Certain Success Part 15

As already has been emphasized, the object of the good salesman when prospecting is to discover the lacks of men who might benefit from the things he has to sell. If you are looking for your prospects with that _service_ purpose, you have taken a long preparatory step in the process of selling your qualifications. Find the employer who _needs_ your best ability, and your success will be a.s.sured the moment you get into his mind the true idea that you are the man he has been looking for.

[Sidenote: Prospect Lacks]

Undoubtedly you know men to whom success has come because they made other men realize they fitted into particular needs. A young acquaintance of mine foresaw that a manufacturer would want an a.s.sistant within a year or two; though the executive himself was unaware that he was developing such a need. My acquaintance got a minor job under him in order to make a good impression in advance. Long before the head of the business realized that he was breaking in a confidential a.s.sistant, the young man had qualified for the position he had perceived in prospect.

Your chosen employer may not know of the lack that you have prospected in his business. He may not have the least idea that he wants you.

Prospecting his needs is part of _your_ job as a salesman of yourself.

An expert accountant sold himself into a fine position as the auditor of a great corporation by antic.i.p.ating that the Company would need to have its system of book-keeping revolutionized in order to prepare for the Federal income tax. He prospected what was coming to that business; then sold the president comprehension that he lacked an expert accountant he was going to need badly before long.

One of my own experiences as an accountant ill.u.s.trates the value of specific prospecting. When I was studying accountancy, I bought every authoritative publication on the subject. For one set of forty books I had to send to London. Each volume related to the peculiar accounts, terms, etc. of one business. There was a book on brewery accounting, another on commission house accounting, and so on through the list of forty businesses. To each volume I afterward owed at least one client.

For instance, I got a commission to make a cost survey for a tobacco company, largely because I was able to convince the president that I knew a good deal about the tobacco business. I talked intelligently to him regarding the processes of his industry.

[Sidenote: Reasons Behind Habits]

When you prospect an individual's personal qualities, traits, or hobbies, do not stop after learning the facts. Study out the _reasons behind_ habits and opinions. It may help you only a little to know that your intended employer is a Republican or a Democrat; that he is conservative or radical in his social opinions. But your chances of success in dealing with him will be greatly increased if you know exactly _why_ he belongs to one or the other political party, and the _reason_ he is a "stand-patter" or a "progressive." Use knowledge of why's and wherefore's with the skill of a salesman bent on securing an order from a prospective buyer. But be sure you get the _fundamental facts_, for often "appearances are deceiving."

[Sidenote: Your Personal Responsibility]

When you look for prospects in your selected field of service-opportunities recognize your _personal responsibility_ for the successful development of the chances you find. Before you begin prospecting, realize that _what you make of your opportunities is solely up to you_. a.s.sume all the responsibility for your own success; then you will have no excuse to blame any one else if you fail. Should things not go as you wish, say "It's my own fault," and feel that way. _The true salesman never apologizes to himself._ So if you have not found your prospects, or if you have not made the best use of the chances you have discovered, kick at the man who is responsible. Don't get sore on the world at large.

[Sidenote: Follow-ups]

Perhaps what has been said thus far has over-emphasized the process of prospecting for the _first_ chance to succeed. Maybe it suggests to you that if one can get an opening, the hardest part of the effort to a.s.sure success will have been accomplished. But a successful career in salesmanship is not built on single orders closed. The master salesman keeps on selling the same buyer and develops him into a steady customer.

He continues all the while to prospect the needs of that buyer, just as thoroughly as if he were planning his first approach.

_Your initial success should be completed by after-service._ In order to continue progressing toward your goal, you must "deliver the goods"

right along. You cannot keep your success growing unless you prospect unremittingly for more and better opportunities to render service. Give satisfaction in larger amount and improved quality from month to month, and year after year. If you would continue to succeed, look ahead always for more prospects and _seek in each of them new chances to broaden your usefulness_.

