Your Place in Our Economy

Selling is not a new art. It is as old as man himself. When man first began to exchange ideas he began to sell. Sell- ing has always been employed as a means of influencing someone to do something. It has been demonstrated in the form of exchanging ideas, products, plans, or services. How- ever, it was soon discovered that, in order to influence a man, it was necessary to please him. If the man was pleased, he would listen and pay attention to your story; otherwise, he paid no attention. Therefore, in order to sell him, it was necessary to know how to please him.

Thus opened up an entirely new field for selling. To be successful at this art it was necessary to know the charac- teristics of the prospect. A study had to be made of his wants, his needs, his hopes, his aspirations, and the many other hidden attributes that controlled his desire to buy. In order for the salesman to understand his prospect, he was compelled to turn the searchlight on himself. This was not all. It was necessary for the salesman to know everything possible about his product, its history, its background, and the part it played in the life of the prospect. It was essential to analyze the markets to comprehend the possibilities of the product, and the various uses in which it might be ap- plied. The salesman had to uncover the unknown needs, and to supply those needs, and to create markets that did not

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10 YOUR PLACE IN OUR ECONOMY

exist before. He had to be able to sense trends and to evalu- ate them in the light of reason and common sense.

The salesman is no longer an order taker with a worn-out valise, a bag of tricks, a bundle of sales cliches, and a stock of stale stories. The salesman of today is a psychologist, a scientist, an analyst, and an artist, all rolled up in one. He is dealing with the greatest thing in life: the mind and its ideas, as applied to the continued development of our economy and the distribution of its products.