Certain Success Part 13

[Sidenote: Insurance Against Undervaluation]

Thorough preparation in _comprehension of values_ is the salesman's best protection against a personal inclination, or an outside temptation, to cut prices. If your preparation for your chosen career has been limited to _gaining knowledge_, and you have not studied its true _worth_ to every imaginable prospective buyer, you will be apt often to offer your services for far less than their full value. Conversely sometimes you will be likely to think your services are worth more than they really are. You may fail to close sales because your price is too high. A pre-requisite of good salesmans.h.i.+p is the _right_ price. _If your preparation for selling your services has been thorough, you will realize the exact worth of your knowledge and skill_. You will neither suggest inferior value by quoting a cut price on your capabilities, nor demand so much as to indicate the characteristics of displeasing egotism or greed. _If you know what you are truly worth, you will make the right price on your real value._ Then your self-confidence in your worth will lend you power to convince the other man that your services would be a good "buy" for him.

[Sidenote: Seeing Into Opportunities]

If you can imagine _all the various uses to which your ability might be put_, you will appreciate the full value of every opportunity you perceive. Not only will you see the chances for success that are all about you, but you will _see into_ them. When your mind _catches sight_ of success chances, they will look _familiar_ to you because of their similarity to opportunities you _previously had thought about_ and connected with your own qualifications. If you are prepared to perceive and to appreciate fully each indication of a success opportunity that comes within the range of your mental vision, you will promptly begin working a chance "for all it is worth," as if it were a newly discovered gold mine.

[Sidenote: Service Purpose In Preparation]

Possibly what you have read has unduly impressed you with the idea that the salesman's motive in his preparation is selfish. So perhaps it is well to pause here for the reminder that your primary salesmans.h.i.+p purpose should be true _service_. You are preparing yourself thoroughly in knowledge of your full sales value, _as a measure of success insurance and self-protection._ It is not true sales service to give a buyer value greatly in excess of the price quoted. It is right for you to make sure in advance about your full worth. However, the obligation to render service is the princ.i.p.al element of right salesmans.h.i.+p, and should come before the objective of a good price. _Prepare then primarily to serve your prospect._ Demonstrate your true service purpose, and he will give secondary consideration to the cost of engaging your qualifications for his business.

[Sidenote: Pleasing Character]

You can serve best if you _please_ in rendering service. Therefore prepare your _self_, your _knowledge_, and all your _methods_ so that from the moment you make your first impression on a prospective employer, you will please him. Do not prepare for the interview with the purpose of pleasing yourself. What _you_ like may be distasteful to the man you want to impress.

Since you cannot tell in advance when or where you may encounter a prospective buyer of your services, you will not be safeguarding every possible chance to succeed unless you wear your "company manners" all the time. You always should dress carefully, act with painstaking courtesy, and conduct yourself as if you might meet a rich relation at any moment. You certainly can expect more wealth from "making yourself solid" with Opportunity than you ever are likely to be willed by a millionaire uncle. It will pay you much better to please Opportunity in general than to ingratiate yourself with any person in particular.

[Sidenote: Please Everybody Everywhere Always]

"Company manners" that are just "put on" temporarily may be left off on the very occasion when you would want to appear at your best if you only knew that "The Golden Chance" was to be met. Therefore prepare to be _characteristically_ pleasing to _everybody, everywhere, and all the time._ Then, no matter where or when or in what guise you come upon Opportunity, you will be sure to please with your _genuineness_.

Innumerable great successes have begun with the making of a pleasing impression on some one whose presence and notice were unknown. You realize that your success is practically impossible if you displease.

Preparation to please is of first importance in getting ready to succeed. Your success in the field of your especial ambition will be a.s.sured if you win your first chance there by making an _initial_ pleasing impression and then _keep right on pleasing_.

Cultivate grace in your movements--for grace is pleasing to everyone.

Carry your body naturally, especially your head; with such a bearing that total strangers will feel pleasure when they look at you. _Be a person who pleases at sight._ It is not difficult. No matter what sort of face you have, if it expresses habitually your pleasure in living, it will look pleasant. A look of pleasure is pleasing to others. You like to see some one else enjoying himself thoroughly. Everybody feels the same way. Our own faces brighten when we come upon radiant happiness anywhere.

[Sidenote: Details That Please]

Please others with your smile. It should not be just an affected smirk, but a smile of _genuine friendliness for all the world_. Please by wearing inconspicuous clothes that are faultless in taste, fit, and cleanliness; and of a quality suited to your vocation. Show also that you take good care of what you wear, for that makes a pleasing impression. _You can please in your dress without arraying yourself in expensive clothes._ Indeed, an over-dressed man is more displeasing to Opportunity than is one poorly dressed. There can be no excuse for foppishness, but a shabby neat appearance may be due to a good reason.

