Certain Success by Norval A. Hawkins

N >> Norval A. Hawkins >> Certain Success

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When a good salesman has booked an order, and has taken pains to make a
fine last impression on his customer, he does not go to his hotel and
play Kelly pool, or otherwise spend the rest of the day just loafing
around. Only the poor salesman celebrates in such a way; _thereby
showing that his successes are so rare he is not used to them_.

[Sidenote: Starting After The Next Chance]

The good salesman looks at his watch the moment he is out of his
customer's sight. He makes a swift calculation of the time it will take
him to reach and sell the next man on his list. If he has no other
prospect nearby, he starts looking for one that minute. His keen eyes
catch every name on the business signs he passes. _His imaginative mind
is planning how he can use the order he just has closed, to influence
some other buyer to make a contract._ If there are no additional
customers for his line in the town, he sprints to the station to catch
the first train up the road. _He does not waste a minute getting to his
next selling opportunity_.

[Sidenote: Pepper and Poppies]

Some pretty good salesmen never win the grand quota prize in a sales
contest _because they take so much time out for celebrating the big
orders they close_. If they land a fine contract in the morning, they
don't try to do much selling that afternoon. The prize-winning salesman,
too, is delighted to secure a big order. But he doesn't say to himself,
"That will put me 'way ahead on the sales record for today." Instead he
grins and thinks, "This is _my day_. I'm going to fatten up my batting
average while I'm going good." _Success is pepper to him, not the poppy
drug that slackens energy._

[Sidenote: Continual Accumulation]

You have worked hard to get the chance you now have. You have paid for
it with your best efforts. _It represents an accumulation of your
salesmanship._ The good job or the promotion you have gained is like a
savings account. Let us compare it with the first hundred dollars a
thrifty man puts into the bank for a rainy day. Would he celebrate the
accumulation of that moderate amount of money, the first evidence of his
ability to save, by quitting the practice of spending less than his
earnings? Would he then say to himself, "I am now successful as a
saver"? Would he stop putting a few dollars in the bank every Saturday,
just because he already had a hundred?

[Sidenote: The Building Process is Gradual]

No. He would _continue_ to save until he had enough "units of thrift,"
enough hundreds of dollars, to take a _longer_ step toward success. He
would invest his accumulated savings in a lot, or house. Perhaps he
would start a business of his own. After his investment he still would
continue to save. So he would _build_ his success.

_All building is a gradual, continual process_. The bricks are laid _one
after another_. It takes many to complete the structure. _Likewise a
series of minor successes must be built into a major accomplishment._ It
does not rise all at once.

If you are tempted to pause where you are in order to celebrate, ask
yourself, "_Is this really the celebration stage_?" Probably you will
find you have only laid the corner-stone, or made an excavation for the
foundation of your success. You would not think of having a housewarming
because you had finished the basement walls. Nor would you consider it
an occasion for especial jollification the day you erected the
scantlings around the first floor joists. Not until the walls are up and
the roof is on, not until the house is plastered and papered and
painted, not until it is finished would you think of standing on the
sidewalk to look it over pride fully and exult, "I did that. It's a good
job."

[Sidenote: Repeated Building]

But if you complete _one_ house, you will not only feel the satisfaction
of accomplishment, you will also want to build _another_ that would be a
great improvement on the one just finished. You will be _healthily
dissatisfied with what you have already done_. Very likely you will sell
the first house at a profit, and straightway start to put up a better
building on another lot. In time you will sell that, too. You will
continue the procedure until you become a master builder of houses, and
continually achieve more and more success.

We have assumed that you now are successfully in possession of an
opportunity. You have sold yourself into the very job you want, or into
a better position that you believe will afford you fine chances to
advance. _Do not slump or relax in salesmanship. Do not think back, or
spend much time contemplating your present success. Look ahead to your
next sale_ of true ideas of your best capabilities. _The successful
salesman is a quick repeater._ He counts his accomplishments in
_totals_, not by units. He has successful "_years_," each made up of
about three hundred successful working days. He plans in _campaigns_; so
he is not inclined to over-celebrate the winning of a battle.

[Sidenote: Make Each Goal a New Starting Point]

Samuel McRoberts, vice-president of the great National City Bank of New
York, started working for Armour & Company at a small salary in the
early nineties. He was a young man who was always _healthily ambitious
to keep moving ahead_. He "ate up" the minor work assigned to him, and
celebrated the completion of each task by asking at once, "What next?"

In a few years he had risen by successive promotions to the position of
treasurer of Armour & Company. But that wasn't a _goal_ to McRoberts. It
seemed to him only a _good starting point_ to bigger successes in the
financial world. He became a director of several banks, an officer in
important railroad and other corporations. _He continually enlarged his
service value_ until he was called to New York's greatest bank, and took
his place among the masters of American finance.

