You can make your point clearer, you can talk with more force, you can
impress and convince your customer better if you stand while he is
seated.
Have you ever noticed that when you are seated and the other fellow is
standing it puts you at a disadvantage? Try it some time.
Have you not noticed that if you are seated and your adversary is
standing, when you get enthusiastic and wish to combat his argument, it
is impossible for you to get in your best licks while you are seated?
You involuntarily rise when you make your strong points and are full of
your subject.
How far would a life insurance man or an advertising man get if he sat
down and leaned back and relaxed while talking to you?
You will observe that the good solicitor declines with thanks your
proffered chair. He stands up, he knows the value of standing.
By the relation between his standing and you sitting it makes him a
positive and you a negative force. He forces--you receive.
How much would an orator impress his audience if he delivered his
lecture in a sitting posture?
You cannot combat argument very well if you are sitting, nor can you
convince others as well sitting as standing.
When you call on a customer carry a busy air with you. Stand up. Talk
straight from the shoulder. Make your point and claims clear. Place
your position or proposition definitely, forcefully and quickly before
your customer. Make a good get-away when you have accomplished your
purpose.
If you don't land him the first time, get away anyway. Let him see that
your time is money, and that you appreciate that his time is money,
too.
Don't visit. Gracefully and politely decline the chair that is offered;
say that your limit of time and disinclination to trespass require your
stay to be brief.
Stand. Keep busy and active. Get away quickly, and you will be welcome
next time.
The short stayer is a welcome guest. He may not land his customers as
quickly, but in the end he will land more customers, and hold them
closer and retain them longer than the tedious, visiting, social bore
who sits and sits and sits.