So it is with the principal emotional, ethical, and spiritual qualities of the master salesman. You have them all, elementally. Certainly you can develop any selected element to higher activity and use it to help you sell true ideas of your best capabilities.

Maybe you have fought long and vainly for self-confidence, for courage, for will power. Perhaps you have realized for years that you are slow in perception, and have struggled to make yourself take mental snap-shots of details and conditions. You have wished and willed and worked to be agreeable and courteous; yet perhaps you lose friends by your characteristic disagreeableness and lack of courtesy. If, in spite of all you so far have done to improve yourself, you have been unable to get rid of your faults and defects, you are apt to question the statement that you certainly can develop such qualities as you most desire.

[Sidenote: Decision Will Power Hard Work Insufficient]

No doubt you have decided, probably you have willed, very likely you have made a persistent struggle to change your characteristics. You honestly have tried hard to grow, and to increase your man capacity. Consequently your failure may have left you rather hopeless about ever succeeding as you once expected to succeed. Perhaps you have given up your case as "too tough a job." We will assume that you are not so young as you wish you were, and that you have committed to memory the fatalistic, hoary lie, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." But recall the fixed habit of bitterness the walnut had for centuries, the color and size of the natural calla, the sour taste of the little wild prune, which the plant wizard changed most radically without using any "wizardry" at all. He just applied scientific knowledge in his training of walnut trees and callas and prunes and other forms of vegetable life. Have you tried his method of development? Do you know exactly what he did?

If Luther Burbank had merely desired and willed that the walnut should give up its old bad habit, he never could have accomplished the job of development. He might have insisted persistently for a life-time that the little, sour, dry prune should become more luscious and larger than the plum; but it would have remained the same in size and other characteristics as it always had been, despite his continued determination. Desire, will, and persistence were but preliminary steps toward the complete accomplishment of his purpose with the prune.

[Sidenote: Luther Burbank's Method]

Burbank worked out in his mind and by actual experiments distinctive methods of development—development and changes along particular, definite lines. He selected for the prune he wanted to produce, (an imagined, ideal prune) certain desirable qualities of the plum—the best plum characteristics. He studied what produced these particular qualities in plums. Then with his exact, scientific knowledge of the similarity in nature of the plum and the prune, and his equally definite knowledge of the differences in their characteristics, supplemented by his knowledge of exactly what produced the difference in the two fruits, he started his experiments with natural prune trees.

He led specimens through a pre-determined scientific process of training. He succeeded in getting his experimental prune trees to develop discriminatively, almost as if they had the power of choice, particular plum qualities in preference to others. But the result was not a transformation of the prune trees into plum trees. The fruit of the tree he evolved was just a perfected prune. He simply developed all the capability the prune had originally to be like a plum in deliciousness.

[Sidenote: Natural Growth Without Struggle]

Note just here one very important feature of the Burbank method of plant development and change. It did not involve any struggle or hard work on the part of his trees. He merely provided natural, but scientifically selected conditions and food; knowing that his prunes then would grow naturally in the particular ways he wanted them to develop, and in no other ways at variance with his plan.

Perhaps the primary fault in your ineffective effort to develop yourself into the man you want to be, is that it has been a struggle. Natural growth always is easy. Growth involves a struggle only when one or more of the means of natural growth are lacking. Luther Burbank wished his prune trees to develop certain selected qualities of the plum. Therefore he provided his wild prunes with the same means he had used effectively with plums to increase their lusciousness. He knew these means should have a similar effect on prunes. When he had provided the natural means of discriminative development, he left the rest to the natural growth of his prune trees. They began to develop the selected plum qualities easily, and generation after generation became more and more like plums.

[Sidenote: Two Bases Of Growth Mind and Body]

Now let us consider briefly: first, the bases of natural, easy growth of selected man qualities; second, the processes that take place in the development of desired man qualities, some of which may not have seemed to exist previous to the evolutionary training; third, the training methods that should be employed to make these processes most effective and to produce the particular results wanted and no others.

There are two bases of development in every one—the inner and the outer man. The real himself is the inner man, which psychologists call the "Ego." But there is something else in the make-up of every man, his body. Each of us recognizes his body—not as himself, not as his ego—but as belonging to the real, or inner himself. A man thinks and says, "my body" just as he considers and refers to anything else that is his.

The discrimination between the two parts of "You" must be understood at the very start of your self-development. All your plans for the growth of the characteristics you need to assure your success should be based on comprehension of your duality. The two "You's" in yourself not only are distinctly different, but they are also very intimately related in all their functions. Neither your "ego" nor your body is independent of the other part of your duality. So, of course, both must co-operate fully in every process of your self-development; and your training methods should be planned for the bettered growth of your inner and outer man as a team.

[Sidenote: Team-work Processes]

You understand now that your growth should be on a dual basis; that you have two different men to develop, not just one; and that they must be handled discriminatively, but together.

Next it is necessary that you know in exactly what ways the activities of the mind man, or ego, are related to the activities of his body, or the physical man. Otherwise you cannot comprehend the team-work processes by which any desired qualities of manhood can be developed from their rudiments. Perhaps the reason you have not yet succeeded fully is that you have been a "one-horse" man and have not trained your dual self to be an effective mind-and-body team pulling together. It takes both mind and body to bring to market successfully all the "best capability" of a man.

[Sidenote: Training Methods]

Evidently, as a pre-requisite to self-development, one should have knowledge of the particular processes that result surely in natural, easy, rapid growth. Otherwise he would be more than likely to employ a wrong or only partly right method of training. So as a student of yourself you need to start with comprehension of your two bases of development, mind and body. It is necessary next that you acquire scientific knowledge of the distinct but related processes of developing your two selves severally to work together as a team. Then you must learn the particular methods of cooeperative mental and physical training that are most effective in accomplishing the man growth you desire.

[Sidenote: Neither Mind Nor Body A Unit]

Not only have you two selves, but neither "You" is a single unit. Your mind, as well as your body, is made up of distinctly different but very intimately related and associated parts. Your "mind" cannot be developed as a whole. Its parts must be severally bettered and strengthened in coordination, just as the physical man is developed by training his various muscles.

You know you have distinct sets of muscles which all together make up your composite body. Perhaps, however, you have not realized before that your mind is not a unit, but is made up of innumerable distinct "mind centers," each of which functions as independently of the others as your set of eye muscles operates independently of the set of muscles governing the movements of one of your fingers. And possibly you do not know that each mind center has a distinct brain center, which functions for that particular part alone of your whole mind. Each associated mind-and-brain center also has direct, distinct nerve connections with only one set of muscles.

In fact, you are "a many-minded, many-bodied" man—a collection of mental and physical parts, a composite man rather than a man unit. These several parts are in large measure practically independent of one another. One set of body parts "belongs to" only its particular associated set of mind parts, or mind center.

[Sidenote: Independent Mind and Body Centers]

If you were constituted otherwise, your life would be very precarious; for the injury or destruction of even a minor part of your body would be fatal to the whole unit. As it is, you can lose a finger without affecting your eye-sight in the least. So you might suffer a localized brain injury that would completely paralyze a finger, without impairing your sight at all. Either the mind center that governs a finger, or the set of muscles in that finger can be affected without necessarily reacting upon any other mind center or any other set of muscles.

[Sidenote: Interrelation Of the Ego And Physical Man]

But if the mind center that governs a certain set of muscles is affected, that set of muscles also is directly affected and at once. Likewise if anything happens to a particular set of muscles, the reaction is instantly transmitted to its associated mind center through the "direct wire" nerves and brain center which particularly serve that part of the mind.

Great scientists have studied mental and physical phenomena in inter-relation and have learned certain facts. For example, it is known that "the mind" not only affects the general functions of "the body," but also the rate of bodily activity and the chemistry of body tissues. Long-continued hard thinking actually does "wear a man out." It consumes blood and brain tissue. It "slows him up." It may impair his digestion and appetite. We all know these things, but the scientists know just why we feel physically tired after using only our minds.

They have learned also that every activity of the mind has a direct effect on the brain substance. That is, each mind operation through the brain changes its physical structure in some degree. Mental effort or relaxation increases or decreases the amount of blood in the brain. When you have been using your mind very hard, your head "feels heavy," and it is unusually heavy then on account of the extra amount of blood weight. Even the temperature of the brain, particularly of that portion of the brain which is especially functioning at a given moment, is changed with every mental effort.

[Sidenote: Slow Muscles Slow Mind]

There is abundant scientific proof that the quality and quantity of muscle, brain, and nerve (physical) activity in a particular individual are accompanied by corresponding qualities and quantities of mental activity. That is, when a person's muscle action, nerve response, and brain action are sluggish, his mind also develops a characteristic of slow action. And vice versa.