[Sidenote: The Art of Prospecting]

If you prospect _skillfully_ (with art), your chances to find what you seek will be remarkably increased. So look for your prospects _cheerily_. Be _frank_ and _expressive_ in your quest. Show your _sympathetic_ side, and thus appeal to the _kinder_ tendencies of other people. The best way to avoid the world's coldness is by _warming_ everybody you meet with your own cordiality. Be _courteous_. Especially cultivate the art of talking _with_ people instead of _at_ them. Use _tact_ and _judgment_ in dealing with your prospects.

Thousands of men are shut away from the open minds and hearts of others by doors of concealment and reserve. You need to open such doors. You can do it only by frankness on your own part, which will induce people to feel like telling you their secrets. Frank expression of your opinion, provided it has a sound foundation, will often draw out the hidden opinions of others and reveal to you prospects that you might never discover unaided. Do not, however, be dogmatic or arbitrary in saying what you think. Speak your beliefs casually. Then you will not discourage those honest differences of opinion that enlighten one's own ideas.

Rid your face of sharpness if you would be a good prospector for your best chances to succeed. Avoid "the cutting edge" in your voice and manner when you make inquiries about opportunities you seek. You are likely to be most effective in prospecting if you _cultivate an easy att.i.tude of friendliness_. The master salesman does not set his jaw when prospecting. He uses curved, instead of straight line gestures to supplement his words. He suggests a "ball-bearing" disposition, not "corners."

[Sidenote: Sympathetic Att.i.tude]

Be a good mixer when looking for your prospects. Learn the art of _companionship_. The first essential is fellow feeling. Therefore do not go about with a chip on your shoulder, but with your face a-smile and your palms open to offer and to receive hand-clasps. Sympathize with the ambitions of other men, with their hopes and dreams. Remember that each part of every work of man, however substantial and enduring it now may be, was once no more than a figment of the imagination of some one's mind. So do not be altogether "practical" when prospecting. It is a mistake to neglect to prospect visions.

[Sidenote: Have a Leader]

When the master salesman prospects, he uses very effectively a "leader"

idea. You know how aggressive stores advertise leaders that draw trade in other things. Your prospecting of your various capabilities should enable you to decide which of your qualifications will make the most effective leader in the case of a certain employer. Do not expect him to perceive _all_ your merits immediately. Concentrate his attention and interest on _one or two elements_ of your fitness to fill his especial needs. Prospect to make sure which of your possible leaders would be most likely to influence him in your favor. Then _use these selected elements of your character very prominently_ to open the door of your initial chance. Countless successes have been founded on well chosen leaders.

A little bake shop in Chicago competes successfully to-day with a great chain-store company that has an immense establishment directly across the street. The shop sells as its leaders home-made English tarts that no chain-store could supply. These draw buyers for groceries and other goods the chain-store sells much cheaper, but which the purchasers of tarts order with their pastry rather than cross the street and divide their marketing.

[Sidenote: Summary]

Now let us summarize "Your Prospects." They are not far away nor far ahead in time. They are in your own hands right now. You _cannot fail_ in life if you recognize and use most effectively all the opportunities available to you at present. You suffer from no lack of chances to succeed. You only need to open your physical eyes and the eyes of your mind to _see_ fine prospects every day. Then if you _imaginatively relate your abilities to what you perceive, and plan how you can fit yourself into a chosen place of real service_, you will have begun the selling process successfully. At the outset of your career it is possible for you to reduce difficult obstacles to temporary set-backs that you can get around or overcome.

[Sidenote: Success A Matter Of Fractions]

There is only a narrow margin of difference between success and failure.

_Success is a matter of fractions and decimals, not of big units_. A few thousand American soldiers and marines turned the tide of German victory at Chateau Thierry. "It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back."

If you _begin_ the selling process by the finest prospecting, and _keep on_ with equal effectiveness throughout all the following steps of salesmanship, you will gain so many more chances than you otherwise could get that _your success in the end will be a.s.sured_. The master salesman works with _certainty_ that he will secure his quota of orders.

He knows in advance that he will succeed; _because he knows sure ways to sell_.

Good prospecting is just a natural process, intelligently comprehended.

