Chapter 9

_Getting Yourself Wanted_

[Sidenote: Show a Need For Your Services]

A great many salesmen mistakenly believe that if they can interest a prospect thoroughly in their goods, he is almost sure to buy. When this stage is reached, they think they only need to keep his interest growing to close the sale. If, instead, it drags on interminably, they are utterly at a loss regarding what _more_ they should do to secure the order.

Do not fall into a similar error when selling true ideas of your best capabilities. Not only is it necessary that you induce your prospective employer's _interest_ in your personal qualifications, but you need to make him realize there is a _present lack_ in his business which you can fill to his satisfaction. _You must get yourself wanted._

You might make an excellent first impression on the man you have chosen as your future chief. He might listen attentively to your presentation of ideas, and question you so interestedly that you would expect him to say at any moment, "All right. The job is yours." Then, instead of engaging your services, he might remark, "I'll keep your name on file." Or he might say, "I know a man who probably could use you. I'll give you a note to him." You would win a cordial farewell handshake from your prospect, but not an acceptance of your proposal to work with him. You would leave without the job. _Your failure would be due to your inability to get yourself sufficiently wanted_.

[Sidenote: See Yourself Through Your Prospect's Eyes]

Now imagine yourself in the place of this employer. See your application through his eyes. Unless you can look at yourself from the prospect's viewpoint, you may not comprehend your deficiency in salesmanship.

The employer upon whom you called said to himself while you were trying to sell your services, "Here is a very attractive man. He presents an interesting proposition. But I have no real need for such an employee; therefore it would be poor business for me to engage him, much as I should like to do so. I am sorry that at present I have no place for him in my organization. He's a man I'd like to keep track of, so I'll file his name and address for possible future reference. Meanwhile I'll give him a note to my friend Smith. I hate to turn him down cold; he's such a fine man."

Evidently the employer did not feel a _lack_ in his own business. You failed to make him realize any _need_ for your services.

[Sidenote: Proving A Need]

Contrast with this illustration the case of an efficiency engineer who secured his chance to overhaul a factory by demonstrating to a manufacturer that he needed a new order-checking system. The engineer "beat" the old system and brought to the manufacturer's office a lot of goods he had secured that could not be checked. His salesmanship compelled attention, induced thorough interest, and proved there was a hole that should be filled. When the lack was shown convincingly, the manufacturer wanted it satisfied. The sale of the engineer's services was quickly closed.

[Sidenote: Getting Yourself Wanted Is Only One Step Ahead]

Do not jump to the conclusion that you are sure of the job you desire, just as soon as you get yourself wanted. You are not yet at the end of the selling process. The prospect has only been conducted successfully another step forward toward your goal. _The moment after he realizes the lack in his business, he is apt to question most critically your qualifications for filling it._

[Sidenote: Analysis Naturally Follows Desire]

_As soon as a man begins to feel a real tug of desire for anything, he examines it with new, increased interest to make sure there isn't something the matter with it._ The suit of clothes that only induces his interest in a shop window is passed by after a look. However, if he says to himself, "That's the kind of suit I want," he goes in and examines the workmanship and the cloth, in search of faults. The salesman may need to overcome certain objections of his prospect before the order can be secured.

But we have not reached the objections stage of the uncompleted sale. That is the subject of the next chapter. Let us retrace our steps to study the essence of the art of getting yourself wanted.

[Sidenote: Two-part Process of Getting Yourself Wanted]

There are two parts to the process. First, you must show the prospect what he lacks; that in his business there is _an unoccupied opportunity for such services as you believe you are capable of rendering to his benefit and satisfaction_. Second, you need to _picture yourself filling the place and giving the service_; to show him imaginatively _your qualifications at work in his business_.

[Sidenote: Sincerity Of Service Purpose]

Of course it is primarily necessary that you believe in your own capability, and in the value to the other man of the qualities you have brought to him for sale. Unless you have this feeling yourself, you will not be likely to draw out his reciprocating desire for your services. You are not dealing now with his mind. _Desire proceeds from the heart. It is emotional, not mental_. The least suspicion of your insincerity would check your prospect's feeling that he wants you as an employee. You must feel that you have come with a purpose of genuine service, and you must draw out his similar feeling.

