Certain Success by Norval A. Hawkins

N >> Norval A. Hawkins >> Certain Success

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[Sidenote: Tested Working Tools]

The principles and methods of successful salesmanship summarized in
these companion books, though they will be new to most readers, are not
mere personal theories. They all have been demonstrated and tested in
actual practice during my twelve years experience as Commercial and
General Sales Manager of the Ford Motor Company. Under my direction in
the course of that period Ford sales were multiplied one hundred
thirty-two times--from 6,181 to 815,912 cars a year. The fundamental
principles and methods that I have tested and proved to be most
successful in selling automobiles and good will should work equally well
in any profession, or business, or trade; and for any normal,
intelligent man or woman who uses them continually.

[Sidenote: Dollars and Cents Value]

Since the first publication of "The Selling Process" thousands of
enthusiastic readers of the book have voluntarily borne witness to its
practical, dollars-and-cents value to them in their daily work.
Preachers, doctors, lawyers, bank officials, clerks, book-keepers,
mechanics, laborers; as well as business executives and sales managers
and salesmen--men and women in scores of widely different
vocations--unite in testifying to their increased earning power and
fuller satisfaction in living and working. They credit these results to
their study and continued use of "The Selling Process." The value of
that book will be at least doubled by the supplemental reading of
"Certain Success." Therefore the two are now published as a set of
working tools for any ambitious man or woman who is resolved to _earn_
success.

NORVAL A. HAWKINS

Majestic Building,
Detroit, Michigan.

CHAPTER I

_The Universal Need For Sales Knowledge_

[Sidenote: Analysis of Secret of Certain Success]

The Secret of Certain Success has four principal elements. It comprises:

(1) Knowing how to sell

(2) The true idea

(3) Of one's best capabilities

(4) In the right market or field of service.

_Your_ success will be in direct proportion to your thorough knowledge
and continual use of _all four parts_ of the whole secret. No matter how
great your effort, an entire lack of one or more of these principal
elements of Certain Success will cause partial or utter failure in your
life ambition. You will be like a man who tries to open a safe with a
four-combination lock, though he knows only two or three of the numbers.

No one, however well fitted for success elsewhere, can succeed in the
_wrong field_, or in rendering services for which _he_ is not qualified.
Nor is complete success attainable by a man unless he develops the
_best_ that is in him. Even if he brings to the right market his utmost
ability, he may fail miserably by making a _false impression_ that he
is unfitted for the opportunity he wants. Or he may be overlooked
because he does not make the _true_ impression of his fitness.

Evidently, in order to gain a _chance_ to succeed, anyone must first
_sell_ to the fullest advantage the idea that he is _the_ man for the
opportunity already waiting or for the new opening he makes for himself.
Of course he cannot do this _surely_ unless he _knows how_. Therefore
sales knowledge is _universally needed_ to complement the three other
principal elements of the complete secret of certain success.

[Sidenote: Reasons for Failures]

When we try to explain the failure of any man who seems worthy to have
succeeded, we nearly always say, in substance, one of three things about
his case:

"He is a square peg in a round hole;" by which we usually mean he is a
right man in the wrong place.

Or, "He is capable of filling a better position;" a more polite way of
saying that a man has outgrown his present job but has not developed
ability to get a bigger one.

Oftenest, probably, we declare, "He isn't appreciated."

Very rarely is a worthy man's failure in life ascribed to the commonest
cause--_his personal inefficiency in selling_ to the world comprehension
of his especial qualifications for success.

[Sidenote: What Failures Realize]

If a man is a square peg in a round hole, he should realize that his
particular qualities must be fitted into the right field for them before
he can succeed. A natural "organizer" cannot achieve his ambitions if he
works alone at a routine task.

No sensible man would aspire to fill a better position than he holds,
unless he had developed a capacity beyond the limitations of his present
work. The shipping clerk who craves the higher salary of a correspondent
knows he cannot hope for the desired promotion if he has not learned to
write good business letters.

However deserving of advancement a man may be, he realizes he has but a
slim chance to succeed if his worth is unrecognized. So he wants
appreciation from his chief. He knows that unless his worth is perceived
and truly valued, some one else, who may be less qualified, is apt to be
selected for the "Manager's" job he desires. Such "injustices" have
poisoned countless disappointed hopes with bitterest resentment.

