THE STIMULUS OF REBUFFS
It is defeat that turns bone to flint, and gristle to muscle,
and makes men invincible, and formed those heroic natures that
are now in ascendancy in the world. Do not, then, be afraid of
defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a
good cause.—HENRY WARD BEECHER.
He only is beaten who admits it.
Do not allow yourself to think that you are weak.
The man who has never formed the victory habit is timid,
because he does not know that he can conquer; he doesn’t know
his strength, because he has never tested it sufficiently to
know that it will win.
The manager of a big insurance company not long since asked me what books
I would recommend for putting stamina into a salesman who wilted under a
direct “No.”
“We have in our employ,” he wrote, “a fine mannered, well-educated
and very intelligent man. We have thoroughly educated him in the
technical part of our business and have done our best to perfect him in
salesmanship, but he is not attaining the success we believe he should.
His defect is his inability to continue a conversation with a party who
abruptly tells him that he is not interested in life insurance. He states
that in a number of such instances he has been unable to say a word, his
throat becoming dry. From the above description it might appear to you
that the man was wanting in courage. We, however, do not believe this to
be the case as his record in the past does not justify that conclusion.”
How do _you_ stand up under a “No”? Do you lose heart? Does your
cheerfulness vanish? Are you conquered then and there? Or does it only
act as a stimulant to more determined effort? Does it brace you to meet
opposition, put you on your mettle, or do you wilt under it?
A salesman who is made of the right stuff thrives upon opposition. He
braces up under rebuffs, rises to the occasion in proportion to the
difficulties to be overcome.
Socrates said, “If the Almighty should come to me with complete success
in His right hand, and an eternal struggle for success in His left, I
would take the left.” It is through struggle, through bravely meeting and
overcoming obstacles that we find ourselves and develop our strength.
A successful business man tells me that every victory he has gained in
a long career has been the result of hard fighting, so that now he is
actually afraid of an easily-won success. He feels that there must be
something wrong when anything worth while can be obtained without a
struggle. Fighting his way to triumph, overcoming obstacles, gives this
man pleasure. Difficulties are a tonic to him. He enjoys doing hard
things, because it tests his strength, his ability. He does not like
doing easy things, because it does not give him the exhilaration, the
joy, that is felt after a victorious struggle.
Some natures never come to themselves, never discover their real
strength, until they meet with opposition or failure. Their reserve of
power lies so deep within them that any ordinary stimulus does not arouse
it. But when they are confronted with obstacles, when they are ridiculed,
“sat down upon,” or when they are abused and insulted, a new force seems
to be born in them, and they do things which before would have seemed
impossible.
Whenever a motive is great enough, an emergency large enough, a
responsibility heavy enough, to call out the hidden reserve in our
nature, latent energies spring forth which astonish us. The thin-skinned,
sensitive salesman succumbs to the first breath of opposition or
discouragement.
It is unfortunate to allow the customer ever to say “No,” but do not let
a “No” overwhelm you. Remember this is your test. If you stick to your
guns and don’t show the white feather a “No” will bring out the best that
is in you. Whenever you hear “No,” call to mind men like Napoleon and
Grant, who thrived on opposition and rebuffs.
It is not an easy matter to find salesmen who are capable of coping with
all sorts of antagonism. But they are the ones in demand. Such men are
not easily argued down—they can put up a stiff fight against every kind
of opposition. Where the weak salesman retires from the field beaten, the
man with grit and stamina is only taking his second breath. He does not
let a rebuff or two phase him. Some salesmen are so weak that they cannot
even maintain their own individuality in the presence of a prospect
with a strong, vigorous mentality. He will annihilate their arguments in
a twinkle. They fall down before his onslaught and say, “Yes, I guess
you’re about right, Mr. Blank. I hadn’t thought of that before. But I
guess you know best.” They cannot hold their ground, maintain their
arguments, because they allow themselves to be drawn out of their current
of mental vibration, to be overcome by the current of the stronger
mentality.
I know two salesmen who go out from different houses over similar
territory with the same line of goods. One of them sells four or five
times as much in a year as the other. One man _starts out with the
expectation, the determination to sell_, and, of course, he gets a very
large salary on account of his great ability to sell. The other man
gets a very small salary, just barely enough to enable him to hold on
to his job, because obstacles seem so great to him. He returns oftener
with excuses for not selling than with orders. He has not the ability to
annihilate difficulties, to overcome obstacles, which the other man has.