[Sidenote: Desire Comes Out of the Heart]

When you knocked at the door of your prospect's mind, and when you sought to induce his welcome for your ideas, your object was to get him to take your thoughts _into_ his head. The line of action is _reversed_ at the desire stage of the selling process. Until now _you_ have been the moving party. You have been getting yourself and your ideas into his consciousness. But while attention and interest are _receptive_ processes, the emotion of genuine desire starts with an _outward moving impulse from the prospect_. It isn't enough that he open his heart and let you enter, as he has admitted your ideas to his mind. _If he really wants you, his feeling of desire will come out after you_.

[Sidenote: Service Value is Appreciated]

You have revealed to your prospect a lack in his business, and have pictured yourself filling it to his satisfaction. You have done him a double service. It is human nature to _appreciate_ such a genuine service, and to _want more_ like it. The first service is accepted with appreciation, but when the square man wants more _he makes a move to get it, and expects to pay for it_. As soon as you have shown the lack and your ability to fill it, and have pictured yourself "on the job," it will be natural for your prospect to want you there in fact.

The colored porter who washed the windows and scrubbed floors in the general offices of a manufacturing corporation was ambitious to rise in the social scale and to earn a larger salary. One evening he went to the private office of the president, and presented for sale an idea of his capability for a different job.

[Sidenote: Official Welcomer Wanted]

"Boss," he began, "You-all ain't got nobody dere to de front doah to make folks feel welcome-like when dey comes in heah. Down in Virginny my ol' gran-pap useter weah a dress suit ever' day an' jist Stan' in de front hall of his ol' massa's house, a-waitin' to bow an' smile to comp'ny whad'd come in. If you'll jist rent me one o' dem dar suits, Boss, I could stan' out in the front office an' make folks feel we wuz glad to see 'um, lak' mah gran'pap did. When ennybody comes heah now, dey ain't nobody pays much 'tention to 'um. You'd orter git somebody on dat job, Boss; an' I reckon I'm jist 'bout cut out foh it, suh."

The colored man compelled attention by presenting himself at the door of the sanctum. He induced interest in his proposal. Then, in addition, _he pointed out a lack and that he could fill it_. Immediately the president _visioned_ the old darkey as an official welcomer, and _wanted_ him. _He reached right out for the service offered_. The sale was closed at once, and the colored man shone in his new glories within a week.

[Sidenote: Conflict of Heart and Mind]

Often a man desires with his heart things that his mind does not approve. Therefore when you work to get yourself wanted, _appeal to the heart of your prospect, rather than to his mind_. Then if _his_ mind raises objections to his desire for your services, _your_ mind at a later stage of the selling process will overcome or get around his mental opposition. When the time for that step arrives, _his heart_ will already have been won as _your ally_, and will help you dispose of the objections _his mind_ has raised.

[Sidenote: Get Yourself Liked]

As a preliminary to getting yourself wanted, get yourself _liked_. Make such an impression, do and say such things, as will draw out of the heart of your prospect _a friendly feeling_ for you. You know of people who have been boosted to notable successes because influential men took personal interest in their advancement.

I recall an office boy who was always ready to perform little extra services. He held his employer's overcoat one day, and the boss rather absent-mindedly handed him a tip. The boy shook his head and declined the dime.

"I didn't do that for a tip. You always treat me fine, and I just like to show you I appreciate it."

The boy's _heart had spoken_, and the employer's _heart responded at once with an especial liking_ for the lad. The seed of personal interest having been planted in the heart of the president, his liking grew. The boy was advanced to better and better positions. He made good on his merits, but he was helped very much because his employer _wanted_ him to succeed.

[Sidenote: The Common Heart of Man]

Reference has previously been made to the fundamental likeness of all men at heart and to their differences in mind. Send out with your voice an appeal to only the _minds_ of your audience--read a table of statistics, for example--and it will affect all your hearers _differently, depending on the mental characteristics of each individual_. But tell a story of great courage, of self-sacrifice, of love--_the same fundamental effect_ will be produced on all the _hearts_ in the audience; though, of course, the various individuals will respond with _different degrees of emotional intensity_.

As has been said before, in order to look into the heart of another man you need but see clearly into your own. There you will find all the emotions of human nature, no matter how you may differ from other men in mentality. Hence if you would prompt the heart of another man to want your services, just _do the things he would need to do to win your liking for him_. Imagine the cases reversed, and be guided in your selling process by what you see.