We say of a certain acquaintance that he has an alert mind. But his "ego," or mental self, could not act quickly and alertly if his brain, the physical instrument of his mind, did not receive and transmit impressions swiftly to his mentality. The brain does not think. It is as purely physical as any other part of the body. It just handles, or transmits in and out, to and from the mind, the various impressions sent in by different sense muscles, and the mental reflexes or impulses sent out by the innumerable mind centers. Your mind works through your brain. Of course, therefore, the quality and quantity of mental work you are capable of doing are limited by the degree of handling-or-transmitting efficiency characteristic of your particular brain structure.

[Sidenote: Value of Practical Psychology]

Any interference with the brain quality or quantity of an individual naturally interferes with his normal mental functioning. If a particular part of a man's brain is injured, the associated mind center is harmed likewise and his mental quality is affected in proportion. Should a certain portion of his brain be cut out, the total quantity of his mental powers would be correspondingly reduced. We all know these things about the brain and the mind. But only a few scientists are familiar with many details of the inter-relation of mind and brain and muscles, which should be known to all people who want to make the most of themselves. The salesman of himself needs to understand his "goods" thoroughly; so as we study the selling process that completes the secret of certain success, we dig into practical psychology a little way now in order to stimulate in you a desire for further exploration of that gold mine of opportunities.

[Sidenote: Physical Manifestations of Ideas]

The mind depends on the brain, in coordination with the nerves and muscles, to express thoughts. That is how your inner or "ego" sales-man gets his ideas out of your physical salesman, and shows them to the minds of prospective buyers. You can make another person conscious of your thoughts only by some perceptible physical manifestation of the idea you wish to convey to him. Evidently, then, in order to succeed in developing your big sales manhood and in making effective impressions of it on others, you must learn both how to think the ideas of big manhood into your own mind most effectively and how to show them outwardly with masterly skill. The first process is man development; the second is sales-man-ship, or manhood self-expression for the purpose of controlling the ideas of other men.

[Sidenote: Selling A Thought]

There is but one way to indicate or express what is going on in your mind. Your thoughts can be physically shown only by muscular action of some kind. Brain and nerve action are hidden, but muscle action can be perceived. If your muscular action expresses exactly the idea you desire and will and use it to manifest, your mind is able to get its thought across to another mind—to sell the idea.

Conversely, if your muscle action—your outer, perceptible self—expresses something different from your thought intention, your mind has failed to make the true impression of your idea. It may be that an impression directly contradictory to your thought has been made by your muscles working at cross purposes. So the truth in your mind won't get across to the other man's mind—not because your idea was untrue, but because it has not been physically interpreted by your muscles as you intended. For example, you might stand so much in awe of a man you greatly admire that you would avoid speaking to him, and in consequence would appear to him indifferent or cold. Your physical appearance would belie your intentions.

Perhaps, if you have failed in life or have only partially succeeded, despite the qualifications you possess for complete success, your muscles may be principally to blame. The parts of your idea-selling equipment that can be perceived in action probably have not "delivered the goods" of sale correctly.

[Sidenote: How Knowledge is Accumulated]

Not only is your mind absolutely dependent on the muscular system of your body for any true expression of the real you inside; it likewise must depend on the activity of your various sets of muscles to get all the incoming sense impressions that make up whatever knowledge you have.

Have you realized how your present fund of information was accumulated? Everything you know came into your conscious mind originally through impressions first made on your various "sense" muscles, and then transmitted by nerve telegraph to directly connected brain centers, which in turn passed on to their associated mind centers these original impressions of new ideas. Many repetitions of similar sense impressions were needed to register permanently in your mind your first conceptions of different colors, scents, etc. Thus you learned to think. The process was started—not by your mind—but by your various "sense" muscles. These received from your environment impressions of heat, cold, softness, hardness, etc., and passed them in to associated brain-mind centers, which thus commenced to collect knowledge about the world which you entered with a mind absolutely empty of ideas.

If a child might be born with a good brain, but with his general muscular system completely paralyzed, he could learn nothing at all regarding the world. He would have no conscious mind. No sense impression of smell, light, taste, sound, or feeling could be received by the brain of such a child; for no original perceptions of any kind could be taken in. He would be like a complete telegraph system with every branch office closed. No intelligence would be transmitted; since no message could be even filed for sending. Because of the paralysis of the sensory muscles, the child's conscious mind would remain blank.

[Sidenote: Each Mind-Center Must Be Developed Specifically]

Recall now that you have a multiplex, not a single brain. That is, your so-called "brain" is made up of innumerable, distinct "brain centers" which function quite independently of one another. No particular unit requires help from any of the others in order to do its especial work with full efficiency. Each center attends only to its specific business in your life. It rests, or relaxes from activity, when it has nothing to do; or when the particular muscles it governs are not in use. And, of course, when a certain brain center rests or is inactive, its associated mind center also rests or is inactive.

As already has been stated, the mind of a man is built up, through the brain instrument, by the sense impressions transmitted to his consciousness. In other words, all he knows with his mind first came into his mental capacity from outside impressions of things and ideas. The fewer the impressions that come into the mind through the brain, the less does a man know. And only the impressions that come into a particular mind center develop that center. (For example, the development of keenest eyesight by many optical impressions would not affect at all a man's ability to discriminate among the tones of music, would not give him "a good ear.")

[Sidenote: Weak or Undeveloped Centers]

It is evident, therefore, that if a particular brain center temporarily or permanently is deprived of right and sufficient exercise in transmitting sense impressions, its coordinated mind center will be stunted in its growth or starved for lack of mental food. This is why a man is awkward in using his native tongue when he returns to the country of his birth after a long residence among people of a different nation where that language was not spoken. But a little exercise of his brain in transmitting again the sound of his native tongue will quickly stimulate his mind with the renewed supply of this particular mental food to which it formerly was accustomed. In a few weeks he will use the old language naturally; whereas another man, who never had spoken it, would require years to build up such full knowledge from a start of complete ignorance of the language.

Evidently, too, a weak, undeveloped brain center would be incapable of receiving strong mental impulses from its coordinated mind center, and of transmitting them in full strength to the particular muscles governed by that mind center. This is why, if a man's brain center of courage is undeveloped, even the most courageous thoughts will not make his body act bravely. His legs may run away against his will to fight. The physical instrument of his mind (his brain), and also certain associated sets of muscles, must be sufficiently exercised in the action of courage to build up within him the physical structure of fearlessness that will be instantly responsive to a mental attitude of bravery.

[Sidenote: Right Exercise for Development]

If for any reason the brain instrument is weak or undeveloped, it can handle only weakly either in-coming messages to the ego from the senses, or out-going impulses from the mind to the muscles. So, because of this undeveloped brain instrument, the full capability of neither the inner nor the outer man can be built up and put to use. Obviously, therefore, if one is ambitious to succeed, he needs to know and to practice the coordinated mind-brain-muscle exercises that will increase the quantity and better the quality of his man capacity. Since he is a "many-minded, many-bodied" man, general physical and mental exercise will not develop the particular qualities required to assure his success. Each and every mind-brain-muscle set must be built up individually by specific exercises which strengthen that particular unit of the multiplex man. Then, of course, all his units should be taught to work together to make his success certain with his all-around capability fully developed and coordinated.

[Sidenote: The Discriminative-Restrictive Method]

Luther Burbank worked out "discriminative-restrictive" methods of growth that may be applied as successfully to men as to plants. He could not have built up the ability of a prune tree to produce delicious fruit if he had not fed into the tree structure, or instrument of production, a sufficient quantity and high quality of the particular plant foods of deliciousness. He restricted his experimental prune trees to the development of specific delicious qualities, by giving them no food except that discriminatively selected for his purpose. That is, he made them develop in one way and in one way only, when he was making a particular test.

Similarly, as has been stated before, you can develop the specific man qualities you need to succeed. You must feed to a particular mind center, through the related brain center, selected sense impressions. These can come only from the coordinated set of muscles governed by that mind-brain center. Then you should exercise the specific brain center and set of muscles in the production of mental reflexes, or the mind fruit. Acts of courage, for example, are the fruit of brave thoughts.

[Sidenote: Brain Development]

A particular brain center, of course, will be strengthened both by the food of sense impressions it is given, and by the exercise of handling messages to and from the mind. The brain, or physical instrument of the mind, is like an intermediary or go-between of the ego and the body. It is of the utmost importance that it should do its work efficiently. Otherwise the full capability of neither the outer nor the inner man can be utilized.

