NORVAL A. HAWKINS

Majestic Building, Detroit, Michigan.

CHAPTER I

_The Universal Need For Sales Knowledge_

[Sidenote: a.n.a.lysis of Secret of Certain Success]

The Secret of Certain Success has four princ.i.p.al elements. It comprises:

(1) Knowing how to sell

(2) The true idea

(3) Of one's best capabilities

(4) In the right market or field of service.

_Your_ success will be in direct proportion to your thorough knowledge and continual use of _all four parts_ of the whole secret. No matter how great your effort, an entire lack of one or more of these princ.i.p.al elements of Certain Success will cause partial or utter failure in your life ambition. You will be like a man who tries to open a safe with a four-combination lock, though he knows only two or three of the numbers.

No one, however well fitted for success elsewhere, can succeed in the _wrong field_, or in rendering services for which _he_ is not qualified.

Nor is complete success attainable by a man unless he develops the _best_ that is in him. Even if he brings to the right market his utmost ability, he may fail miserably by making a _false impression_ that he is unfitted for the opportunity he wants. Or he may be overlooked because he does not make the _true_ impression of his fitness.

Evidently, in order to gain a _chance_ to succeed, anyone must first _sell_ to the fullest advantage the idea that he is _the_ man for the opportunity already waiting or for the new opening he makes for himself.

Of course he cannot do this _surely_ unless he _knows how_. Therefore sales knowledge is _universally needed_ to complement the three other princ.i.p.al elements of the complete secret of certain success.

[Sidenote: Reasons for Failures]

When we try to explain the failure of any man who seems worthy to have succeeded, we nearly always say, in substance, one of three things about his case:

"He is a square peg in a round hole;" by which we usually mean he is a right man in the wrong place.

Or, "He is capable of filling a better position;" a more polite way of saying that a man has outgrown his present job but has not developed ability to get a bigger one.

Oftenest, probably, we declare, "He isn't appreciated."

Very rarely is a worthy man's failure in life ascribed to the commonest cause--_his personal inefficiency in selling_ to the world comprehension of his especial qualifications for success.

[Sidenote: What Failures Realize]

If a man is a square peg in a round hole, he should realize that his particular qualities must be fitted into the right field for them before he can succeed. A natural "organizer" cannot achieve his ambitions if he works alone at a routine task.

No sensible man would aspire to fill a better position than he holds, unless he had developed a capacity beyond the limitations of his present work. The shipping clerk who craves the higher salary of a correspondent knows he cannot hope for the desired promotion if he has not learned to write good business letters.

However deserving of advancement a man may be, he realizes he has but a slim chance to succeed if his worth is unrecognized. So he wants appreciation from his chief. He knows that unless his worth is perceived and truly valued, some one else, who may be less qualified, is apt to be selected for the "Manager's" job he desires. Such "injustices" have poisoned countless disappointed hopes with bitterest resentment.

The deserving man who fails because he is a misfit in his particular position, the worthy man who is limited to a small career because the work he does lacks scope for the use of all his ability; the third good man who has been kept down for the reason that his chief is blind to his qualifications for promotion--all three of these failures understand pretty clearly the reasons for their non-success.

[Sidenote: When Lack of Salesmanship Causes Failure]

It is very different in the case of the capable man who fails because he has been _inefficient in selling true impressions_ of his qualifications for success. A private secretary, for ill.u.s.tration, might be thoroughly competent for managerial duties; but by his self-effacement in his present job he might make the false impression that he was wanting in executive capacity. He would be given a chance as manager if he were effective in creating a true impression of his administrative ability.

Such a capable man, if he has little or no scientific knowledge of the selling _process_ is apt also to lack comprehension of the value _to him_ of knowing _how to sell ideas_. He does not happen to call himself a salesman. Therefore he has never studied with personal interest the fine art of selling. He does not realize that _ignorance of salesmanship_, and _consequent non-use of the selling process, 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_.

[Sidenote: 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_.

[Sidenote: 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 circ.u.mstances or ill-fate. His failure is due to his ignorance of the first of the four princ.i.p.al 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.

[Sidenote: 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 princ.i.p.al 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 _a.s.sure_ 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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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 _a.s.sured_ 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.

[Sidenote: 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_.

a.s.suming 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 _a.s.surance_.

[Sidenote: Hard Study Necessary]

The fact that you have proceeded thus far in reading "Certain Success"