Certain Success Part 14

[Sidenote: Prospecting Not Gambling]

Do not think, because we have compared prospecting in mining and in selling, that the success of the salesman prospector, _your_ success, must be largely a "gamble" anyway, as is the case with the explorer for gold. However experienced and skillful in prospecting the miner may be, he is very uncertain of discovering a bonanza. He cannot be absolutely sure there _is_ gold in the region he explores, in paying quant.i.ties and practicable for mining. Though he has every reason to feel confident of the richness of a particular field, he may nevertheless be so unfortunate as not to discover the gold lode or profitable placer deposit. He is helpless to control the _existence_ of the indications of success. They are predetermined by nature. By no effort of his own is he able to increase or decrease the fixed quant.i.ty and quality of the golden chances about him. He can only increase his _likelihood of discovering_ gold. Even the most intelligent, skillful prospecting will not make a miner's success certain.

You, the salesman prospector for opportunities to succeed, are not so limited. There are particular things you can do, and particular ways of doing them, that will _a.s.sure your finding chances_ to make sales of the best that is in you. If you learn the scientific principles of prospecting for opportunities, if you make yourself highly skillful in looking for and digging into the success chances that surround you always, there will be nothing uncertain about your prospects to succeed.

You will know _surely_ that you _have_ prospects, just _what_ and _where_ they are, and their _full worth_ to you.

Of course, prospecting is only _part_ of the selling process; so your knowledge and skill as a prospector will not suffice to guarantee your _complete_ success. However, at this preliminary stage you can be certain that your search for rich chances to succeed will not be a barren quest.

The present chapter will help you to make sure of gaining for yourself such opportunities as lead to complete success in the field of your choice. We will observe and understand how the skillful salesman prospects for the purpose of increasing his sales efficiency. We will study the principles and methods of prospecting he uses successfully; for his practices, applied to your job of selling yourself, will certainly improve your chances to succeed. We will see also how your very best prospects can be _created_ by masterly salesmanship.

[Sidenote: Hard Work Necessary]

At the outset comprehend that no other step in the selling process involves so much _hard work_ as you will need to do in order to find all your possible chances of success and to make the most of them. It is necessary that you look _intelligently_, most _earnestly_, and _constantly_. You must expect to spend a great deal of time and energy in your quest for prospects. So it is essential to your success as a prospector that the investigation of your field of opportunity be carefully _planned_ in order to make the most effective use of the time you spend prospecting. It is vitally important, too, that you develop sufficient physical stamina to do a tremendous amount of hard work. The gold miner has little chance to discover the bonanza he seeks if he searches only a few days or weeks, or if he lacks the strength and endurance required for making a thorough exploration of the mineral region. Similarly it may take a master salesman months of unremitting toil to prospect a sale that he then is able to close in an hour or two.

[Sidenote: The Food of Salesmanship]

_Prospecting supplies the food of salesmanship._ The salesman thrives if his prospecting is sufficient and good. He grows thin and weak to the point of failure if it is bad, or inadequate in quant.i.ty. Every salesman should realize that prospecting furnishes the nourishment for salesmanship, but some so-called salesmen do practically nothing to ensure themselves an abundant food supply. They merely absorb the tips that come their way. Like sponges they sop up the limited quant.i.ty of selling chances they happen to get. That is not the way to feed one's ambition with opportunities.

Comprehend that you must _seek actively_ for your best prospects. You should not stop searching until you find what you are looking for.

Myriads of men have failed because they did not make _an earnest, hard effort to discover chances_ to succeed, or because they _did not persist in the exploration_ of their fields of opportunity. You know that other men no more capable than you are succeeding all about you. Certainly, then, _your_ chance _exists_. Seek it in your own thoughts and in the circ.u.mstances of your every-day living. Put a great deal of time and toil into your search. You cannot afford to loaf on this preliminary job.

[Sidenote: Prospect Continually Act Quickly]

_Every moment you are awake should be used in prospecting_; unless it is required for some other part of the process of a.s.suring your success.

There is no keener pleasure than the eager, continual search of a miner for gold and of a master salesman for possible big buyers. It is necessary that you feel their thrilling zest for discovery; that you develop their unflagging energy; that you be fired by their ardor for the quest. In order to be a highly successful prospector you will need especially a quality they have in common--"pep."

How eagerly the miner prospector drinks in every bit of news he hears about a new strike! How alertly the master salesman listens to casual gossip that holds a clue which may lead to a sale! But the miner and the salesman prospectors would not benefit in any degree by what they learn through their perception of prospects if they did not then _act_ intelligently upon the clues secured. Not only should you keep your eyes and ears open for indications of opportunities to succeed, but you should be ready in advance _to take instant advantage_ of any you may discover. What a fool a miner would be if, after finding rich prospects of gold, he were to lose his chance to someone else because he did not know how to file a mining claim! Could there be a greater failure in salesmanship than learning about a big contract to be let, and being unprepared to bid on it? Before doing any _outside_ prospecting, be sure you know what you have _in you_. Make certain of your ability to take full advantage of your chances to succeed when you come upon them.

