is taught how to apply them he saves years of
time, and greatly increases his chances for success.
Professor J. Lawrence Laughlin of the University
of Chicago in a commencement address said that none of
the universities in this country were teaching the psychol-
ogy of leadership. He and Theodore Roosevelt were
classmates. The latter was not known as a great student.
"But," said Professor Laughlin, "he learned men. He
learned the psychology of leadership. He learned how to
handle and manage men, how to play upon human emo-
tions with the same skill that the great pianist plays the
piano."
He referred to a brilliant college graduate, a man
who knew the philosophy of meditation but who did not
know the philosophy of leadership. He knew nothing
about a mental law of sale-a psychological method to be
used in influencing men. He wondered why the public
did not elect him to office. He wondered why other men
were leaders and he was not.
Resolve to Let us call attention to some qualities that
Succeed the salesman or any man must possess if
he expects to climb to the top of the ladder
of success. One of these is perseverance-determination
to carry out every idea that needs consideration. A col-
lege man will not succeed as a Book Salesman who says,
"If I get along very well the first two or three weeks, I
will continue. If I don't, I will quit." When I went out
to sell I wrote the concern that I was either going to
succeed or leave my bones to bleach upon the prairie.
My bones did not bleach. They never do, when a resolu-
Subscription Book Salesmanship
325
1
tion which doubles a young man's force and power is
made.
¶ An individual has developed the mental attitude of
success when he tells himself that failure is impossible,
that it isn't any more to be considered than climbing to
the stars on a step-ladder. Some mediocre salesman
have been marvelously successful simply because of their
perseverance.
¶ One year I hired a boy of eighteen, a first year
preparatory student. He said he was half Irish and half
Norwegian, but the boys said he was half fool. They
twitted me for hiring him. But that boy came to my
room day after day, and week after week for training.
He was determined to learn everything he could. He did
not believe he could fail. He succeeded. The first
summer he made a splendid record. The second summer
he ranked first of all the salesmen from his school. In
five years he had made a wonderful record. He gradu-
ated from the university, then took a Law course.
is now a prosperous lawyer in Portland, Oregon.
He
After seeing men like this succeed I felt that almost
any man could sell if he were properly trained, and
provided he worked. It is easy to tell whether a man
can succeed or not, but it is hard to tell whether he will
succeed. The pluggers always succeed. But the brilliant
men who do not realize that it is necessary to train and
work seldom succeed. The brilliant men who train
carefully and who work hard make wonderful records.
They become geniuses in business and in the professions.
I have been very successful in training college
boys who were born on the farm. They were familiar
with work. They had learned to endure grief. They
326
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
had learned to fix the harness when it was broken. They
had learned to take the initiative, and to persevere.
¶ A young man went out to sell books. His future
did not seem bright. His people laughed at him, as they
often do. You know a man's judgment is no better than
his information. One's relatives may not have the infor-
mation. Therefore, they cannot have the judgment.
This young man's people did not believe he would suc-
ceed. The man who trained him doubted it. But he
went out believing he could and would succeed. He be-
lieved it was his business to get an order at every house.
As Charles Austin Bates once said, "The blamed fool
didn't know that he couldn't." He was successful and
in ten years he was rich. Perseverance brought its re-
ward. He never took "no" for an answer.
Thousands of college students who go out for the
summer vacation spend less than thirty days actually
selling when they might as well spend sixty or eighty.
Why this great loss? Lack of perseverance, lack of cour-
age, lack of self-mastery is the cause. Every extra day a
student compels himself to stay on the firing line will pay
him a handsome dividend. Those hot summer days are
the real character builders. If the student has not the
courage to keep at work when the weather is hot, he will
not have the courage to accomplish other difficult tasks
later in life. Many men sign contracts for two months,
then make excuses and apologies to themselves for not
going out. Then is the time to decide whether one is
going to be a leader or a "quitter." The character value
of the last thirty days is worth from one hundred to one
thousand dollars a day. The ability to earn this much
more in a lifetime is added as a result of this extra work.
Subscription Book Salesmanship
327
1
A wood chopper, said a woodsman, should chop until
he is tired. Then he should keep on chopping in order
to toughen himself. The salesman should do the same
thing. He should keep right on chopping in the territory
until he has every objection cut in two and the orders
neatly packed in his order book and the money piled
away in his financial wood shed.
