Certain Success by Norval A. Hawkins

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[Sidenote: Three Effects Produced]

The butcher thus combined in his close _three effects_. He brought about
_judgment of the prospect's intellect_, plus _increased desire_ for the
goods, plus the _impulse to carry the desire into action_.

First, by emphasizing, "Two pounds and five ounces!" in a _heavy_ tone,
and by depreciating the cost, "Only a dollar and forty-three cents,"
spoken _lightly_, he implied that the _value_ of the steak far
outweighed the _price_. Thus judgment of the prospect's intellect was
effected.

Second, to stimulate increased desire for the steak, the butcher
skillfully put on the favorable side of the scales of decision the
weight of _a suggestion of excellence_. He said temptingly, "It's the
very choicest part of the loin." At this point he also employed
_contrast_, to make the prospect's desire stronger still. "You couldn't
get a cut any tenderer than this, or with less bone."

Third, this skillful salesman prompted _the immediate committal of his
customer to a favorable decision_. He impelled her to this affirmative
action by suggesting, "Would you like to have a little extra suet
wrapped up with it?" He put a question that was _easy_ for the prospect
to answer with "Yes." Once she accepted the suet offered free, she
tacitly accepted the steak at the price stated. _It is skillful
salesmanship to make it easy for the buyer to say "Yes" or to imply the
favorable decision indirectly_. The butcher might have been answered
with "No" if he had asked, "Will you take this steak?" But he himself
nodded when he made the proposal that he wrap up the extra suet. The
woman was thus impelled to nod with him. The sale was closed,
artistically, in a few seconds.

When you plan how you will close a sale of true ideas of your best
capability, _work out in advance a similar weighing process, followed at
once by an indirect prompting of acceptance of the decision you
suggest_. Shape and re-shape your intended "close" in your mind until it
includes the three effects the butcher produced.

[Sidenote: Put a "Kick" Into the Close]

Put a "kick" into your stimulation of desire at the closing stage.
_Paint the points in your favor brightly and glowingly, though in true
colors. Conversely paint all objections to your employment
unattractively._

Suppose you are applying for a secretarial position. It would be good
"painting" to close something like this:

"I am going to learn to do things _your_ way. You would not want a man
in the position who was _experienced_; because he would do things some
one else's way, not yours. My inexperience really means I am adaptable
to your methods. I'd become exactly the sort of secretary _you_ want.
For instance, how do you prefer to have your mail brought to you--just
as it is opened, or with previous correspondence and notations
attached?"

Such an alternative question, _answered either way_, leads the prospect
through the stage of favorable decision and implies his committal to
acceptance of the services offered. It can be followed by the direct
proposal, "All, right, I'll bring your mail that way." _Such a close is
practically sure to succeed_.

[Sidenote: Using the Negative Positively]

A man who was not at all prepossessing applied to me one day for a job.
He conducted the sale of himself very skillfully, but I meant to put him
off. It was our dull season, and his looks didn't make a hit with me
anyway. However, he realized there was a good deal on the negative side
of the scale, and he weighed his disqualifications honestly; though he
depreciated the importance of his unprepossessing appearance. Then, in
contrast to the negative side, he showed me very weighty and attractive
reasons for employing him. He started by grinning good-humoredly.

"I'm not a prize beauty," he remarked. "But the other day I was reading
about Abraham Lincoln, and the book made me feel encouraged about
myself. I don't believe I'm any homelier or any more awkward than he
was. I don't expect to be a parlor salesman, anyhow, or to rely on my
good looks to get orders. I plan to succeed by work. I'm going to be on
the job early and late and every minute between. I'll believe in what
I'm selling--down to the very bottom of my heart. I'll make anybody see
I'm in dead earnest. I look honest, and I am. I'll be square with
customers and with you. I guess that out in the field a reputation for
always being willing to help, and for telling the truth straight, will
count more than anything else. I know I'm inexperienced, but that's a
fault I can cure mighty soon." He grinned again. "I'll start right away
to get the greenness off, if you'll tell me where to hang up my hat."

