Читать книгу The Success System That Never Fails (with linked TOC) - William Clement Stone - Страница 7

Get Ready for Tomorrow

One of the most important lessons of my life forced itself on me at about the time I was graduating from grammar school. It was a lesson that turned into a major principle: You are subject to your environment. Therefore, select the environment that will best develop you toward your desired objective.

Although I was not then able to state the thought as succinctly as that, I was aware of the principle behind it. When it came time for me to enter high school, I concluded that Senn High was a better school than Lakeview High, which I would have to enter if we continued to live in the neighborhood in which we had our apartment at the time. Because an important change that my mother was making in business required that she move to Detroit, we made arrangements with a fine English family in the Senn district for me to live in their home.

I also decided that I would select my own friends on going to the new school. In choosing, I searched for individuals of character and intelligence. And because I searched, I found what I was looking for: fine, wonderful persons who had a tremendous influence for good upon me.

Get Your Money’s Worth

With me in a good home environment and attending a fine public school, mother made an investment in a small insurance agency representing the United States Casualty Company in Detroit, Michigan.

I’ll never forget it. She pawned her two diamonds to get sufficient cash to add to the money she did have to buy the agency. Remember: she hadn’t learned to use bank credit in establishing a business. After renting desk space in a downtown office building, she looked with anticipation to her first day’s sales. That day she was lucky. She worked hard, but she didn’t make a single sale–and that was good!

What do you do when everything goes wrong? What do you do when there is no place to turn? What do you do when you are faced with a serious problem?

Here’s what she did, the way she later told it to me: “I was desperate. I had invested all the cash I had, and I just had to get my money’s worth out of this investment. I had tried my best, but I hadn’t made a sale.

“That night I prayed for guidance. And the next morning I prayed for guidance. When I left home, I went to the largest bank in the city of Detroit. There I sold a policy to the cashier and got permission to sell in the bank during working hours. It seemed that within me there was a driving force that was so sincere that all obstacles were removed. That day I made 44 sales.”

Through trial and error the first day, my mother developed inspirational dissatisfaction. She was inspired to action. She knew Whom to ask for guidance and help in her efforts to make a livelihood, just as she knew Whom to ask for guidance and help when she was faced with a problem regarding her son.

And through trial and success the second day, she acquired know-how in selling her accident policies that developed for her a successful sales system. Now she had know-how in addition to inspiration to action and activity knowledge. So the upward climb was rapid.

Salesmen, like other persons, often fail in the upward climb because they do not reduce to a formula the principles applied on those days when they are successful. They know the facts, but they fail to extract the principles.

Now that she was earning a good living in personal sales, my mother began to build a sales organization that operated throughout the state of Michigan under the trade name of

Liberty Registry Company.

Mother and I would see each other on holidays and during vacation periods. My second high school summer vacation was spent in Detroit. That’s when I, too, learned to sell accident insurance, and, that’s where I started to search for a sales system for myself– a system that would never fail.

Do Twice as Much in Half the Time

The Liberty Registry Company office was in the Free Press Building. I spent a day in the office, reading and studying the policy I was to try to sell the next day.

My sales instructions were as follows:

1. Completely canvass the Dime Bank Building.

2. Start at the top floor and call on each and every office.

3. Avoid calling in the office of the building.

4. Use the introduction, “May I take a moment of your time?”

5. Try to sell everyone you call on.

So I followed instructions. Remember, I had learned as a Boy Scout: When you set out to do something–don’t come back until you have done it.

Was I frightened? You bet I was.

But it never occurred to me not to follow instructions. I just didn’t know any better. I was, in this respect, a product of habit–a good habit.

The first day I sold two policies–two more than I had ever sold before. The second day, four–and that was a 100 per cent increase. The third day, six–a 50 per cent increase. And the fourth day I learned an important lesson.

I called at a large real estate office, and when I stood at the desk of the sales manager and used the introduction, “May I take a moment of your time?” I was startled. For he jumped to his feet, pounded his desk with his right fist and almost shouted: “Boy, as long as you live never ask a man for his time! Take it!”

So I took his time and sold him and 26 of his salesmen that day.

That started me thinking: There must be a scientific way to sell many policies every day. There must be a method that will make one hour produce the work of many. Why not find a system for selling twice as much in half the time? Why can’t I develop a formula that will bring maximum results for each hour of effort? From that point on, I was consciously trying to discover the principles that have since built for me my sales system that never fails. I reasoned: “Success can be reduced to a formula. And failure can be reduced to a formula, too. Apply the one and avoid the other. Think for yourself.”

