Successful Salesmanship

By Theron Q. Dumont

Containing sales wisdom not found in any other modern book, "Successful Salesmanship" will give you the necessary foundation and skills required in order to be world class. Theron Q. Dumont teaches you the little understood habits and attitudes of the "naturals" who themselves are unsure of the reason for their incredible success in sales. The salesperson who studies this book will have a leg up over everybody else.

"Successful Salesmanship" is an in-depth guide of creating the correct sales personality and skills. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stargatebook
• Release date: Jul 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220830300

Book preview

LESSON I. - THE EFFICIENT SALESMAN.

It has been the custom of writers and speakers on the subject of salesmanship and sales, to begin by describing the Psychology of the Sale— the several stages of mental process manifested in every sale. This is all very well, so far as it goes, but one should not overlook the fact that just as the man behind the gun is the first consideration in artillery practice, so the man behind the sale should be the first thing considered in the subject of salesmanship. So, it has always been my practice, in my class work, to begin at the real beginning—the Salesman himself.

The logical classification of the elements of a sale, is this:

The Salesman;

The Goods (or Proposition);

The Prospective Buyer (or Prospect) and the subject of this course of lessons—Salesmanship—should be approached and considered according to this natural and logical classification.

We have heard much of the born salesman. In fact, if we were to believe some of those engaged in this line of work, we would think that unless a man were born with a certain instinctive and intuitive knowledge of the science and art of selling goods, he might as well relinquish all hope of ever becoming an efficient salesman. But the experience of the best psychologists, as well as that of the best employers of salesmen, is that some of the best salesmen have been developed from apparently unpromising material, by careful training and with the co-operation of the man in the work of self-development of character.

It is true that there are certain qualities coming to some men by inheritance—or, I should say, certain tendencies—which give to these men the advantage of an easy start. But this advantage, unless followed up by scientific knowledge, and strict character building, may prove to be a disadvantage, rather than advantage. Many a man of this kind has had a skyrocket career, and after making a brilliant rise, has sputtered out and dropped like the stick of the rocket. The very ease of the start, in many of these cases, often creates an inordinate vanity and general peacock attitude of mind which soon reacts upon the man, and brings to him defeat.

Too often the inherited tendency evidences simply as an ease of approach, which degenerates into a cheap cheekiness, which disgusts and repels the prospective buyer. Or, likewise, it may be the tendency toward the gift of gab, which may deteriorate into an undesirable flow, or gush of words which tends to create the impression of cheapness in the mind of the prospective buyer, and thus defeats the object of the flow of words.

In this connection, I would say that some of the very best salesmen in the world, so far from manifesting the cheeky approach, are known for their quiet, dignified, gentlemanly manner in approaching the prospective buyer (or prospect to use the customary term). And, equally true, the real salesman of merit may be known for sparing use of words—a few well- chosen, positive expressions taking the place of the flow of words from the bubbling verbal fountain of the counterfeit salesman of the stage or work of fiction.

The gurgling, bubbling teller of stories, of the old days of salesmanship, is being supplanted by the earnest, thoroughly posted, and logical man of business, who is applying the rules of scientific salesman-ship, instead of the old jollying, cajoling, cheap methods of appeal. This does not mean that cheerfulness has lost its value to salesmanship—on the contrary, this element of human nature will live as long as the race, and will have its value until the end of time. I simply mean that the quality of cheerfulness and good nature has passed from the old slap-stick methods and farce comedy stage, to that of true humor and good nature. Moreover, much of the old gurgle and bubble is now perceived to be waste motion, and lacking the qualities of true appeal.

Modern psychology teaches most forcibly that each and every man may develop any set of mental faculties, or restrain any other set. In short, man is able to make himself over, according to any pattern or ideal which he holds before his mind as a model. Desirable qualities may be developed and strengthened; and undesirable qualities may be starved out or have their stingers extracted. This is not mere idle talk, based upon hope and desire; nor is it merely the prophecy of a coming time. It is a plain, clear, scientific statement of a present truth and fact, which may be, and is, possible of demonstration here and now.

Rule For Character Development.

The general psychological rule for the cultivation of desirable qualities and the restraint of undesirable ones, may be stated in a few words, for it is as simple in principle as it is universal in application and efficacious in result. It may be stated as follows:

Exercise and use the desirable qualities upon every possible opportunity. Keep them ever before you in thought, for thought takes form in action. And, cultivate the mental habit of visualizing, or seeing in a mental picture, yourself as manifesting the qualities which you wish to develop and habitually manifest.