His good nature warmed me into smiling with him. I could not help
feeling inclined to try this man. I decided to give him his chance at
once. He started my impulse to accept his services, and I pronounced the
decision in his favor that he prompted. Of course he made good. That was
a foregone conclusion. He had mastered the selling process, and was an
especially fine closer. He succeeded in getting more than his quota of
orders the first year. Selling never seemed to be hard work for him.

[Sidenote: Two Ways To Prompt Pronouncement]

The pronouncement of the prospect's decision can be prompted, his
favorable action can be brought about, in _two ways_. First, as we have
seen, _the salesman can suggest, directly or indirectly, the action he
wants the other man to take_. Second, _the salesman himself can do
something_ that the prospect will be impelled to _imitate_.

[Sidenote: Impelling Imitation Of Action]

For example, when you apply for a position, and have completed the
process of weighing the points in your favor in contrast with the less
weighty reasons for not employing you, lean forward slightly in an
attitude of easy expectancy. _The prospect's mind will be inclined to
imitate your physical act_. He will lean toward acceptance of your
services. Your act will tend to bring you together. Your magnetism will
draw his.

Or you might extend your hand. He will have an impulse to reach out his
in turn. It is natural for a man to take a hand that is courteously
offered. The moment after you reach toward the prospect say, "Let's
shake hands on it." Once his fingers start moving toward yours in
imitation of your action, it will be easy for him to commit himself.

[Sidenote: Five Essentials Of Good Close]

Now let us review the essentials of good salesmanship in closing, which
we have been analyzing. We can summarize under five divisions the entire
process of completing a sale most effectively and with the practical
assurance of success.

First, _the salesman must have definite, certain knowledge that the mind
of the prospect has reached the closing stage_; that it is time to _end_
the "testimony" and to _begin_ weighing the evidence. If the salesman
has kept control of the selling process throughout all the preceding
stages, he will know when the selling point is reached, _for he will be
there himself_, with the prospect he has "safely conducted" thus far.

Second, at this "right time" it is necessary to _change former sales
tactics promptly_, and to _start contrasting_ the affirmative and
negative ideas that have previously been brought out.

Third, the salesman should weigh these contrasting ideas so _vividly_
that the mind's eye of the prospect will _see_ the scales and _perceive_
the greater weight on the "Yes" side, _as the salesman pictures it_.

Fourth, it is important that the salesman _color_ the affirmative
ideas very _alluringly_, and increase the contrast by painting
_unattractively_ everything on the negative side of the scale; so
that "No," besides appearing much _lighter_ than "Yes," will seem
_uninviting_.

Fifth, the selling process should be brought to a climax by the
salesman's _suggestion_ or _imitation_ of some _act_ designed to
_commit_ the prospect to _acceptance_ in an _easy_ way.

[Sidenote: Unbalancing The Process]

Nothing so _unbalances_ the process of securing a favorable decision and
its pronouncement as any indication of fear, doubt, or hesitancy in the
attitude of the salesman. Therefore, even though you may be uncertain as
to the outcome of your selling efforts, _do not show it_. Long before
you came to the decision point, you passed the worst dangers on the
road to the end of the sale. Surely your courage should be _strongest_
at the closing stage.

[Sidenote: Light Dissipates Fear and Doubt]

Fear usually arises from something _unknown_; it is due only to
_darkness_. Since you _know_ now just what closing involves, and _light_
has been shed on the problems of getting the prospect's "Yes," your
fears and doubts should be dissipated. _You should not hesitate to end
the sale you have controlled successfully throughout previous stages_.
Our analysis has revealed that closing is no more difficult than winning
attention to your proposition in the first place. As a result, your
present attitude toward closing is _positive_. Your courage and
self-confidence have been built up. You realize just _how_ success in
finishing a well-conducted sale can be made practically _sure_.

[Sidenote: Negatives Must be Avoided]

Certain _negative_ attitudes at the closing stage should be avoided.
Especially do not throw into the scales of decision any little pleas for
_personal favor_, with the hope that in so doing you will increase the
weight on the "Yes" side. Such tactics almost invariably tend to tip the
balance _un_favorably. A plea of this sort is equivalent to an admission
that the ideas you have presented _for_ buying do not _themselves_
outweigh the prospect's images _against_ buying. You suggest to him that
you are trying to push the balance down on your side by putting your
finger on it, by "weighing in your hand," as unfair butchers sometimes
do with a chicken they hold on the scales by the legs.

