Suppose he has taken all these preliminary selling steps successfully, and at last the time comes for pinning the girl down to a definite answer to the all-important question, is there any likelihood that it will be a refusal? Of course not! If his earlier salesmanship has been masterly, the reasons why she will be inclined to accept him in the end are of much greater weight and number than any causes for rejection that she may have thought of previously.

[Sidenote: Never Weaken At the Finish]

He should not fear to close the sale. He has been "going strong" until now; why should he weaken at the finish? The master salesman does not quaver then, or doubt his success. He asks his prospect's decision bravely and with confidence, or he assumes it as a matter of course and kisses the girl. His heart beats faster than usual, but he is not afraid of hearing "No."

You should feel the same way after leading your prospective employer successfully through the preliminary stages of the process of selling your services to him. Do not falter now. Promptly emphasize the idea that the weight, amount, and quality of your merits are fully worth the compensation previously discussed. If you are sure of that, if you have valued your services from his standpoint, and not just from your own, you will feel no doubts about the acceptance of your application. You will put your prospective employer through the process of decision as courageously and confidently as you first entered his presence.

[Sidenote: Getting the Decision Pronounced]

Sometimes a prospect will be convinced, but will not express what is in his thoughts. Therefore it is not enough to bring about a favorable conclusion of mind. Until this has been pronounced or signified, it may easily be changed. Hence the effective process of decision includes both the mental action of judgment and its perceptible indication. Often a prospect who is thinking "Yes" will not say it until he is prompted by the salesman.

[Sidenote: A Lawyer Sums Up the Case]

When a lawyer is trying a case, he endeavors to bring out the evidence in favor of his client and to make the jury see every point clearly. He shows also the fallacies and falsities of opposing testimony. But after all the evidence has been given, the case is not turned over immediately to the jury for decision. If that were done the lawyer would miss his best chance to influence the jurors to make up their minds in his favor. They are not so familiar as he with the facts and their significance. They would be apt to attach more importance to some details of testimony, and less to others, than the circumstances warrant. So, to assist the jurors in arriving at their verdict on the evidence, the lawyer sums up the case. He lays before their minds his views, and tries with all his power and art to convince them that his word pictures are true reproductions of the facts in their relation and proportion to all the circumstances surrounding the issue.

[Sidenote: Preponderance Of Evidence]

The object of the lawyer when he addresses the jury is to make the convincing impression that the testimony in favor of his client far outweighs the evidence on the other side. He adjures the twelve men before him to "weigh the evidence carefully." He declares the judge will instruct them that in a lawsuit the verdict should be given to the party who has a "preponderance" or greater weight of proof on his side. At this closing stage of the case the lawyer acts as a weighmaster. He wants to make the jurors feel that he has handled the scales fairly, that he has taken into consideration the evidence against him as well as the facts in his favor; and that the preponderance of weight is as he has shown it—so that they will accept his view and gave him the verdict. If he feels a sincere conviction that he is right in asking for a decision on his side, he makes his closing address with the ring of confidence. He looks the jurors in the eye and asks for the verdict in his favor as a matter of right. He does not beg, but claims what the weight of the evidence entitles him to receive.

[Sidenote: Treat Your Prospects As Jurors]

The jury that will decide on your application when you apply for a position will usually consist of but one man, or will be composed of a committee or board of directors. Treat him or them as a jury. Remember that your capabilities and your deficiencies are on trial. Close your case with the same process the skillful lawyer uses when he sums up the evidence and weighs it before the minds of the jurors. Do what he does as a weighmaster. Avoid making any impression that you are not weighing your demerits fairly, though you minimize their importance; also miss no chance to impress the full weight of your qualifications. The essence of good salesmanship at this stage of the process is skillful, but honest weighing. That means using both sides of the scale, to convince the prospect that the balance tips in your favor. He will not believe in the correctness of the "Yes" weight unless you show the lesser weight of "No" in contrast. Then he cannot help seeing which is the heavier. Decision on the respective weights is only a process of perception.

[Sidenote: The Process Of Perception]

Let us suppose the employer has asserted the objections that you are not sufficiently experienced to earn the salary you want, and that you don't know enough yet to fill the job. It would be poor salesmanship to try to convince him that you have had a good deal of experience. If you exaggerate the importance of the things you have learned, he almost surely will judge you to be an unfair weighman of yourself. So you should tacitly admit your inexperience and treat the value of experience lightly by reminding him that his business is unlike any other. Then bear down hard on your eagerness to learn his ways and to work for him. Thus you can make him perceive the two sides of the scale as you view them.

[Sidenote: Tipping the Balances Your Way]

It is possible for you so to tip the balances in your favor, though previously the mind's eye of your prospective employer may have been seeing the greater weight on the unfavorable side. It is legitimate salesmanship to influence the decision of the other man in this way. Your weighing is entirely honest; though you sharply reverse the balances. Certainly you have the right to estimate the full worth of your services, to depreciate the significance of points against you, and to picture your desirability to the prospect as you see it, however that view may differ from his previous conception. If your picture of the respective weights is attractive and convincing, the other man will adopt it as his own and discard his former opinions about you. Not only will he accept the idea of your capabilities that you make him perceive; he also will see that your deficiencies are much less important than he had before considered them.

[Sidenote: Serving Hash For Dessert]

Beware of a mistake commonly made by applicants for positions who do not understand the art of successfully closing the sale of one's services. When they try to clinch the final decision, they just repeat strongly all their best points. They make no mention of their shortcomings. For dessert, in other words, they serve a hash of the best dishes of previous courses. Is it any wonder that such a close takes away any appetite the prospect may have had?