The deserving man who fails because he is a misfit in his particular
position, the worthy man who is limited to a small career because the
work he does lacks scope for the use of all his ability; the third good
man who has been kept down for the reason that his chief is blind to his
qualifications for promotion--all three of these failures understand
pretty clearly the reasons for their non-success.

[Sidenote: When Lack of Salesmanship Causes Failure]

It is very different in the case of the capable man who fails because he
has been _inefficient in selling true impressions_ of his qualifications
for success. A private secretary, for illustration, might be thoroughly
competent for managerial duties; but by his self-effacement in his
present job he might make the false impression that he was wanting in
executive capacity. He would be given a chance as manager if he were
effective in creating a true impression of his administrative ability.
Such a capable man, if he has little or no scientific knowledge of the
selling _process_ is apt also to lack comprehension of the value _to
him_ of knowing _how to sell ideas_. He does not happen to call himself
a salesman. Therefore he has never studied with personal interest the
fine art of selling. He does not realize that _ignorance of
salesmanship_, and _consequent non-use of the selling process, almost
always are responsible for the merely partial success or the downright
failure in life of the man who deserves to win, but who loses out_.

[Sidenote: Who Is To Blame for Failure]

One may feel able to "deliver the goods," were he given the chance. He
may know where his best capability is greatly needed and would be highly
appreciated if recognized. Yet the door of opportunity may not open to
his deserving hand, however hard he tries to win his way in. His failure
seems to him altogether unfair, the rankest injustice from Fortune.

If a man knows he is completely fitted to fill a higher position, he
feels considerable self-confidence when he first applies for it. But his
real ability may not be recognized by his chief. The ambitious man may
be denied the coveted chance to take the step upward to the bigger
opportunities for which he rightly believes himself qualified. If his
deserts and his utmost efforts do not win the promotion he desires, he
grows discouraged. He loses the taste of zest for his work. His earlier
optimism oozes away. After awhile his ambition slumps. Then he resigns
himself sullenly to the conviction that he is a failure _but is not to
blame_.

[Sidenote: Dynamic Quality Lacking]

Leaving out of consideration most exceptional, unpreventable bad luck,
the worthy man who fails in life _is_ to blame. He is not, as he thinks,
a victim of circumstances or ill-fate. His failure is due to his
ignorance of the first of the four principal factors of the secret of
certain success. _Potentially_ qualified to succeed, he does not have
the absolutely necessary _dynamic_ element. He lacks an essential
characteristic of the self-made successful man, a characteristic which
any one of intelligence can learn how to develop--_a high degree of
capability in gaining his own opportunities to succeed_.

He does not know _how to sell true ideas about himself_; though he may
realize the importance of making the best impression possible. So,
however, he tries, he cannot get his deserved chances to succeed. He
could secure them _easily_ if he comprehended the selling process of the
master salesman, and used it with skill. This process of masterly
selling is the key to certain success for the fully qualified man in any
vocation.

[Sidenote: Making and Governing One's Own Good Luck]

A capable applicant will invariably be given a chance to succeed, if he
takes the best that is in him to a man who has need of such services as
he could render, and then _sells the true idea of his ability_. He has
mastered _all four principal elements of the complete secret of certain
success_. Consequently he is able to create and to control his
opportunities to succeed. He makes and governs his own good luck.

Everywhere the most desirable positions in the business world are in
need of men who can fill them. Only the poorer jobs are crowded. But
when Opportunity has to seek the man, the _right_ one is often
overlooked. The golden chance is gained by another--less qualified and
less worthy, perhaps; but _a better salesman of himself_. The fully
competent man, however, can _assure_ his success by becoming proficient
in selling true ideas of his best capability in the right market or
field of service. The master salesman of himself makes his own chances
to succeed, and therefore runs no risk of being overlooked by
Opportunity.