[Sidenote: "As a Personal Favor to Me"]

The prospect will instantly perceive your action. _His mind, acting on
the principle of the gyroscope, will resist by greater opposition any
push of the personal plea_. If you ask a decision as a personal favor,
your prospect will lose confidence in the true weight of the ideas on
your side that you have already registered in his mind. You are much
more likely to hurt than to help your chances for success by making a
personal plea. Even if it should prove effective, what you get that way
would be alms given to a beggar, and not the earned prize of good
salesmanship. _Never buy success at the cost of self-respect_. To be a
successful _beggar_ is nothing to feel proud of.

[Sidenote: "Treating" At Close]

Do not attempt to "_treat"_ your prospect by flattering him at the
closing stage. Such "treating" is a tacit admission that your goods of
sale, your best qualifications, have not sufficient merit to sell at
their intrinsic value. Or you practically confess that you are not good
enough salesman to win out with just your goods and your ability to sell
yourself for what you claim to be worth. _Flattery is a call for help_.
It is like the bad salesmanship of trying to buy an order with cigars or
a dinner. Never "treat" at the closing stage, for to do so is to admit
_weakness_ when you should be your _strongest_.

[Sidenote: "No" Seldom Is Final]

Of course you should not take a first or second "No" as a _final_
answer. Even if the prospect indicates that he is inclined to decide
against you, _continue confidently to heap images in favor of buying on
the "Yes" side of the scale until you have used all the honest weight
you have to put in the balance_. He will not respect you as a salesman
if you quit at his first "No." _It is up to you to tip the scales of
decision your way_. Remember that you should not bring the other man to
the judgment point _until after you have aroused and intensified his
desire to a very great degree_. If you have made him want you at all,
you will disappoint him if you then fail to put enough weight on the
"Yes" side of the scale to win his decision to employ you.

When you receive a "No," understand it to mean, "No, that is not yet
enough ideas for buying your services." Keep right on putting weight
into the "Yes" side of the balance until it tips your way. _Do not
consider any "No" final until you have run out of both contrasting
weight and attractive colors; so that you cannot change the scales_.

[Sidenote: Stick it Out Here and Now]

If it is possible for you to "stick," don't be put off when you come to
the closing stage. _All the weighing you do at the present time will be
valueless lost effort unless you complete the selling process here and
now_. When your prospect tries to put you off, he tacitly admits your
weights are right. Otherwise he would say "No" and be done with you.
You really have won his mental decision. A continuance of skillful
salesmanship will enable you to get him to act favorably without delay
or further evasion.

[Sidenote: Entertainment In Court Room Out of Place]

Some salesmen make the mistake of mixing _entertainment_ with the
closing process. Earlier in the sale you may be able to secure excellent
results by entertaining the prospect with clean jokes and good stories.
But the close is the stage at which he arrives at his mental conclusion
as to the "preponderance" of the evidence. _Jests and light conversation
are out of place when the judge is performing his functions in the
courtroom of the mind._ An amusing remark or a witty quip at this
juncture would suggest that the scales of decision in the salesman's own
mind were somewhat unbalanced. Your attitude when you are weighing "Yes"
and "No" before the prospect should be _pleasant_, but _quiet_ and
_serious, as is becoming to a convincing weighman_.

When you work to secure a favorable decision, you are weighing evidence
with the purpose of impelling the prospect to take your judgment or to
weigh the evidence just as you do. It is necessary all through the
process that he be made to feel you realize you are aiding in the
performance of a _judicial_ function. He must have complete confidence
in your intention and ability to handle the scales honestly and with
serious pains to determine what is the right judgment about your
proposition. Your levity at the closing stage would lessen the effect of
honest, serious, painstaking weighing of the images for buying in
contrast with the images against buying. So get the funny stories out of
your system before you come to the decision step of the sale, or else
keep them bottled up inside you and don't pull the cork until you are
safely at the celebration stage.