What would you think of a lawyer who had closed his case by simply reading to the jury all the testimony that had been given on his side, but who had made no reference to the opposing evidence? If you were a juror, would you vote for a verdict in favor of the side so summed up? Of course you would have heard the testimony of both parties to the case, but you would not feel that the lawyer who ignored the evidence against his client had helped you to arrive at the conclusion that he had the preponderance of proof on his side. On the contrary, you probably would be inclined to attach to the opposing evidence greater weight than the facts justified, and would discount whatever the lawyer claimed for his client. You, yourself, would act as weighmaster; and would give the other party to the suit the benefit of any doubt in your mind as to the contrasting weights of the testimony pro and con. The lawyer's failure to weigh all the evidence before your eyes would make the impression on you that his view of the case was unfair to his opponent. If you felt at all doubtful, you would be likely to vote against him in order to make sure that the other side received a square deal.

[Sidenote: Weigh Both Pros and Cons Before Jury]

The jury that is to decide favorably or unfavorably on your application for a position will feel similarly inclined to reach a negative conclusion if in closing you omit the process of weighing the pros and cons, and emphasize only your strong points. It is good salesmanship to stress these at the finishing stage, but they should be pictured in contrast with lighter objections to your employment. In order to convince the prospect that the reasons for employing you outweigh the reasons for turning you down, you must show his mind both sides of the scale. If you fail to do this, his own imagination will do the weighing and is certain to bear down with prejudice on every point against you. It will also depreciate your view of the points in your favor. The other man will make sure that he is getting a square deal on the weights, since he will believe you, too, are looking out only for Number One.

[Sidenote: To Make Certain Do The Weighing Yourself]

The certain way to make your prospect perceive that the reasons for accepting your proposal are of greater weight than any causes for turning down your application is to do the weighing yourself. First be sure the heavier weight is on your side. When you fully believe that, use all the arts of salesmanship to make the other man see the balances as you view them. Then he can come to but one conclusion, that the "preponderance" is on your side. Just as soon as you make the respective weights clear to his perception, he will be convinced. He cannot deny what his own mind's eye has been made to see.

[Sidenote: Get Prospect Committed]

Therefore bringing about a favorable mental conclusion is not at all difficult. The judgment that your services would be desirable is no harder to gain than a decision that the weight of one side of a scale is greater than the other. Any one who looks at the balances sees at once which way they tip. The rub is not in getting the decision made but in getting it pronounced. The sale is not completed until the prospect has committed himself.

[Sidenote: Now is the Acceptance Time]

He feels that his mental processes are his own secret, which you cannot read; so he will not guard against the conclusion of his mind that you would be a desirable employee. But for some reason he may be unwilling to express his thoughts to you just then, however thoroughly he is convinced. He naturally prefers not to say "Yes" at once; so that he may change his mind if he wishes. You will endanger your chances of success if you let him put off action on his decision. To-morrow he is likely to see the weights in a different light and to imagine less on your side and more against you. Now is the time to close the sale, when he cannot help seeing things your way.

[Sidenote: Two Stages Of Closing]

You know that sometimes a juror will be convinced in his own mind, yet cannot bring himself actually to vote according to his mental conclusion. Perhaps he is a "wobbler" by nature. So a girl may decide in her thoughts that a certain suitor would make a good husband, yet she may hesitate to accept him just because that step is final. These illustrations impress the importance of discriminating between the two stages of closing a sale. The success of the salesman is made certain only by his knowledge and skillful use, first of the art of vivid weighing, and second of the art of prompting the prospect to action on his perception of the difference in the balances. At the closing stage we have encountered again our old acquaintance, "the discriminative-restrictive process."

[Sidenote: Closing a Procrastinator]

A friend of mine who has an advertising agency wanted to secure the business of a prominent manufacturer who was inclined to vacillation. The prospect was always timid about acting and had the reputation of a chronic procrastinator. My friend went ahead with the selling process in ordinary course until he had proved the desirability of his service and had shown that there was no really weighty reason why the contract should not be given to him. He knew he was entitled to the decision then, but he did not wait for the timid man to pronounce it. The advertising agent knew the characteristics of the prospect and had planned just how he would handle the finishing stage of the selling process so as to get the order promptly.

[Sidenote: The Clincher Held in Reserve]

He held in reserve a closing method that a less skillful salesman probably would have used earlier in the sale instead of reserving it especially for the end. As soon as he had completed the weighing process my friend took from his pocket a sheet of copy he had prepared for a first advertisement along the line he had proposed. This had been worked out carefully in advance, just as if the order had already been given for the advertising service. My friend laid the sheet of copy before the prospect, who was taken completely by surprise.

"I knew you would want this service as soon as I explained it to you," said the salesman. "Therefore I prepared this ad for the first publication under the plan I have submitted, and which I am sure you approve. There is no question that you will get much better results from this copy than you have been receiving from the advertising you are doing now. Naturally you want to begin benefiting from my service as soon as possible. I'm all ready to deliver the goods. Just pencil your O.K. on the corner of this copy. I'll do the rest."

[Sidenote: From Pencil To Pen]

With a smile of confidence the salesman held out a soft lead pencil. The moment the other man involuntarily obeyed the suggestion by accepting the tendered pencil, he was started on the purely muscular process of pronouncing his approval of the proposition likewise tendered for his acceptance. The informality of the off-hand request that he "pencil his O.K." kept him from being scared off. He did not feel that he had yet committed himself fully. Probably, with characteristic timidity, he would have shied from signing a formal contract at that moment. But he hesitated only slightly before he scribbled his initials on the corner of the proposed ad. Then he handed the pencil back to the salesman. The advertising agent picked up the approved copy, and at once laid before the prospect a formal contract. Simultaneously he tendered his fountain pen. He had started the advertiser to writing his name, and did not let the process stop.

"Now just O.K. this, too," he directed, "and the whole matter will be settled to your complete satisfaction." Then, to prevent the procrastinator from backing up, the salesman reached for the telephone on the advertiser's desk. "With your permission, I'll call up the——magazine and reserve choice space for this ad. It won't cost any more and by getting in early we'll make the ad most effective."