[Sidenote: Success Way Is Charted]

Master salesmen of ideas about "goods" use _particular selling
processes_ to get their ideas across _surely_ to the minds of
prospective buyers. The professional salesman, therefore, has plainly
charted the way to certain success in any vocation, for the man who has
developed the best that is in him. If you are a candidate for a
position, do not let a prospective employer _buy_ your services at _his_
valuation, for he is certain to under-estimate you. _Sell_ him true
ideas of your merits. Set a fair price on your _worth_, and _get_ across
to his mind the true idea that you would be worth that much _to him_.
Such skillful salesmanship used by an applicant for a position can be
depended on to make the best possible impression of his desirability;
just as the practiced art of the professional salesman enables him to
present the qualities and values of his goods in the most favorable
light. The _masterly selling process_ is not very difficult to learn.
Proficiency in its use can be gained gradually by any one who practices
consciously every day the actual sale of ideas in the artistic way.

[Sidenote: Knowledge of Salesmanship Develops Confidence]

As was stated in the Introduction to this book, it has been proved
conclusively in business that particular principles and methods of
selling are certain to produce the highest average of closed orders. In
other words, success for the professional salesman is _assured_ if he
develops certain qualifications, and if he does certain things; all
within the capacity of any normal, intelligent man. Scientific sales
executives know positively, as the result of comparative tests, that the
salesman who develops these personal qualifications, and who does these
things, should get his quota of business and hold it. Hence, as has been
said, specific training is given in the sales schools of the most
successful businesses, along the lines of best selling practice.

[Sidenote: Practical Principles]

When the individual salesman who has been so trained commences work in
his territory, he learns in his experiences with buyers that the
principles and methods he has been taught are actually _most effective_.
Assuming that he has developed his _best capabilities_ pretty fully, and
that he has become fairly _skillful_ in using what he knows about how to
sell his line, he works with continually growing confidence that he will
succeed. Why should he doubt his complete selling power? He knows there
is a _field for his goods_ in this territory. He knows clearly and
vividly _what ideas_ he wants to get across to the minds of prospective
buyers. He knows--most important of all--_just how_ to make convincing
and attractive impressions of the desirability and true value of what he
presents for purchase. He comprehends the _most effective ways_ to show
prospects both their _need_ for his goods and that he has come, with a
real purpose of service, to _satisfy_ that need.

You, the non-professional salesman of yourself, will sell _your_ "goods
of sale" with similar complete confidence in your power to gain and to
control your opportunities for success--if you, too, use the right
selling process.

This set of books explains and demonstrates in detail the principles and
methods of _the successful salesman of ideas_. The Introduction and
twelve Chapters of the present series apply the selling process
especially to _the sale of ideas about one's self_, with particular
relation to _self-advancement_ in the world. "The Selling Process,"
companion book to "Certain Success," shows the master _professional_
salesman at work, getting orders with _assurance_.

[Sidenote: Hard Study Necessary]

The fact that you have proceeded thus far in reading "Certain Success"
proves you have an earnest purpose to make the most of your present
opportunity to learn _how_ to succeed with certainty. We will assume
that you have developed your individual ability pretty fully, and that
you know where there is a field for such services as you are sure you
could render if afforded the chance. Surely, then, your ambition in
life, whatever it may be, is a sufficient incentive to the most thorough
study of the principles and methods of successful salesmanship. Do not
merely _read_ this set of books. MASTER "Certain Success" and "The
Selling Process" to make yourself the master of your own destiny.

Again and again, lest at any time while you study you might fall below
100% in _absolute assurance_, you will read in these chapters the
assertion that your success can be made _certain_. This statement is not
an exaggeration. It is necessary that you accept it literally throughout
your reading of this set of books. Do not take it "with a grain of
salt." The taste of the declaration that the selling process makes
success sure will become familiar after these many repetitions. Realize
when you come upon the repeated idea as you proceed with your study that
your continued reading should frequently be reenforced by a steadily
growing conviction that you _are_ mastering the sure way to succeed. You
believe in yourself more than you did when you began to read this book.
This increasing faith should develop to complete confidence when you
have dug _into_ the text of both "Certain Success" and "The Selling
Process," and have dug _out_ every idea in the twenty-four chapters.