Conquering We once sent a student from the State
or Being University of Ohio to Springfield, Ohio,
Conquered to sell books. He wanted good territory
and we were anxious to give it to him. I
was told that Springfield was “a peach of a town” and
after conveying this information to him, that territory
was assigned. The day after his arrival in Springfield
he wrote that "Springfield may be a 'peach of a town' but
the peaches are all rotten." He quit.
He quit. The people of
Springfield told him he could not possibly succeed there.
The Book Salesman usually hears this story. He listened
to those people. Instead of selling them, they sold him.
They sold him failure, when he could just as well have
sold them success.
¶ Immediately we sent another man to Springfield,
after telling him the circumstances. Upon his arrival they
began to tell him their tale of woe. He replied that he
came there to convince them rather than to be convinced
by them. He did convince them and Springfield proved
to be his best town that summer. The peaches were not
"rotten" after all. They were only in cold storage wait-
ing to be taken out. Great sales organizations have a
habit of saying that territory is ninety per cent man and
ten per cent territory. They are not far wrong.
1
328
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
A quality which a salesman must possess is courtesy.
He must be considerate and kind. He must be a strate-
gist and an enthusiast. He must be honest. He must
possess initiative. He must be willing to go up the back
lanes and call at the out-of-the-way houses. He should
always call at the homes where the people say a sale is
impossible.
¶ Mental attitude is a great consideration in Subscrip-
tion Book Salesmanship. There are three mental atti-
tudes. The mental attitude in relation to oneself, the one
in relation to the proposition you have to sell, and the one
in relation to the public. The man who attempts to sell
an article he doesn't believe in goes out with a hang-dog
mental attitude. He acts like a thief; he looks like a
thief; and he is treated like a thief. If he has any self-
respect he will not work at such a proposition because
if he continues, it will eliminate every spark of his man-
hood. But the man who believes in his proposition with
all his heart cannot help but have confidence in himself.
Then when he approaches a prospective customer he says
to himself, "This individual needs this book. He ought to
have it, and if I cannot sell it to him I will be doing him
an injustice." The salesman feels that if the prospect.
fails to buy he will be disregarding his own best interests.
It will be like tossing a certain amount of money out of
his pocket each day. A man must sell himself before he
can sell anybody else. He must have the right mental
attitude.
Service The Book Salesmen of the world render a great
service to humanity. They carry the best books
into homes where otherwise these books would never be
Subscription Book Salesmanship
329
known. They are civilizers and educators. The college
men who spend their summers selling books represent a
great University Extension Movement. They should re-
ceive the plaudits of the schools that send them out, and
many of them do. Henry Clay's mother was a poor wash
woman but she saved three cents a day to buy her son a
book. What may not that book have meant to him?
Possibly no one agency outside of the school and church
is as great a civilizer and educator as the Book Salesman.
He reaches homes that cannot be reached by the church
or the college. All honor to the college man who serves
humanity in this way!
¶ It is not my intention in this chapter to go into the
details of Book Salesmanship. Each concern trains its
own salesmen in its own way. Each studies the best
method of approaching the individual, whether that indi-
vidual be a farmer or a business man. But I have learned
one thing, which in later years I have made fundamental.
If I prove to a customer that what I have is to his advan-
tage he will usually buy, because it will serve a need that
already exists.
Approach In selling the Salesmanship course I have
used the following approach very success-
fully. Walking into the office of an insurance man, for
instance, I would say, "Good morning. Your business is
to sell insurance, isn't it?" He says, "Yes." He immedi-
ately shows interest, thinking possibly he might make a
sale. I have also said, "My business is to help you to sell
more insurance," and very often I would add, "That
sounds good, doesn't it?" The reply is, "Yes." Then I
say, "I am handling the best proposition on the subject of
330
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
$
salesmanship in this country, and if I can prove to you
that what I have to sell will pay you a good big dividend
upon your investment and doesn't cost too much, you
wouldn't hesitate a minute to buy it, would you?" Nine
times out of ten the individual says, "No."
