Certain Success. Norval A. Hawkins
almost always are responsible for the merely partial success or the downright failure in life of the man who deserves to win, but who loses out.
Who Is To Blame for Failure
One may feel able to "deliver the goods," were he given the chance. He may know where his best capability is greatly needed and would be highly appreciated if recognized. Yet the door of opportunity may not open to his deserving hand, however hard he tries to win his way in. His failure seems to him altogether unfair, the rankest injustice from Fortune.
If a man knows he is completely fitted to fill a higher position, he feels considerable self-confidence when he first applies for it. But his real ability may not be recognized by his chief. The ambitious man may be denied the coveted chance to take the step upward to the bigger opportunities for which he rightly believes himself qualified. If his deserts and his utmost efforts do not win the promotion he desires, he grows discouraged. He loses the taste of zest for his work. His earlier optimism oozes away. After awhile his ambition slumps. Then he resigns himself sullenly to the conviction that he is a failure but is not to blame.
Dynamic Quality Lacking
Leaving out of consideration most exceptional, unpreventable bad luck, the worthy man who fails in life is to blame. He is not, as he thinks, a victim of circumstances or ill-fate. His failure is due to his ignorance of the first of the four principal factors of the secret of certain success. Potentially qualified to succeed, he does not have the absolutely necessary dynamic element. He lacks an essential characteristic of the self-made successful man, a characteristic which any one of intelligence can learn how to develop—a high degree of capability in gaining his own opportunities to succeed.
He does not know how to sell true ideas about himself; though he may realize the importance of making the best impression possible. So, however, he tries, he cannot get his deserved chances to succeed. He could secure them easily if he comprehended the selling process of the master salesman, and used it with skill. This process of masterly selling is the key to certain success for the fully qualified man in any vocation.
Making and Governing One's Own Good Luck
A capable applicant will invariably be given a chance to succeed, if he takes the best that is in him to a man who has need of such services as he could render, and then sells the true idea of his ability. He has mastered all four principal elements of the complete secret of certain success. Consequently he is able to create and to control his opportunities to succeed. He makes and governs his own good luck.
Everywhere the most desirable positions in the business world are in need of men who can fill them. Only the poorer jobs are crowded. But when Opportunity has to seek the man, the right one is often overlooked. The golden chance is gained by another—less qualified and less worthy, perhaps; but a better salesman of himself. The fully competent man, however, can assure his success by becoming proficient in selling true ideas of his best capability in the right market or field of service. The master salesman of himself makes his own chances to succeed, and therefore runs no risk of being overlooked by Opportunity.
Success Way Is Charted
Master salesmen of ideas about "goods" use particular selling processes to get their ideas across surely to the minds of prospective buyers. The professional salesman, therefore, has plainly charted the way to certain success in any vocation, for the man who has developed the best that is in him. If you are a candidate for a position, do not let a prospective employer buy your services at his valuation, for he is certain to under-estimate you. Sell him true ideas of your merits. Set a fair price on your worth, and get across to his mind the true idea that you would be worth that much to him. Such skillful salesmanship used by an applicant for a position can be depended on to make the best possible impression of his desirability; just as the practiced art of the professional salesman enables him to present the qualities and values of his goods in the most favorable light. The masterly selling process is not very difficult to learn. Proficiency in its use can be gained gradually by any one who practices consciously every day the actual sale of ideas in the artistic way.
Knowledge of Salesmanship Develops Confidence
As was stated in the Introduction to this book, it has been proved conclusively in business that particular principles and methods of selling are certain to produce the highest average of closed orders. In other words, success for the professional salesman is assured if he develops certain qualifications, and if he does certain things; all within the capacity of any normal, intelligent man. Scientific sales executives know positively, as the result of comparative tests, that the salesman who develops these personal qualifications, and who does these things, should get his quota of business and hold it. Hence, as has been said, specific training is given in the sales schools of the most successful businesses, along the lines of best selling practice.
Practical Principles
When the individual salesman who has been so trained commences work in his territory, he learns in his experiences with buyers that the principles and methods he has been taught are actually most effective. Assuming that he has developed his best capabilities pretty fully, and that he has become fairly skillful in using what he knows about how to sell his line, he works with continually growing confidence that he will succeed. Why should he doubt his complete selling power? He knows there is a field for his goods in this territory. He knows clearly and vividly what ideas he wants to get across to the minds of prospective buyers. He knows—most important of all—just how to make convincing and attractive impressions of the desirability and true value of what he presents for purchase. He comprehends the most effective ways to show prospects both their need for his goods and that he has come, with a real purpose of service, to satisfy that need.
You, the non-professional salesman of yourself, will sell your "goods of sale" with similar complete confidence in your power to gain and to control your opportunities for success—if you, too, use the right selling process.
This set of books explains and demonstrates in detail the principles and methods of the successful salesman of ideas. The Introduction and twelve Chapters of the present series apply the selling process especially to the sale of ideas about one's self, with particular relation to self-advancement in the world. "The Selling Process," companion book to "Certain Success," shows the master professional salesman at work, getting orders with assurance.
Hard Study Necessary
The fact that you have proceeded thus far in reading "Certain Success" proves you have an earnest purpose to make the most of your present opportunity to learn how to succeed with certainty. We will assume that you have developed your individual ability pretty fully, and that you know where there is a field for such services as you are sure you could render if afforded the chance. Surely, then, your ambition in life, whatever it may be, is a sufficient incentive to the most thorough study of the principles and methods of successful salesmanship. Do not merely read this set of books. MASTER "Certain Success" and "The Selling Process" to make yourself the master of your own destiny.
Again and again, lest at any time while you study you might fall below 100% in absolute assurance, you will read in these chapters the assertion that your success can be made certain. This statement is not an exaggeration. It is necessary that you accept it literally throughout your reading of this set of books. Do not take it "with a grain of salt." The taste of the declaration that the selling process makes success sure will become familiar after these many repetitions. Realize when you come upon the repeated idea as you proceed with your study that your continued reading should frequently be reenforced by a steadily growing conviction that you are mastering the sure way to succeed. You believe in yourself more than you did when you began to read this book. This increasing faith should develop to complete confidence when you have dug into the text of both "Certain Success" and "The Selling Process," and have dug out every idea in the twenty-four chapters.
Salesmanship Not a Science But an Art
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