To restrain and neutralize an undesirable quality, develop its opposite, along the lines just manifested. It is a law of the mind that two opposites cannot exist in consciousness at the same time—the stronger shuts out the weaker. Moreover, as the subconscious is built up from the impressions of the conscious mentality, and takes color therefrom, it follows that by observing this rule, one is able to fill his subconscious mind with the positive qualities, instead of the negative. Mental qualities come in pairs— opposites. If you strengthen one of the pair, the opposite is weakened—this is an invariable law of the mind. Therefore, in view of the above stated facts, it follows that if you develop the opposite of an undesirable quality, you really weaken and neutralize the undesirable one itself, without paying any other attention to it. In the same way, if you develop an undesirable quality, you at the same time, tend to weaken the desirable quality which is its opposite.

Positive and Negatives. In connection with the above rule for development of mental qualities, I wish to call your attention to a peculiar law of psychology which has to do with the relation between, and comparative power of Positive and Negative mental qualities, thoughts, ideas, and actions. The law is based upon some deep fundamental principle of Life or Mind, which is found to be operative on all planes of thought and will activity. This law may be stated, broadly and generally, in the following words: Positives always neutralize Negatives, if brought in contact with them.

A glance at the world around you will satisfy you that the positive phase of things is always the most active; and that all actions tends to move along positive lines; rather than those of negativity. You will notice that men generally compare things for the purpose of deciding which is the largest, strongest, most active, most lively, most efficient—even though they are not personally interested in the result. The result will nearly always be uttered in the terms of the positive—that is, the winning positive things will nearly always be mentioned. It is but seldom that we hear the result in the terms of negativity. For instance, compare two things and perceive how natural it is for you to say: This one is the largest; or strongest. You naturally express yourself in this way, and seldom find yourself announcing the result as: This one is the smallest; or weakest.

Everything has its place on a scale, one end of which is positive, and the other negative. Moreover, everything has its positive and negative aspects. The positive always means the most efficient, or plus side or end of the thing, while the negative always means the least efficient or minus side or end of the thing. We do not measure things in degrees of weakness, but in degrees of strength—in degrees of positivity, not in degrees of negativity. For instance, we do not think of strength as being less weak, but rather of weakness as being less strong. In short, the scale is one of Strength, which is positive; rather than of Weakness, which is negative, and which really means absence of strength. We naturally recognize this fact, when we prefix un or in to positive qualities, in order to express the negative opposite thereof. We never attach them prefixes to negative things when we wish to indicate a positive one. These prefixes always denote an absence, or lack of positive quality—never the lack or absence of negative quality. Finally, then, we may see that negativity actually means absence or lack of positivity, rather than an equal reality. Thus darkness is but an absence of light, not a thing in itself. Do you get the idea?

In the same way, in advertising or selling goods by personal appeal, the positive is always stronger than the negative. A man always is more ready to listen to a statement of fact couched in terms of It IS so and so; rather than to be told that the same thing is NOT so and so (naming its opposite), though both statements really mean the same thing. A command of Thou shalt, is far more positive in its effect, that one of the Thou shalt not. It is far better psychology to point out to one the way a thing should be done, than how it should be done—for if one follows the right way of doing a thing, he will not fall in the wrong way. The same fact may be brought out more strongly in its positive form than in its negative. The positive always neutralizes and overcomes the negative if brought into contact with it. For this reason, I have advised you to cultivate your positive qualities, and not bother about the negative ones—for the latter will be neutralized if the former are encouraged and developed.

But, the student may reasonably inquire at this point, how am I to distinguish between positive and negative qualities in salesmanship? Is there no general rule? I hasten to answer that there is a general rule—so general, in fact, that it applies not only to salesmanship, but to everything else in the world of mental action. Here is the rule:

Rule of Positivity: A positive quality always tends toward efficiency; a negative quality always tends toward inefficiency. When in doubt about a given quality, ask yourself this question: Does this quality tend to make me stronger, more capable, more efficient? Let this be your touchstone, by which you will discover the positivity or negativity of any mental quality. For, it follows that whatever conforms to this rule will be POSITIVE!

Efficiency. You will notice that I have summed up the positive nature of a quality by the term EFFICIENCY. This term has sprung into sudden popular favor during the past decade, by reason of its employment by leading authorities who have specialized on certain forms of effective work, and the scientific management and direction thereof. To many, there has seemed to be some kind of special magic in the term, which is lacking in others. But, while the word has a dynamic meaning by reason of its practical application by the authorities mentioned, it but expresses an idea as old as thought— this, however, is not intended to lessen respect for and use of, the term, for it is an excellent one, and one which I, personally, am fond of using.

Efficiency really means: The power of producing effects and results— that is to say, that is the ordinary meaning of the term. But, in the science of Mechanics the term was used to express the idea of: the ratio of useful work to energy expended. The special use of the term, just referred to, includes both of the old meanings, and, accordingly may be said to express the idea of producing the greatest degree of desirable effect or result, with the least expenditure of energy and time. In short, Efficiency may be said to mean "the quality of producing effects, or attaining result, in the best way.