If Brown passes something to Jones, who passes it along to Smith; then Smith passes it back to Jones to be re-passed to Brown—Jones, the middle agent of transmission or handling instrument, whom we are comparing to the brain, might be so awkward, slow, and inefficient as a go-between that the possible ability of Brown and Smith in passing would be nullified or greatly hampered. But if the inefficiency of Jones is blamable to his inexperience, it evidently can be changed to efficiency by sufficient right exercise in passing. The more of that sort of work he does, in either direction, the better passer will Jones become.

His exercise, however, must be in passing things, if passing capability is to be developed. He would not become a better and quicker passer by any amount of exercise in taking things apart, or in inspecting things—wholly dissimilar functions.

[Sidenote: Training in Passing]

Moreover, Jones would not become an expert passer of glassware as a result of practice in passing bricks, for the two kinds of things are not handled alike. Indeed, the man accustomed to passing bricks might be more likely to break glassware than another man who previously had no particular skill in passing anything. The expert brick-passer would be apt to forget sometimes that he was passing glass. His muscles might treat the fragile ware with the rough habit acquired in passing bricks.

Plainly, discriminative-restrictive methods of training are required to perfect capability in any particular kind of physical passing; however much skill in general passing may have been developed. If Jones should become expert in passing pails of liquid, he would nevertheless need to train himself anew in order to pass frozen liquid efficiently in the form of cakes of ice. And, to particularize still more, it would be necessary for him to learn how to pass different liquids. Water and thick molasses in pails should not be handled alike.

Similarly the various brain centers, as passers of different sense impressions and mental reflexes in and out, require, each of them—like Jones—the specific exercises that will develop their several particular abilities. The individual brain unit (as of courage, memory, judgment, etc.) is strengthened only by handling the in and out business of its coordinated muscles and mind center. Also, while a particular set of muscles and coordinate mind center are strengthening their brain center by the exercise they give it, they are both being developed by the same exercise of passing along sense impressions and thoughts to each other through the brain—like Smith and Brown.

[Sidenote: The Process Of Growth]

Returning to the comparison of Burbank's methods with man development, we perceive again how the principle of discriminative-selective training is applied to accomplish the growth of certain characteristics needed to assure a man's success. The plant wizard in his initial tests gave to his undeveloped prune trees particular food and conditions and treatment selected for the purpose of imparting specific qualities of deliciousness. A prune somewhat improved in deliciousness was the first result. Then from the product of that improved prune he started another cycle of development. He fed the selected food of deliciousness to the improved prune tree, and a fruit more delicious resulted. His work was simply plant breeding by the discriminative-restrictive method. Brain breeding is a similar process of particularized, cumulative development.

[Sidenote: Begin With Specific Training of The Outer Man]

All the foregoing rather complicated explanation of "psychological processes" has seemed necessary to make a clear impression of the right training methods for building within you any quality you need to assure your success. You must begin by training your outer man.

You can develop a particular mind-brain center (such as the center of courage) only by the discriminative-restrictive training of those portions of your body which are directly related in activity and responsiveness to that mind-brain unit of the multiplex YOU. Training of any other set of muscles will not develop the particular mind-brain center you want to build up, and would be a wrong procedure.

You should begin with specific training of particular sets of sensory muscles because, as we have seen, that is the natural order of the process of growth. It is how you began to learn everything you know. You can increase and improve your present limited, conscious knowledge most effectively by taking into your mind from your trained particular senses more and better impressions than you ever have taken in before.

[Sidenote: Developing Persistence]

Suppose your success has been hindered by your lack of persistence. You need to develop that quality in particular. Let us see how the discriminative-restrictive principle should be applied specifically to assure you of building persistence within yourself.

First it is necessary that you discriminate between this one quality and all others; especially between it and the quality of determination. Very different training methods are required to develop persistence and determination respectively. When you are just "determined" to do a thing, your jaw muscles, your arm and back muscles, perhaps all your commonly known muscles, will be hardened as long as you remain determined, but no longer. They will relax when the occasion for determination has passed. The habit of instantly tensing your muscles temporarily whenever you need to be determined will very greatly strengthen and improve the efficiency of your brain-mind center of determination. But that temporary hardening of your muscles will only slightly affect the development in you of characteristic persistence.

[Sidenote: Developing Determination]

Hence the training of your muscles for building the habit of determination within you should be concentrated on exercise in changing swiftly from comparative laxity to muscular tension. That is, in order to accustom your mind to hardening with determined thoughts whenever determination is needed, you should train your muscles to harden in coordination, and thus to support your mental determination by the complementary physical suggestion of the same quality.

You do not need to use determination all the time; so it will be sufficient if your muscles are taught to be quickly responsive to determination of mind on any occasion. (You know it helps you to carry out a resolution if you stiffen your body at the moment you make up your mind to do a thing, but continued stiffness of the body in determination would be a strain likely to weaken your power of action unless backed by a tremendous, stored-up reserve strength of muscles.) Begin your practice for the development of determination, then, by training your muscles to tauten the instant you think determinedly. Your brain-mind center of determination will also be strengthened by the exercise that builds up the supporting habit of muscle action in coordination. Millions of men have failed in life because their determined thoughts were not reenforced by stiffened backbones.

[Sidenote: Discrimination Between Determination and Persistence]

Now let us discriminate between muscle training to develop the characteristic of persistence and the training already described for the building of determination. In order to strengthen your persistence, you must transmit through the distinct brain center of persistence to the corresponding mind center, the impression of muscles permanently developed in firmness, not just capable of temporary hardening on occasion.

The characteristically persistent man has gradually developed his lax-muscled, sagging, baby chin into a jaw that is habitually firm, whether or not he happens to be determined to do anything at a given moment. His muscles do not sag utterly, even when he is asleep. He probably wakes up in the morning with his teeth clenched. So, whenever his coordinated brain-mind center perceives that the quality of persistence is required, and starts to apply it, the mental impulse to persist is backed by a permanent firm muscle structure that can stand up as long as the mind needs the physical support.

[Sidenote: A Slump in Determination]

In contrast, the man who is only characteristically determined, but who lacks persistence in his determination, has developed just the habit of hardening his muscles for the time he is determined on doing a particular thing. That does not exercise his muscles sufficiently to make them firm all the time, whether under tension or not. Consequently his determination is likely to slump if his resolution is subjected to a long strain. He does not possess muscular structure sufficiently strong to support persistence in his determination.

Habitual lack of firmness in the jaw muscles, as you know, results in a sagging chin; which detrimentally affects the brain-mind center of persistence. A man whose jaw habitually hangs loose may be capable of great determination for a while, but he is not persistent in character. He might clench his teeth, stiffen his body, and plunge into the surf to rescue a drowning person; but his first resolution to effect the rescue would be weakened by the cold water and by fear. He lacks the quality of the bulldog that will die rather than loose its teeth from another dog's throat.

[Sidenote: Muscles Express and Impress Ideas]

The coordinated muscles express the mental attitude, as we have perceived; and equally they impress the mind with their attitude. If you have a sagging chin, you are incapable of the mental bulldog grip of persistence. So tighten up your jaw muscles, and never let them hang utterly loose, if you are resolved to develop the characteristic of "stick-to-it-iveness." Begin with muscle training, for your muscles must be utilized to start the process of building up your brain-mind center of persistence.

[Sidenote: Developing Perception]

When you train the particular sense muscles that transmit external impressions to a particular brain-mind unit (the same muscles that reflexively express the ideas of that one part of your multiplex ego) you may be absolutely sure of developing a particular related characteristic. For example, if you want to sharpen your perceptive faculties so that you will see with the eyes of your mind much more than the ordinary man perceives, exercise your physical eyes in taking snap-shots that you can see clearly in detail with your imagination when you look away from an object after a glance at it. Try glancing at the furnishings of your room, then shut your eyes and construct a mental picture. When this is definitely clear to you, open your eyes. The reality will be very different from your imagined picture. But sharpen your perceptive faculties, develop a "camera eye;" then the reality will be exactly impressed on your mind. Witnesses in court often contradict one another, in all honesty, simply because their ability to perceive actualities is not highly developed. In consequence, they get false mental impressions of happenings or things they severally have seen.

[Sidenote: Three Processes Of Mental Development]

There are but three processes of mental development:

The first process comprises getting information from a sense to its associated brain center, which then makes the mind center conscious that particular information has been transmitted to it.

The second process is organizing the information in the mind center, with relation to other information previously brought to the mind.

In the third process the mind center directs its co-related brain center to send out certain impulses of action to the corresponding muscular structure.