He brings back to his house small orders, or none, because he cannot
overcome the objections of his customers, cannot convince them that they
want what he has to sell.
I once saw an advertisement of a big firm for a manager, which, after
describing the sort of man wanted, and saying that no other need apply,
closed with, “_The man must be able to cope with antagonism._” Now, the
trouble with the unsuccessful salesman I speak of is: he is not able
to cope with antagonism. He hoists the white flag the moment the enemy
confronts him. He has no fight in him, and surrenders before a shot is
fired. When a prospect or customer puts up an objection he is done.
“Well, I guess perhaps you are right,” he says, “it may be better for you
not to buy now.” This salesman lacks stamina. There is not enough lime in
his backbone, not enough iron in his blood. He is a good honest soul, but
he lacks the virility that characterizes the great salesman.
Remember that every weak strand in your character, every hindering
peculiarity, every unfortunate habit, will cripple your sales and mar
your success. Sensitiveness, timidity, shyness, lack of grit or courage,
all of these weaknesses are virtually cutters-down of your ability to
sell. Timid, shy or sensitive people are often morbidly self-conscious.
They are always analyzing, dissecting themselves, wondering how they
appear, what people think of them. These things keep the mind diverted
from its real object and are all destroyers of concentration and power.
Over-sensitiveness is a very serious handicap in salesmanship. The man
who is not able to take his medicine with a smile, who is not able to
cope with a surly, a cantankerous, a quick-tempered or a sharp-tongued
customer, has no place in salesmanship. In other words, a great salesman
must be able to carry on his selling campaign at the points where the
ordinary salesman falls down. To do this he must not be thin-skinned.
He must be able to stand all sorts of abusive talk under which the
sensitive, over-refined salesman quails. He must be ready to push on
vigorously at the point where the salesman who lacks grit will quit and
turn back. He must be able to stand having pepper and salt sprinkled on
his sore spots without wincing. He should keep one thing continually in
mind: that his business is, at all costs, to make a sale.
This does not mean that a good salesman must have a rhinoceros hide; that
would make him unfeeling, unsympathetic, and he would lack the human
quality which is so essential in salesmanship. Nor does it mean that he
should be pugnacious or over-aggressive. It simply means that he must be
able to antidote and neutralize the prospect’s thrusts, however cruel
or aggravating. In short, while keeping perfect control of himself,
remaining pleasant and agreeable throughout, he must be able to put up a
stiff fight, a dignified, manly fight that will leave him master of the
situation.
This is where the timid or over-sensitive salesman falls short. He is
thrown completely off his base by the vigorous thrusts and arguments of
the rough, energetic business man who doesn’t stop to choose his words.
He feels injured at the slightest reflection upon his ability, his
truthfulness, the character of his goods, or his house. I know a salesman
of this sort who will never make his mark, who flares up, “gets up on
his ear,” as they say, whenever his sensitive, sore spots are touched.
He lacks that masterfulness and superb confidence in himself which make
a salesman proof against abuse or opposition. The self-confident man is
impervious to the slights or slurs that make the sensitive man shrink
into himself. He is too sensible of his own dignity to let them interfere
with his business. When the small man, the peppery or morbidly sensitive
man, feels that he must protect his “honor,” even if he lose a sale, the
big, broad man knows that no one can hurt his honor but himself, and that
it is best served by refusing to feel hurt or insulted where in reality
no insult is intended.
Another point that works to the great disadvantage of the timid or
sensitive salesman is this: he is afraid to make what is called the
“cold” or “straight” canvass; that is, to approach people without having
a “lead” or an introduction. This is a great weakness, and very often
false pride is at the bottom of it. The man feels above his task. Again,
ignorance of goods or of selling principles will cause a man to lack
confidence in himself, and then, naturally, he is timid, fearful, for
he foresees the failure that awaits him when he calls on a customer.
