CHAPTER XI
HOW SUGGESTION HELPS IN SELLING
The ability to influence or induce people to purchase what you have to sell is a mental art that will repay cultivation.
“Salesmanship is the art of selling to the other fellow something he needs but doesn’t know it.”
“A sale is a mental thing. It results from harmonizing certain mental elements which enter into all common agreements between men.”
A sharp-witted lawyer after successfully defending a man accused of horse-stealing, asked him in confidence, after the trial, if he were really guilty.
“Well, Mister,” replied the man, “I thought at first I had took the critter, but after listening to your speech I concluded I hadn’t.”
The power of suggestion may be used for base and illegitimate ends or for honorable and legitimate ones. It is his suggestive power which makes the smooth, long-headed promoter dangerous. He uses it to make people buy what they do not need, or to palm off on them fraudulent or spurious goods. The victims of these unscrupulous promoters, when under the influence of a suggestive anæsthetic, will mortgage their homes, their furniture, draw their last dollar from the savings-bank, borrow every dollar they can, to obtain the thing which is made to appear so desirable that they cannot see how they can get along without it.
Now, suggestion is just as effective when used for a lawful and honorable purpose as for an unlawful and dishonorable one. One salesman succeeds where others fail, largely because of his greater suggestive power. He draws such a vivid description of the merchandise he is selling, makes it seem so very desirable, that his prospect feels he must give him an order. The salesman knows he is selling a good thing that it is to his customer’s advantage to buy. The transaction is therefore of mutual benefit to both parties, the buyer as well as the seller.
Suggestion has been defined as “whatever creates or inspires thought.” As a science, suggestion “shows us how to start and steer thought.” The five senses are the channels which bring us impressions from without. “An act of the will or some association of ideas” brings impressions from within; this latter is auto-suggestion.
Suggestion can help you to upbuild and develop yourself, to educate and train yourself in spirit, mind, and body. “In building up character a man must have spiritual and moral backing.” “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” This is the essence of auto-suggestion. “Thought is a creative force.” It is a “motive, impelling, sustaining” force. Hence, when auto-suggestion keeps thought “working in the right direction” we have a powerful backing in all our undertakings. By thinking definitely, steadily and strongly on useful and exalted sentiments we come into the realization of our thought aspirations. Briefly, we create within what we mentally desired steadily and intently. Thus we may build our character, ever “improving, developing, and adorning.” Suggestion is our “working force.”