[Sidenote: Popular Men]

To look at this step from another angle--_if you would be likable, you must find other men likable_. If you like people only within a limited range, you will similarly narrow your own likableness. If, however, you genuinely like all men--like them for their faults and frailties as well as for their merits--you will appeal to the intuitive heart of any other man. You will draw out his liking for you because _the magnetic power of your own heart will not be restricted_ to pulling your way the friendly feelings of only a few people. Instead, you will be a "popular" man, a man who is _generally_ well liked.

You meet certain men whom you like at sight. You desire further acquaintance, or friendship with them. But these men have not prepared themselves to suit _you_ in particular. Most _other_ people who meet them have the _same feeling_ toward them that you experience. The men you like at sight, and who make friends wherever they go have developed in themselves _feelings of friendliness for all men_. As like breeds like, liking draws liking.

[Sidenote: Artificial Methods Never Deceive The Heart]

If you try to develop particular traits, only because you believe they will attract other men to you, you will not make your nature likable. Such _artificial methods_ of making yourself attractive _never deceive heart intuitions_. You will not become popular by proceeding _selfishly_. But if you develop within yourself a heartfelt interest in your fellow men, if you are full of genuine desire to serve them with your friendship, _you will attract the liking of nearly all the people you meet_. They will want to know you better and to be your friends.

[Sidenote: No Insulation Against Human Magnetism]

There is "no sich critter" as a natural grouch. A man who has that reputation is _repressing his natural emotions_--that is all. He does not express his true feelings. He attempts to deny that he has them. _But they are inside him, and you can pull them toward you_ if you bring your likableness to bear upon his heart. He will feel the tug, and will be drawn to you by your magnetic power. _There is no insulation that can prevent the pull of human magnetism_. So treat the crab with a feeling of real liking for the human nature inside, and don't be discouraged by his shell. Be more than ordinarily likable when you have to deal with a surly prospect. Exert all the magnetism you have. He will feel drawn to you. You will get yourself wanted.

J. Pierpont Morgan, Senior, was noted for being unapproachable. But it is said that he took a great liking to a certain newsboy who never acted afraid of him and who treated him as an ordinary mortal. This gamin always had a cheery word for everybody. That he made no exception in Mr. Morgan's case won the heart of the austere financier, who helped the boy to get an education and to start in business.

[Sidenote: Do Not Over-sell Likability]

The emphasis placed on the importance of likableness as the _principal_ factor in getting yourself wanted may have made you forget the _primary_ necessity of showing your prospect _a real lack in his business, and that you are capable of filling it_. It is possible to attract an employer's liking for you, whether he has a place for you or not. But his liking will do you no good unless you can also make him see he has a need for you.

_Success is not to be won by getting in where you are not wanted, however likable you may be_. You must sell the idea of your service _value_ as well as the ideas that your services would be _liked_. You _cannot over-develop_ the quality of likableness, but you _can over-sell_ it, to the detriment of your own best interest.

[Sidenote: A Winning Personality Sometimes Fails]

One of the most conspicuous failures I know is a man who has "a winning personality." Times without number his genuine agreeableness has won him fine chances to succeed, but in the positions he has held he has never studied the needs of his employers for other qualities than likability. Consequently he has fallen down on all his big chances. Today he is just a popular door man for a big department store. His intelligence and his physical ability are so evident that he is an object of pity and wonder as he smiles and bows to customers of the store. Undoubtedly if he had studied the different opportunities he has had, and had fitted himself into all the requirements of a particular situation, his winning personality would have helped him higher and higher toward the mountain peaks of success instead of leaving him on an ant hill.

[Sidenote: Three Impressions Necessary]

Of course the mind of your prospective employer acts in co-ordination with his heart when you attract him so much that he really wants the service you proffer. He imagines you rendering that service. He thinks what "might be" if you were associated with his business. He paints mental pictures that please him, and he wishes his vision to come true. But when he begins to imagine you rendering service, the picture of your agreeable personality will not be pleasant to him if he sees that he doesn't really need you. _In order to get yourself wanted it is necessary that you show him the lack, and that you can fill it, and that you would be likable when filling it_. If you make these three impressions on the mind and heart of your prospect, your success in your purpose will be assured. You will not fail to get yourself wanted.