Let us analyze an illustration of these three processes of mental development. Suppose first you hear something that concerns a particular prospect for your "goods of sale." Second, you comprehend the significance to you of what you have heard. Third, your mind directs your muscles to make a particular use of what you have comprehended. The original mental impression has been fully developed because you employed all three processes. If you had not completed the cycle of development, you would have given your mind only partial exercise with what you heard.

In order to become a master salesman, you must take in many impressions, perceive their significance to you and how you can make use of them, then act on your comprehension of what you have learned. There are countless failures in the world who might have been successes if they had not stopped their possible mental development at the first or second stages.

A man might know an encyclopedia of facts, but be a failure.

He might comprehend how to use his knowledge, and still be a failure.

Success comes only to the man who acts most effectively on what he knows.

[Sidenote: Right Practice Of the Three Processes]

In order to secure quick and effective results, the practice of the three necessary processes of development should be:

First, definitely conscious. You need to know just what quality you want to develop in yourself.

Second, discriminative. You must learn the differences between what you want, and what you don't want to develop in particular.

Third, restrictive. It is necessary that in your training to develop a certain quality, you concentrate your practice on the respects in which this particular quality differs from other qualities.

Most of us are pretty definitely conscious of what we want. We know just the qualities we would like to have. But very few people employ most effectively the discriminative-restrictive methods of training in their processes of development.

[Sidenote: Importance of Differentiation]

It is impossible to develop a particular quality fully if you only recognize its likenesses to other qualities. Real mental development is accomplished only as a result of the recognition of differences. After studying twins for a year, you still might be unable to tell them apart if you were impressed solely with their remarkable similarity to each other. Another man, with a mind discriminatively and restrictively trained to recognize differences, would learn in five minutes to distinguish the individualities of the twins.

Almost phenomenal development can be attained by use of the discriminative-restrictive training method. The minutest distinctions can be perceived if one concentrates his practice for mental growth on the recognition of differences only. Individuals who have lost one or more senses become extraordinarily adept in detecting contrasts with their other senses. A normal man, possessed of all his senses, is capable of even greater development of his powers of differentiation.

You know how remarkably a blind man learns to "see" with his fingers and ears. But need you lose the sense of sight before you can comprehend the lesson of his example to you? You realize that you appear to lack many essential qualities of success. Know now that these are all merely dormant in you. They can be awakened and developed to an extraordinary degree if you train yourself consciously in the discriminative-restrictive use of all your sense tools. You would do it if you were blind. It certainly should be much easier to accomplish the desired transformation with your eyes open to aid your other senses.

[Sidenote: Whatever You Lack Now You Can Develop]

The significance of all this is that you need not be permanently handicapped in your sales-man-ship by any present lack of particular qualifications for success. It makes no difference what you happen to be short of now. By properly coordinating your brain-mind-muscle sets or centers, and by using all three in the processes of your development, you can make yourself over almost miraculously. Will power, courage, exact and wise judgment, persistence, patience, rapid thinking, constructive imagination—any and all qualities you want CAN be developed in you, even though they now seem not to exist.

Your development is limited only by the practically limitless number of unawakened cells in your brain. Most of your potential mind centers are asleep yet. You can wake up the slumberers with your various sense muscles, and vigorously exercise them into activity for your success. You have been handicapped because you have been carrying so many "dead-heads" that ought to be working or paying their way.

Remember that growth of any brain-mind center can be begun and continued only by the exercise of the coordinated set of sense muscles in transmitting impressions from outside yourself and in expressing your thoughts.

[Sidenote: Your Limitless Brain Capacity]

The number of cells in the human brain has been estimated at from six hundred millions to two billions. The greatest genius who ever lived doubtless had scores of millions of brain cells that remained more or less idle, if not sound asleep, all his life. Nature has furnished you with a plentiful surplus of grey matter in your head. Do not be afraid that you will exhaust or tire out your brains by your self-development. Put into your work all the brains you can waken with your various senses. And keep the alarm clocks wound up.

William James, the great psychologist, wrote, "Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped; our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. There are in every one potential forms of activity that actually are shunted from use. Part of the imperfect vitality under which we labor can thus be easily explained. One part of our mind dams up—even damns up—the other part."

[Sidenote: Growth Can Be Assured And Success Made Certain]

Can you become a big sales MAN? Of course! You have all the necessary tools to make yourself over in any way you will—your muscles, nerves, brain, and mind. Use them cooperatively, as they were meant to be used, in their respective sets—not as if you were a mental-physical unit. To develop your sales manhood you need only to apply real thinking in the processes of your daily life. Study out the reasons and effects of all your acts and expressions. Your experimental psychological laboratory should be yourself, undergoing at your hands the transformation from what you are to what it is possible for you to become. Begin making your man-stuff over. Each successive step will be easier to take. Your growth, when you employ the right processes and methods, is certain. Therefore your success in making yourself a big sales man can be assured.



CHAPTER III

Skill In Selling Your Best Self

[Sidenote: Practice Of the Art]

If you have developed real capability and first-class manhood, you have "the goods" that are always salable. But you realize now that the mere possession of these basic qualifications for success will not insure you against failure in life. You cannot be certain of succeeding unless you know how to sell true ideas of your best self in the right market or field of service, and until you develop sales skill by continual correct practice.

We will assume that you have had little or no selling experience. You are conscious that you entirely lack sales art. Therefore, though in other ways you feel qualified to succeed in life, you may be dubious about your future. Perhaps you realize that skill in selling true ideas of your best capabilities is all you need to make your success certain. But you question, "Can I be sure of becoming a skillful salesman of myself?" You have no doubt of your ability to learn the selling process, but very likely you do not believe you ever could practice it with the art of a master salesman. Consequently you are not yet convinced of the certainty of your success.

[Sidenote: Success Proportionate To Sales Skill]

Of course success cannot be absolutely assured in advance unless every element of the secret we have analyzed can be mastered. Hence it is necessary that you now be shown certain ways to sell ideas—ways that cannot fail, that are adaptable to the sale of any right "goods," and that you surely can master. You need to feel absolutely confident that if you follow specific principles and use particular methods, you can impress on any other man true ideas of your best capabilities. When you become skillful in making good impressions, you certainly will be able to sell yourself into such chances to succeed as fit your individual qualifications.

Your success with the best that is in you can be made directly proportionate to your skill as a salesman of "your goods." Mastery of the art of selling will enable you to cut down to the minimum the possibilities of failure in whatever you undertake. Remember that success does not demand perfection. There never was a 100% salesman. To be a success, you need only make a good batting average in your opportunities to sell. It is not necessary to hit 1000 to be a champion batsman in the game of life. Ty Cobb led his league a dozen years with an average under .400.

[Sidenote: Technique And Tools]

The foundation of sales art is knowledge of selling technique. So the first step in the process of developing your skill as a salesman of yourself is the study of the right tools for making impressions of "true ideas of your best capabilities." You must know, also, the scientific rules that govern the most effective use of these right tools. Technique, however, is only the basic element of salesmanship. On the foundation of your sales knowledge it is necessary to build sales skill that will completely cover up your technique. Your perfected sales art should seem, and really be second nature to you.

Your salesmanship probably will be crude until you overcome the awkwardness of handling unfamiliar tools, or familiar tools in ways that are new to you. But "practice makes perfect." The use of the right technique in selling true ideas about your best self will soon become natural.

[Sidenote: Making Success Easy]

The skillful sale of ideas is accomplished without waste of time or energy in the selling process. The unskillful, would-be salesman not only fritters away his own time and effort, he also wastes the patience and power of the man to whom he wants to sell his "goods." The sales artist, however, gets his ideas into the mind of a prospect quickly, with the least possible wear and tear on either party to the sale. No one appreciates a fine salesman so thoroughly as the best buyer. Skill in selling true ideas about your particular qualifications will not only assure your success, but will make it easy for you to succeed.

[Sidenote: Docking Your Sales-man-ship]

The skillful salesman is the captain of his own sales-man-ship. But in order to make certain of landing his cargo of right impressions he takes aboard the pilot Science to begin with, and then concentrates on four factors of the art of selling ideas:

First, discovering and traversing the best channel into the prospect's mind;

Second, locating the particular point of interest upon which the salesman's cargo can be most effectively unloaded;

Third, maneuvering alongside this center of the buyer's interest;

Fourth, securely tying to the interest pier so that the shipload of ideas may be fully discharged.

The primary aim of the skillful salesman when making port is to get safely to the right landing place as soon as possible and with the least danger of failure in his ultimate purpose of completing the sale. At this initial stage of the selling process, however, he concentrates his thoughts on the skillful docking of his sales-man-ship. The nature of the cargo a sailor ship captain brings to port has little or nothing to do with the art of reaching and tying up to the pier. Similarly, whatever his "goods of sale," the skillful salesman uses the same principles and methods to dock his salesman-shipload of ideas most effectively in the harbor of the prospect's mind. So the art you are studying is standardized. When you master it, you can apply it successfully to the sale of your best self or any other "goods of sale."