[Sidenote: Little Doors To Big Success]

Prospects that seem at first glance to be hardly worth following may lead to other prospects. Merely because your ambitions are _big_, do not neglect a chance to make a _little_ success. Investigate completely every minor prospect you find. Until you look into it thoroughly, you cannot be sure of all that a clue holds. The indication of an opportunity that seems of slight importance may possibly lead straight to the bonanza lode.

An elevator boy in an office building made up his mind to rise permanently in the world; to get out of the vocation in which he was just going up and down all the time without arriving anywhere in particular. He prospected the tenants of the building, learned all he could about them, and determined who were the biggest men. He studied the directory, asked questions, and finally selected the one big business man to whom he was resolved to sell his capabilities.

[Sidenote: Persistent Effort After Prospecting]

This man was known to be unapproachable. So, instead of attempting to interview him, the elevator boy prospected to discover his characteristics. He found out exactly what qualities were most likely to please his intended employer. Then he cultivated the tone, manner, and habits of action that he felt certain would impress the difficult prospect most favorably. It took the resolute elevator boy nearly a year of continual, skillful work to make the big business man notice him and distinguish him from the other elevator boys. Six months more were required to develop the big man's attention into thorough interest. But at the end of a year and a half of faithful prospecting, the ambitious youth gained his selected, self-created opportunity to succeed. There was no stopping him after he got his start. In less than a decade he had sold his qualifications so successfully to a group of powerful financiers that he, too, had become a multi-millionaire.

This ill.u.s.tration of persistent effort to gain a desired chance should help to keep you from becoming discouraged about your prospects for success. Bear in mind the old, familiar motto, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Stick to your prospecting when you know you are on the right lead. It has been estimated that the busy bee inserts its proboscis into flowers 3,600,000 times to obtain a single pound of honey. But the bee is the only insect, remember, that _lives on honey_.

[Sidenote: No Poor Territory For Success]

The poor salesman is apt to complain that his territory is poor. _The good salesman makes any territory good._ So in prospecting your field of immediate opportunities, make the best, not the worst, of your present circ.u.mstances. The star base-ball player does not refuse to play on the small-town team because it isn't good enough for him. The great Ty Cobb first made them "sit up and take notice" in a bush league. Undoubtedly he felt then that he was fit for better company, but he put in his best licks and played big-city ball on the small-town team. That was excellent prospecting for the chance he wanted with the best clubs. From the very beginning of his career, Ty Cobb has used masterly salesmanship to get across to the world true ideas of his best capabilities in his chosen field.

_To-day there is no poor territory for success._ Telegraph and telephone and wireless methods of communication, electric light and power, railroads and inter-urban car service, farm tractors, pa.s.senger automobiles, motor trucks, and the airplane have so revolutionized the inter-relations of men that all the former great distances of different locations and view-points have been shortened almost to nothingness.

The whole world lives now in a single community of interest. The great war has taught us that each individual is close to everyone else. In your prospecting for success you are not limited by any narrow boundary of opportunities. Wherever you are, newspapers and magazines bring to your door chances for big success. If you search for prospects in everything you read you should be able to reach out all over the earth with your capability. An ambitious man I never had heard of before wrote to me at one time from South Africa to secure a selected territory for the sale of automobiles in a western city of the United States. From a distance of nearly half the circ.u.mference of the earth he got his chance to succeed.

[Sidenote: The Fields of Opportunity Are Broad]

A clerk in a Los Angeles real estate office received a letter from an acquaintance in Chicago who had spent his summer vacation in Michigan.

The Chicago man wrote that the farmers of the Traverse Bay region were made rich by a b.u.mper crop of potatoes just harvested. The Californian saw a chance for success in this bit of information. He worked out his idea and talked it over with his employers. He sold them on it. They sent him East loaded with facts about "the glorious West" and brim-full of Los Angeles peptimism. Aided by cold weather in Michigan that winter, the western real estate man eventually sold California irrigated ranches to a score of Michigan farmers who suddenly had made sufficient money to retire from potato raising, and who were old enough to be strongly attracted by the idea of owning and cultivating land in a more genial climate. Thus a sentence in a letter led straight to the success of the clerk who perceived his prospects and knew how to make the most of them.

[Sidenote: Know Local Conditions]

While distances have been bridged by modern swift means of communication and transportation, every locality has opportunities for success that are peculiar to it alone. Conversely every locality is handicapped in certain ways. Therefore in your prospecting for success _study the conditions in your especial field_. As a salesman of yourself, you should know your "territory," its advantages and disadvantages in particular respects. Men are doing business in your town. There is no better way to gain a prospect to succeed with a house in your home community than to demonstrate to the head of the concern that you comprehend just what he is "up against" on the one hand, and on the other what "edge" he has on businesses in the same line located elsewhere. You could make no worse mistake, you could injure your own prospects no more, than by showing ignorance of local conditions, or inappreciation of the circ.u.mstances in which your prospect's business is being conducted.

