Certain Success Part 5

Second, _acceptance_ of the ideas brought by the salesman.

One who is unfamiliar with the scientific principles underlying the skillful practice of the right selling process is unlikely to realize that the _first_ sales effort should be concentrated on _winning the prospective buyer's confidence in the salesman and in the goods of sale_. Failures in selling are often due to the fault of the salesman who works primarily for but the _second_ of the immediate results to be desired; the acceptance of his proposition--the acceptance of his personal capabilities and services, for instance. He neglects, as a _preliminary_ to securing acceptance, to gain the _confidence_ of the other man. When you undertake to sell your particular good qualities and your services to a prospective employer, do not make the mistake in salesmanship of omitting the process of first winning his _belief_ in you.

[Sidenote: Repeat Sales]

Besides the two _immediate_ results desired by the skillful salesman, there is a _permanent_ result to be worked for--an enduring consequence desired from the present gains made. That permanent result wanted is _the opening of other opportunities for future sales_.

_Complete success in life_ is not a.s.sured when the _original_ sale of one's best capabilities is closed successfully. Gaining the _initial_ desired chance does not make it certain that one will succeed in his _entire career_. The first sale is faulty if it does not include a lead to future opportunities "to deliver the goods."

The right selling process is continuous. Where one sale ends, another should be already started. A great many failures of capable men can be ascribed to short-sighted concentration on immediate chances. _One who would make certain of the success of his whole life must ever look ahead to the next possible opportunity for the sale of the true idea of his best capabilities, meanwhile making the most of his present chance._

[Sidenote: Service Purpose In Selling]

In order to get the right viewpoint for further study of the selling process, you, _the salesman of yourself_, need to comprehend clearly the fundamental _purpose_ of all true salesmanship. _It should be the service of the buyer in satisfying his real needs._

Few salesmen _know_ what sales service _is_, and _how_ it should be rendered. Service is the very soul of the certain success selling process. Service must be studied _as a purpose_ until the principles underlying the fullest satisfaction of the buyer's real needs are mastered, and all false misconceptions of service are cleared away from the salesman's idea of his obligation to the purchaser of his goods of sale.

[Sidenote: Sales Knowledge Universally Needed]

This brief summary of the princ.i.p.al essentials of sales knowledge has been outlined in order to impress on you the practically _universal need for a better understanding of the selling process_. Certainly you are convinced now that it will pay _you_ to know HOW to sell. Then let us look next at _yourself_ in a different light--as a subject of study in sales-_man_-ship.

CHAPTER II

_The Man-Stuff You Have For Sale_

[Sidenote: The Man Sales-Man Ship]

Your _knowledge_ of sales principles and methods, and your _skill_ in selling ideas must be combined with right sales-_manhood_ if your _complete_ success in sales-man-ship is to be made certain. Particular _man_ qualities are necessary to make you a master _salesman_ in your chosen field. "A good man obtaineth favor." So we will study now the elements of character required for the most effective sales-_man_-ship, and how to develop them.

We shall not consider "Man" in the abstract, nor exceptional ideals of manhood. Our thought of the sales _man_ will be concentrated on qualities _you_ have or can develop, that are necessary to make _you_ most efficient in selling ideas about _yourself_.

Some radical _changes_ in your present character may be required. But you will need princ.i.p.ally to _grow_ in order to attain the full stature of sales manhood that is necessary to gain complete success. If your manliness is dwarfed now, you cannot succeed largely in selling true ideas of your best and biggest capabilities, until you rid yourself of the character faults that are stunting your growth as a sales _man_.

[Sidenote: The Little Man Out-of-Date]

Realize at the outset that the time has pa.s.sed forever when the _little_ man, with the narrowly selfish outlook for "Number One," might succeed.

The demand of the future will be, however, not so much for BIG men as for big MEN. The world no longer looks up to Kaisers and Czars. Success has ceased to be merely a towering figure. Hereafter the one sure way to succeed will lead through the door of _brotherly understanding of the other fellow_, into the _common heart of mankind_. Only sales_man_ship can open that door with certainty.

We are entering a new business era, where the old individualistic methods of attaining so-called "success" will be worse than useless.

Many of them even now are forbidden by law. All the practices of the "profiteer" and his ilk are discountenanced by far-seeing people. Men of vision perceive that the size of To-morrow's Success will be measured in direct proportion to its quality of _human service_.

"SERVICE" is the motto of the highest salesmanship. Therefore, in shaping your plans to succeed, start with the resolve to make yourself a truly big sales MAN. Do not copy the little, selfish models of Yesterday. Study the signs of the times. To be out-of-date is equivalent to being a failure.

[Sidenote: Pint and Bushel Men]

You will need to be big in ability, in imagination, in energy, in your ideals--but most of all you must be big in MANHOOD. If you are little and selfish in your life purpose, you cannot be certain of success in selling to a truly BIG man the idea that you are fully qualified for his service. Before making any attempt to sell yourself into a desirable position, take pains to develop as much _man quality_ as characterizes your prospective employer. You cannot comprehend him if you fall short of his standard of manhood. To-day the biggest buyers of brains and brawn recognize their obligations of human brotherhood. If you are little and self-centered, how can you reach into the mind and heart and soul of another man who is genuinely BIG? How can you impel him to think as you wish?