[Sidenote: Reasoning And Argument Are Wrong]

Before considering the methods of selling that are most effective, it will be well to get rid of a mistaken idea that is all too common. A great many people regard reasoning power, or the force of pure logic, as an important selling tool. There are so-called salesmen who attempt to "argue" prospects into buying. Unthinking sales executives sometimes instruct their representatives to employ certain "selling arguments." But the methods and language of the debater have no place in the repertory of a truly artistic salesman or sales manager.

One debater never convinces the other. At best he only can defeat his antagonist. In a skillfully finished sale, however, there should be neither victor nor vanquished. The selling process is not a battle of minds. There is no room in it for any spirit of antagonism on the part of the salesman. So in your self-training to sell true ideas of your best capabilities, do not emphasize especially the value of logic and reasoning. If you use them at all in selling yourself, disguise their character most skillfully. Never suggest that you are debating or arguing your qualifications with prospective buyers of your mental or physical capacity for service. You cannot browbeat your way into opportunities to succeed.

Most employers buy the expected services of men and women in order to satisfy their own desires for particular capabilities. Few will buy against their wishes. In order to sell your qualifications with certain success, you first must make the other man genuinely want what you offer. Almost always mind vision and heart hunger must be stimulated to produce desire. Therefore the most skillful salesman of himself does not use the words, tones, and actions of argument. In preference to cold reason and logic he employs the arts of mental suggestion and emotional persuasion.

[Sidenote: The Force of Suggestion]

Suggestion is especially effective in producing desire; because an idea that is merely suggested, and not stated, is unlikely to provoke antagonism or resistance. A suggestion is given ready access to the mind of the other man. Usually it gets in without his realizing that a strange thought has entered his head from outside. When he becomes conscious of the presence in his mind of an idea that has been only suggested to him, he is apt to treat it as one of his own family of ideas and not as an intruder. Naturally he is little inclined to oppose a desire that he thinks is prompted by his own thoughts. However, he would be disposed to resist the same wish if he realized it had been injected into his consciousness.

All of us know the great force of suggestion; but there are very few people who so use words, tones, and movements as to make the most of their power of suggesting ideas in preference to stating them. Probably no tool of salesmanship will be of more help in assuring your success than fully developed ability in suggestion, which is the skillful process of getting your ideas into the minds of others unawares.

[Sidenote: Words Are Doubted]

The words we use are intended to convey pretty definite meanings to listeners. If we are entirely honest in our words, we expect whatever we say to be taken at its face value as the truth. Yet each of us knows that his own mind seldom accepts without question the statements of other men, however well informed and honest they are reputed to be. You and I mentally reserve the right to believe or to doubt the written or spoken words of someone else; because they always enter our minds consciously. We know that the words we hear or read come from outside ourselves.

The skillful salesman proceeds on the assumption that his words will be stopped at the door of the prospect's mind and examined with more or less suspicion of their sincerity and truth. Therefore the selling artist employs words principally for one purpose—to communicate to the other man information about such facts as cannot be introduced to his consciousness otherwise. Some facts can be told only in words. But a master of the selling process uses as few words as possible to convey his meaning. He depends on his suggestive tones more than on what he says. He reenforces his speech with accompanying movements and muscular expressions, to get into the mind of the other man by suggestive action the true ideas behind the words used.

Similarly when you bring your full capability to the market of your choice, you should not rely upon a mere declaration of your qualifications; and upon word proof, written or spoken, that you are the man for the job. Your words are unlikely to be taken at their face value. Any claims you have a right to make will be discounted heavily if you say very much about your own ability. You run the risk of being judged a braggart and egotist when you talk up your good points; though you may be telling no more than the plain truth.

[Sidenote: Tones and Acts Are Believed]

However, if your tones of sincerity and self-confidence denote really big manhood; and if your every act and expression indicate to a prospective employer that you are entirely capable of filling the job for which you apply, he probably will consider himself very shrewd in sizing you up. Really you have suggested to him every idea he has about you, but he will think he has found in you the very qualifications he desires in an employee. You can do more to sell yourself by the way you walk into a man's office than you could accomplish by bringing him the finest letters of introduction or by "giving him the smoothest line of talk about yourself." He is able to read the principal characteristics of the real You in your poise and movements and in the manner of your speech. He will believe absolutely any characteristic he himself finds in you. What you say to him may have little real influence on his judgment of you. But be sure that he will note how you speak; and will make up his mind about you from your tones and actions, rather than from your words. He will think the ideas you suggest to him are his own original discoveries.

[Sidenote: Suggestion By Tones And Acts]

Evidently, before you attempt to achieve success, it is very important that you study the art of suggestion by tones and actions. When you know the principles, you should practice this art until you make yourself a master of skillful suggestion.

You need to know precisely the effects of tone variations, the exact significance of the various tones you can use. It is necessary also for you to comprehend not only that "Every little movement has a meaning all its own," but just what that meaning is. When you are equipped with thorough knowledge of how to suggest particular ideas through tones and motions, you should practice using the principles and methods of suggestive expression you have learned, until it becomes second nature always to speak and act with selling art. Then you will be a skillful salesman, sure of your power to sell true ideas of your best capability wherever you are. Your success will have been made certain through your sales art built on the foundation of your sales knowledge by your fully developed sales manhood.

[Sidenote: Discriminative Selective Method]

Your increased selling skill will result naturally, just as we have seen that you will grow naturally in sales manhood, if you employ the discriminative-selective method when training your human nature in the art of suggesting your best self. You need first to recognize the exact differences of significance among the various tones and movements at your command. Then your self-training in suggestive expression should be concentrated on the particular ways of speaking and acting that will best demonstrate your qualifications for success. Of course it is equally important to eliminate all tones and movements that might suggest unfavorable ideas about you. To make sure of your success, be certain that everything you do and say tells "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" about your capabilities. It is necessary to make sure no word, tone, or movement carries the least suggestion that might possibly leave a false impression of the real You.

Let us make a brief analysis now of words, tones, and acts—the three means of suggestive expression which are the natural equipment of every man for conveying his ideas to the minds of others. You cannot employ the discriminative-restrictive method to develop your selling skill unless you know very definitely just what your different tools of expression are, and the almost infinite variety of uses to which they can be put.

[Sidenote: Four Rules About Words]

For the reasons already explained, words are of much less value than tones and movements in suggesting ideas the other man will admit to his mind unawares. But the sales efficiency of words can be very much increased if they are chosen with intelligent discrimination, and if the choice is restricted to words that have four qualifications.

First, they should be common words.

Second, short words are more forceful than long words.

Third, words of definite meanings are preferable to mere generalizations.

Fourth, words that make vivid impressions are most effective in suggesting ideas.

[Sidenote: Common Words]

When you employ words to sell true ideas of your best capability, choose words that everybody understands. Do not "air your knowledge" in uncommon language. Unless you are seeking a position as a philologist in a college, restrict yourself to every-day common speech when selling your personal qualifications. An important element in the skillful sale of ideas is making them as easy as possible for the other man to comprehend. If you use unfamiliar words, it sometimes will be hard for him to understand what you mean. The truly artistic salesman avoids introducing any unnecessary element of difficulty into the selling process. So you should discriminate against all unusual expressions and restrict yourself to the common words that are easy for any man to comprehend.

[Sidenote: Short Words]

A long word or phrase may convey your idea clearly, but force is lost in the drawn-out process. Remember that your words will meet the intuitive resistance of the other man's mind before they are admitted to his full belief. You cannot afford to sacrifice the driving-in power of the short word. Therefore, when your opinion is asked, it will be better salesmanship to say, "I think" so and so than "It is my impression—"

[Sidenote: Definite Words]

The definite word conveys a particular meaning to the mind of the other man, not merely a vague or general idea. Never say, when you apply for a position, "I can do anything." That tells the prospective employer simply nothing about your ability. Particularize.

[Sidenote: Vivid Words]

It is of the utmost importance to make vivid impressions with your speech. You should employ words skillfully to produce in the mind of the other man distinct and lifelike mental images. He may not credit the words themselves, taken literally and alone. But he will believe in the pictures the words paint in his mind; because he will think he himself is the mental artist. He will not be suspicious of his own work. If you apply for a situation in a bank, and the cashier seeks to learn whether or not you are safely conservative in your views, you can suggest in vivid words that you have the qualification he requires. You will make the desired impression if you say to him, "I always carry an umbrella when it looks like rain."