He did not loll back in his chair then and start taking it easy. _He
packed more and more accomplishments into every day._ When the war
began, he went to Washington to take executive charge of the job of
procuring ordnance for the fighters. He held a post analogous to that of
Lloyd-George when he was Minister of Munitions for Great Britain.
McRoberts made good as a brigadier general, and after the war resumed
his success in business. Whatever he did, wherever he worked, Samuel
McRoberts _smiled welcomes to more opportunities for service, and
reached out his ready hands to grasp them_.

[Sidenote: Celebrate by Tackling the Job Ahead]

_That is the way to celebrate--by tackling the job ahead. There is no
end to the selling process. One sale should lead directly to another_.
The good salesman celebrates only the opportunity to get the next order
in prospect. He may chuckle to himself over the sale just closed, but he
does his rejoicing on his way to a new selling chance.

[Sidenote: Dynamic Confidence Static Complacency]

You haven't "arrived" yet. You are just well started. _Keep moving, and
you will never "see your finish."_ Your successes thus far should have
developed a considerable degree of _self-confidence._ Be careful not to
let that _dynamic_ quality change into the _static_ element of
_self-complacency._ Never be satisfied with what you have done. _Always
have the zest of appetite for more to do_. Add every day to your success
chances.

Do not lose either your self-respect, or the respect of the men with
whom you are associated, by _ceasing to grow. Do more than you are paid
for, and pretty soon your job will be unable to hold all your earning
capacity_. You will be promoted to bigger opportunities. _If you shrink
in the place you occupy now, your future chances will shrivel to fit
your smaller size_. The way to get a better-paying job, to win a bigger,
more profitable field for your salesmanship, is to _crowd your present
position with your capabilities_. Burst out of your limited territory
and spread over more ground.

[Sidenote: Serving Friends]

Render your utmost possible service to other people. Celebrate each
opportunity to form a friendship. _Make some one like you for what you
are willing to do for him_. Hold your friends, once they are made. As
Emerson advised, "Be concerned for other people and their welfare. Put
their interests sometimes ahead of your own. You can love your fellow
men so much that you will never trample on their rights; and while you
yourself keep climbing, raise as many of them as you can along with you.
That is the way to make friends."

Celebrate the good fortune of your business associates, rather than your
own. When a big contract is closed by your employer, be as tickled over
it as he feels. Genuinely rejoice in his success. _Have no envy of the
man above you, then when you rise to a higher level the men below you
will not be likely to feel jealous_.

[Sidenote: Ford and Schwab]

Why has Henry Ford won so unique a place in the personal regard of the
everyday man? Ford is one of the richest men in the world; yet he is not
hated. What is the reason for his general popularity? He is not an
idler. He has celebrated each success by taking on another job. And he
always has given a hand-up to the other fellow instead of kicking him
down so that he might climb higher because of his failure. He has
understood and sympathized with the hopes and viewpoint of people who
work. As a result countless men and women, most of whom never have seen
him, think of Henry Ford as their friend. His finest success is not
signified by the millions of money he has accumulated, but by the
millions of friendships he enjoys.

Charles M. Schwab, too, is popular. He is a man whom people like.
Because he was so successful in winning friends, rather than for his
generally recognized business ability, he was made the head of the
Government's ship-building program in the war. Other men were eager to
work with and for Charles M. Schwab. The co-operation of thousands of
friendships, new and old, more than anything else enabled him to succeed
in his big, patriotic job. How much more he has to celebrate in his
wealth of good will than in his great fortune of dollars! Schwab has
been called the most successful salesman in the world, which is another
way of saying that he has no equal in ability to make other people both
trust and like him.

[Sidenote: The Truest Wealth]

You may never accumulate millions of dollars. _That in itself is not
success. Many wealthy men are failures in life. But with the aid of
masterly salesmanship you can so enrich yourself with friendships and
the opportunities they bring that making all the money you want will be
merely incidental to your real success_. Let every accomplishment be a
stimulus to better selling of your service. Celebrate successful sales
of your ideas by undertaking to sell more true ideas about your best
capabilities in a larger field of usefulness.

[Sidenote: The Revolving Door]

The good salesman goes from opportunity to opportunity through a
revolving door. As it closes on one selling chance, it opens on another.
He steps directly from a finished sale into the prospect of getting an
order elsewhere. So he never stops selling.

You have sold yourself some knowledge of salesmanship. Do not rest
contented with what you have already learned. These chapters should but
whet your appetite for more opportunities to master the principles and
methods of selling true ideas of your best capabilities. So as you close
this book, reach out your hand to open another. You cannot over-study
the subject of salesmanship. _Never be satisfied with what you know_.
Continue to search for more golden knowledge, and make it yours by
practicing everything you learn.

[Sidenote: Failure Impossible to The Good Salesman]

It is impossible to fail in life if you become a master salesman of the
best that is in you. You will be sure to succeed. So here is Good Luck
to you! Keep on making it for yourself, and you never will run out.
CERTAIN SUCCESS WILL BE YOURS.

* * * * *

It is you that you offer for sale,
With your traits ranged like goods on a shelf,
And the first thing to do, without fail,
Is to make a success of yourself.

EDGAR A. GUEST.

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