[Sidenote: Desire is Turning Point Of the Sale]

In salesmanship "desire is the determinant of the sale." By this is meant that _when the salesman sufficiently stimulates a real desire in his prospect, he has climbed the highest grade of difficulty_. If he is skillful, the selling process from then on should be comparatively easy sledding. You realize that if you can get yourself wanted by an employer, the matter of landing a job in his business should not be hard. We therefore are considering now _the turning point in the process of selling the true idea of your best capabilities in the right field_. After you get yourself wanted, the odds are no longer against you, but grow increasingly in your favor. If, having succeeded in getting yourself wanted, you then fail in your ultimate purpose, you should blame no one but yourself.

[Sidenote: The Use of Tactful Suggestion]

A very skillful use of _tact and diplomacy_ is necessary to success in pointing out to a prospect something that he lacks, and your capability for filling that lack. A man is apt to resent your "picking flaws" in his business. He is likely to regard you as an egotist if you _assert_ that he needs you. You will not get yourself wanted if you make the impression that you are a critical fault-finder with "the big-head." Rather, you should pattern after the example of the professional salesman of goods. In the processes of persuasion and creating desire he employs the arts of _suggestion in preference to making direct statements_. He is a tactful diplomat. Learn from his methods, as explained in "The Selling Process."

You have come to a chosen employer, with a real service purpose; but be careful not to _offend_ in your presentation. Do not bring him your idea for improving his business as if it were a great discovery you have made. He won't like it if you open his eyes to his lacks in that fashion. You might better suggest that while you have perceived what he needs, you have no doubt he either has seen it already or would have perceived it if his time and attention had not been engrossed by other things. You will be liked if you so present a picture of the lack and of yourself satisfying it.

[Sidenote: Rubbing the Prospect the Wrong Way]

_You are apt to get yourself cordially disliked if you rub your prospect's pride in his business the wrong way_.

An accountant sought an opportunity to become the auditor for a manufacturing corporation. He had gained considerable "inside knowledge" of the company's lax business methods. But when talking to the president he exaggerated the relative importance of these defects. In his eagerness to impress the executive with the need for an auditor, he over-drew the danger from leaks in the company's accounting system. The president was exasperated. His pride was stung. What had been said reflected on his capability as an executive. So he turned savagely on the accountant.

"If we're so rotten as all that," he snarled, "how could we make money and pay dividends? No doubt you are right in your criticisms of our methods. But if I had a man like you around here, continually finding fault and picking everybody and everything to pieces, the whole business would be demoralized. The ideas you have brought to me are worth a thousand dollars, and I'll give you my check for that, but no crepe hanger can work for me."

[Sidenote: Avoid Teaching]

When you present your capabilities for sale, don't suggest that you think your prospect's business will go to the "demnition bow-wows" if your services are not engaged. _Understate the lack and your fitness to fill it_. You may be sure the employer will appreciate fully the value of the new ideas you bring, and the worth of your services.

[Sidenote: Pope's Rule]

None of us really like "teachers." Nowadays the most successful educational methods follow the rule laid down by Alexander Pope, "Men must be taught as if you taught them not; and things unknown proposed as things forgot." Do not suggest that you are a "know it all." Much less make the impression that the other man does not know. Communicate to him the idea that you believe he has overlooked the lack to which you call his attention. With modest confidence present your capabilities. You need not assert in words that you will fill the bill. Your prospect can see that. In everything you suggest and say, show that you genuinely like him and his business. Manifest sincere admiration. _Make him feel that you have come to his office because you especially want to work there. That will make him want you in his service_. Use suggestion to increase his desire for you.

[Sidenote: Reduce Resistance By Suggestion]

_Direct_ presentation of ideas indicates an intention to inform, to teach, to direct the mind of the other man. Every human individual, whether a child or a centenarian, _re-acts in opposition_ to such an effort at instruction. There is something in all of us alike which makes us wish to think and decide for ourselves. Hence the value of the art of suggestion in getting yourself wanted.

Ideas you _suggest_ enter the mind of the other man so unobtrusively that _he does not realize you originated them_. He has no feeling that you intend to influence his mind. Consequently he makes no resistance to the suggested ideas. _It never pays to reason when selling an idea; because reasoning invariably brings out a reaction of opposition_. You will not create a desire for your services by presenting them _logically_, or by making an _argument_ regarding your capabilities. One of the greatest students of the human mind assures us that "most persons never perform an act of pure reasoning; but all their acts are the results of imitation, habit, suggestion, or some related form of thinking."