Think for Yourself

Regardless of who you are, it is desirable to learn the techniques of good salesmanship. For selling is merely persuading another person to accept your service, your product, or your idea. In this sense, everyone is a salesman. Whether or not you are a salesman by vocation, the minute details of my selling system are not really important to you; but the principles may be–if you are ready.

What is important to you is that you reduce to a formula, preferably in writing, the principles you learn from your successful experiences and your failures, in whatever activities you may be interested. But you may not know how to extract principles from what you read, hear, or experience. I’ll illustrate how I did it. But you must think for yourself.

How I Overcame Timidity and Fear

Before I describe how I overcame timidity and fear when opening up closed doors, entering plush offices, and trying to sell to businessmen and women as a teenager, let me first tell how I faced the same problem as a boy.

Many persons find it difficult to believe that as a youngster I was timid and afraid. But it is nature’s law that with every new experience and in every new environment an individual will feel some degree of fear. Nature protects the individual from danger by this awareness. Children and women experience this to a greater degree than men; again, this is nature’s way of protecting them from harm.

I remember that as a boy I was so timid that when we had company I would go into another room, and during a thunderstorm I would hide under the bed. But one day I reasoned: “If lightning is going to strike, it will be just as dangerous whether I am under the bed or in any other part of the room.” I decided to conquer this fear. My opportunity came, and I took advantage of it. During a thunderstorm, I forced myself to go to the window and look at the lightning. An amazing thing happened. I began to enjoy the beauty of the flashes of lightning through the sky. Today, there is no one who enjoys a thunderstorm more than I do.

Although I called in each office in sequence in the Dime Bank Building, I had not licked the fear of opening a door, particularly when I couldn’t: see what was on the other side (many of the glass doors were frosted or had curtains on the inside). It was necessary to develop a method of forcing myself to enter.

Then, because I searched, I found the answer. I reasoned: Success is achieved by those who try. Where there is nothing to lose by trying and a great deal to gain if successful, by all means try!

The repetition of either of these self-motivators satisfied my reason. But I was still afraid, and it was still necessary to get into action. Fortunately, I struck upon the self-starter: Do it now! Because I had learned the value of trying to establish the right habits and the harm of acquiring wrong habits, it occurred to me that I could force myself to action as I left one office if I would rush quickly into the next one. Should it occur to me to hesitate, I would use the self starter Do it now!–and immediately act on it. This I did.

How to Neutralize Timidity and Fear

When once inside a place of business, I was still not at ease, but I soon learned how to neutralize the fear of talking to a stranger. I did it through voice control.

I found that if I spoke loudly and rapidly, hesitated where there would be a period or comma if the spoken word were written, kept a smile in my voice, and used modulation, I no longer had butterflies in my stomach. Later I learned that this technique was based on a very sound psychological principle: The emotions (like fear) are not immediately subject to reason, but they are subject to action. When thoughts do not neutralize an undesirable emotion–action will.

The sales manager in the real estate office hadn’t liked the introduction: “May I take a moment of your time?” Besides, many persons on whom I had used this introduction had answered “No.” So I abandoned it and, after experimenting, came up with a new one that I have used ever since: “I believe this will interest you also.”

No one has said “No” to this introduction. Most have asked, “What is it?” Then, of course, I have told them and given them my sales talk. The purpose of a sales introduction is solely to get a person to listen.

Know When to Quit

“Try to sell everyone you call on” was one of the instructions my mother had given me. So I stayed with every prospect. Sometimes I wore him out, but when I left his place of business, I was worn out too. It seemed to me that in selling a low-cost service, as I was doing, it was imperative that I average more sales per hour of effort. For it wasn’t every day that I sold 27 policies in one place of business.

So I decided not to sell everyone I called on, if the sale would take longer than a time limit I had set for myself. I would try to make the prospect happy and leave hurriedly, even though I knew that if I stayed with him I could make the sale.

Wonderful things happened. I increased my average number of sales per day tremendously. What’s more, the prospect in several instances thought I was going to argue, but when I left him so pleasantly, he would come next door to where I was selling and say, “You can’t do that to me. Every other insurance man would hang on. You come back and write it.” Instead of being tired out after an attempted sale, I experienced enthusiasm and energy for my presentation to the next prospect.

The principles I learned are simple: Fatigue is not conducive to doing your best work. Don’t reduce your energy level so low that you drain your battery. The activity level of the nervous system is raised when the body recharges itself with rest. Time is one of the most important ingredients in any successful formula for any human activity. Save time. Invest it wisely.