[Sidenote: Decide For, Then Commit The Prospect]

My friend manifested complete confidence that the sale was closed. By continuing the process of affirming the decision, he prevented the prospect from backing up after making his pencilled O.K. Being thus committed informally, the usually vacillating advertiser could not well avoid using the pen put into his hand to sign the formal contract laid before him. Without speaking to him, the salesman pointed to the dotted line while he called the telephone number he wanted. The prospect wrote his name before he had time to stop the impulse that the advertising agent had started. The salesman had both induced the mental decision in his favor, and impelled its pronouncement. Really he first made up the prospect's mind for him, and then committed him to the decision so made without the other man's volition.

[Sidenote: Both Processes In Right Sequence]

Only by performing both processes in right sequence at the closing stage can a sale be finished under the control of the salesman. If the favorable conclusion as to the respective weights of negative and affirmative is not first worked out before the mind's eye of the prospect, anything done to commit him to a decision will likely kill the salesman's chances for success. The prospect whose mind is not yet made up favorably, who does not clearly perceive that the preponderance is on the "Yes" side of the scale, will almost surely say "No" if his decision is prematurely impelled.

[Sidenote: Discriminate And Restrict]

Hence it is important that the salesman discriminate between the two closing stages, and that he restrict his selling methods at each stage to the selling processes that are effective then. He must not get "the cart before the horse," as the ignorant or unskillful closer is apt to do. The poor closer does not understand the "discriminative-restrictive" process. He lacks comprehension of the distinction that should be drawn between the methods he previously has used and what is now required to finish the sale. Let us be sure we know how to discriminate; so that our work at the closing stage may be restricted to the processes that are required to assure success in taking the particular step necessary.

[Sidenote: New Process Necessary To Close]

Throughout the series of selling steps that precede the closing stage, the continuing purpose of the salesman is to make the prospect see the proposal in the true light, as the salesman himself views it. When the selling process draws to a conclusion, the purpose of the salesman changes. Now he wants the prospect to decide and then act upon what has been shown to his mind's eye. If the salesman is to control the close, he must do something new to prompt decision and to actuate its pronouncement.

The unskillful closer, instead of changing his previous sales tactics, nearly always devotes his final efforts to making the prospect see more clearly the pictures already laid before his mind. He tries to impress the prospect with a re-hash of perception, by emphasizing more strongly than before the favorable points brought out clearly at earlier stages. Of course it is important that at the close of the sale the prospect have all these points in view, but it is not good salesmanship to emphasize only the appeal to his perceptive faculties. The guest who has had a good dinner does not need to be told just afterward what he has eaten, or reminded of the courses by having them brought in again.

[Sidenote: Logic and Reason Won't Win]

As it is a mistake to serve at the close of a sale only a re-hash of favorable points; so is it bad salesmanship to rely on a dessert of "logic and reason" for the finishing touch. Logic and reason provoke antagonism. They are ineffective in bringing about either a favorable conclusion of mind or action on such a decision.

If you have presented your capabilities fully to a prospective employer, do not wind up by marshalling reasons why he should engage you. Avoid the use of the "major premise, minor premise, argument, and logical conclusion." You cannot debate yourself into a job, for the judge is made antagonistic by your method, which puts him on the defensive. It is human nature to resist a decision that logic tries to force. No man arrives at his conclusions of mind by putting himself through a reasoning process. A normal person does not need to reason about things he knows. He knows without reasoning. He attempts to use logic only when he is uncertain what to think. If logic is used by the salesman to convince the other man, it will be ineffective because it is an unnatural means that the prospect almost never employs to convince himself, and of which he is suspicious.

[Sidenote: Why Reasoning is Futile]

A major premise is but an assumption unless it is already known. If it is known, why should it be proved? Since the correctness of the conclusion depends entirely upon the validity of the premise, it is evidently absurd to attempt to prove a truth from the basis of an admitted assumption. The reasoning process that starts from a truth already known, and arrives at a truth that must similarly have been known, is utterly useless and a waste of time. Hence, if you use the reasoning process you will either fail to convince your prospect by starting from a premise that he does not know, or you will irritate and unfavorably impress him by seeming to reflect on his intelligence when you prove to him something he already knows. That is the wrong way to bring your man to a "Yes" decision.

If the whole process of the sale could be summed up in just one logical statement at closing, it might occasionally be practical for the salesman to apply reasoning with good effect to help him secure the decision. But the four steps, first and second premise, argument, and conclusion, must be applied to every point that is made with reasoning. Since the force of the conclusion is largely lost unless the major premise is an absolute truth recognized by everybody, there is danger of confusion, and no possibility of convincing the prospect by such methods. Besides, a multitude of reasoning processes would be necessary to cover all the points presented by the salesman and all the objections raised by the prospect. Moreover, as we have seen, the whole procedure of "a logical close" falls back upon itself unless everything the salesman hopes to prove was known and admitted to be true before he began to reason it out.

[Sidenote: Favorable Decision Defined]

Favorable decision is the prospect's mental conclusion that it is better to buy than not to buy; better to accept than to refuse. The process of securing decision is not complex; it is very simple. As has been said, the salesman needs only to weigh before the mind's eye of the prospect the favorable and unfavorable ideas of the proposal. Any weighing of two mental images always results in a judgment as to which is preferable, or that one course of action would be better than the other. The mind is never so exactly balanced between contrasting ideas that it does not tip at all either way.

[Sidenote: Weighing Ideas of A Steak]

The skill of the salesman weighmaster, used legitimately before the mind's eye of the prospect to tip the scales of decision to the favorable side, is illustrated in the story of a butcher who had been asked by a woman customer to weigh a steak for her. He knew that the weighing process in her mind included more than the balancing of a certain number of pounds and ounces on the scale. Against the reasons for her evident inclination to take the selected steak, she would weigh its cost, her personal ideas of its value, and other factors of the high cost of living.

