And right here, let us impress upon you the necessity of working yourself up to the point of believing thoroughly in your own proposition. You must get yourself into the state of mind in which, if you were in the customer's place, you would surely want to take advantage of it. You must convert yourself before you can expect to convert the customer. We know an ad. man who tells us that he never feels satisfied with an ad. that he is writing until he can make himself believe that he wants to buy the article himself. And he is right. And the salesman will do well to take a leaf from his book. Enthusiasm and belief are contagious. If you believe thoroughly in a thing, you run a much better chance of making others believe in it also, than if you feel otherwise. You must learn to sell to yourself first, then you may sell to the customer.
W.C. Holman, in "Salesmanship," says: "One cannot make others believe what he himself believes, unless he himself is an earnest believer. Dwight L. Moody swayed enormous audiences by the simple power of his own wonderful earnestness. No one could listen to Moody without saying: 'This man believes absolutely every word he is speaking. If he feels what he says so tremendously, there must be something in it.' If every salesman realized how largely the attitude of the 'prospect' depended upon the salesman's own mental attitude, he would be as careful to get into the right frame of mind when he started out to approach a prospect as he would be to carry a sample case. It is a simple matter for him to do this. All that is necessary is for him to 'take account of stock' just before he starts out—to enumerate to himself all the strong, convincing points in his proposition—to consider the good high qualities of the goods he is selling—run over in his mind the splendid characteristics of his house—think of the great number of customers who have bought his product—and of the supremely satisfying reasons why other customers should buy his goods. In other words, before a salesman starts to sell other men, he should sell himself. He should make this sale to himself at the beginning of every day's work."
The student should acquaint himself thoroughly with the creative force of Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion in Character Building, and in producing and maintaining the proper Mental Attitude. The volume of this series entitled "Suggestion and Auto-Suggestion" gives both the theory, principles and methods of applying Auto-Suggestion in the directions named. One need no longer be a slave of his Mental Attitude. On the contrary he may create and preserve the Mental Attitude he deems advisable and necessary at any time.
Mr. W.C. Holman, one of the best of the inspirational writers on Salesmanship, gives the following interesting instance of the use of Auto-Suggestion by a salesman. He says: "One of the best salesmen the writer ever knew got up what he called his catechism. He used to put himself through it every morning before starting out. Oftentimes he repeated it aloud if he had the opportunity. The questions he would repeat in a quiet tone, but the answers he would pronounce with all the earnestness of which he was capable. His catechism ran somewhat as follows:
"Am I working for a good house? YES!
"Has my house the reputation and prestige of being one of the best in its line? YES!
"Have we made hundreds of thousands of sales like the sales I am going to make to-day? YES!
"Have we an enormous body of satisfied users? YES!
"Am I selling the best goods of the kind made anywhere in the world? YES!
"Is the price I am asking a fair one? YES!