[Sidenote: Tone Meanings]

Our analysis of the three means of self-expression turns now to tones. Rightly selected words are tremendously augmented in selling power when they are rightly spoken. Most men employ but a small part of their complete tonal equipment, and are ignorant of the full sales value of the portion they use. The master salesman, however, practices the gamut of his natural tones, and utilizes each to produce particular effects. Thus he supplements his mere statements with suggestive shades of meaning. The way he says a thing has more effect than the words themselves.

Conversely tone faults may have a disastrous effect on one's chances to succeed. For illustration, ideas of mind, of feeling, and of power can be correctly expressed by the discriminative use of particular pitches of tone. But a wrong pitch, though the words employed might be identical, would convey a directly opposite and false impression.

[Sidenote: Mental Pitch]

Suppose you are appealing only to the mind of your prospective employer—as when you quote figures to him—you should restrict your tone temporarily to the mental pitch. You are just conveying facts now. Therefore the "matter-of-fact" tone best suits the ideas expressed. Since it fits what you are saying, the way you speak impresses the other man with the suggestion that your tone and words are consistent. Therefore his mind has no inclination to resist the mental pitch on this occasion. He admits your figures to his conscious belief more readily than he would credit them if spoken in an emotive or power tone. Such tone pitches would strike him as out of place in a mere statement of fact.

[Sidenote: Tone Faults]

If your prospective employer asks how old you are, and how many years of experience you have had, and you reply in a tone vibrant with emotion or in a deep tone of sternness, the wrong pitch certainly will make a bad impression on him. By employing an inconsistent pitch when stating facts, you might "queer" your chances for the position you most desire. The tone fault in your salesmanship would lie about your real character. The man addressed would think you were foolish to use such a pitch in merely imparting a bit of information to his mind. He would expect you to employ for that purpose simply a head tone, not a chest tone nor an abdominal tone. The head tone, when used to convey matters of fact, aids in convincing the mind of the other man because it is the pitch that fits bare facts—the tone of pure mentality.

[Sidenote: When Mental Tone Should Be Used]

This mental, or head tone, is most effective in gaining attention, in conveying information, in arousing the perceptive faculties of another mind. Restrict its use to these purposes only. The mental tone is not pleasing to the ear. It is pitched high. It suggests arguments and disputes. It is the provocative tone of quarrels. So it should be employed most carefully, with every precaution against giving offense by its insistence.

Avoid its use for long at a time. Its very monotony is apt to irritate. The high pitch suggests a mental challenge to the mind of the other man, and hence arouses his mental tendency to opposition. The unskillful over-use of head tones may ruin a salesman's best opportunity to gain a coveted object.

There are times, however, when it is necessary that you should insist—briefly. If you do so artistically, and do not persist in the high, mental, rasping tone; but change to the lower, emotive, chest tone very soon after your insistence on the other man's attention, you will not hurt your chances. It is the continued use of the head tone that is to be avoided.

[Sidenote: Emotive Pitch]

The emotive (chest or heart) pitch dissipates opposition as naturally as the mind tone provokes a quarrel. Even a hot argument can be ended without any lasting ill-feeling if the disputants conclude with hearty expressions of good will for one another. The same words spoken in head tones would increase the antagonism by suggesting sarcasm or insincerity. The resonant chest tone suggests that it comes from the speaker's heart. The hearer's heart makes his mind believe the heart message conveyed by the emotional pitch of the other man's voice.

Therefore if you want your ideas to penetrate a man's heart, don't aim your tone high at his head. Lower it to the pitch of true friendliness, of comradeship, of human brotherhood. Aim at his breast with your breast tone. Do not fawn or plead, however, when selling ideas of yourself. You can persuade best by suggesting that you have brought all your manhood to render the other man a real service. This suggestion will induce a feeling of respect for you, which will certainly be followed by willingness of the prospect to let you show him you are able "to deliver the goods."

[Sidenote: Danger of Over-using Head Tone]

Some people suggest by the over-use of head tones that they depend altogether on what they know to achieve success. They make the impression that they expect their high degree of mentality to open chances for them to succeed. "They know they know" their business; so when they secure opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities, they emphasize too much what they know. They are apt to use the mental tone continually. Perhaps the prospective employer needs a man of exactly such knowledge as is possessed by the candidate he is interviewing. But if when presenting his qualifications the applicant rasps the ears of his hearer for a long time with high-pitched head tones, the listener intuitively becomes prejudiced. He is impressed with the suggestion that the speaker is a "know-it-all" fellow. The employer is likely to turn down his application because of the unskilled tone pitch in which it is made.

[Sidenote: Sing-Song Parrot Talk]

When a man has talked glibly and fast about superior qualifications he knows he possesses, it dazes him if his exceptional capabilities fail to win him the job for which he is particularly fitted. He cannot comprehend why another applicant who plainly is not so well qualified should be chosen. But his voice has suggested to the employer that everything he said was just "parrot talk." Thousands of bright "parrots" remain failures all their lives for no other reason than their utter inability to get inside the hearts of other men. The ordinary canvasser who trudges from house to house with his "sing-song" patter has grown into the bad habit of using head tones almost exclusively. As a natural reflex of the unpleasant impression he makes with his voice, it is a common experience to have a door slammed in his face.

[Sidenote: Getting Around Mental Barrier]

The master salesman comprehends that the mentality of a prospect is a barrier to his emotional expression. That is, the mind is an alert sentinel on guard to protect the heart from its own impulses to unthinking action. So the skillful salesman when making his "approach" goes around the mind side of the prospect to the emotional side, where there is no hostile guard. He knows that "the hearts of all men are akin," and that "the hardest heart has soft spots." He realizes it is bad salesmanship to challenge the sentinel mind of the prospect in a mental tone. So the salesman artist makes his tone resonant with chest vibrations that stimulate the direct response of the other man's heart. He works at first to draw out fellow feeling, not to drive his ideas into the head of the prospect.

[Sidenote: Talking Like a Brother]

The mere presentation of thoughts, or mental pictures of goods, is not enough to induce a prospect to buy. The master salesman comprehends that he has to deal with the dual personality of the individual he plans to sell. Therefore from the very beginning of his interview he works to open the mind of the other man by first establishing a unity of human feeling between his own heart and the heart of his prospect. He uses the emotive tone. He "talks like a brother." Of course he is careful not to exaggerate this show of fellow feeling. He uses a "hearty" tone without appearing in the least degree hypocritical. When their hearts are in accord, the other man is prepared to agree mentally with the salesman.

[Sidenote: Power Pitch]

The third pitch of your voice as a salesman is the power tone. It can be used skillfully to suggest that you have the force required to succeed. It is the pitch that comes from deep down and that calls into play the powerful abdominal muscles. It is not necessarily a loud tone, however. Often it is low, with a suggestion of immense reserve strength behind it. With the power pitch you can command in a simple request which, spoken in a higher tone, might be refused because it would lack the suggestion of force. In order to succeed, you sometimes must employ power. When a situation requires a demonstration of your strong personality, augment the force of your words and acts by using the tone pitch that suggests the power of the big muscles of your waist.

[Sidenote: When to Use Power Tone]

Employ the emotive tone to convey ideas of your truthfulness and honor. Show your courtesy and kindness with the heart pitch; use it to manifest your real desire to be of service to your prospect. But suggest your solidity and capacity for good judgment by employing the pitch of power. With its aid you can convince your prospect of the enduring quality of your best characteristics; you can deny disparagement or doubt of your ability; you will be able to brush aside unfounded objections; you can compel respect.

[Sidenote: Tone Units]

The discriminative use of various units of tone is as helpful in making suggestive impressions as is the employment of character pitches. The one-tone voice does not augment the force of words. "Yes" said with but one tonal unit is not nearly so powerful as "Y-es" in two tones, the second pitched low. A two-tone "Y-es" with the second unit high-pitched suggests the very opposite of plain "Yes." It implies "No," or a question instead of an affirmation. Sometimes it is advisable to suggest "No" when the word itself if spoken bluntly would give offense. You can convey the idea of skepticism or denial by using two tone units skillfully pitched in saying "Y-es."

While you ordinarily can double the effectiveness of your tone by using two units, and you may treble the effect if you employ three (as in the exclamation A-ha-a!), if you attempted to use more than three units of tone in any ordinary circumstances you would be likely to appear odd or fantastic, if not foolish. So be careful not to over-do the employment of multiple tone units to stress your meaning.