Ignorance is timid; knowledge is bold, courageous. It is not enough to
have possession of yourself if you don’t also have possession of your
business, that is, if you are not thoroughly grounded in the principles
of salesmanship. Thus grounded, if you adopt the right attitude toward
your business and toward yourself, nothing can keep you from success.
Throw off your shyness, your morbid sensitiveness, your timidity. Get rid
of your lack of faith and courage. Confidently expect that you are going
to be a great salesman, a distinctive one, a salesman with individuality,
with originality, with inventiveness, a man of resource and power. Never
allow yourself to think that anything is true about you that you wish to
be otherwise, because the thought you hold in mind is the model of your
life building. Think faith, think courage, think strength, and you will
develop those qualities.
The reason why so many of us build so slowly and so poorly is because we
are constantly destroying our building by shifting our model. One day we
have confidence in ourselves, and our mental model is full of courage,
hope and expectancy, and the life forces build accordingly. The next
day we are in the dumps, have no faith in ourselves, are discouraged,
and of course these are the models for that day’s building, destroying
the building of the previous day, and thus many of us go through life,
building up and tearing down.
Be consistently courageous, hopeful, confident in yourself and in the
power of your Creator to make you what you long to be, and nobody,
nothing on this earth, can down you.
There is everything in flinging out a superb confidence in yourself,
a firm belief that you are going to win. Expel all doubt and fear,
all uneasiness, from your mind and approach every prospect with the
expectation of success.
“Courage,” says Emerson, “comes from having done the thing before.” Your
first success will give you the momentum that will push you on to the
next. Every achievement adds to our self-confidence, the great leader
of all our other faculties. If confidence does not go ahead, the other
faculties refuse to go on.
Every time you conquer what you undertake, you add so much to the power
of all the faculties you possess. Just as a snowball grows larger and
larger as it rolls down hill, so our lives grow larger, richer, with each
experience. We lose nothing of what we achieve. It is all added to the
life-ball.
Not long ago I asked a very successful man, really a “born salesman,”
what he considered the essential qualifications for good salesmanship. He
put in the first category of qualifications: confidence in your goods,
confidence in your firm, and confidence in yourself, plus enthusiasm,
plus earnestness, plus perseverance, plus hard work, plus enjoyment of
your work. In the second place he put: general knowledge of merchandise.
In the third place he put: personality, and under this heading he
included, honesty, neatness of appearance, poise, courtesy, sincerity,
and temperance. The natural born salesman, he said, possesses all of
these things, and in addition, tact, shrewdness, and understanding of
human nature.
Now, there is nothing in this list of qualifications that is not within
the reach of every honest intelligent youth who has enough stamina and
will power to make his life a success.
You are a child of the Infinite; you bear the stamp of the Creator, and
you must partake of His qualities. It is up to you, then, to make good;
it is your duty as a man to show your origin, to stand your ground, to
maintain your independence, your self-reliance, your dignity, against all
attacks. It is up to you to stand for something in your life work, to be
counted as one to be reckoned with in any transaction. It is your own
fault if you are sucked out of your own plane of vibrations by a bully,
a fighter, by any one, be he great or small. Selling honest goods is an
honorable pursuit. Bring out your God-given powers. Improve the qualities
He has given you and make your work, make your life significant. Don’t be
apologetic; don’t be afraid; don’t cringe or wilt under opposition. Feel
the importance and dignity of your work and let others feel that you feel
it. Say to yourself, “I too am a son of God, the equal of this or any
other man. I am going to maintain my poise, my individuality, my faith
in myself, no matter what he says. I am as self-reliant, as independent,
as forceful as any other man. I shall not be cowed by any one. I am not
going to be downed by an obstacle.”
You will find it a wonderful help in overcoming obstacles in every phase
of your work to assume a victorious mental attitude, and to carry
yourself like a conqueror. If you go about among your fellows with a
defeated expression in your face, giving the impression that you are
not much of a man anyway, that life has been mostly a defeat, and that
you don’t look forward to any success worth while, you certainly cannot
hope to, and never will, inspire confidence in others; if your face, on
the other hand, glows with the expression of victory, if you carry a
victorious attitude, if you walk about the earth like a conqueror, a man
victory-organized, you are _headed toward victory_. Nothing can keep you
from winning out, because—and don’t forget this—_Success begins in the
mind._