Selling Things

To keep fit is to maintain perfect health; and perfect health depends upon a perfect balance of mind and body, unimpaired physical vigor and absolute inner harmony, a mental poi...

“Getting what you want from kings or statesmen,” De Blowitz said, “is all a matter of dining with the right people.” Through the power of his charming presence, his gracious man...

Tact eases the jolts, oils the bearings, opens doors barred to others, sits in the drawing-room when others wait in the reception hall, gets into the private office when others...

It is defeat that turns bone to flint, and gristle to muscle, and makes men invincible, and formed those heroic natures that are now in ascendancy in the world. Do not, then, be...

“When other people are ready to give up we are just getting our second wind,” is the motto of a New York business house. A good one for the success aspirant.

A Quaker merchant who had made a fortune in Liverpool, when asked how he had made it, replied, “By a single article of trade in which every one may deal who pleases—civility.”

A Washington government official called on me some time ago, and before he had reached my desk I knew he was a man of importance, on an important mission. He had that assured be...

A great authority on salesmanship said: “Any one can call upon a prospective buyer and go away without an order.” It is up to the salesman to get what he goes after. If he knows...

In differentiating the essentials of success in selling, a specialty expert said: “I find that when I am in prime condition physically, and am well dressed, so that I do not hav...

The man who has acquired the power of keeping his mind filled with the thoughts which uplift and encourage, the optimistic thought, the cheerful, hopeful thought, has solved one...

There are two kinds of objections which are met by all salesmen—valid and invalid. Naturally, it is impossible to overcome valid objections. It would be a mistake on the part of...

A student seeking admission to Oberlin College asked its famous president if there was not some way of taking a sort of homeopathic college course, some short-cut by which he co...

The habit of expecting great things of ourselves, expecting the best things to come to us, calls out the best that is in us and brings the best to us.

The power of suggestion may be used for base and illegitimate ends or for honorable and legitimate ones. It is his suggestive power which makes the smooth, long-headed promoter...

When I was editor of a big magazine I sent an assistant to interview a young man who had had most remarkable success in the life insurance business, to get from him the secret o...

There are certain lines of business in which the salesman has no competition; this, however, is the exception. There are many lines in which the competition is more imaginary th...

A man who was waiting impatiently outside the church for his family, asked the janitor if the pastor was not through with his sermon. “Yes,” said the janitor, “he is through, bu...

The hardest problem with any business man is to find customers, that is to say, desirable and profitable customers. Identical with the problem of finding customers, is the more...

Why is it that one salesman can often accomplish three or four times as much as another? The difference is not always that of ability. It is often a difference in the effort—in...

Character is the greatest power in the world. Nothing can take its place; talents cannot, genius cannot, education cannot, training cannot. The reputation of being absolutely sq...

When you are in doubt as to how your acts will affect another, you must ask yourself this question, “Would I like to have some one else do this to me?”

A.J. Lauver, General Manager Burroughs’ Adding Machine, says, “The ideal salesman is one who is making an honest and determined effort to render a real service to his customers....

Soon after Henry Ward Beecher went to Plymouth Church he received a letter from a Western parish, asking him to send them a new pastor. After describing the sort of man they wan...

Much has been written on the question of a selling talk, and there is no little misunderstanding on this all-important subject. Every one who has “a story to tell” has what may...

Many a man with a good brain fails as a salesman, or remains a mediocre one, because he has never learned to express himself with ease and fluency. A lame, hesitating, poverty-s...

It is of the utmost importance that every salesman should have full confidence in his sales manager. There are many peculiar conditions which exist in all lines of business. The...

There are three principal ways in which to get the favorable attention of a prospect; the first is “affording pleasure;” the second, “exciting admiration,” and the third, “arous...

Different authorities agree pretty much on the subjects which must be studied or understood in the making of good salesmen, although they classify in somewhat different ways the...

“The man or woman wishing to present to me a business proposition,” said a high class, successful merchant, “must have a good address and an agreeable manner and appearance, or...