Efficiency experts hold that there is only one best way to do anything. Furthermore they hold that the best way of doing anything, must also be a combination of the easiest possible way, the quickest possible way, and the way of getting the highest return in desirable effects and results. The requisites, you will notice, call for the greatest possible degree of eliminating Waste Motion, Waste Effort, and Waste Time—and these three ways may be summed up generally, simply as WASTE! So, then,at the last, EFFICIENCY means obtaining the greatest and best results, with the least waste. Fasten this idea in your mind, for it is the keynote of effective, and efficient work in any line.

Efficiency is essentially Positive. It is built up by the Positive Qualities, and torn down, or hindered by the Negative Qualities. To be a Positive Salesman, means to be an Efficient Salesman. And, this idea, and ideal, of POSITIVE EFFICIENCY, should ever be kept before you as a pattern and guide!

LESSON II. - THE DWELLER OF THE THRESHOLD.

Before proceeding to the consideration of the positive qualities which should be developed by the salesman, I wish to ask the student to pause for a moment while I call his attention to a mental state, or emotional state if you prefer it, which has beset the path of many a good man, and which has turned back many a one who would otherwise have made a great success. I would not care to call exactly a quality—it is rather a state of feeling. Therefore, I think we had better dispose of it before we consider the subject of mental qualities. Let us meet this grim dragon, and learn how to destroy him.

Did you ever read Bulwer’s occult story, called Zanoni? If so, you will remember his description of that terrible supernatural creature which presents itself to all neophtyes who seek to penetrate the veil of the hidden knowledge. This nameless, shapeless thing, was called the Dweller of the Threshold. The sight of it paralyzed the eager student of the esoteric teachings, and frequently drove him in terror away from the place. It froze his blood, made his eyes like stars start from their spheres; each knotted and combined lock to part, and each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porcupine. But, this monster was merely a figment of the imagination, lacking life and real being, ad could be driven away into nothingness by the courage and self control of the neophyte who learned to assert his mastery. A demon of this kind dwells upon the threshold of salesmanship. Like its occult counterpart, it is a creature of the imagination, lacking real being and life. And also like that counterpart, it may be driven away by a resolute will, and a determined mind, aided by a knowledge of its fictitious nature and counterfeit being.

The Dweller of the Threshold of Salesmanship, is known by the name of PANIC. Actors know it by the name of stage-fright. Hunters know it by the name of buck-fever. Actors, hunters, and old salesmen realize it fictitious nature, and its counterfeit being—but they also know how dreadfully real it appears to the beginner. Even after its real nature is recognized, it may continue to exert power over one, until finally killed and thrown off. Like the rope of the Hindu, so long as it is imagined to be a cobra, it may as well really be one so far as is concerned the fear of the observer. A dream is true so long as it lasts. It is only when the sleeper awakes, that the hideous nightmare vanishes. Let us wake up, students!

By many writers and teachers this mental state—Panic—has been regarded as Fear, and treated as such. But it is something far deeper than Fear. Fear is a mental state arising from the belief, or half-belief, in the existence of some impending evil, or threatening danger. When the mind is assured that no such evil impends, or that no such danger threatens, the feeling of Fear disappears—there is nothing to be afraid of. But this deeper thing—this Panic—is something far deeper, and more elemental. It belongs to the phenomena of the subconscious mind. It is akin to that unreasoning, causeless fright which overcomes many persons in a dark room, lonely place, or vicinity of a graveyard. It savors of the fear of the supernatural, and manifests in the same way. There is many a man who doesn’t believe in spooks in daylight, but who feels a very vivid terror of them in the middle of the night, or in the vicinity of a graveyard after dark.

The actor manifesting stage fright really is not afraid of the audience. His feeling is a deeper, unreasoning something, which is causeless, so far as any recognized cause is concerned. The hunter experiencing buck fever is not afraid of the deer so many yards away. He is not afraid in any sense of the word, but he acts just as if he were in a state of acute terror, and is unable to pull the trigger. The man who is afraid of nothing supernatural, because he does not believe in supernatural things, nevertheless experiences that creepy feeling, and that manifestation of goose-flesh all over his body, notwithstanding his knowledge that there is no cause for alarm. The cause is not to be found in the region of the conscious mind—it rests in the depths of the subconscious.