[Sidenote: Three Reasons For Using Suggestion]

Suggestion is remarkably effective in persuading and in arousing desire because:

First, _every "suggested" idea is accepted as absolutely true unless it is contradicted by other ideas already in the mind of the prospect_. This is because the prospect thinks a _suggested_ idea is his. He adopts it and makes it his own. That is, his mind takes the suggestion and interprets it in terms of his own thoughts. Of course he believes what he himself thinks. _Say_ to a prospective employer that you would particularly like to work in association with him, and he may believe you are "shooting hot air." He will have no such feeling if you tell him details about his business that have especially interested you. _Show_ him that you have been studying and observing his methods. Give him to understand that you have also investigated other businesses. Thus without _saying_ it, you _suggest_ to his mind that you have come to his office because you really would prefer to be employed there. He will believe the suggested idea; though he might have scoffed at the statement.

[Sidenote: Suggestion Avoids Contradiction]

Second, _suggestion is effective in persuasion and in arousing desire because suggested ideas which include no comparisons or criticisms very seldom arouse contradictory attitudes of mind_. The suggested idea enters the mind of the other man quietly, unaccompanied by a blare of the trumpet "I Tell You." Opposing ideas are not aware of its presence until it has supplanted them. _Suggest_ to a chosen employer that he _means_ to be up-to-date, and he agrees. If you _say_ his methods are behind the times, he will be apt to defend them instead of following your lead along the line of suggested improvements.

[Sidenote: Suggested Ideas Tend to Action]

Third, _every suggested idea of action tends to result in the action itself; whereas a direct attempt to secure action is almost sure to result in opposition_. Human nature works that way. Your prospect, being unconscious that a particular idea of action is suggested to him, does not have his will stimulated to prevent that action. If you come to your prospective employer and _ask_ for the job you want, he will be on the _defensive_. But if you _suggest_ to him that he wants you--that he lacks and needs such services as you present--_he will be impelled to the affirmative action of offering you the job_.

[Sidenote: Selling Henry Ford]

When I was originally engaged by Henry Ford, it was in the capacity of a public accountant, for an audit of the business of the Ford Motor Company, and later for the installation of an accounting system that would tell accurately every month "where they were at." Back in 1904-1905 the Ford Motor Company was not showing any more profits than many other motor car manufacturers organized on similar lines. After I completed my work as an accountant, Mr. Ford talked with me about taking a permanent position with the Company in the capacity of "Commercial Manager." That title covered responsibility for the distribution of products, advertising, collections, selection of branch managers and their corps of assistants, operation of branch houses, appointment and direction of agents, employment and control of the entire sales force, etc., etc. The position was much broader than that of Sales Manager, as it included also the accounting and organizing of nearly every department of the business.

For several years prior to that time I had sold my services as a public accountant and organizer to many large concerns throughout the country, including twenty-eight different automobile companies. I believed in my ability, not only to organize a selling and distributing force for successfully marketing a standard product, but also to extend that force over a world field and to control it in all the details of its operations, from opening the mail to the declaration and payment of dividends, more efficiently than the average sales or commercial manager. So I had no hesitancy in undertaking the Ford job, which, even at that early date, I visualized as culminating in a big one.

When I finally engaged my services with the Ford Motor Company on a permanent basis, the business was represented by only a few hundred scattered, unorganized, uncontrolled, and non-directed dealers. My work during the following twelve years was concentrated on developing and enlarging yearly this small hit-or-miss distributing aggregation into a compact force of thousands of well-trained, highly efficient sales and service representatives of the Ford Motor Company. They were all Ford "boosters," and by their loyalty and intensive co-operation they "put across the Ford" in the big way that today makes the little car so conspicuous everywhere throughout the world.

[Sidenote: Statement Avoided Suggestion Used]

Note that while my experience with the Ford Motor Company as a public accountant convinced me that what the business needed then was a commercial manager and sales organizer, and I believed myself fitted for the position, I did not make that statement to Mr. Ford; because it would have been poor salesmanship. He might have thought me entirely qualified to deal with figures, but not so capable of handling sales agents and dealers.

