The Man of Quick Decisions
Suppose he has a reputation for brusqueness and quick decisions, and is impatient about any waste of time. You probably would help your cause by looking him straight in the eye and saying bluntly something like this:
"I want to work for you because you are my kind of a man. Ask me any questions you want, now. You won't have to call me on the carpet for information about my work after you hire me. Pay me two hundred dollars a month, and I won't be back in this office to get a raise until you send for me."
I know a young man who secured a good job from an "old crab" in just that way, within three minutes after they first met.
Two men sought the position of office manager of an automobile company. The owners of the business were thorough mechanics who had designed their own car, but who were comparatively unfamiliar with office operations. They were not at home outside their factory.
Mistake of Speaking Different Language
The first candidate for the vacant position brought the finest recommendations of his qualifications for office management. The other applicant had had much less experience, and was not nearly so well qualified. But the first man was a poor salesman of his capabilities. He failed to recognize, when he explained his ideas to the partners, that he was talking to a pair of mechanics. They did not understand the language he used. His presentation of his qualifications as an office manager would have impressed an employer accustomed to sitting at a desk. But the partners were intuitively prejudiced against the capable candidate who was so very unlike themselves in all respects.
Speaking the Same Language
The other applicant was shrewd. He used salesmanship in presenting his lesser qualifications for the position. He talked in terms borrowed from the language of shop practice. He compared the plans he suggested for the office supplies stock room, with the "tool crib" in the factory. He explained his idea of office organization by using as a model a chart of the plant departments. He compared office expenses with factory overhead.
The owners of the business understood very little about the subjects he discussed, but he used words and expressions that were familiar to them. So his ideas, as he presented them, impressed the partners as like their own way of looking at things. The better salesman, who knew how to interest his prospects, got the five-figure job; though he was a less capable office executive than the disappointed applicant.