[Sidenote: Placing Tones]

There is selling value, too, in the placing of tones in your mouth. A tone placed far forward indicates lack of thought and instability. It is the tone we associate with "lip judgments." On the contrary, hidden thoughts, unwillingness to tell all you know, are suggested by tones placed far back in your mouth. The middle-of-the-mouth tone makes the impression that the voice is properly balanced, and suggests the associated idea of mind balance. Avoid the extremes in placing your tones, if you would make certain of the most effective use of your voice in selling ideas. Convince and persuade by employing the secure, trustworthy tone of the "happy medium."

[Sidenote: Bad Habits]

Undoubtedly you have little bad habits that tell lies about you—habits in the use of words, habits of tone, and especially habits of action. When you fully understand the significance of what you say, and of how you say it, and of the things you do—the effects produced on other men—you will start changing your bad characteristics into good factors that will certainly help you to succeed. So study yourself most carefully, in order to learn what your habits are, and their meanings.

[Sidenote: Significance Of Movements]

Ordinarily a man is conscious of his words and tones, but he often does things unconsciously. Probably you realize only vaguely or not at all just what your various actions suggest to people who observe you. Therefore it is of the greatest importance that you study the significance of discriminated movements, gestures, and facial expressions as aids or hindrances to the making of true impressions of your best capabilities. You should restrict yourself to acts that make the best impressions.

Movements, and their results, may be analyzed under three heads: Poise, Pose, and Action.

[Sidenote: Poise]

It is a phenomenon of psychology that the balancing of the body suggests mental balance. Conversely, if the body is out of balance, there is the suggestion that the mind is no better poised. That is, if a man cannot keep his balance physically, we have an intuition that he is mentally off his equilibrium. Correct poise of course involves correct body support, and suggests a rightly supported mind. Hence you can make the impression, merely by the way you stand and walk, that you are a person of well-poised judgment. You may hurt your chances very much if it seems necessary for you to prop your body with your legs. The man who stands with his feet wide apart is out of balance, and is easily tipped over. The impression made by the incorrect poise is that such a man must be unable to stand by himself like normal men. The law of the association of ideas then immediately suggests that his thoughts are similarly unable to stand unless propped.

Incorrect poise of the body has another bad effect in the sale of ideas. It makes the impression of abnormality. Being unusual, it distracts attention from the salesman and his capabilities, and turns it to his lack of balance. You realize that in order to sell your ideas effectively you need the concentrated attention of your prospect. It will help you to succeed in life if you perfect yourself in the skillful poising of your body and its members so that you will be able to appear perfectly balanced in any normal position.

If you teeter from side to side, or rock back and forth on your heels when you are talking to a man whom you want to impress with your stability of character, you will undermine everything you say by what you do. Of course you should not stand stiffly. Your leg posts are designed to serve as a flexible pedestal for your body. Your ability to shift your weight from one foot to the other easily without losing your balance suggests associated capability of your mind to keep your judgment in balance. If you have a correctly poised mind, it can balance your body.

[Sidenote: Pose]

The poses of your body, too, are suggestive of ideas about your mental make-up. The quiet pose aids in making impressions of the qualities of solidity of purpose, of calmness, of confidence, etc. The active pose is suggestive of enthusiasm, force, hustling, and the like. Your pose should be suited to the vocation you have chosen. In a bank, for instance, the quiet pose of assured efficiency perfectly suits the atmosphere of safety and security. In a factory, on the other hand, you are likely to make a better impression with a much more active pose that matches the energy and speed of manufacturing operations.

You should not, however, take any pose as a pretense. Whatever poses you employ to augment the things you say should be used as means for the better communication of truth, not to falsify in any degree. And you will need to be extremely careful lest you over-do a particular pose and suggest affectation. Doubtless you have characteristic poses. Analyze yourself. Determine what your habits of pose mean to other people. Then make such changes in your characteristic poses as will signify only the best traits you have.

[Sidenote: Action]

Next we will make a brief study of actions from four viewpoints.

First, the lines of action;

Second, the directions of action;

Third, the planes of action;

Fourth, the tension or the laxity of action.

[Sidenote: Lines of Action]

All movements are in straight, single curved, or multiple curved lines of action. Each of these classes of movements creates a particular impression when it is perceived—an impression very different from that produced by movements of either of the other classes. It will help you greatly in your ambition to succeed if you understand the exact significance of your every action along the various lines, and if you employ intelligently the right movements to suggest the particular ideas you wish to convey.

The straight gesture always indicates an appeal to mentality. Use it to aim ideas at the other man's mind.

The single curve, or wave movement, invariably denotes feeling. Employ it to reach into the breast of the other man and influence his heart.

The gesture of double curves signifies power. It should be employed to dominate both the mind and actions of the prospect—to make him think and do the things you will.

[Sidenote: Directions Of Actions]

The different directions of actions also suggest various ideas. Your selling purpose is to get ideas over from your mind to the mind of the other man. It is especially important that the direction of your gestures should conform to your sales intention. Every movement you make to aid your purpose should suggest your mental action toward the prospect, or away from yourself. It should signify that you are taking something out of your mind and offering it to his. Of course you don't break into his head with your idea and force him to receive it. You just bring it to the front porch of his mind. Then, if you have been skillful in your salesmanship, he will open the door of interest after you ring the bell of attention, and will permit your idea to enter his thoughts. But he is unlikely to admit it unless by some indication from you to him he knows what is expected of him.

If you gesture toward yourself when expressing your thoughts, you do not suggest to the other man that he take in your ideas. Instead you concentrate his attention on your selfishness and your individual opinion. The characteristic gestures of the typical old peddler are displeasing because they are made in the wrong direction. He holds his arms close to his body and gesticulates toward himself. He makes the impression that he does not have your interest at heart in the least, but only his own.

[Sidenote: Affirmation And Denial]

An up-and-down movement suggests something standing. It has the associated significance of vitality or life. Conversely, a side-to-side gesture suggests similarity to things lying down, lack of vitality, or the death of ideas. By holding yourself erect you make a very different impression of your energy than would be made were you to lean to one side. You can affirm a statement by an up-and-down movement of your hand or by a nod of your head. You deny suggestively with a horizontal gesture or by shaking your head from side to side.

[Sidenote: Levels of Action]

The significance of action on different planes or levels is seldom appreciated. The level of eye action is of especial importance in suggesting particular ideas.

When you look another person in the eye, you convey to him the idea of direct mental energy. You suggest the straight action of your mind in team-work with his. Your eye action on the same level indicates to him that you are thinking on the practical plane.

[Sidenote: Lifting Prospect's Thoughts]

But if your eyes repeatedly focus above the level of the other man's eyes, you make the impression that you are an idealist rather than a practical person. What you say will not seem to him to apply directly to his case. He will not feel the personal, or man-to-man contact of your thoughts. Sometimes, however, it is important to lift your eyes when talking to a prospect, in order to suggest that he lift his thoughts from the level of mere selfishness. By your suggestive eye action on the upper plane you may stimulate in him a higher vision of possibilities or an insight into the future, if he seems inclined to take a strictly practical view of his present needs only.

When you look below the eye level of the other man, you indicate (1) modesty, if the movement is directly down; (2) shame, if the movement is a little to one side and downward; (3) disgust, if your eyes look far down and far to the side.

[Sidenote: Tensity and Laxness]

The tensity or laxness of your muscles when you are in the presence of a prospect will suggest to him very diverse ideas. Both tensity and laxity of muscles can be used to good effect in selling. Your muscles should appear somewhat tense when you are presenting ideas, in order to make the impression that your mind is fully active. Conversely, by normal relaxation of your muscles when you are listening, you suggest the receptivity of your mind and your entire readiness to take in ideas from outside. When you show your muscles are relaxed, you also indicate that you are perfectly at ease and unafraid of objections or criticism. If you were to sit tense under criticism, you would suggest that you felt the necessity of fighting back. But you disarm disparagement of your capabilities when you appear entirely at ease while you listen.

[Sidenote: Introduction To Study of Sales Art]

The brief outline in this chapter of fundamental principles of selling skill, and of the methods by which ideas may be conveyed through artistic suggestion, is just an introduction to your study and comprehension of the successive steps of salesmanship practice which are to be analyzed in the remaining chapters of this book. The limitations of our present space have made it impossible to do more than summarize here the chief factors of art in selling ideas. You will need to master the remainder of the book in order to amplify and to apply most effectively in practice the general principles and methods that have been outlined.

Surely you now are convinced that skill in selling is not a vague mystery, not a natural gift, not something impossible for you to attain. Every element of sales art can be analyzed in detail. You are learning exactly how to sell the true ideas of your best capability. Practice of what you learn will perfect your salesmanship.

[Sidenote: Success Certain]

There is absolutely no doubt that you can master the right principles and methods. By continual practice you surely can become skillful in their daily use. When you make yourself adept in the art, you certainly will be able to sell your particular qualifications successfully.