So I never _said_ to him that I was the man he needed. But I _suggested_ it by presenting my ideas of how the job should be done. He accepted my ideas as good, and was influenced by the natural suggestion that resulted from them. He told me that he wanted me to become Commercial and Sales Manager. It was the opportunity for success that I most desired. I got myself _wanted_ without having to overcome any _resistance_ in the mind of the man with whom I had chosen to work.

[Sidenote: Negative Suggestions]

You recognize how true to human nature are incidents of this sort. You know how powerful is the force of _affirmative_ suggestion. But have you appreciated how surely desire is killed by _negative_ suggestions? If you make _displeasing_ impressions, you will get yourself _not_ wanted. Therefore you must _be careful to avoid certain things your prospect would not like, just as you should be careful in doing things that are likable_.

[Sidenote: Speak the Prospect's Language]

If your prospecting and sizing up of an employer indicate that he is very painstaking, suggest to him how particular you have been to prepare yourself in knowledge of his needs. If he is a man who weighs ideas carefully, suggest to him your qualities of judgment and decision. Perhaps he is characterized by a marked constructive imagination. Suggest that you, too, have imaginative power. Bring out conspicuously the particular elements of your qualifications that are most likely to _suggest ideas akin to his own_. Speak those phrases of the language of suggestion which he best understands, and that are most likely to impress him with _the idea that you and he think alike_.

[Sidenote: Deceptive Suggestions]

A caution is necessary here. In any suggestion that you make, _convey neither more nor less than the actual truth_ regarding your capabilities. _Avoid any possibility of deception_.

I recall the case of a young man who quite won the heart of a dignified bank president whose tastes were very quiet. The young man studiously avoided the slightest appearance of flashiness in his dress and manner. He spoke in modulated tones. His movements were subdued. He had exactly the quiet pose that suited his prospective employer. The banker stressed his appreciation of the characteristics manifested by the applicant, and the young man "overdid it" by suggesting that he was _always_ decorous in his manner.

The bank president had occasion to entertain a visiting financier who wanted to go to the ball game. A few seats away the young man whose application was being considered rooted boisterously for the home team, unconscious of the contradiction he presented to the suggestions he had made in the banker's private office. The new impression was made more disagreeable because the boisterous behavior suggested to the banker that the young man had not conveyed a true idea of himself previously. When he came next morning for the answer to his application, he received a cold "No."

The young man really was not boisterous except on the rare occasions when he let off steam, as at a ball game. If he had conveyed the _truthful_ impression that he was _nearly always_ quiet, and had taken pains to admit that _occasionally_ he "let loose," but only in proper surroundings, he would not have killed his chances by the negative suggestion of untruthfulness.

[Sidenote: Motive of Suggestion]

After all it is your _motive_ that determines the right or wrong use of suggestion in getting yourself wanted. If you keep carefully in mind a purpose to _suggest less instead of more than the truth_ about your capabilities, you need not fear that you will offend by over-drawing the picture of your real self.

If _your_ motive is wrong, it will lower the quality of _your_ manhood. If you suggest a wrong motive to the _other_ man, the effect is to lower _his_ manhood qualities in considering you. _It is particularly important not to stimulate a motive that may afterward operate to your detriment_.

[Sidenote: Over-Suggestion of Ability]

I know a young man who was so eager to show his willingness to work that he suggested absolute tirelessness. His employer, though he appreciated what this young man did, kept overloading him. Finally the employee broke down and made a serious mistake. He was unjustly dismissed from service because _he had encouraged his employer to depend on him altogether too much, and disappointment resulted_.

Do not pretend a higher degree of ability than you possess. Attempt no more than you can do well. You will succeed in getting yourself wanted if you _manifest promise of growth_ in capability. If you are a sapling, do not pose as a full grown tree of knowledge.

[Sidenote: Selling Out To Competitor]

Sometimes it happens that a man can present his capabilities for sale and appear especially desirable to another man because he possesses certain knowledge the employer would like to have. Maybe you have sought to gain your chance by carrying to a competitor of your former employer the latter's secrets. If you come with the suggestion that you will sell out, you are offering a service that does not command full respect, and you are appealing only to the _lower motives_ of your prospect. You do not thereby get _yourself_ wanted. He wants _what you know_. What you have learned fairly by working for one man, you have a right to sell fairly to another man, of course. But do not suggest that this special knowledge is the _principal element_ of your desirability. Suggest, rather, that it is _only incidental to your all-around fitness_ for the job you want.