[Sidenote: Skillful Close of The Sale]

The butcher wished to bring her quickly to a favorable decision. He wanted to make up the customer's mind for her in such a conclusive way that she would be prevented from hesitating over the purchase. As a weighman of pounds and ounces he only wanted to show the prospect that he was honest. But in order to tip the buying scales in her mind he put into the balances, on the side opposite the cost of the steak, the heavier weight of buying inducements. First he did the actual weighing of the steak; then he added on the "Yes" side of the scales of decision ideas of the excellence and desirability of the meat. He followed immediately with a suggestion of action that would commit the prospect to buying.

"Two pounds and five ounces, ma'am! Only a dollar and forty-three cents. It's the very choicest part of the loin. You couldn't get a cut any tenderer than that, or with less bone. Would you like to have a little extra suet wrapped up with it?"

[Sidenote: Three Effects Produced]

The butcher thus combined in his close three effects. He brought about judgment of the prospect's intellect, plus increased desire for the goods, plus the impulse to carry the desire into action.

First, by emphasizing, "Two pounds and five ounces!" in a heavy tone, and by depreciating the cost, "Only a dollar and forty-three cents," spoken lightly, he implied that the value of the steak far outweighed the price. Thus judgment of the prospect's intellect was effected.

Second, to stimulate increased desire for the steak, the butcher skillfully put on the favorable side of the scales of decision the weight of a suggestion of excellence. He said temptingly, "It's the very choicest part of the loin." At this point he also employed contrast, to make the prospect's desire stronger still. "You couldn't get a cut any tenderer than this, or with less bone."

Third, this skillful salesman prompted the immediate committal of his customer to a favorable decision. He impelled her to this affirmative action by suggesting, "Would you like to have a little extra suet wrapped up with it?" He put a question that was easy for the prospect to answer with "Yes." Once she accepted the suet offered free, she tacitly accepted the steak at the price stated. It is skillful salesmanship to make it easy for the buyer to say "Yes" or to imply the favorable decision indirectly. The butcher might have been answered with "No" if he had asked, "Will you take this steak?" But he himself nodded when he made the proposal that he wrap up the extra suet. The woman was thus impelled to nod with him. The sale was closed, artistically, in a few seconds.

When you plan how you will close a sale of true ideas of your best capability, work out in advance a similar weighing process, followed at once by an indirect prompting of acceptance of the decision you suggest. Shape and re-shape your intended "close" in your mind until it includes the three effects the butcher produced.

[Sidenote: Put a "Kick" Into the Close]

Put a "kick" into your stimulation of desire at the closing stage. Paint the points in your favor brightly and glowingly, though in true colors. Conversely paint all objections to your employment unattractively.

Suppose you are applying for a secretarial position. It would be good "painting" to close something like this:

"I am going to learn to do things your way. You would not want a man in the position who was experienced; because he would do things some one else's way, not yours. My inexperience really means I am adaptable to your methods. I'd become exactly the sort of secretary you want. For instance, how do you prefer to have your mail brought to you—just as it is opened, or with previous correspondence and notations attached?"

Such an alternative question, answered either way, leads the prospect through the stage of favorable decision and implies his committal to acceptance of the services offered. It can be followed by the direct proposal, "All, right, I'll bring your mail that way." Such a close is practically sure to succeed.

[Sidenote: Using the Negative Positively]

A man who was not at all prepossessing applied to me one day for a job. He conducted the sale of himself very skillfully, but I meant to put him off. It was our dull season, and his looks didn't make a hit with me anyway. However, he realized there was a good deal on the negative side of the scale, and he weighed his disqualifications honestly; though he depreciated the importance of his unprepossessing appearance. Then, in contrast to the negative side, he showed me very weighty and attractive reasons for employing him. He started by grinning good-humoredly.

"I'm not a prize beauty," he remarked. "But the other day I was reading about Abraham Lincoln, and the book made me feel encouraged about myself. I don't believe I'm any homelier or any more awkward than he was. I don't expect to be a parlor salesman, anyhow, or to rely on my good looks to get orders. I plan to succeed by work. I'm going to be on the job early and late and every minute between. I'll believe in what I'm selling—down to the very bottom of my heart. I'll make anybody see I'm in dead earnest. I look honest, and I am. I'll be square with customers and with you. I guess that out in the field a reputation for always being willing to help, and for telling the truth straight, will count more than anything else. I know I'm inexperienced, but that's a fault I can cure mighty soon." He grinned again. "I'll start right away to get the greenness off, if you'll tell me where to hang up my hat."

His good nature warmed me into smiling with him. I could not help feeling inclined to try this man. I decided to give him his chance at once. He started my impulse to accept his services, and I pronounced the decision in his favor that he prompted. Of course he made good. That was a foregone conclusion. He had mastered the selling process, and was an especially fine closer. He succeeded in getting more than his quota of orders the first year. Selling never seemed to be hard work for him.

[Sidenote: Two Ways To Prompt Pronouncement]

The pronouncement of the prospect's decision can be prompted, his favorable action can be brought about, in two ways. First, as we have seen, the salesman can suggest, directly or indirectly, the action he wants the other man to take. Second, the salesman himself can do something that the prospect will be impelled to imitate.

[Sidenote: Impelling Imitation Of Action]

For example, when you apply for a position, and have completed the process of weighing the points in your favor in contrast with the less weighty reasons for not employing you, lean forward slightly in an attitude of easy expectancy. The prospect's mind will be inclined to imitate your physical act. He will lean toward acceptance of your services. Your act will tend to bring you together. Your magnetism will draw his.

Or you might extend your hand. He will have an impulse to reach out his in turn. It is natural for a man to take a hand that is courteously offered. The moment after you reach toward the prospect say, "Let's shake hands on it." Once his fingers start moving toward yours in imitation of your action, it will be easy for him to commit himself.

