"Send me five dozen," said the superintendent, drawing towards him a requisition blank.
While the superintendent was writing the requisition, the salesman quietly slipped out and brought in his sample case. When he returned, the superintendent was sharpening a pencil for himself with much evident enjoyment.
"What else have you?" said he, without looking up.
Of course that question opened up the salesman's sample case, and when he left the office, he had at least broken down that ancient barrier and had secured an order for considerably more than one-third of the year's supplies.
In our story of the railroad man who was induced to buy an automobile without even suspecting that his patronage was being solicited, observe how skillfully the salesman drew his customer's attention to the mechanical features of the machine. The colonel, being a railroad man, was, of course, of this bony and muscular type.
THE IMPRACTICAL MAN
The impractical man lives in a world of dreams, theories, hypotheses, and philosophies. His favorable attention is immediately attracted to an ingenious idea. If he is of the fine-textured, delicate-featured type, he will give his favorable attention readily to that which is artistic, poetical, musical, dramatic, or literary. Financially, he is far more likely to give attention to a proposition which promises immense
returns quickly than to one which is safe, solid and substantial, but promises only small returns. His favorable attention cannot for long be sustained by mere recitation of facts. He does not care much about facts and they are likely to prove dry and uninteresting to him. Give him the theories; show him the philosophy of the thing; appeal to his imagination, his sense of beauty and his ideals, and he is ready to listen further.
THE PRACTICAL MAN
The practical man demands facts. Theories and abstractions worry him. Even if you had his favorable attention and were to try to go too much into the reasons for things, you would probably lose it. He is the kind of man who wants to be shown, who demands that you place the actual object before him, if possible, so that he can see it, taste it, smell it, feel of it. His principal concern about any proposition is not, "Is it reasonable?" or "Is it in accordance with theories?" but rather "Will it work?" "Is it practical?" If you can show him the facts and can convince him by demonstration, if possible, that the thing will work, you will secure his very immediate attention.