Tag: salesman
Be True to Yourself
“Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah.”
– Richard Bach
“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst then be false to any man.”
– William Shakespeare
Thou Shall Divide and Conquer
Core expansion is far different than extension. Extension is often referred to as franchising, licensing, line extension, or branching out — also known as conglomerating. In this context, I am referring to expansion by division.
If you’re a specialist in your field — which I hope you are after reading this book — and you offer only one type of service, you can expand from within by dividing your core (your product or service) into multiple, smaller components.
How Riches Come To You
When I say that you do not have to drive sharp bargains, I do not mean that you do not have to drive any bargains at all or that you are above the necessity for having any dealings with your fellow men. I Mean that you will not need to deal with them unfairly. You do not have to get something for nothing, but can give to every person more than you take from him.
You cannot give everyone more in cash market value than you take from him, but you can give him more in use value than the cash value of the thing you take from him. The paper, ink, and other material in this book may not be worth the money you pay for it, but if the ideas suggested by it bring you thousands of dollars, you have not been wronged by those who sold it to you. They have given you a great use value for a small cash value.
Good Business
A rapid stream ran by the writer’s boyhood home. The stream turned a wooden wheel and the wheel ran a mill. Under that primitive method, all but a fraction of the streams potentiality went to waste.
Then someone applied scientific methods to that stream — put in a turbine and dynamos. Now, with no more water, no more power, it runs a large manufacturing plant.
Letter Writing
This another phase of advertising which all of us have to consider. It enters, or should enter, into all campaigns. Every business man receives a large number of circular letters. Most of them go direct to the waste basket. But he acts on others, and others are filed for reference.
Analyze those letters. The ones you act on or the ones you keep have a headline which attracted your interest. At a glance they offer something that you want, something you may wish to know.
Individuality
A person who desires to make an impression must stand out in some way. Being eccentric, being abnormal is not distinction to covet. But doing admirable things in a different way gives one a great advantage.
So with salesmen, in person or in print. There is uniqueness which belittles and arouses resentment. There is refreshing uniqueness which enhances, which we welcome and remember. Fortunate is the salesman who has it.
Test Campaigns
Almost any question can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them — not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort — the buyers of your product.
On every new project there comes up the question of selling that article profitably. You and your friends may like it, but the majority may not. Some rival product may be better liked or cheaper. It may be strongly entrenched. The users won away from it may cost too much to get.