[Sidenote: Five Essentials Of Good Close]

Now let us review the essentials of good salesmanship in closing, which we have been analyzing. We can summarize under five divisions the entire process of completing a sale most effectively and with the practical assurance of success.

First, the salesman must have definite, certain knowledge that the mind of the prospect has reached the closing stage; that it is time to end the "testimony" and to begin weighing the evidence. If the salesman has kept control of the selling process throughout all the preceding stages, he will know when the selling point is reached, for he will be there himself, with the prospect he has "safely conducted" thus far.

Second, at this "right time" it is necessary to change former sales tactics promptly, and to start contrasting the affirmative and negative ideas that have previously been brought out.

Third, the salesman should weigh these contrasting ideas so vividly that the mind's eye of the prospect will see the scales and perceive the greater weight on the "Yes" side, as the salesman pictures it.

Fourth, it is important that the salesman color the affirmative ideas very alluringly, and increase the contrast by painting unattractively everything on the negative side of the scale; so that "No," besides appearing much lighter than "Yes," will seem uninviting.

Fifth, the selling process should be brought to a climax by the salesman's suggestion or imitation of some act designed to commit the prospect to acceptance in an easy way.

[Sidenote: Unbalancing The Process]

Nothing so unbalances the process of securing a favorable decision and its pronouncement as any indication of fear, doubt, or hesitancy in the attitude of the salesman. Therefore, even though you may be uncertain as to the outcome of your selling efforts, do not show it. Long before you came to the decision point, you passed the worst dangers on the road to the end of the sale. Surely your courage should be strongest at the closing stage.

[Sidenote: Light Dissipates Fear and Doubt]

Fear usually arises from something unknown; it is due only to darkness. Since you know now just what closing involves, and light has been shed on the problems of getting the prospect's "Yes," your fears and doubts should be dissipated. You should not hesitate to end the sale you have controlled successfully throughout previous stages. Our analysis has revealed that closing is no more difficult than winning attention to your proposition in the first place. As a result, your present attitude toward closing is positive. Your courage and self-confidence have been built up. You realize just how success in finishing a well-conducted sale can be made practically sure.

[Sidenote: Negatives Must be Avoided]

Certain negative attitudes at the closing stage should be avoided. Especially do not throw into the scales of decision any little pleas for personal favor, with the hope that in so doing you will increase the weight on the "Yes" side. Such tactics almost invariably tend to tip the balance unfavorably. A plea of this sort is equivalent to an admission that the ideas you have presented for buying do not themselves outweigh the prospect's images against buying. You suggest to him that you are trying to push the balance down on your side by putting your finger on it, by "weighing in your hand," as unfair butchers sometimes do with a chicken they hold on the scales by the legs.

[Sidenote: "As a Personal Favor to Me"]

The prospect will instantly perceive your action. His mind, acting on the principle of the gyroscope, will resist by greater opposition any push of the personal plea. If you ask a decision as a personal favor, your prospect will lose confidence in the true weight of the ideas on your side that you have already registered in his mind. You are much more likely to hurt than to help your chances for success by making a personal plea. Even if it should prove effective, what you get that way would be alms given to a beggar, and not the earned prize of good salesmanship. Never buy success at the cost of self-respect. To be a successful beggar is nothing to feel proud of.

[Sidenote: "Treating" At Close]

Do not attempt to "treat" your prospect by flattering him at the closing stage. Such "treating" is a tacit admission that your goods of sale, your best qualifications, have not sufficient merit to sell at their intrinsic value. Or you practically confess that you are not good enough salesman to win out with just your goods and your ability to sell yourself for what you claim to be worth. Flattery is a call for help. It is like the bad salesmanship of trying to buy an order with cigars or a dinner. Never "treat" at the closing stage, for to do so is to admit weakness when you should be your strongest.

[Sidenote: "No" Seldom Is Final]

Of course you should not take a first or second "No" as a final answer. Even if the prospect indicates that he is inclined to decide against you, continue confidently to heap images in favor of buying on the "Yes" side of the scale until you have used all the honest weight you have to put in the balance. He will not respect you as a salesman if you quit at his first "No." It is up to you to tip the scales of decision your way. Remember that you should not bring the other man to the judgment point until after you have aroused and intensified his desire to a very great degree. If you have made him want you at all, you will disappoint him if you then fail to put enough weight on the "Yes" side of the scale to win his decision to employ you.

When you receive a "No," understand it to mean, "No, that is not yet enough ideas for buying your services." Keep right on putting weight into the "Yes" side of the balance until it tips your way. Do not consider any "No" final until you have run out of both contrasting weight and attractive colors; so that you cannot change the scales.

[Sidenote: Stick it Out Here and Now]

If it is possible for you to "stick," don't be put off when you come to the closing stage. All the weighing you do at the present time will be valueless lost effort unless you complete the selling process here and now. When your prospect tries to put you off, he tacitly admits your weights are right. Otherwise he would say "No" and be done with you. You really have won his mental decision. A continuance of skillful salesmanship will enable you to get him to act favorably without delay or further evasion.

[Sidenote: Entertainment In Court Room Out of Place]

Some salesmen make the mistake of mixing entertainment with the closing process. Earlier in the sale you may be able to secure excellent results by entertaining the prospect with clean jokes and good stories. But the close is the stage at which he arrives at his mental conclusion as to the "preponderance" of the evidence. Jests and light conversation are out of place when the judge is performing his functions in the courtroom of the mind. An amusing remark or a witty quip at this juncture would suggest that the scales of decision in the salesman's own mind were somewhat unbalanced. Your attitude when you are weighing "Yes" and "No" before the prospect should be pleasant, but quiet and serious, as is becoming to a convincing weighman.