The little man even doubts the existence of big manhood. He cannot comprehend such size. A pint measure, however much it is stretched, is utterly unable to contain a bushel. But the larger measure easily holds either a pint or a bushel. Similarly if you are big in _manhood_, you can comprehend alike the little man and the big man. You will be able to deal successfully with both.

[Sidenote: The Clothing Of Manhood]

It is not sufficient, however, that you grow to the full stature of your biggest man possibilities. It is necessary also that you be _clothed in the characteristics of manhood_ in order to be _recognized_ as a man.

When you were only an infant, you were safety-pinned into a square of cloth once doubled triangularly. You graduated to rompers at a year and a half or two. Then you put on knee-pants, and afterward youth's long trousers. Now you wear the clothes of a full-grown man. You would not think of dressing in knickerbockers, or rompers, or--something younger, to present your qualities and services for sale. Yet your outer garb is much less important to the success of your salesmanship than is your _clothing of manhood._

[Sidenote: What is Your Man Power?]

If you hope to a.s.sure yourself of man's-size success in life, plan that wherever you are you will make the instant impression that you are "every inch a man," not just an overgrown baby or boy. Follow the example of Paul, that incomparably great salesman of the new ideas of Christianity. He wrote in his powerful first sales letter to the Corinthian field, "When I became a man, I put away childish things."

_Compel respect_ by your sound virility. Have a well-founded consciousness that in manhood you are the equal of any other man, and you can make everybody you meet feel you are a man _all through_.

What is your size as a sales _man_ now?

Ask yourself this question, and answer it frankly. In order to make sure of selling yourself into the opportunities you want, you must take your own measure and fit your manhood to the selling process you have begun to learn. Beyond a doubt you are now a sales man of _some_ size. You are selling your physical or mental powers, your services of this kind or that, with a degree of efficiency directly proportionate to your man-power.

[Sidenote: The m.p. Man]

If you are only a m.p. salesman at present, you lack three-fourths of the man capacity needed to handle with certain success all the opportunities of full-size manhood. You were not limited by Nature to m.p. size. You were born with _full man capacity_. You are like a gasoline motor developing but a quarter of the power it was designed to produce--not because of any structural fault in the engine, but simply for the reason that it does not function _now_ as it was intended to operate, and as it can be made to work _in the future_ if it is overhauled and put in perfect condition. The full power capacity originally built _into_ the motor needs to be brought _out_. Likewise _your_ man-power plant requires to be made as efficient as possible, in order to a.s.sure you of full man-capability for achieving success.

Maybe your chief fault is poor fuel, and what you most need is good "gas." You have not been filling up your mind with the right ideas. Or, perhaps, your piston rings leak; and you lack the high compression of determined persistence. Another fault might be in your carburetor--you are not a good "mixer." Or your spark of enthusiasm may be weak. It is possible, too, that your fine points are caked over by the carbon of acc.u.mulated bad habits. Maybe you have a cracked cylinder--your health is partly broken down. The fault is in your timer, perhaps. You are not "on the job" when you should be.

[Sidenote: Your Manhood Can Be Re-built]

No matter what ails your particular engine, _it can be repaired or rebuilt into a full one-manpower motor of efficiency_. If you limp and pound along with but a quarter of your capability, it is your own fault for not overhauling your power plant. Don't continue as a m.p. man and blame anybody else, or curse your bad luck because you can't make speed and carry the load necessary to succeed. _Stop trying to go on crippled or clogged in manhood_. Run yourself into the repair shop right away and "get fixed."

You can make your manhood over.

There is full-man capability in you. You can get it all out and put it to work for your success.

You have the ability to re-make your _character_ entirely, without changing _your individual nature_.

You must accomplish transformation into _your best self_ before you can make the most of your opportunities to sell your abilities and services.

It will not suffice that you just are _willing_, or _desire,_ to become a first-cla.s.s salesman of your particular "goods of sale." Merely acquiring information or _knowledge_ of the selling process is not enough to a.s.sure your success in life. Even the most skillful _practice_ of all the sales principles and methods you learn will be insufficient to guarantee your success--if you do not develop your full _man capacity_ for sales-man-ship.

[Sidenote: Essentials of the Master Sales Man]

The result of the necessary changes and growth in _your_ manhood will be an enlarged conception of _all_ men--your greater capacity to understand and to handle _any one else_ successfully.

It is entirely possible for you to develop and cultivate every essential quality of the master sales-_man_, and still to be just _yourself_.

[Sidenote: Good Appearance]

The high grade professional salesman makes the best _appearance_ of which he is capable. Surely you can do that, too. You can train yourself to grace and ease in your bearing. However unsatisfactory your features may be, you certainly are capable of looking pleasant, and therefore of being attractive. It is possible for you to have well-kept hands and hair; to wear suitable, clean clothes; to be neat.

[Sidenote: Physical Capacity]