Psychologists tell us that these subconscious states are the result of the fear of our ancestors, away back in the chain of life—perhaps, before the dawn of human life. The dark has terrors, because it was the symbol of dangerous beasts to our stone-age ancestors. The fear of crowds—one form of which is stage-fright—is an echo of the old fear of a strange body of men suddenly controlling one, a natural fear to the savage to the whom a strange man was almost always an enemy. The buck fever of the hunter, probably has some similar explanation. I have never heard it positively identified, but it belongs to the same class of emotions, however, and must have a similar cause from its very nature. The Panic of the salesman, is a form of extreme bashfulness and timidity which has a direct line of descent from the fear of facing persons in authority—the king, prince, priest, etc. It is a form of race thought, dwelling in the subconscious mind, and being without visible or known present cause. It is as unreasonable as the inherited feelings, impressed upon the child by the pre-natal emotions of its mother— such as the fear of spiders, cats, etc., which have been felt by some of the bravest of men, as history informs us. But it may be killed out and neutralized much easier than can these prenatal impressions, because its cause is much further back in the history of the ancestral line.

I have said that the best way to kill out an undesirable, negative quality is to develop its opposite positive quality. Thus Fear may be killed out, and neutralized by developing its positive opposite, Courage. By this Panic is not Fear. It is something far deeper, as we have seen. It must be reached by asserting and developing its positive opposite, Self-Control, and by impressing upon the subconscious mind that there is no real basis or grounds for this feeling. The subconscious may be educated by impressing upon it, forcibly, the fact that its feelings have no basis in fact, and that the occasion for the manifestation of the feeling has passed long ages ago. This feeling is a vestigial remnant of the days when such feeling was a useful instinct warning one away from danger. To constantly assert the error of such feeling, and to deny the validity of its promptings, is to gradually eradicate it from the subconscious mind. This may be aided by demonstrating to the subconscious mind that there is no basis for the feeling, by actual experiment in the direction of going counter to its promptings—by refusing to run away in a panic, and, instead, by boldly approaching the presence of the prospect. There is no use in arguing away this state of Panic, for it does not manifest on the plane of the intellect, the home of argument and reasoning. It manifests on another plane of mentality, and is not concerned with present causes or reasons. In fact, it is causeless and contrary to reason. Its causes and reasons have long since passed into oblivion—what is left is merely the echo, or shadow, of something that has long since passed away. If the cause or reason of a thing has disappeared, then its shadow or echo must be a double-counterfeit, fraud, lie, error, illusion. And the only logical way of combatting such a thing is to literally deny it out of existence. This may seem strange to you, but it has excellent psychological reasoning and experience back of it. Confront the Thing, call it a Lie, a Phantom, an Illusion, lacking all reality, truth, and being. It is an intruder in your mental realm—a bat in your belfry. Therefore, drive it out without mercy—and show it no quarter.

Panic is not a normal mental state—it is a diseased condition. It is a negative shadow, opposing a reality. To drive it out, kill it out, one has but to admit the sunlight of Truth, and the miserable shadow will disappear. This must not be construed as mere words—something said merely because it has an inspiring sound and vibration. It is a fact—a truth. The best proof of the truth is this statement is found in the analysis of the emotion itself. A little analysis will show that Panic is not based upon reason or experience, necessarily, but, on the contrary, is an emotional fog which rises from the subconscious region in which it has been grown. It overcomes one like a noxious vapor, paralyzing the will and energy. It is not a conviction, or judgment, based on reason. Instead, it is a feeling of the emotional nature, having no basis in the facts of the case, and being entirely devoid of reason.

It is this miserable feeling which paralyzes the will of so many salesmen, particularly at the beginning of their career, before they learn its fallacious nature, and before they have learned to neutralize it. Remember, you feel this thing not because you are filled with the conviction that you cannot sell the prospect, or that you have not the ability to carry the sale through. Not because of any calm judgment of this kind on your part—but solely because of its irrational, panicky, negativity. This Panic is not a rational thing—it is irrational, illogical, untrue, unreal. At the last, it is what the Orientals call Maya, or Illusion, or the Christian Scientists call Error of Mortal Mind. It is a Shadow—not a Reality. It is a Dream—not a Waking Fact. But as in the old Hindu fable, the rope which is mistaken for a snake, causes just as much terror as does the snake, until it is found out—just as dreams are true, while they last—so is this Shadow powerful enough to paralyze your efforts and abilities, until you discover that it is but a shadow, having no reality; until you discover the cheat and illusion of its nature. So to merely tell you that Panic is not real, does not help you any, so long as you really feel its effect. Fortunately, there is an antidote for its poison.

The old Oriental teachers who discovered the illusory nature of Panic; the modern metaphysicians who teach the error of its essential nature; and the modern psychologist who recognizes it as the product of the subconscious energies wrongly set into operation—all of these have practically the same remedy and cure for it. This cure or remedy, so accepted and taught, is universal in its effect—it is infallible. It will cure any case to which it is applied, providing the person applying it will do so in earnest, and with

sufficient persistency and perseverance. And then, what is this great remedy?

Simply this: The assertion of