[Sidenote: Salesmanship Not a Science But an Art]

At the outset of your present study comprehend that salesmanship is not
a _science_. Rather, it is an _art_. Like every other art, however, it
has a _related_ science. Selling is a _process. Knowledge about the
principles and methods_ that make the process most effective is the
related _science_. But such knowledge supplies only the best foundation
for building success by the _actual practice_ of most effective
salesmanship. The master salesman practices the scientific principles
and methods he has learned until the _skillful use_ of his knowledge in
every-day selling becomes _second nature_ to him. Thus, and thus only,
is his _art_ perfected.

You will gain _knowledge_ from these books about _how_ to sell with
assurance the true idea of your best capabilities--about _how_ to sell
any "goods of sale" unfailingly. But you can develop the _skill_
necessary to the _actual achievement_ of certain success only if you
_continually use_ what you learn about the selling process. You must
perfect your selling _art_ by the intelligent employment of every _word_
and _tone_ and _act_ of your life to attract other men to you, and to
impress on them convincingly true ideas of your particular ability.

[Sidenote: Be a Salesman Every Minute]

The master professional salesman is "always on the job" with his three
means of self-expression, to get across to prospects true ideas of the
desirability and value of his goods. He is a salesman _every minute_,
and in _everything_ he does or says. You can become as efficient as he,
in selling ideas about _your_ "goods of sale," if your proficiency
becomes as _easy and natural_ as his. Such ease is the _sure_ result of
sufficient right practice.

You have countless opportunities daily to make use of the selling
process. In each expression of yourself--in your every word, tone, and
act--you convey _some_ idea of your particular character and ability.
You should _know how_ to make _true, attractive_ impressions of your
_best_ self; and how to avoid making _untrue_ and _unfavorable_
impressions by what you do and say. Then, when you have _learned_ the
most effective _way_ to sell ideas about yourself that you want other
people to have, it is necessary that you _use_ the selling process
consciously all the time until you grow into the habit of using it
unconsciously, as your second nature. Once you are accustomed to _acting
the salesman continually_, it will be no more difficult for _you_ to be
"always on the job" selling right ideas of your qualifications for
success, than it is for the _professional_ user of the selling process
to be a salesman "every minute."

[Sidenote: Your "Goods of Sale"]

As already has been emphasized, "the goods of sale" in your case are
your _best_ capabilities. You need first of all to _know_ your true
self, before you can sell true ideas about your qualifications for
success. Your _true_ self is your _best_ self. You are untrue to
yourself, you balk your own ambition to succeed, unless you develop to
the _utmost of your capacity_ your particular salable qualities.

You do not need qualities _you_ now wholly lack. You should not attempt
to "salt" the gold mine in yourself with the characteristics of _other_
men who have succeeded by the development and use of capabilities that
were natural to _them_, but that would be unnatural to _you_. It is
worse than futile--it is foolish for you to imitate anybody else. Just
be _your_ best self. Make the most of what _you_ have that is salable.
You require no more to assure your success.

[Sidenote: Selling the Truth About Your Best Self]

Every individual has distinct characteristics, and is capable of doing
particular things, of which he may be genuinely proud if he fully
develops and uses his personal qualifications. _When all the truth about
his best possible self is skillfully made known to others_, chances for
success are certain to be opened to the ambitious man. If he lacks the
salesmanship key, the doors of opportunity may always remain closed,
however well he deserves to be welcomed.

_You_ possess "goods of sale" that have real _quality_, that are
_durable_, that will render _service_ and afford pleasurable
satisfaction to others. _Your_ goods can be sold as _surely_ as quality
phonographs, durable automobile tires, serviceable clothes, or pleasing
books.

Maybe you can "deliver the goods" with smiles, or hearty tones, or ready
acts of kindness. Any one can easily be friendly. But have you developed
_all your ability_ to smile genuinely? Have you cultivated the hearty
tone of real kindness so that now it is _unnatural_ for you ever to
speak in any other way? Do you perform friendly acts of consideration
for others on _every_ occasion, as second nature?

If your honest answers to such questions must be negative, you are not
a good salesman of your best self all the time.

[Sidenote: Your Salable Qualities]

Your most salable quality may be dependability, rather than quick
thinking. If this is the case, concentrate your salesmanship on making
impressions of the true idea of _your reliability_. Your greatest
success will be achieved in some field of service where dependableness
is a primary essential. You may be _naturally unfitted_ to make a star
reporter, but _peculiarly qualified_ to develop into the cashier of a
bank.