In selling National Cash Registers I have used the
same idea, which I believe is fundamentally right. While
it may not be possible to apply it to the sale of everything,
it can be used successfully with many lines.
¶ I am not going to analyze the Mental Law of Sale
to any great extent, as that has been done in Chapters
VII and VIII-"Salesmanship and Business Efficiency."
Yet I do want to say a few things about the different
steps.
¶ When approaching an individual always consider
his interest paramount. Appeal immediately to his self-
interest. An expert business letter writer begins the letter
with "You" and never with "I." He discusses the read-
er's problem and how he may help him solve it.
The salesman should do the same thing. In ap-
proaching a farmer or a working man who may have
leisure time or who may not appreciate the value of time,
it is a good thing to indulge in a little "small talk." The
approach is to a selling talk what the headline in a news-
paper is to the article. The headline aims to epitomize
the story. The approach aims in two or three sentences
to give the prospect such an epitome of the selling talk,
that it will immediately arrest his attention and make him
feel that possibly this particular article is to his advan-
tage. Attention immediately blends into interest. You
cannot sell a man anything unless you interest him as
you proceed.
Subscription Book Salesmanship
331
Value of
Contrast
The next step after interest is conviction.
I want to show you how to contrast interest
and conviction so as to convince and persuade
the individual in the quickest, best and easiest way. You
know that every successful speaker uses contrast and
comparison. Every successful writer does the same. So
does the artist. Look at a bill board and what do you see?
A white background with black letters or possibly a black
background with white letters. Notice the advertisements
in the papers, magazines and street cars and you will
realize the contrast. Day is a strong contrast to night.
The headlight of a train on a dark night furnishes a strong
contrast. The hoot of an owl in the stillness of night is
another illustration of contrast.
¶ How then are you going to make the proper contrast
when making a sale? You know that you can't fill a pail
with water if it is already full. You must empty it before
you can fill it again. You must empty a man's mind of
what there is in it before you can fill it with something
else. You must prove that he is sick before you can sell
him a remedy that will cure him. You must prove to an
ignorant man that he is ignorant, and that what you have
will make him profitably intelligent before you can sell
him. By the way, the more ignorant a man is the greater
your difficulty will be, because he will not appreciate his
own ignorance, neither will he appreciate the value of
intelligence. It is very difficult to sell a book on "Success"
to a man who runs an elevator in an office building.
How then are you going to create this contrast?
How are you going to create the mental vacuum and then
how are you going to fill it? Let us use several illustra-
tions to show how this can be done, but not with the idea
332
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
of your using them. They are hypothetical although
based upon facts.
¶ Suppose you were selling a book to a farmer.
Wouldn't you arouse his interest if you told him that
according to Carl Vrooman, the Assistant Secretary of
Agriculture, the Department of Agriculture had worked
out new methods that had not yet been adopted by the
farmers, that would pay them a profit of twelve million
dollars a day on the corn and wheat crops alone, for every
growing day during the season?
Suppose there are six million farmers in this coun-
try and the present loss is twelve million dollars a day.
That would be two dollars a day loss for each farmer on
the wheat and corn crops alone, would it not? Suppose
you say to the farmer that the average yield of wheat in
England is forty bushels to the acre; in Scotland it is
thirty-eight; in Ireland and Germany, thirty-four; in
China, twenty-three; but in the United States, where the
land is more fertile than in any of the countries men-
tioned, the yield is only sixteen bushels to the acre. Why?
Simply because we have not been obliged to learn the best
methods of farming as they have learned them in these
other countries. When we do learn this, our yield per
acre will more than double. Or suppose you say to a
farmer that the loss per farmer in five of the Central
States, according to the government figures in the last ten
years, has been five horses, sixteen cows, nineteen sheep,
and sixty-four hogs. According to the Government re-
ports ninety per cent of this loss has been entirely unnec-
essary and preventable.
Suppose you say to him that there is an eight
hundred and thirty million dollar loss annually due to
Subscription Book Salesmanship
333
the waste of fertilizers; that there was a two hundred
million dollar loss due to the cotton boll-weevil in 1916.
Any of these statements should greatly interest a farmer.
