worth out of this investment. I had tried my best, but I hadn’t made a sale.
“That night I prayed for guidance. And the next morning I prayed for guidance. When I left home, I went to the largest bank in the city of Detroit. There I sold a policy to the cashier and got permission to sell in the bank during working hours. It seemed that within me there was a driving force that was so sincere that all obstacles were removed. That day I made 44 sales.”
Through trial and error the first day, my mother developed inspirational dissatisfaction. She was inspired to action. She knew Whom to ask for guidance and help in her efforts to make a livelihood, just as she knew Whom to ask for guidance and help when she was faced with a problem regarding her son.
And through trial and success the second day, she acquired know-how in selling her accident policies that developed for her a successful sales system. Now she had know-how in addition to inspiration to action and activity knowledge. So the upward climb was rapid.
Salesmen, like other persons, often fail in the upward climb because they do not reduce to a formula the principles applied on those days when they are successful. They know the facts, but they fail to extract the principles.
Now that she was earning a good living in personal sales, my mother began to build a sales organization that operated throughout the state of Michigan under the trade name of
Liberty Registry Company.
Mother and I would see each other on holidays and during vacation periods. My second high school summer vacation was spent in Detroit. That’s when I, too, learned to sell accident insurance, and, that’s where I started to search for a sales system for myself– a system that would never fail.
Do Twice as Much in Half the Time
The Liberty Registry Company office was in the Free Press Building. I spent a day in the office, reading and studying the policy I was to try to sell the next day.
My sales instructions were as follows:
1. Completely canvass the Dime Bank Building.
2. Start at the top floor and call on each and every office.
3. Avoid calling in the office of the building.
4. Use the introduction, “May I take a moment of your time?”
5. Try to sell everyone you call on.
So I followed instructions. Remember, I had learned as a Boy Scout: When you set out to do something–don’t come back until you have done it.
Was I frightened? You bet I was.
But it never occurred to me not to follow instructions. I just didn’t know any better. I was, in this respect, a product of habit–a good habit.
The first day I sold two policies–two more than I had ever sold before. The second day, four–and that was a 100 per cent increase. The third day, six–a 50 per cent increase. And the fourth day I learned an important lesson.
I called at a large real estate office, and when I stood at the desk of the sales manager and used the introduction, “May I take a moment of your time?” I was startled. For he jumped to his feet, pounded his desk with his right fist and almost shouted: “Boy, as long as you live never ask a man for his time! Take it!”
So I took his time and sold him and 26 of his salesmen that day.
That started me thinking: There must be a scientific way to sell many policies every day. There must be a method that will make one hour produce the work of many. Why not find a system for selling twice as much in half the time? Why can’t I develop a formula that will bring maximum results for each hour of effort? From that point on, I was consciously trying to discover the principles that have since built for me my sales system that never fails. I reasoned: “Success can be reduced to a formula. And failure can be reduced to a formula, too. Apply the one and avoid the other. Think for yourself.”
Think for Yourself
Regardless of who you are, it is desirable to learn the techniques of good salesmanship. For selling is merely persuading another person to accept your service, your product, or your idea. In this sense, everyone is a salesman. Whether or not you are a salesman by vocation, the minute details of my selling system are not really important to you; but the principles may be–if you are ready.
What is important to you is that you reduce to a formula, preferably in writing, the principles you learn from your successful experiences and your failures, in whatever activities you may be interested. But you may not know how to extract principles from what you read, hear, or experience. I’ll illustrate how I did it. But you must think for yourself.
How I Overcame Timidity and Fear
Before I describe how I overcame timidity and fear when opening up closed doors, entering plush offices, and trying to sell to businessmen and women as a teenager, let me first tell how I faced the same problem as a boy.
Many persons find it difficult to believe that as a youngster I was timid and afraid. But it is nature’s law that with every new experience and in every new environment an individual will feel some degree of fear. Nature protects the individual from danger by this awareness. Children and women experience this to a greater degree than men; again, this is nature’s way of protecting them from harm.
I remember that as a boy I was so timid that when we had company I would go into another room, and during a thunderstorm I would hide under the bed. But one day I reasoned: “If lightning is going to strike, it will be just as dangerous whether I am under the bed or in any other part of the room.” I decided to conquer this fear. My opportunity came, and I took advantage of it. During a thunderstorm, I forced myself to go to the window and look at the lightning. An amazing thing happened. I began to enjoy the beauty of the flashes of lightning through the sky. Today, there is no one who enjoys a thunderstorm more than I do.
Although I called in each office in sequence in the Dime Bank Building, I had not licked the fear of opening a door, particularly when I couldn’t: see what was on the other side (many of the glass doors were frosted or had curtains on the inside). It was necessary to develop a method of forcing myself to enter.
Then, because I searched, I found the answer. I reasoned: Success is achieved by those who try. Where there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if successful, by all means try!
The repetition of either of these self-motivators satisfied my reason. But I was still afraid, and it was still necessary to get into action. Fortunately, I struck upon the self-starter: Do it now! Because I had learned the value of trying to establish the right habits and the harm of acquiring wrong habits, it occurred to me that I could force myself to action as I left one office if I would rush quickly into the next one. Should it occur to me to hesitate, I would use the self starter Do it now!–and immediately act on it. This I did.
How to Neutralize Timidity and Fear
When once inside a place of business, I was still not at ease, but I soon learned how to neutralize the fear of talking to a stranger. I did it through voice control.
I found that if I spoke loudly and rapidly, hesitated where there would be a period or comma if the spoken word were written, kept a smile in my voice, and used modulation, I no longer had butterflies in my stomach. Later I learned that this technique was based on a very sound psychological principle: The emotions (like fear) are not immediately subject to reason, but they are subject to action. When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion–action will.
The sales manager in the real estate office hadn’t liked the introduction: “May I take a moment of your time?” Besides, many persons on whom I had used this introduction had answered “No.” So I abandoned it and, after experimenting, came up with a new one that I have used ever since: “I believe this will interest you also.”
No one has said “No” to this introduction. Most have asked, “What is it?” Then, of course, I have told them and given them my sales talk. The purpose of a sales introduction is solely to get a person to listen.
Know