[Sidenote: Tones and Acts When Weighing]

Do not forget when closing to add _force_ to your words by _tones and
gestures that emphasize ideas of the contrast in weights_ between the
two sides of the scale. By your light tone you can indicate the
triviality of objections to your proposition. With the heavier tone of
power you can suggest the great weight of the favorable ideas. If you
use _broad gestures of your whole hand and full arm_, you can seem to
pile a large heap of points on your side of the scale. Conversely you
can indicate the smallness of objections by moving _your fingers only_,
as if you were picking up a tiny object. Demolish unfavorable points
with a strong gesture of negation, as by sweeping your arm horizontally.
Give life to the ideas on the favorable side of the scale by
accompanying your words with up and down gestures that signify
vitality.

[Sidenote: Do Not Show That Closing Is Hard Work]

Your physical condition or outward appearance will help or harm your
chances for success at the closing stage. You should not manifest the
least indication that you are under a strain of anxiety as to the
outcome, or that you lack the strength to control the completion of the
selling process. Why should you not have a feeling of ease when you
reach the close? _If your bearing suggests your self-confidence, it will
give the other man confidence in your capabilities._ When a salesman has
to "sweat blood" to finish a sale, he indicates that it is usually
mighty hard work for him to get what he wants. This impression suggests
to the other man that there must be something wrong with the proposition
or it wouldn't take so much effort of the salesman to put it across.
_Any element of doubt at the final stage will almost surely delay or
kill the salesman's chances to close successfully._

[Sidenote: Make Sure of A Good Batting Average]

Recall once more that the measure of success in selling is not 100% of
closed sales; every possible order secured and none lost. _Success is
made certain when failures are reduced to the minimum and successes are
increased to the maximum of practicability._ There can be no question
that if you use the _right processes_ in closing, your chances for
success will be so greatly increased that your batting average of actual
sales should take you far above the failure line. Your career as a
salesman involves _continual_ selling. You must make sale after sale.
However skillfully you employ the right process at the closing stage,
you may not accomplish your purpose the first time you try. _But if you
keep on selling your services in the right way, you will be as
absolutely certain to succeed as the master salesman of "goods" is sure
of closing his quota every year he works._

CHAPTER XII

_The Celebration Stage_

[Sidenote: What Are You Going to Do With Success?]

You know now the _certain_ way to get your chance to succeed in the
vocation of your choice. You are convinced that a _good salesman_ can
create and control his opportunities in any field, can bring himself to
good luck in the right market for his services. You are resolved to
master the art of selling, and so to insure your future against any
possibility of failure. You feel confident of success; because you are
willing to earn it by the diligent study and practice of salesmanship.
There is no doubt in your mind that when you become a skillful salesman
of your best capabilities, you can get a chance to succeed. _Now what
are you going to do with success after you gain it?_

Suppose you had sold yourself into the very opportunity you want,
suppose you had won the coveted job or promotion, _how would you
celebrate_? It has been said that a man shows his real self either in
the moment of his failure or in the moment of his success. Let us assume
that you have reached your present objective. You stand at the goal, a
winner. Does your victory _intoxicate_, or does it _sober_ you with the
realization that you have but opened the way to limitless fields of
bigger service ahead? Has success gone to your _hands_ and made them
tingle with eagerness to grasp more chances to succeed, or has it gone
to your _head_?

[Sidenote: The Stepping-Stone to More Sales]

_The celebration stage of the selling process should be the first
stepping-stone leading to another successful sale._ Often it proves to
be a stumbling block that marks the beginning of a downfall to failure.
Rare is the man who is not spoiled a little by achievement. _Success is
the severest test of salesmanship._

[Sidenote: Spoiled by Success]

I recall a chief clerk who worked more than a year for promotion to the
position of assistant manager. He earned the better job, and was
assigned to the desk toward which he had been looking longingly for
sixteen months. Then he "celebrated" by starting to take life easy. He
developed a manner of superiority. He acted as if the little foothill he
had climbed was a big mountain. He sunned himself on the top, basking in
complacency because he had risen above his former clerkship.

One day he was called into the manager's office. He came out chop-fallen
and took his personal belongings from the assistant's desk. Another man
was promoted to the place he had failed to fill. He went back to his
clerk's stool and is roosting there today.