You might say to him that every dollar so lost not only
hurts the farmer but it hurts every individual in this
country, as it adds to the high cost of living. What have
you done by giving him these figures? You have greatly
aroused his interest and shown him his need. Your next
step is to show him how your book will overcome his
difficulties and stop the loss.
Suppose you were selling a business book to busi-
ness men. You could arouse a good deal of interest by
saying that, according to E. H. Hurley of the Federal
Trade Commission, of the 250,000 corporations doing
business in 1915, 190,000 of them paid no dividends on
their investment. The failure, according to Mr. Hurley,
was due to executive inefficiency. Suppose you say that
of the 23,000 failures investigated during the same year
by the same commission, the report shows that ninety per
cent of them were due to ignorance and executive in-
efficiency. You might add, "If this is true, the American
business man can greatly increase his efficiency, can he
not ?"
The National Cash Register Company and the
Standard Oil Company became internationally famous
because of original and unique selling methods. The
value of the product alone was not the thing that made
them successful. It was the method of conveying the
information to the customer. In making these statements
you would greatly interest a business man. He would be
ready for your arguments designed to produce conviction.
If you were selling an educational book you might

334
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
say to a father or a mother that at most we do not live
very long, and that we are working hard to give our
children a better opportunity in life than we have had;
that we are doing all this hard work, or most of it, for
the sake of our children, their education and their future;
that we want them to have a better chance than we had,
and that we are willing to do almost anything to bring
this about.
A letter was once sent to Benjamin Franklin from
a little town in Massachusetts, stating that the name of
the town would be changed to Franklin if he would
donate fifty dollars with which to buy a church bell. He
replied that he would not give fifty dollars to buy a bell
but that he was sending it to buy books to fill their
heads with sense instead of sound. In later years a poor
boy in that neighborhood studied those books. They rev-
olutionized his life. That boy was Horace Mann, who
became one of the world's greatest educators. If it had
not been for those books possibly the world would never
have heard of Horace Mann,
The public school system of this country represents
an investment of $1,221,695,730. It costs the American
people $446,726,929 a year to maintain it. And yet, ac-
cording to the American Bankers' Association, one man
out of every ten who dies in the big cities of this country
is buried in the Potter's field. According to the American
Society for Thrift, ninety-seven per cent of all the men
in this country at the age of sixty-five are dependent in
part or in whole upon relatives, friends or charity for
support. If, therefore, our children are to be successful
and happy we must not only take an interest in their
school education but we must take an interest in what
Subscription Book Salesmanship
335
i
they study out of school as well as in. We must do this
in order to insure their success, must we not?
¶ With these illustrations in mind, any Book Sales-
man can clearly understand what we mean by arousing
interest, through producing a vivid contrast in the mind
of the prospective purchaser. We do this, first to show
his need. The next step is to show how your book will
serve his needs.
Appealing to You must now organize your evidence
Motives and present it in such a way that it will
logically satisfy the mind of the pros-
pective buyer. In arranging this evidence you should
carefully study Human motives, because you should pro-
duce conviction and create desire at the same time. You
ought to classify your book, your prospectus and your
selling talk in accordance with the motives which should
guide your prospect in buying. The average business
man or farmer is reached through the Profit motive and
the Utility motive. You should correlate every bit of
evidence you have on the subject of profit, utility, or the
saving of money. If you can show your prospective
buyer that your article will make him money or save him
money you are very likely to sell him. Carefully study
your proposition with this idea in mind, because every
decision a reasonable man makes is based upon some
Motive. Therefore, all intelligent action is based upon
motive.
If you are selling an Inspirational book you appeal
to the Ambition motive. You can pile up argument on
argument to show how this work will make one a greater
man, a greater leader and a greater character in society.
༣
336
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
t
This is a-kin to the Social motive. Some people will buy
a book with the Utility motive in mind entirely. They
say they are not interested in the binding-the cheapest
binding will do as well. They are interested in the con-
tents, and not in the binding. On the other hand, there
are people who not only buy bindings but buy books for
social reasons. They buy them for show. People of an
artistic temperament are interested in both paper and
binding. They want something that is beautiful. They
are willing to pay the price if the quality is satisfactory.
People of high ideals want beautiful things if they can
afford them. A beautiful book often has a revolutionary
effect in a home, and a book agent is often unconsciously
an educator.