How to Get a Person to Listen to You

‘When you are talking to a person, look at his eyes,” I was taught as a youngster, But in selling, I would look at a person’s eyes and he would often shake his head “no.” And more often he would interrupt me. I didn’t like this. It slowed me down. Soon, I hit on a simple technique to avoid this: Get the prospect to concentrate through his senses of sight and hearing on what I had to show him and on what I had to say. I pointed to the policy or sales literature and looked at it as I gave my sales talk. Because I looked where I was pointing, he looked too. If, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a prospect shake his head “no,” I paid no attention. Often he would become interested, and I would later close the sale.

Play to Win

In a highly competitive game or sport, you play according to the rules, and you don’t violate the standards that you have set for yourself, but you play to win. So it is in the game of selling. For selling, like every other activity, becomes a lot of fun when you become an expert.

I found that to become an expert I had to work, and work hard. Try, try, try, and keep trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything. But in due course, by employing the right work habits, you do become an expert. Then you experience the joy of work, and the job is no longer work. It becomes fun.

Day after day I worked, and worked hard, trying to improve my sales techniques. I searched for trigger words–words and phrases that would set off the right reaction within the prospect. And the right reaction meant that he would buy within a reasonably short space of time, for time meant money to me.

I wanted to say the right thing in the right way to get the right reaction. This took practice, and practice is work.

Everything has a beginning and an ending. The introduction is the beginning of a sales presentation. How could I end the sale in the shortest space of time, in a manner that would make the prospect happy?

Because I searched, I made a discovery: If you want the prospect to buy, ask him to buy. Just ask him, and give him a chance to say “yes.” But make it easy for him to say “yes” and difficult to say “no.” Specifically, use force with such finesse that it is subtle, pleasing, and effective.

And here’s what I found: If you want a person to say “yes,” just make a positive statement and ask an affirmative question. Then the “yes” answer is almost a natural reflex action. Examples:

1. Positive statement: It’s a nice day...

Affirmative question: Isn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is.

2. The mother who wants her child to practice the piano for an hour on a Saturday morning when she knows that the child wants to go out to play, could say:

Positive statement: You want to practice for an hour now so that you’ll have the entire day to play...

Affirmative question; Isn’t that true?

Answer: Yes.

3. A sales lady offering the customer a lace handkerchief could say:

Positive statement: This is beautiful, and it’s quite reasonable...

Affirmative question: Don’t you think so?

Answer: Yes.

Affirmative question: May I gift wrap it for you, then?

Answer: Yes.

4. The effective close I found is just as simple:

Positive statement: So, if you don’t mind, I would like to write it for you also, if I may...

Affirmative question: May I?

Answer: Yes.

Why It Was Written

The stories of my experiences in the Dime Bank Building indicate the techniques I used to begin to develop my sales system that never fails, and why I used them. I was searching for the necessary knowledge for each step that would comprise the entire sales presentation. I was endeavoring to acquire the know-how–the experience of using this specific knowledge–through repeated action.

In brief, I was preparing myself to develop the habit of using a formula that would consistently obtain outstanding results in sales for me in the shortest possible space of time.

Although I didn’t realize it then, I was in reality getting ready for tomorrow. For some years later, I discovered that my sales system employed principles that are the common denominator of continuous successful achievement in every human activity. And thus I made a greater discovery: the success system that never fails.

What Does It Mean to You?

Health, happiness, success, and wealth can be yours when you understand and employ the success system that never fails.

For the system works...if you work the system.

Up to this point, you may not recognize and understand the success principles to be found in the stories and explanations you have read well enough to adopt them. But as you continue to read, they will become crystal clear.

As you search for the success system that never fails, you will make faster and more permanent progress by keeping in mind the three necessary ingredients, which are, in order of their importance:

1. Inspiration to action: that which motivates you, or anyone else, to act because you want to.

2. Know-how: the particular techniques and skills that consistently get results for you. Know-how is the proper application of knowledge. Know-how becomes habit through actual repetitive experience.

3. Activity knowledge: knowledge of the activity, service, product, methods, techniques, and skills with which you are particularly concerned.

For continuous success, it is necessary to get ready for tomorrow. To get ready for tomorrow, you must be a self-builder. And to learn to be a self-builder, read the next chapter.Little Hinges That Swing Big Doors

1. In the end, your environment will control you; therefore, make sure that you control your environment. Avoid situations, acquaintances, associates, who tend to hold you back.

2. Success is achieved by those who try. Where there’s a lot to gain and little to lose, try.

3. Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.

4. Never forget: The system will work...if YOU work the system.