Please with the suggestion in your manner that you are getting along well. Do not pretend false prosperity, of course; but _indicate that you feel successful_. Any one finds it unpleasant to be in the company of a failure. _If you would succeed hereafter, avoid making the impression that you have not already succeeded._ "Success breeds success."

[Sidenote: Courtesy And Politeness]

Be courteous invariably. Learn and observe the rules of politeness.

Please by acting the gentleman always. Practice courtesy and politeness in your own home to perfect yourself in these pleasing characteristics.

Then you will show them everywhere. Remember that the rest of the world is made up of "somebody else's folks." Courtesy and politeness are not natural attributes. In order to make yourself a master salesman you need to _develop_ them to an unusually high degree. You may _intend_ to be courteous and polite always, but only the development of the _fixed habit_ will fully support your intention.

You cannot be polite, however courteous you mean to be, unless you take pains to prepare yourself with knowledge of the usages of polite people.

In order to be polite, it is necessary that you do not only the courteous thing, but the _correct thing_. Your courtesy might displease if it were unsuited to the circ.u.mstances. It would not be polite, for example, to invite an orthodox Jew to dinner and then to serve him with a pork tenderloin. Your intention to be a courteous host would not lessen your offense against good manners. Your guest would be incensed by your impoliteness, not pleased by your courteous intention.

[Sidenote: Virility Pleases]

No quality you have is more generally pleasing than virility--_your man stuff_. Therefore on all occasions show yourself "every inch a man."

Moreover, act like a _he_-man. Never appear "sissyfied" in even the slightest degree. Swing your legs from the hips when you walk; don't mince along. The stride of a he-man is strong and free. If yours lacks the qualities of virility, change your habit of walking.

When you make gestures, move your whole arm. A wrist movement suggests effeminacy. It is important, too, that you _train your voice to ring with manliness_. Even a squeaky, weak tone can be made to suggest man stuff if the words are spoken crisply, and the sentences are cleanly cut. Do things with the _ease_ that indicates a man's strength, not with evident effort. Perhaps you have not realized that by cultivating grace in your movements you can make impressions of your man power. _Grace means the least possible expenditure of energy in efficient action._ A man can accomplish things with ease and grace that a child or a woman would make hard work of and do awkwardly.

[Sidenote: Pleasing Tones]

A pleasing tone helps to a.s.sure one's success. You may think your voice is a heavy handicap. Perhaps it is high pitched and squeaky; or, on the other hand, a "growly" ba.s.s suggestive of ill-nature. Again it may be faltering or hoa.r.s.e. Such faults are not serious to a master salesman.

_If your vocal equipment is physically normal, your voice can be made pleasing._ In order to make your tones agreeable, learn to vibrate them naturally through your _nose_. A mouth tone is displeasing. The so-called "nasal tw.a.n.g" that sounds so unpleasant is a mouth tone _prevented_ from free vibration through the nose. Humming, as you know, both _indicates_ pleasure and is a pleasant _sound_. It is produced with the mouth closed, by a vibration of the bone structure of the face and of the nasal cavities. Certainly, even if you have a disagreeable voice, you can make your tones _hum_, and thereby render them more pleasing.

Adenoids that could be removed--even failure to keep the nose clean--may prevent a man from succeeding. _Whatever hinders the free vibration of tones makes displeasing impressions of the speaker_. When a man has a bad cold in his head that blocks the nasal pa.s.sages, his voice rasps the ears of a hearer.

[Sidenote: Avoid Giving Displeasure]

Not only please by _doing_ things that give _pleasure_; also _avoid_ doing _displeasing_ things. For example, when you say or suggest anything to another person you want to influence, remember to be a _salesman_ of your ideas. Do not make the impression that you are _teaching_. No adult human being really enjoys being _taught_. Any grown person likes to be treated as an equal, and to have new thoughts conveyed to him without that suggestion of superior intelligence which is characteristic of many teachers when dealing with pupils. Perhaps you have heard Burton Holmes lecture. His enunciation is a delight in its perfection, but he talks "according to the dictionary" so naturally that his correctness does not sound a bit affected. You feel at home with him. His diction is attractive to you. Another speaker practicing the same exactness of p.r.o.nunciation, but less artistic in selling his ideas with words, might displease you by his scholarly accents.