The Salesman The story is told of a Book Salesman
An Idealist who sold a handsomely bound Bible to
and Educator a rich old maid who lived in a shabby
home. She found that she had no stand
that was beautiful enough for this Bible. So she bought
a beautiful stand to harmonize with the Bible. Then she
found that her other furniture did not harmonize with
this new stand. So she bought beautiful furniture
throughout. Then she discovered that her house did not
harmonize with her furniture. So she built a beautiful
house to correspond with the furniture. This beautiful
Bible was sold as a result of an appeal to the moral
motive.
¶ In making a sale the Book Salesman calls attention
to high ideals, high standards of living, better methods of
working, better methods of doing business, better methods
of farming, ways of improving the condition of live stock
Subscription Book Salesmanship
337
and better systems of accounting. In so doing he renders
the community a great service. The advanced conditions
in many parts of the country are due in no small part to
the Book Salesman. The real service one renders when
he sells a good book, or even describes a good book to an
individual, is often overlooked by both the customer and
the salesman. Sometimes this service is not appreciated
and even may be criticised, but this is characteristic of
human history. Christ was crucified because some people
did not understand. Socrates was obliged to drink the
hemlock for the same reason. Columbus discovered a
continent only to be thrown into prison. But when a man
does a good deed or renders a great service he is conscious
of having helped humanity. A man is not worthy of
honor because of what the public does for him, but be-
cause of what he does for the public.
The Caution You may be selling a book that will enable
Motive you to make a strong appeal to the
Caution motive. At least there undoubt-
edly will be something in your book that will enable you
to make such an appeal. Books have educational value,
and an education is the greatest insurance policy against
failure. Education means more than the ability to make
a few dollars and cents. It means the ability to enjoy life,
to associate with a better class of people, to secure high
standing in public. One's success in a community depends
largely upon ability to demand the respect of that com-
munity. The individual, who appears well in society, in
the home, in the office, in the club, or before an audience,
is popular. The one who is kind, courteous, considerate,
and looks out for the interests, the comfort and welfare
338
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
¡
་
of others, is also popular. Any book that will help a
person to become a better citizen and to have a higher
appreciation of these things, is certainly worth a great
deal. The Caution motive as well as the Cultural motive
can be utilized here.
The salesman who studies his book, his prospectus
and his selling talk with the idea of analyzing and organ-
izing these motives and then giving the evidence to the
customer, will convince and persuade the customer
through the proper motive. He will find it much easier
to sell through this analytical method.
The Hidden Many sales are lost because the salesman
Objection is talking about one thing while the pros-
pective customer is thinking about an-
other. Once I used every possible effort to sell a National
Cash Register, but could not close the sale. When about
to leave I said, "Won't you kindly tell me why you
will not buy this register?" He said, "Why, certainly.
I have a man who has been with me twelve years and I
am afraid that the purchase of this machine will cause
him to believe that I think he is dishonest. I could not
buy a machine unless he feels right about it." This is
an objection that I could not have met in a thousand
years by appealing to motives and using evidence. So I
simply said, "Then if your man is satisfied with this ma-
chine you will be glad to get it?" He said, "Certainly."
I saw the man and told him that his proprietor consid-
ered his opinion very highly and wanted his ideas on this
machine before buying. The employee was complimented.
I demonstrated the machine to him and he became en-
thusiastic. As soon as he told his employer that he be-
Subscription Book Salesmanship
339
:
lieved it would be a good thing for them to have the
machine, the proprietor signed the contract.
¶ A Book Salesman once spent an hour demonstrating
a book to a farmer but failed to sell, in spite of the fact
that he knew the farmer needed it. After he found that
a sale was impossible he asked the farmer to kindly tell
him why he woud not buy. The farmer said, "You talked
so fast I could not understand what you said." The
salesman then handed his prospectus to the man, pointed
out some special features and got the order.
Many times your prospect will agree with you dur-
ing the entire interview, yet refuse to buy. You can
usually draw him out by questioning him. The following
method often proves successful.
¶ "Mr. Blank, you are satisfied that this book is to
your advantage (or will save you money), aren't you?"