It is neither mysterious nor hard. It is one of the preliminary, understandable ways to make success not only _sure_, but _easy_ to attain.

CHAPTER VI

_Gaining Your Chance_

[Sidenote: Getting Inside The Door]

We will a.s.sume that you have qualified yourself to succeed; that you have developed your best capabilities in knowledge, in manhood, and in sales skill; that you have completed the general preparation necessary to a.s.sure your success in marketing your particular qualifications; and that you also have learned how to find and to make the most of your prospects. After these preliminaries you are ready to take the next step in the selling process, and to begin putting your capabilities, and what you have learned from preparation and prospecting, to _specific use in actual selling_.

In order to succeed, you must not only be _qualified_ for some _particular_ service work, but you also need _chances to demonstrate_ your capabilities and preparedness for effective service. If you stand all your life in complete readiness for success but outside the door of opportunity, you will be a failure despite your exceptional qualifications and preparations for handling chances to succeed. _It is necessary that you get inside the door._ We will study now the _sure_ ways and means of entrance.

[Sidenote: The Salesman's Advantage Over the Buyer]

One great advantage the skillful salesman has over even the best buyer is that he can _plan_ completely _what_ he will do and _how_ he will do it to accomplish his selling purpose. The prospect is unable to antic.i.p.ate who will call upon him next; so it is impossible for him to avoid being taken _unawares_ by each salesman. He can make only general and hasty preparations at the moment to deal with the particular individual who comes intent on securing his order.

The good salesman, however, works out in advance the most effective ways and means to present his proposition. Each move in the process of selling his ideas to a prospect is carefully studied and practiced beforehand. The effects of different words and tones and acts are exactly weighed. When the thoroughly prepared salesman calls on a possible buyer, he has in mind a flexible program of procedure with which he is perfectly familiar and which he can adapt skillfully to various conditions that his imagination has enabled him to antic.i.p.ate.

Hence the master salesman usually is able to _control the situation_, no matter how shrewd the prospect may be; because the salesman's chance to plan a.s.sures him a great advantage over the unprepared or incompletely prepared other party to the sale.

[Sidenote: Dominate The Interview with Confidence]

If you would likewise "dominate" the man to whom you want to sell your capabilities, prepare "plans of approach" to his interest before calling on him; in order to make sure of presenting your qualifications most strongly. He can oppose your salesmanship with but comparatively weak resistance; because _he has had no such opportunity as you to get all ready for this interview_. The skillful salesman is confident that he can control the selling process he begins. When you seek a selected chance for the success you desire, you should feel similar a.s.surance of ability to sell your services. You will possess this feeling if you prepare your "plan of approach" as the master salesman gets ready for his interview with a prospective buyer.

[Sidenote: The Two Entrances]

You have to make two distinct "entrances" in order to gain your desired chance to succeed. You need to get _yourself_ into the _presence_ of the employer you have selected. Then it is essential that you get the _true idea_ of your capabilities and preparedness into his _mind_. Your "approach" to his attention and interest, therefore, involves a _double_ process. It is important that you plan intelligently the most skillful ways and means of making the _two_ entrances; through the _physical_ and the _mental_ closed doors that now shut you out from the opportunities you have prospected and desire to gain.

No master salesman would call on an important prospect before planning in his own mind how to take the successive steps of the interview expected. Nor would a master salesman neglect to think out in advance several specific methods of getting past any physical barriers he might encounter between the outer door of the general office and the inner sanctum of the man he must meet face to face in order to close a sale.

[Sidenote: Ordinary Way Of Getting Job]

But when the _unskilled_ salesman of his own capabilities seeks a situation, he usually neglects to make careful, detailed plans to reach his prospect in the most effective way. He does not prepare to create the particular impressions that would be most apt to a.s.sure him the attention and interest of the employer upon whom he calls. Nearly always when a man out of a job answers an advertis.e.m.e.nt or follows up a clue to a possible opening for his services, he thinks the most important thing is to "get there first." The only advantage he hopes to gain over other applicants is a position at the head of the line.