When you work to secure a favorable decision, you are weighing evidence with the purpose of impelling the prospect to take your judgment or to weigh the evidence just as you do. It is necessary all through the process that he be made to feel you realize you are aiding in the performance of a judicial function. He must have complete confidence in your intention and ability to handle the scales honestly and with serious pains to determine what is the right judgment about your proposition. Your levity at the closing stage would lessen the effect of honest, serious, painstaking weighing of the images for buying in contrast with the images against buying. So get the funny stories out of your system before you come to the decision step of the sale, or else keep them bottled up inside you and don't pull the cork until you are safely at the celebration stage.

[Sidenote: Tones and Acts When Weighing]

Do not forget when closing to add force to your words by tones and gestures that emphasize ideas of the contrast in weights between the two sides of the scale. By your light tone you can indicate the triviality of objections to your proposition. With the heavier tone of power you can suggest the great weight of the favorable ideas. If you use broad gestures of your whole hand and full arm, you can seem to pile a large heap of points on your side of the scale. Conversely you can indicate the smallness of objections by moving your fingers only, as if you were picking up a tiny object. Demolish unfavorable points with a strong gesture of negation, as by sweeping your arm horizontally. Give life to the ideas on the favorable side of the scale by accompanying your words with up and down gestures that signify vitality.

[Sidenote: Do Not Show That Closing Is Hard Work]

Your physical condition or outward appearance will help or harm your chances for success at the closing stage. You should not manifest the least indication that you are under a strain of anxiety as to the outcome, or that you lack the strength to control the completion of the selling process. Why should you not have a feeling of ease when you reach the close? If your bearing suggests your self-confidence, it will give the other man confidence in your capabilities. When a salesman has to "sweat blood" to finish a sale, he indicates that it is usually mighty hard work for him to get what he wants. This impression suggests to the other man that there must be something wrong with the proposition or it wouldn't take so much effort of the salesman to put it across. Any element of doubt at the final stage will almost surely delay or kill the salesman's chances to close successfully.

[Sidenote: Make Sure of A Good Batting Average]

Recall once more that the measure of success in selling is not 100% of closed sales; every possible order secured and none lost. Success is made certain when failures are reduced to the minimum and successes are increased to the maximum of practicability. There can be no question that if you use the right processes in closing, your chances for success will be so greatly increased that your batting average of actual sales should take you far above the failure line. Your career as a salesman involves continual selling. You must make sale after sale. However skillfully you employ the right process at the closing stage, you may not accomplish your purpose the first time you try. But if you keep on selling your services in the right way, you will be as absolutely certain to succeed as the master salesman of "goods" is sure of closing his quota every year he works.



CHAPTER XII

The Celebration Stage

[Sidenote: What Are You Going to Do With Success?]

You know now the certain way to get your chance to succeed in the vocation of your choice. You are convinced that a good salesman can create and control his opportunities in any field, can bring himself to good luck in the right market for his services. You are resolved to master the art of selling, and so to insure your future against any possibility of failure. You feel confident of success; because you are willing to earn it by the diligent study and practice of salesmanship. There is no doubt in your mind that when you become a skillful salesman of your best capabilities, you can get a chance to succeed. Now what are you going to do with success after you gain it?

Suppose you had sold yourself into the very opportunity you want, suppose you had won the coveted job or promotion, how would you celebrate? It has been said that a man shows his real self either in the moment of his failure or in the moment of his success. Let us assume that you have reached your present objective. You stand at the goal, a winner. Does your victory intoxicate, or does it sober you with the realization that you have but opened the way to limitless fields of bigger service ahead? Has success gone to your hands and made them tingle with eagerness to grasp more chances to succeed, or has it gone to your head?

[Sidenote: The Stepping-Stone to More Sales]

The celebration stage of the selling process should be the first stepping-stone leading to another successful sale. Often it proves to be a stumbling block that marks the beginning of a downfall to failure. Rare is the man who is not spoiled a little by achievement. Success is the severest test of salesmanship.

[Sidenote: Spoiled by Success]

I recall a chief clerk who worked more than a year for promotion to the position of assistant manager. He earned the better job, and was assigned to the desk toward which he had been looking longingly for sixteen months. Then he "celebrated" by starting to take life easy. He developed a manner of superiority. He acted as if the little foothill he had climbed was a big mountain. He sunned himself on the top, basking in complacency because he had risen above his former clerkship.

One day he was called into the manager's office. He came out chop-fallen and took his personal belongings from the assistant's desk. Another man was promoted to the place he had failed to fill. He went back to his clerk's stool and is roosting there today.

[Sidenote: Egotism's Downfall]

I know a salesman who closed so many orders the first time he covered his territory that he came back to headquarters with an inflated idea of his importance. He strutted into the president's room and boasted of what he had done. The delighted head of the business gave him a cigar and invited him to tell the story. The salesman betrayed such egotism that his employer was disgusted. The president was plain-spoken. He warned the successful salesman against getting a "swelled head."

The egotist felt insulted. He resigned his position, arrogantly declaring that he would not work for a house where results were so little appreciated. He was cocksure of himself. However, when he offered his services to a competing firm, his application was turned down. The rebuff stunned him. He did not realize that his egotism disgusted the second executive as much as the first. The salesman's spirit was broken. He has never since been more than a fair peddler.

[Sidenote: Giant and Pigmy Successes]

Think of "successful" men you know. Compare them as they are now with the men they used to be before they succeeded. As they rose did they loom bigger and bigger in your respect, or grow smaller and smaller in admirable qualities? There are so-called successful men whose characters seem to be dwarfed by the mountain tops they attain. Other men grow to be giants and overshadow any eminences they climb. The littleness of the last Kaiser and Crown Prince of Germany was only emphasized by their elevation above the common people. On the other hand the bigness of Lincoln and Roosevelt was so tremendous that their personalities towered above even the highest honor in the world.

[Sidenote: Breaking Training]

When football players are fighting for the championship of the season, they are governed by rigid rules of living. They keep themselves fit by strict diet, by the avoidance of all dissipations, by hardening exercise, and by recuperative rest. But after the "big game" is won, they break training. They stuff themselves with rich food until their bodies and minds are sluggish. Then they celebrate their victory by some sort of jollification that lasts half the night. The next day a second-rate team could beat the champions.