He usually agrees with you. If he agrees, then follow
up with some such question as the following: "There is
no good reason why you should not have it, is there?"
He agrees again. "Then the only alternative for you is
to sign right here, isn't it?" In case he disagrees with
you on either question he will give you his objection. In
that case, answer and close the sale at once.
A mental reservation sometimes makes a sale im-
possible, unless the salesman knows what the objection is.
I was once told that a sale could not be made at a certain
place because the man of the house could neither read nor
write. I went to him and sold him a book in a few min-
utes. He bought it as a present for his nephew.
*
1
340 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Evidence It is not the aim of this chapter to tell you
Demands how to present your evidence. Your trainer
Decision will cover this thoroughly. The aim of this
analysis is to discuss the frame work and
strategy. You have properly approached your prospect;
you have interested him; you have aroused his curiosity;
you have shown him weaknesses in his line of business;
you have produced a mental vacuum, so to speak; by con-
trast and comparison you have shown him that what you
have will be a very valuable addition to his library and to
his needs; you have convinced him; you have appealed to
his motives; you have created his desire for the article;
he has resolved to get it but possibly at a later date than
your delivery. You may then well say, "Put-it-offism has
hung more crepe on the doors of opportunity and success
than all other business crimes put together." You should)
show him that every big man who receives evidence, de-
cides accordingly and immediately. A man cannot be suc-
cessful who continually puts off doing the thing that he
knows ought to be done. Success demands judgment
and quick decision.

Expect an When coming up to the order point a sales-
Order man always should take it for granted that
the individual is going to buy. Many sales-
men talk in a circle at this point. This is dangerous and
demoralizing. Here a salesman should neither stammer
mentally nor vocally. He should go straight to the goal.
When he takes it for granted that the individual is going
to buy he should use two methods of coming up to the
order point. Say to the prospective purchaser, “I am
going to make two deliveries (naming the time)—one in
Subscription Book Salesmanship
341
{
sixty days and the other in ten days. Which delivery will
suit you better?" This is the strategy which you use here
not only to close the order but to determine exactly what
your prospective buyer thinks. When you ask him which
time will suit him for delivery he may say, “It doesn't
make much difference." You know then that you have sold
him. Write out your order, get him to sign it and say,
"I presume you would prefer the book at the earlier
delivery?" He will undoubtedly say, "Yes." When you
reach the order point in the way I have indicated and
your prospective buyer hesitates, you might say, "I sup-
pose the later delivery would suit you better." If he says,
"No," then say, "All right. I will arrange to bring the
book at the earlier delivery." If he says, "Yes," say, "All
right. I will arrange to bring the book at the later de-
livery." Arrange your questions so that you will get an
affirmative answer. Notice that the prospective buyer is
given two alternatives, but both are positive. Either de-
cision means an order. You can use other alternatives,
such as cash and installment plan, if you do business that
way. As a final resort you could show him that you have
two bindings. But do not do that when you are anxious
to sell the high priced binding,
!
842 Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Check
Every salesman will profit by using the fol-
Yourself lowing checking system:

A
STEPS OF
SALE
Approach.....
Attention
Interest....
------
Conviction....
Desire............
Resolve.....
Order.......
------
NUMBER OF PERSONS
APPROACHED
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10
-----
}
----
Total
------
RE-
MARKS
Leave-taking
In this way he can tell what percentage of people
he successfully approaches; what percentage of people
are willing to listen; what percentage he interests; what
percentage he convinces; what percentage desire his prop-
osition; what percentage resolve to buy; and what per-
centage he closes on the spot. This checking system has
been found very helpful. "No chain is stronger than its
weakest link," and a man's ability to handle the Mental
Law of Sale is no stronger than his ability to handle each
step. Failure to successfully handle any step makes a
sale impossible.
After a salesman has called upon ten people, as
indicated here, he can figure up the total number of people
whom he has successfully carried through each step. If
nine out of the ten have been willing to listen to him, he
Subscription Book Salesmanship
843
!
realizes that his approach is good; if he successfully in-
terests the nine, he knows that his ability to interest people
is good; if he convinces eight, he knows that his ability
to convince is good; if he only induces four to desire his
proposition he knows that he is weak in creating desire;
if he closes only two sales he knows that his ability to
close is weak.