Should you happen to be unattractive in features, your job is to
transform your homeliness into a _likable_ quality--not to try to make
yourself appear handsome. If you are wholly inexperienced, that need not
be a detriment to your success in the field you want to enter. When you
have mastered the selling process, your very greenness can be presented
before the mind of a prospective employer as the best of reasons for
engaging you. You will be able to make yourself appear desirable because
you _are_ green in that field, and therefore have no wrong ideas to
"unlearn."

[Sidenote: Know All of Yourself]

You can greatly improve your chances to get the job for which you are
best adapted, if you use the reciprocal selling process employed by the
professional salesman when he sells his services to a house. He meets
the head of the concern as his man-equal, and does not just offer
himself "for hire." Such a consciousness of your man-equality when you
are face to face with a prospective employer can result only from
certain, analytical _knowledge of your best self_, complemented by
_knowing how to sell_ the true idea of your particular desirability and
worth.

Very likely you think you are seriously _handicapped_ in many ways.
Having made no detailed analysis of yourself from a salesman's
view-point, you do not appreciate fully the number and the market value
of the _advantages_ you might have. Probably some of your best, most
salable qualities are latent or but partly developed.

[Sidenote: Chart Necessary]

List _your_ particular "goods of sale." Put down on a chart, not only
the qualities you have now, but all the additional ones you feel
_capable of developing_. Then you will realize vividly that you possess
many abilities, some undeveloped yet, which are always needed in the
world. You know that such qualities _should_ be readily salable, to the
mutual benefit of yourself and of buyers. You are learning the selling
process in order to make certain that _you can_ sell the best that is in
_you_, as other men are selling themselves successfully.

Complete your chart by listing your various _defects_. Then study out
ways to use even _your particular faults_ differently than you have been
handling them; so that they will help you, instead of being hindrances
to your success. Think of some people you know, and of how they have
turned their physical "liabilities" into "assets" of popularity.

The very first sales knowledge you need is of exactly what _you_ have to
sell. You cannot see _all_ of yourself, your good and bad
points--yourself as you _are_, and as you _might be_--unless you make a
detailed chart of your "goods of sale." One of the most important
immediate effects of such a self-analysis will be increased
self-respect. Your handicaps will shrink, and the peculiar advantages
you have will grow before your eyes. You should feel new confidence in
your own ability.

[Sidenote: Man-Equality]

With this confidence will come a feeling that you are not the inferior
of another man who has achieved a larger measure of success than you
have gained. When you start the sale of true ideas of your best self to
an employer-buyer of such services as you are capable of rendering, you
will have an innate consciousness of your man-equality with him. You
should realize that this sale of yourself, like all other true sales, is
to be a transaction of reciprocal benefits, and should be conducted on
the basis of mutual respect.

It is your right to take pains that the prospective buyer of your
services shall sell himself to you as the boss you want to work with.
Expect him to sell himself to you as a desirable employer just as
thoroughly and satisfyingly as you intend to sell yourself to him as a
worthy applicant for an opportunity in his business. When you have
definite, sure knowledge of your capability and service value, you
certainly should not be willing to take "any old job."

There is no better way to make the impression of _your desirability_ as
an employee than to demonstrate that you are _choosing_ your employment
intelligently. In explaining your choice, give specific reasons for your
selection of this particular opening. Show that you comprehend _what is
to be done_. Give some indication of your ability to do it _efficiently_
and _satisfactorily_. Suggest the _worth_ of your services when you
shall have proved your fitness.

[Sidenote: Require Employer to Sell You the Job]

The ordinary man who applies for a job in the ordinary way is accepted
or turned down wholly at the discretion of the employer. If you use the
selling process skillfully, you will suggest that _you_ are out of the
ordinary class. Of course, you should demonstrate in your salesmanship
that you are not over-rating your ability. The other man must be made to
feel you have sound reasons for your bearing of equality and
self-confidence when you seek to make sure that in his business you will
have your best chance to succeed. By showing him that you are taking
intelligent precautions against making a mistake in your employment, you
indicate conclusively that you are not merely a "floater," but that you
have a purpose "to stick and make good."

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