[Sidenote: Self-Respect]

Use what you know without pandering to the lower motives of your new employer. Impel him to like you for what you _are_, and not merely for what you _bring_. Open his eyes to your _better_ nature, not to the _worst_ side of you. _He will see in you the better qualities of himself and appreciate them_. Have your own motives right; then there will be no danger that you will appeal to the wrong motives of the other man.

Of course you must have the highest respect for your own motives. This necessitates high character. _You must be honest in the very structure of your being_. You need, too, _absolute faith in yourself and in your proposition_, and faith in the _desirability_ of your service to the other man. Finally, you must be _consecrated_ to the motive of rendering him _service_.

[Sidenote: Postpone Criticism Until Desire Is Stimulated]

It is poor salesmanship to let your prospect begin to analyze your faults _until you have made yourself thoroughly pleasing_ to him. Before you complete the selling process you should admit your own faults, rather than let him discover them. _But skillfully postpone this step until you get yourself wanted._ Then your prospect will be inclined to _co-operate_ in disposing of objections to you; whereas _if criticisms arise too soon in the selling process they may prevent him from liking you thoroughly, and may check your purpose before you get yourself wanted_.

[Sidenote: Right Time to "Face The Music"]

A merchant received an application for employment in his private office from a young man who created so pleasing an impression that the employer decided to make him his secretary. He outlined his ideas to the applicant, who entered into them most enthusiastically; thereby increasing the liking of his prospective employer for him. Then the young man sat up straight in his chair, looked the merchant squarely in the eye, and said, "No one in this city knows it, but when I was eighteen years old I stole ten dollars and was sentenced to the reform school. That was seven years ago. I never have done anything dishonest since, and I never will again. But you have a right to know my whole record before you employ me in a position of such trust." If the candidate had confessed his blemished record _before_ making himself thoroughly desirable, it is practically certain that he would not have won the place. He got it because _he handled the objection after instead of before creating the desire_ for his services.

[Sidenote: Concentrate On Suggesting Qualifications]

We shall consider in the next chapter how to meet and handle objections, how to deal with your faults. But as we postpone our study of that step in the selling process; so should you postpone consideration of your faults and shortcomings, until you get yourself wanted. Do not dodge direct questions, but courteously request that you be permitted to answer them a little later. _At this stage_ of selling the true idea of your best capabilities _concentrate upon the moderate, truthful suggestion of your qualifications_.

[Sidenote: Gaining Prospect's Confidence]

The first result to be desired in selling is the _confidence of the buyer_. Use all your manly qualities to win this confidence _deservedly_. Then when you honestly admit your faults and shortcomings, you will be aided to win out in the end by the confidence you have already inspired in the other man.

Very often the applicant for a position fails to get it because he merely presents the _abstract_ idea that his services are for sale. _He does not picture himself in actual service_. The presentation of abstract ideas is an appeal only to the _interest_ or mind side of the other man. The presentation to his imagination must go _beyond_ his interest, if his _heart desire_ for the services is to be secured. Therefore it is highly important to your success in getting yourself wanted that you plan how you actually would serve on the job, and when you are talking with your prospective employer, _speak as if you were at work_.

[Sidenote: Picture Yourself At Work]

If you imagine yourself fitted into a particular job, and _show yourself there to the mind's eye_ of your prospect, he will have to go through the mental process of _getting you out_ of the imaginary job. That will be much harder for him than it would have been to _keep you out_ in the first place. If you merely present the services you _could_ render, and don't picture yourself as _actually rendering_ them, you haven't won even the imaginary job. _But if you do paint yourself into a chosen place, and can make your prospect see you in that position, the suggestion will impel him to copy imagination with actuality. He will consider you as if you were on the job._ Evidently when you have won this advantage, he will be inclined to want to keep you at work, unless you do something or manifest some quality that makes you undesirable.

[Sidenote: No Doubt About Success]

_Getting yourself wanted is a process that can be brought to a successful conclusion with absolute certainty._ It is not difficult to understand human nature if you are willing to see clearly into yourself. It is only necessary, then, that you subordinate your personality to the personality of the other man. _Learn what he wants, and avoid showing him that you want something from him. Show him instead that you can supply what he lacks_. Complete and round out the process by suggesting the particular qualities in yourself that your prospecting and size-up have indicated to be the qualities _he especially likes_. He will want you then. He can't help it.