¶ If a salesman will check himself every day he will
find out for himself what step is his stumbling block. He
can then overcome his weakness.
This method has been successfully used by a
Subscription Book House which is selling a $5.00 book.
One-third of the people called upon made a purchase.
A salesman's aim should be to so perfect himself
that he will sell to the largest possible percentage of the
people called upon. He should check himself every day
with this in mind. Every day he should determine to
increase his percentage of sales to solicited people. He
should attempt to make every prospective sale a test case.
Every statement should be made with the idea of highest
efficiency.
Watch He should never sit in a rocking chair unless it
Details is absolutely impossible to get another chair.
If possible he should sit in a straight backed
chair with his back to the light. In that way he can study
the face of the customer to better advantage. The busi-
ness man who understands this subject thoroughly has
his desk so arranged that the light is at his back. This
makes it difficult for the salesman to study his face, while
he can carefully observe the salesman.
344
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Money and How much money a student makes during
Experience his summer vacation as a Book Salesman
depends a good deal upon how well he is
trained and how conscientiously he works. The average
income of the average Book Salesman, working for a
reputable publishing company, is from two to four times
as much as his income would be if he engaged in farm´
work or did odd jobs. The Book Salesman makes money
enough to pay his school expenses for another year. He
has learned to promote himself. This gives him a confi-
dence that he can successfully promote himself not only
during a summer vacation but during a lifetime.
Salesmanship is the best paid profession in this
country. No profession offers such remuneration and
such opportunities. This country needs one hundred
thousand new salesmen a year to carry on its expanding
business.
"The greatest public benefactor is the man who
sells good books."-Gladstone.
¶ "I always feel like lifting my hat to the book agent
because he is doing more good than I can ever hope to
do."-Talmage.
"There is no other calling or occupation so honor-
able or so beneficial to mankind as the business of selling
good books."-Spurgeon.
¶ "From personal experience I know that selling
books is a very valuable training for a young man. I be-
lieve there is no other kind of work that better develops
the qualities of self-reliance and perseverance."-Myron
T. Herrick, Ex-Ambassador to France.
During the time I was in college, I paid all of my
expenses and support by canvassing for books and doing

Subscription Book Salesmanship
345
other canvassing work during my summer vacations. It
is needless to say that every person, at least every college
man, ought to have at least one summer's experience can-
vassing. It is a splendid way to develop self-confidence
and learn human nature."-R. E. McKisson, Ex-Mayor
of Cleveland, Ohio.
¶ Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist, in address-
ing a class of missionaries at Moody Institute, said:
"Now, young men, before you are thoroughly equipped
for your life work, I would advise you to spend two or
three months in selling and introducing some high-class
publication. There is nothing that will give you an insight
into human nature and a store of practical knowledge
such as this occupation can afford."
The Science of Salesmanship may be studied with
profit by a man of any age; and the young man who de-
votes himself to it a few summers is getting the best sort
of training for any conceivable career, training that no
amount of study in college can give him. Such training
along with a college course makes a man sure of himself,
whereas the fellow who comes out with only a degree
and a head full of book knowledge, is not in the race with
the Master of Salesmanship man who may never have
been to college."-Prof. F. Carney, Dept. of Geology,
Denison University. (Dr. Carney's advice along these
lines is especially valuable for he paid a large part of his
expenses while going through college by selling books
and now advises his son to sell also.)
one.
¶"George Washington was a book agent, and a good
Prior to the fateful Braddock expedition he sold
over 200 copies in Fairfax and other counties in Virginia,
of a work on 'The American Savage.' Jay Gould and
346
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
Ralph Waldo Emerson were in early life book canvassers.
So also was Longfellow, and his success was remarkable.
There is now in the possession of the Massachusetts His-
torical Society a prospectus that poet used, and on one
of the blank leaves are the skeleton lines of the celebrated
poem 'Excelsior,' which he was evidently incubating.