A man who has kept himself lean, hard-muscled, and healthy all the way to the achievement of his ambition is apt to take on flabby flesh and gout when he succeeds. The celebration of Thanksgiving is an ordeal from which one does not recover for weeks. Turkey and mince pie immoderately eaten are poisons. Our annual Feast Day is more deadly than the Fourth of July.

[Sidenote: Rusting in Self-Satisfaction]

A great many people "break training" mentally as well as physically at the celebration stage. Their minds and muscles turn flabby after they succeed. They are so proud of their accomplishments that they rust in self-satisfaction. Then, usually too late for remedy, they find themselves afflicted by the rheumatic twinges of deep-seated discontent with what they have done.

We are all familiar with the tragedies of the farmer who sells his acres and moves into town "so that he can take life easy," and of the business man who retires from his "daily grind" to enjoy the fortune of success. So long as they remained at work they were vigorous in mind and body. But nearly always men who give up their accustomed activities begin to develop mental and physical ailments soon afterward. They age and break down in a few years. In order to stay well, one must keep going. It is far less wearying to walk than to stand still. Normal fatigue of mind and body are not so exhaustive of mental and physical energy as torpid idleness.

[Sidenote: Advance or You Will Slip Back]

Probably you do not think of quitting work for a long time. You look at your future retirement as a remote possibility. Very likely you feel it is premature to consider "your declining years" now, when you are in the full vigor of ambition. But if you stop advancing, in order to celebrate your progress thus far, you have quit working your way ahead. If you stay contented with what you have done, even for a little while, you have temporarily retired from the game of success and are in danger of rusting into a partial failure. If you do not continue moving ever upward, you will slip into a decline without realizing that you are going back and down.

[Sidenote: The Zest for Work]

The successful salesman thrives on his work, and pines for it when he "lays off." He welcomes the end of his annual vacation with more zest than its beginning. He celebrates each order gained by planning at once how he will get another. He is like Alexander, who sighed only when there were no more worlds to conquer. He is as perennially tireless as Edison, the wizard who is never weary. To the true salesman there is no enjoyment equal to selling. He often declares that he "would rather sell than eat."

[Sidenote: Pattern after Master Salesmen]

You know the importance of being a good salesman. You have studied the methods he uses throughout the selling process. Now at the celebration stage pattern after the masters of the profession. Do not get into the bad habits of the mediocre fellows who slacken their efforts after each success, and who need the spur of necessity to make them do their utmost.

When a good salesman has booked an order, and has taken pains to make a fine last impression on his customer, he does not go to his hotel and play Kelly pool, or otherwise spend the rest of the day just loafing around. Only the poor salesman celebrates in such a way; thereby showing that his successes are so rare he is not used to them.

[Sidenote: Starting After The Next Chance]

The good salesman looks at his watch the moment he is out of his customer's sight. He makes a swift calculation of the time it will take him to reach and sell the next man on his list. If he has no other prospect nearby, he starts looking for one that minute. His keen eyes catch every name on the business signs he passes. His imaginative mind is planning how he can use the order he just has closed, to influence some other buyer to make a contract. If there are no additional customers for his line in the town, he sprints to the station to catch the first train up the road. He does not waste a minute getting to his next selling opportunity.

[Sidenote: Pepper and Poppies]

Some pretty good salesmen never win the grand quota prize in a sales contest because they take so much time out for celebrating the big orders they close. If they land a fine contract in the morning, they don't try to do much selling that afternoon. The prize-winning salesman, too, is delighted to secure a big order. But he doesn't say to himself, "That will put me 'way ahead on the sales record for today." Instead he grins and thinks, "This is my day. I'm going to fatten up my batting average while I'm going good." Success is pepper to him, not the poppy drug that slackens energy.

[Sidenote: Continual Accumulation]

You have worked hard to get the chance you now have. You have paid for it with your best efforts. It represents an accumulation of your salesmanship. The good job or the promotion you have gained is like a savings account. Let us compare it with the first hundred dollars a thrifty man puts into the bank for a rainy day. Would he celebrate the accumulation of that moderate amount of money, the first evidence of his ability to save, by quitting the practice of spending less than his earnings? Would he then say to himself, "I am now successful as a saver"? Would he stop putting a few dollars in the bank every Saturday, just because he already had a hundred?

[Sidenote: The Building Process is Gradual]

No. He would continue to save until he had enough "units of thrift," enough hundreds of dollars, to take a longer step toward success. He would invest his accumulated savings in a lot, or house. Perhaps he would start a business of his own. After his investment he still would continue to save. So he would build his success.

All building is a gradual, continual process. The bricks are laid one after another. It takes many to complete the structure. Likewise a series of minor successes must be built into a major accomplishment. It does not rise all at once.

If you are tempted to pause where you are in order to celebrate, ask yourself, "Is this really the celebration stage?" Probably you will find you have only laid the corner-stone, or made an excavation for the foundation of your success. You would not think of having a housewarming because you had finished the basement walls. Nor would you consider it an occasion for especial jollification the day you erected the scantlings around the first floor joists. Not until the walls are up and the roof is on, not until the house is plastered and papered and painted, not until it is finished would you think of standing on the sidewalk to look it over pride fully and exult, "I did that. It's a good job."

[Sidenote: Repeated Building]

But if you complete one house, you will not only feel the satisfaction of accomplishment, you will also want to build another that would be a great improvement on the one just finished. You will be healthily dissatisfied with what you have already done. Very likely you will sell the first house at a profit, and straightway start to put up a better building on another lot. In time you will sell that, too. You will continue the procedure until you become a master builder of houses, and continually achieve more and more success.