[Sidenote: Tact]

Sometimes it is tactful to speak incorrectly, as a courtesy to the other man. If in the course of your interview with a prospective employer he should misp.r.o.nounce a word, you would be undiplomatic to emphasize the correct p.r.o.nunciation in speaking that word yourself. It is not dishonest, but truly polite to reply "My ad'dress is"--instead of p.r.o.nouncing the word correctly. Do not suggest by over-emphasis of right speech that you wish to pose as one who is _conscious_ of his superiority, however well you may realize that you are on a higher plane of intellectuality. We all like a genuinely great man who does not hold himself aloof.

[Sidenote: Prepare For All Kinds Of Men]

Prepare to meet not only strong men, but weak men; cautious men; very proud men; greedy men. Be ready for reckless men, humble men, men who live to serve others. Be aware in advance of the differences in their _buying motives_. They will not all have the same reasons for giving or for refusing you a chance. _Hence be prepared to adapt your salesmans.h.i.+p to the characteristics of the various kinds of men you are likely to meet_. Though you never should pander to an unworthy motive, study different types of character and _learn how to fit your ability to the peculiar or distinctive traits of possible buyers_ of such services as you have for sale. Perhaps an easy-going employer will appreciate your "pep" as much as would a hustler, but he won't like it if you seem to prod _him_ with your energy. On the other hand, the employer who is a hustler himself might be keenly pleased should you keep him on the jump to stay even with you.

[Sidenote: Success Insurance]

Be thorough in _preparing_ to sell your capabilities; so that your success may be _insured_. You ride on a first-cla.s.s railroad with confidence, feeling that every precaution for your safety has been taken. You are at ease when you begin your trip; for you know that track, train, and men in charge all are dependable. Because of the complete readiness of the railroad for your journey, you count on arriving safely at your destination. You have no fears that you may be wrecked en route.

Similarly you should make the most thorough preparation before starting out as a salesman of the best that is in you. You have to grade your own roadbed, and must yourself lay the rails over which your ideas in trains of thought will be carried to the minds of other men. You are fireman, engineer, brakeman, and conductor of this Twentieth Century Limited.

_Your destiny as a salesman of yourself is in the hands of no one else_. Before you travel any farther, take all practicable measures to a.s.sure your safe arrival, without delay, at the station of Success.

[Sidenote: Start Confidently]

When you are thoroughly prepared to sell true ideas of your best capabilities, you should start with confidence that you will reach the end of the line safely and on time. Don't attempt to "get there" before making adequate preparation for success. Remember that a railroad does not commence operating through trains until the track is finished.

If you are prepared now for the actual start in salesmans.h.i.+p--if you are packed up and ready to leave for your field of opportunity--ALL ABOARD!

CHAPTER V

_Your Prospects_

[Sidenote: Meaning of "Prospects"]

If you were to be asked, "What are your prospects for success?" you probably would answer by stating the things you _expect_ or _hope may happen_. We commonly say that a certain man isn't rich, but he has "prospects;" because he has a wealthy aunt who is very fond of him, or he is employed by a business that is growing fast, or he owns property which seems sure to increase in value, or some other good fortune is likely to befall him. The literal meaning of "prospect" is "looking forward." So most of us have come to think of our prospects as just possible occurrences in the future, to the happening of which we may look ahead with considerable hopefulness.

"Prospects," in salesmans.h.i.+p has a very different meaning. The master salesman does not regard himself as merely a "prospect_ee_," but as a prospect_or_. He thinks of "prospecting" as the gold miner uses the word to describe his activities when he searches for valuable mineral deposits. "Prospects" do not just "happen" in the selling process of achieving success. They do not result from circ.u.mstances merely, but _must be acc.u.mulated by the activity of the salesman_.

[Sidenote: Making Good Luck]

"Your Prospects," as the subject of this chapter, does not mean your fondest _hopes_, or confident _expectations_. We are studying the _ways to a.s.sure_ your success. If your prospects depended on mere happenings, they would be highly uncertain; because what you hope and expect may occur, may never take place in fact. The master salesman does not depend on such prospects. _He makes his own luck_ to a very large extent by skillful prospecting; as the trained prospector for gold tremendously increases his chances of discovering a rich lode by thoroughly and intelligently investigating a mining region. We are to consider now the prospects you are capable of _controlling_, the opportunities you can bring within reach by your own exploration of possible fields of success.

We will study _particular things you can do, and exactly how to do them_, to increase the number and quality of your chances to succeed. A trained prospector for gold has more chances to strike it rich than a greenhorn because he knows the indications of valuable minerals, and is skilled in the use of that knowledge. So your opportunities for success will certainly be increased if you know how to search for, to discern, and to make the right use of your prospects.