Daniel Webster paid his second term's tuition at Dart-
mouth by selling books. Gen. Grant at one time took an
agency for Irving's 'Columbus.' Bret Harte was a book
agent in California in 1849 and '50. Ex-President Hayes
footed it all over Southern Ohio selling 'Baxter's Lives of
the Saints.' After the siege of Toulon, Bonaparte, then
a young lieutenant employed at the capital, and too honor-
able to duplicate his pay account, took an agency for the
'History of the Revolution.' Bismarck, Cardinal Mazzo-
fonti, Count Metternich, Channing, Lord Denham and
Coleridge, the poet, were all, at some period of their lives,
book agents. So also were Madame de Stael and Mrs.
Jameson, and Columbus canvassed for a work on ‘Marine
Explorations.' James G. Blaine began his great career as
a canvasser in Washington County, Pa., where he sold
the 'Life of Henry Clay.' Many others whose names
emblazon the pages of history largely owe their success
in life to the experience obtained while engaged in this
laudable and honorable calling."
"It is surprising to know that the Subscription Book
Business more than equals the value of the entire cotton
crop of the United States every year, and cotton is the
heaviest export of the country. These are shown to be
true by official statistics. No other business is increasing
so rapidly in volume and popularity with the people. It
therefore affords a splendid outlet to men and women of
Subscription Book Salesmanship
347
energy and spirit, who have no capital, to go into business
for themselves."-The Statistician.
"Confidence "The man who makes a success of any
Is Victory
Timidity
Is Defeat."'
important venture never waits for the
crowd. He strikes out for himself. It
takes nerve. It takes a great lot of
grit. But the man who succeeds has
both. Anyone can fail. The public admires the man
who has enough confidence in himself to take a chance.
These chances are the main thing, after all. The man
who tries to succeed must expect to be criticised. Noth-
ing important was ever done but the greater number
consulted previously doubted the possibility. Success is
the accomplishment of that which most people think
can't be done."-C. V. White.
¶ "It is real public service that our Subscription Book
Publishers are rendering when they print good books,
bind them handsomely, and then dispatch their army of
indefatigable agents throughout the country and make
people buy them. The buyers thus found are, for the
most part, persons, who but for the zeal of the agents,
would never buy books. A great deal of reading is thus
done throughout the country that, without the activity
of the book agent, would never be done at all.”—Phila-
delphia Times.
¶ 1. Why is summer selling profitable for college
men? Name five reasons.
¶ 2. How is the knowledge of selling books profitable
in other avenues of life? Illustrate.


Xin.

348
Salesmanship and Business Efficiency
3. Name other motives than profit, utility and pride
that you would feature in selling.
¶ 4. How ascertain when prospect is interested and
ready for conviction?
¶ 5. If prospect has only a limited knowledge of your
language, how would you interest him? Would you
attempt to sell a person who cannot read English?
¶ 6. How would you proceed, while in the field, to
grade yourself on the Mental Law of Sale?
¶ 7. Would you ever attempt to close if prospect is
not interested? Why?
¶ 8. Compare the principles of oratory with the fun-
damentals underlying Salesmanship.
¶ 9. When reaching the order point and you find the
prospect is not ready to sign, what must you do?
10. Show the necessity of developing action in order
to succeed in life. Discuss the necessity of action in
Salesmanship.
11. What motives would you appeal to if you were
selling a Bible, an Educational book, a Business book, a
Medical book, a Cook book, a Stock book?

Investigate the Science of Applied
Salesmanship
For an exhaustive study of this great subject
which includes Advertising, Business Letter Writ-
ing, Business Management, Insurance, Credits, Col-
lections, and the Science of Business, write to the
Knox School of Salesmanship, Cleveland, Ohio, for
complete information.
Every student of this volume will be entitled
to a special price on the complete course.


Salesmanship and business efficiency
wils
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
658.89 K77
Knox, James Samuel.
3 1951 002 181 312 1
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10 PT ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz;:",./?$0123456789
4 PT
6 PT
News Gothic Bold Reversed
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8 PT ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz;:",./?$0123456789
10 PT ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz;:",./?$0123456789
4 PT
6 PT
8 PT
Bodoni Italic
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10 PT ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz;:",./?$0123456789
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4 PT
6 PT
8 PT
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A4 Page 6543210
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ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ONE LOMB
PRODUCED BY GRAPHIC ARTS RESEARCH CENTER