Tour Place in Our Economy

SELLING is not a new art. It is as old as man himself. When
man first began to exchange ideas he began to sell. Sell-
ing has always been employed as a means of influencing
someone to do something. It has been demonstrated in the
form of exchanging ideas, products, plans, or services. How-
ever, it was soon discovered that, in order to influence a man,
it was necessary to please him. If the man was pleased, he
would listen and pay attention to your story; otherwise, he
paid no attention. Therefore, in order to sell him, it was
necessary to know how to please him.


Thus opened up an entirely new field for selling. To be
successful at this art it was necessary to know the charac-
teristics of the prospect. A study had to be made of his
wants, his needs, his hopes, his aspirations, and the many
other hidden attributes that controlled his desire to buy. In
order for the salesman to understand his prospect, he was
compelled to turn the searchlight on himself. This was not
all. It was necessary for the salesman to know everything
possible about his product, its history, its background, and
the part it played in the life of the prospect. It was essential
to analyze the markets to comprehend the possibilities of
the product, and the various uses in which it might be ap-
plied. The salesman had to uncover the unknown needs, and
to supply those needs, and to create markets that did not
exist before. He had to be able to sense trends and to evalu-
ate them in the light of reason and common sense.
The salesman is no longer an order taker with a worn-out
valise, a bag of tricks, a bundle of sales cliches, and a stock
of stale stories. The salesman of today is a psychologist, a
scientist, an analyst, and an artist, all rolled up in one. He is
dealing with the greatest thing in life: the mind and its ideas,
as applied to the continued development of our economy
and the distribution of its products.