[Sidenote: Turn to Account What You Learn]

Not only should you know as many facts as possible regarding opportunities in your chosen field; it is even more important that, by the use of your _imagination_ you relate these facts to _practical ways of turning them to account_ for your benefit. In order to derive the maximum of benefit from your prospecting, you must make the _best use_ of every item of knowledge you gain. Sometimes the mere _possession_ of particular knowledge will increase your chances to succeed. But almost invariably you can multiply the value of what you learn if you _prospect in your own mind for ideas_ about putting the facts to the most profitable use.

Do not forget that the primary object of true salesmanship is service to the other fellow. Therefore _prospect your own thoughts with the purpose of making what you know especially valuable to some one else_, your intended employer for instance. In every step of the selling process you should think first of how you can serve your prospect with something that he lacks and needs.

[Sidenote: Prospect Needs]

Surprisingly few young men who go into business prospect their fields of opportunity to learn what is most wanted there. The great majority take up special professions or enter selected industries just because _they_ wish to do chosen things. The master salesman, however, _adapts himself to the circ.u.mstances and requirements of his customers_, even at the sacrifice of his personal inclinations. He could not succeed if he sold only what he wanted to sell, or if he confined his salesmanship efforts to a limited number of buyers because he liked them and disliked others.

In order to a.s.sure your success, _you must learn to like to do what is most needed to be done, and learn to like to serve whoever lacks what you can supply_. Therefore prospect your fields of opportunity to learn what capabilities are princ.i.p.ally needed. If you would make your success as easy as possible, look about you first to determine the demand for such services as you are able to render.

[Sidenote: Sometimes Go The Round-About Way]

Perhaps your prospecting will indicate that it is advisable for you to go a round-about way to your goal of ambition; because the direct route is beset with great difficulties. A young doctor wished to specialize in bacteriology. He realized that it would take the savings of a great many years of general medical practice to equip a complete laboratory of his own. Accordingly he discontinued the practice of his profession; though he went on with his studies. He engaged in business for five years. Thus in a comparatively short time he earned the money he needed to enable him to devote the rest of his life to bacteriological research.

[Sidenote: Racial Characteristics]

Different territories or fields of opportunity have _various characters_, like different people. It is important to study especially the racial types you are likely to encounter. Many a man has attained success by acc.u.mulating discriminative knowledge regarding the national peculiarities of the Latin peoples, Slavs, Teutons, Anglo-Saxons, Magyars, etc.

The Italian has strong likes and dislikes in colors and patterns of goods. To be a good salesman in dealing with him, you should know his preferences and prejudices. If you learn what colors and patterns are most favored in the "Little Italy" of your city, you may be able to employ this bit of knowledge to help you very much in influencing your fellow-residents of Italian descent.

You are aware of the effect produced on the majority of Irishmen by the color green. But take care to learn whether the Irishmen whose political help you would like to win are from the South or the North of the Emerald Isle. They may be Orangemen, and you might "queer" your prospects by going among them wearing a green necktie.

_Learn your facts with discrimination; then use them restrictively in the circ.u.mstances where they will be most effective in promoting your success._

[Sidenote: Temporary Conditions]

Prospect to learn not only permanent conditions in your field of opportunity, but also any _temporary_ conditions that might affect your chances to succeed. Mental and emotional "waves" sweep over the country and over local communities at times. Billy Sunday's revivals in various great cities brought success opportunities to particular businesses, but had injurious effects on others. You should take such factors into account when studying your prospects.

The manufacturers of that successful innovation, the "Service Flag,"

took advantage of the sudden demand for such an emblem. When war came, they saw into the future and perceived a new lack. But the need for Service Flags was temporary. Before the war ended they were displayed everywhere. To-day none are seen.

Now there has come into existence The American Legion, which seems certain to be a great political and social power in the United States for generations, as was the G.A.R. after the civil war. Any man who hopes for political success in the course of the next thirty or forty years must prospect the thoughts and feelings of the veterans of 1917-18.

[Sidenote: a.n.a.lyze Individuals]

You will have _specific_ as well as general prospects. Hence it is essential that you supplement your study of conditions with the _a.n.a.lysis of individuals_. Study men with the greatest care, especially the one man or group of men upon whom you want to impress ideas of your capabilities. Learn all you can regarding the personal characteristics of the individual to whom you hope to sell your services or "goods."

Your knowledge of his traits and peculiarities, your familiarity with his life purposes and hobbies, may a.s.sure you a chance to succeed with him that otherwise you could not get. A friend of mine is the president of a big ice company, but he is not so much interested in cooling people's food as in warming their hearts with his genuine brotherhood for all men. There isn't much prospect for anybody to sell him "a cold business proposition," even though he is a dealer in ice.

[Sidenote: Hobbies]

Do not, however, make a "hobby of hobbies." Only the _big_ hobbies of your man are worth especial study. Never harp on any of his little idiosyncracies. He may be sensitive about being eccentric. It is bad salesmanship to _pretend_ an interest in another person's whims. You cannot use his hobbies to help your prospects _unless you share his feelings_ to a considerable degree. My friend who believes and practices the doctrine that all men are brothers would be sure to detect quickly a false humanitarian bent on a selfish purpose to exploit his hobby.