We have assumed that you now are successfully in possession of an opportunity. You have sold yourself into the very job you want, or into a better position that you believe will afford you fine chances to advance. Do not slump or relax in salesmanship. Do not think back, or spend much time contemplating your present success. Look ahead to your next sale of true ideas of your best capabilities. The successful salesman is a quick repeater. He counts his accomplishments in totals, not by units. He has successful "years," each made up of about three hundred successful working days. He plans in campaigns; so he is not inclined to over-celebrate the winning of a battle.

[Sidenote: Make Each Goal a New Starting Point]

Samuel McRoberts, vice-president of the great National City Bank of New York, started working for Armour & Company at a small salary in the early nineties. He was a young man who was always healthily ambitious to keep moving ahead. He "ate up" the minor work assigned to him, and celebrated the completion of each task by asking at once, "What next?"

In a few years he had risen by successive promotions to the position of treasurer of Armour & Company. But that wasn't a goal to McRoberts. It seemed to him only a good starting point to bigger successes in the financial world. He became a director of several banks, an officer in important railroad and other corporations. He continually enlarged his service value until he was called to New York's greatest bank, and took his place among the masters of American finance.

He did not loll back in his chair then and start taking it easy. He packed more and more accomplishments into every day. When the war began, he went to Washington to take executive charge of the job of procuring ordnance for the fighters. He held a post analogous to that of Lloyd-George when he was Minister of Munitions for Great Britain. McRoberts made good as a brigadier general, and after the war resumed his success in business. Whatever he did, wherever he worked, Samuel McRoberts smiled welcomes to more opportunities for service, and reached out his ready hands to grasp them.

[Sidenote: Celebrate by Tackling the Job Ahead]

That is the way to celebrate—by tackling the job ahead. There is no end to the selling process. One sale should lead directly to another. The good salesman celebrates only the opportunity to get the next order in prospect. He may chuckle to himself over the sale just closed, but he does his rejoicing on his way to a new selling chance.

[Sidenote: Dynamic Confidence Static Complacency]

You haven't "arrived" yet. You are just well started. Keep moving, and you will never "see your finish." Your successes thus far should have developed a considerable degree of self-confidence. Be careful not to let that dynamic quality change into the static element of self-complacency. Never be satisfied with what you have done. Always have the zest of appetite for more to do. Add every day to your success chances.

Do not lose either your self-respect, or the respect of the men with whom you are associated, by ceasing to grow. Do more than you are paid for, and pretty soon your job will be unable to hold all your earning capacity. You will be promoted to bigger opportunities. If you shrink in the place you occupy now, your future chances will shrivel to fit your smaller size. The way to get a better-paying job, to win a bigger, more profitable field for your salesmanship, is to crowd your present position with your capabilities. Burst out of your limited territory and spread over more ground.

[Sidenote: Serving Friends]

Render your utmost possible service to other people. Celebrate each opportunity to form a friendship. Make some one like you for what you are willing to do for him. Hold your friends, once they are made. As Emerson advised, "Be concerned for other people and their welfare. Put their interests sometimes ahead of your own. You can love your fellow men so much that you will never trample on their rights; and while you yourself keep climbing, raise as many of them as you can along with you. That is the way to make friends."

Celebrate the good fortune of your business associates, rather than your own. When a big contract is closed by your employer, be as tickled over it as he feels. Genuinely rejoice in his success. Have no envy of the man above you, then when you rise to a higher level the men below you will not be likely to feel jealous.

[Sidenote: Ford and Schwab]

Why has Henry Ford won so unique a place in the personal regard of the everyday man? Ford is one of the richest men in the world; yet he is not hated. What is the reason for his general popularity? He is not an idler. He has celebrated each success by taking on another job. And he always has given a hand-up to the other fellow instead of kicking him down so that he might climb higher because of his failure. He has understood and sympathized with the hopes and viewpoint of people who work. As a result countless men and women, most of whom never have seen him, think of Henry Ford as their friend. His finest success is not signified by the millions of money he has accumulated, but by the millions of friendships he enjoys.

Charles M. Schwab, too, is popular. He is a man whom people like. Because he was so successful in winning friends, rather than for his generally recognized business ability, he was made the head of the Government's ship-building program in the war. Other men were eager to work with and for Charles M. Schwab. The co-operation of thousands of friendships, new and old, more than anything else enabled him to succeed in his big, patriotic job. How much more he has to celebrate in his wealth of good will than in his great fortune of dollars! Schwab has been called the most successful salesman in the world, which is another way of saying that he has no equal in ability to make other people both trust and like him.

[Sidenote: The Truest Wealth]

You may never accumulate millions of dollars. That in itself is not success. Many wealthy men are failures in life. But with the aid of masterly salesmanship you can so enrich yourself with friendships and the opportunities they bring that making all the money you want will be merely incidental to your real success. Let every accomplishment be a stimulus to better selling of your service. Celebrate successful sales of your ideas by undertaking to sell more true ideas about your best capabilities in a larger field of usefulness.

[Sidenote: The Revolving Door]

The good salesman goes from opportunity to opportunity through a revolving door. As it closes on one selling chance, it opens on another. He steps directly from a finished sale into the prospect of getting an order elsewhere. So he never stops selling.

You have sold yourself some knowledge of salesmanship. Do not rest contented with what you have already learned. These chapters should but whet your appetite for more opportunities to master the principles and methods of selling true ideas of your best capabilities. So as you close this book, reach out your hand to open another. You cannot over-study the subject of salesmanship. Never be satisfied with what you know. Continue to search for more golden knowledge, and make it yours by practicing everything you learn.

[Sidenote: Failure Impossible to The Good Salesman]

It is impossible to fail in life if you become a master salesman of the best that is in you. You will be sure to succeed. So here is Good Luck to you! Keep on making it for yourself, and you never will run out. CERTAIN SUCCESS WILL BE YOURS.

* * * * *

It is you that you offer for sale, With your traits ranged like goods on a shelf, And the first thing to do, without fail, Is to make a success of yourself.

EDGAR A. GUEST.

THE END