[Sidenote: Egotism's Downfall]

I know a salesman who closed so many orders the first time he covered
his territory that he came back to headquarters with an inflated idea of
his importance. He strutted into the president's room and boasted of
what he had done. The delighted head of the business gave him a cigar
and invited him to tell the story. The salesman betrayed such egotism
that his employer was disgusted. The president was plain-spoken. He
warned the successful salesman against getting a "swelled head."

The egotist felt insulted. He resigned his position, arrogantly
declaring that he would not work for a house where results were so
little appreciated. He was cocksure of himself. However, when he offered
his services to a competing firm, his application was turned down. The
rebuff stunned him. He did not realize that his egotism disgusted the
second executive as much as the first. The salesman's spirit was broken.
He has never since been more than a fair peddler.

[Sidenote: Giant and Pigmy Successes]

Think of "successful" men you know. _Compare them as they are now with
the men they used to be before they succeeded._ As they rose did they
loom bigger and bigger in your respect, or grow smaller and smaller in
admirable qualities? There are so-called successful men whose characters
seem to be dwarfed by the mountain tops they attain. Other men grow to
be giants and overshadow any eminences they climb. The littleness of the
last Kaiser and Crown Prince of Germany was only emphasized by their
elevation above the common people. On the other hand the bigness of
Lincoln and Roosevelt was so tremendous that their personalities towered
above even the highest honor in the world.

[Sidenote: Breaking Training]

_When football players are fighting_ for the championship of the season,
they are governed by rigid rules of living. _They keep themselves fit_
by strict diet, by the avoidance of all dissipations, by hardening
exercise, and by recuperative rest. But after the "big game" is won,
they break training. They stuff themselves with rich food until their
bodies and minds are sluggish. Then they celebrate their victory by some
sort of jollification that lasts half the night. _The next day a
second-rate team could beat the champions._

A man who has kept himself lean, hard-muscled, and healthy all the way
to the achievement of his ambition is apt to take on flabby flesh and
gout when he succeeds. The celebration of Thanksgiving is an ordeal from
which one does not recover for weeks. Turkey and mince pie immoderately
eaten are poisons. Our annual Feast Day is more deadly than the Fourth
of July.

[Sidenote: Rusting in Self-Satisfaction]

A great many people "break training" mentally as well as physically at
the celebration stage. _Their minds and muscles turn flabby after they
succeed. They are so proud of their accomplishments that they rust in
self-satisfaction._ Then, usually too late for remedy, they find
themselves afflicted by the rheumatic twinges of deep-seated discontent
with what they have done.

We are all familiar with the tragedies of the farmer who sells his acres
and moves into town "so that he can take life easy," and of the business
man who retires from his "daily grind" to enjoy the fortune of success.
So long as they remained at work they were vigorous in mind and body.
But nearly always men who give up their accustomed activities begin to
develop mental and physical ailments soon afterward. They age and break
down in a few years. _In order to stay well, one must keep going. It is
far less wearying to walk than to stand still. Normal fatigue of mind
and body are not so exhaustive of mental and physical energy as torpid
idleness._

[Sidenote: Advance or You Will Slip Back]

Probably you do not think of quitting work for a long time. You look at
your future retirement as a remote possibility. Very likely you feel it
is premature to consider "your declining years" now, when you are in the
full vigor of ambition. _But if you stop advancing, in order to
celebrate your progress thus far, you have quit working your way ahead.
If you stay contented with what you have done, even for a little while,
you have temporarily retired from the game of success and are in danger
of rusting into a partial failure. If you do not continue moving ever
upward, you will slip into a decline without realizing that you are
going back and down._

[Sidenote: The Zest for Work]

The successful salesman thrives on his work, and pines for it when he
"lays off." He welcomes the end of his annual vacation with more zest
than its beginning. He celebrates each order gained by planning at once
how he will get another. He is like Alexander, who sighed only when
there were no more worlds to conquer. He is as perennially tireless as
Edison, the wizard who is never weary. _To the true salesman there is no
enjoyment equal to selling._ He often declares that he "would rather
sell than eat."

[Sidenote: Pattern after Master Salesmen]

You know the importance of being a _good salesman_. You have studied the
methods he uses throughout the selling process. Now at the celebration
stage pattern after the _masters_ of the profession. Do not get into the
bad habits of the _mediocre fellows who slacken their efforts after each
success_, and who need the spur of necessity to make them do their
utmost.

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