CHAPTER IV

Preparing to Make Your Success Certain

[Sidenote: Be Ready When Your Chance Comes]

Thousands of men have failed in life because they were not ready when their best chances for success came. Some of these golden opportunities slipped away unrecognized. Others, though perceived, could not be grasped. The men to whom they were presented had not prepared to hold and use such chances whenever they might arrive.

If you would make your success a certainty, you must get all ready for it in advance. Then you will not be taken unawares when you find your big chance. If you are thoroughly prepared, you will sight it quickly, realize its full value, and seize it with complete confidence in your ability to make the most of it.

Before you seek it, be sure of your entire readiness for the opportunity you especially want. You can much better afford to wait a little while for certain success than to rush, unready, into the field of your choice, risking the likelihood of failure that could be guarded against by intelligent preparation to succeed.

[Sidenote: Do Not Start Unprepared]

A young man was offered a position of fine opportunity with a great banking house. His ambition was to build his career in that particular organization. But when the duties of the proffered situation were explained to him, he declined to undertake them at once; though he risked the chance that he might not get another such opportunity for employment by the financial institution of his choice.

"I am sorry," he said to the cashier, "but I do not know enough about accounting to fill that job now. It will take six months of hard work evenings to train myself to fit your needs. Please give me other employment in the bank meanwhile, so I'll be able to study the job at close range while getting ready for it."

This was excellent salesmanship. The candidate suggested in his words, tones, and actions that he recognized a real opportunity, that he comprehended all it involved, that he was willing to prepare himself adequately, and that he felt certain of his ability to fill the place after completing the necessary preparation.

The bank, however, was in immediate need of his services in the position offered to him. So the cashier, who had been very well impressed by the young man's attitude, told him to take the place, and offered to supply him with an accountant aide for six months.

[Sidenote: Keeping the Opportunity Open]

"I would rather not," the applicant persisted in declining. "I mean to keep on climbing toward the top in this bank, once I get started; and I don't want to begin as a cripple. I couldn't give thorough satisfaction now, even with an assistant on the accounting. It is not good business for me to start by making a poor impression. I'd prefer that you do not think of me as a man for whom excuses need to be made. I wish to commence my work in that job, when I am ready, with your complete confidence that I can handle it—not as a weak sister." He smiled winningly.

The failure of so skillful a salesman of ideas was simply impossible. There is no getting away from such a high quality of salesmanship. The cashier bought the present and prospective services of the young man who had demonstrated at the outset his comprehension of the first importance of preparation. The opportunity was kept open six months for the applicant in training, while he fitted himself for his future job. This successful salesman of true ideas of his best capabilities is now a vice-president of the great financial institution.

"But," you say, "suppose the cashier had been unable to wait, would not the young man's over-emphasis of his attitude on preparation have prevented him from succeeding in his ambition?"

No! A single turn-down cannot cause the failure of a successful salesman. If that cashier had not appreciated the worth of the candidate, an officer of some other bank certainly would have had a clearer vision of his value. The applicant might have been balked temporarily in his ambition. The best salesman occasionally has to try and try again. But a successful career for that young man was assured in advance. From the very start he was "certain to get there."

On the other hand, if he had risked making a disappointing impression in his new job, he might have taken the first step toward failure. Suppose he had begun the work for which he was unprepared, and then had made serious mistakes due to his unfitness. His record would have been blemished. His ability might have been questioned. He prevented such possibilities by making sure his preparation was adequate before he accepted his big chance.

[Sidenote: Preparation Should Be Two-fold]

Your preparation for certain success must be two-fold. You need to prepare yourself in ability first to perceive; then to appreciate the full value of what you see. Golden opportunities are all about you. If you do not recognize them, or if you perceive but slight value in the signs of rich chances to succeed, you will fail because of your unreadiness.

Many a farmer in Oklahoma cursed his "bad luck" after he sold a farm on which a gusher was later discovered. But the oil had been there all the time. The "luckless" farmer simply did not perceive the indications of wealth under his plodding feet; or, if he saw signs of oil, he did not realize that they denoted the possibility of millions.

[Sidenote: Developing Perception]

Perception can be broadened almost immeasurably. The physical eye, if normal and thoroughly trained, is fitted to be "all seeing." So can your mind be made capable of widest vision over all the fields of possible opportunity. Some are within your present mental view, others you can see only after going farther or climbing higher in knowledge. The biggest possibilities of success cannot be comprehended in their entirety by narrowed mental sight.

The first essential of preparation to succeed is that you open your eyes fully, and look all around you for the opportunities within range of your vision. There are so many close at hand that your search would better begin right where you are. Even if eventually you seek far for the best chance to succeed, do so with thorough knowledge of what is near by. Before you leave your present environment, have an intelligent conviction that you are capable of a bigger or different success than is to be found within your immediate reach.

Also see and comprehend the especial difficulties you will find close at hand. It does not always pay to remain in "the old home town." Often a young man needs to go to a community of strangers to gain appreciation of his ability. It is likely to be hard for him to win success among people who knew him as a boy and who still regard him as immature. He may find it much easier to succeed in a neighboring town.

It is possible to make the greatest success turn aside from beaten paths, leave the accustomed haunts of the successful, and go to a place where no such success ever before has been established. The Mayo brothers compelled their success as world renowned surgeons to come to them at the little city of Rochester, Minnesota. Elbert Hubbard brought fame to East Aurora, New York, by founding there his school of philosophy and the Roycrofters.

[Sidenote: Over-specialized Preparation]

Almost as common as the mistake of first looking far afield for success opportunities, is the error of over-particularizing one's original preparation. If you think now that you want to be a lawyer, you should prepare yourself especially by studying law, of course. But you should not exclude preparation for other vocations. Judge Gary was thoroughly prepared for legal practice. Doubtless when he began his studies of law he expected to continue in his chosen profession. But he did not neglect to prepare himself in general business capability. So when his biggest chance came, he was ready to step out of his law practice and into a manufacturing industry. There he fitted himself for the position of chief executive in the immense United States Steel Corporation.

The ability of a master salesman is not limited to getting orders for just one line of goods, or to selling only to certain buyers. He has all-around sales knowledge and skill. Though he naturally sells to better advantage in some fields than in others, he can attain a high degree of efficiency in selling anything meritorious, because of his broad and diversified preparation.

[Sidenote: Varied and Adaptable Preparation]

Your preparation for all the possibilities of success you may be able to reach hereafter should be similarly varied and adaptable; though you will be wise to specialize, in addition, by making more detailed preparation for the vocation of your choice. At twenty the average man cannot know for what he is best fitted. He may not be sure even at thirty. The start toward eventual success has often been delayed until middle life. To cite my own case, I prepared myself especially for the career of a certified public accountant, but found my greatest success in the profession of selling. I was able to grasp my biggest opportunity in the sales field because, though I had been devoting my time and energies chiefly to accountancy, I had studied and practiced salesmanship for years in order to market my own services most effectively.

While preparing yourself for success, keep your mental eyes wide open. Perceive any and all chances about you, however much you specialize in your preparation for a selected career.

[Sidenote: Preparation In Salesmanship]

Comprehend that preparation in salesmanship is necessary, whatever vocation you choose. Mastery of the selling process is absolutely essential if you would assure your success in any field of ambition. Not only must you perceive opportunities to succeed, but you also must know how to sell yourself into the chances you see. No matter how much particularized knowledge you may acquire in preparation for a selected career, your success will not be assured until you are able to sell your capabilities to the best advantage. You can neither perceive all your possible selling opportunities, nor make the most of them when seen, unless you learn the selling process and develop skill in the actual sale of the best that is in you.

Broad, varied knowledge is required as the foundation for certain success. It cannot be built on a narrow or limited base. Evidently, however, exactly the same amount of knowledge possessed by two men would not make them equally successful. As already has been emphasized, success is not assured by the mere possession of knowledge, but by the effective ways in which elements of knowledge are fitted to opportunities.

[Sidenote: Abstract And Applied Knowledge]

Your abstract knowledge may be valueless. In order to succeed certainly you must connect the things you have learned with particular people in particular fields of activity. When you have developed the power of relating your individual ability to every imaginable use, your mental eyes will be opened to many opportunities for success that you otherwise might never perceive. Such an association of what you know and can do with the various ways your capabilities might be utilized will tremendously augment your self-confidence. When you realize in how many ways it is possible to use your especial talents, you will not be likely to doubt your own worth. You will offer your qualifications for sale with complete faith in their value to prospective buyers.

[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 salesmanship 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 salesmanship 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 principal element of right salesmanship, 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.