Read an Excerpt

from the Introduction

Whether you've been selling for two days, two months, two years or a lifetime, or are thinking about entering the sales profession, you've had your ups and downs many times over. Commitment in every activity, especially professional selling, is one of the most important ingredients necessary if you are to succeed and be content in your success. The following may seem trite or corny to you but it is a necessary starting point. Take it at face value. What selling means to you and me may not be the same. But now, more than ever, we must face up, speak up and tell the world our story if free enterprise and the competitive marketplace are to survive the rest of this century.

Selling is an opportunity. How did you happen to choose sales? Few people, I'm sure, ever played "salespeople games" as a child. At best, over the years the profession has been tarnished. And by and large, it is not due to a few bad apples, but by almost all of us and our "Let the rest of the profession take care of themselves" attitude. Are you proud of your position and role in the free marketplace? Did you know that the average professional salesperson keeps more than 30 people employed? This is a true opportunity to serve mankind.

Why is professional selling the third highest income group in our country? Certainly not because you failed at everything else and decided to "try sales" as a last resort, and certainly not because it's easy. It's a profession with the potential for high personal income and rewards in which you don't even need a high school diploma. That's opportunity! The success stories in selling come in all shades, sizes, ages and colors. All you need to begin is a recognition of your opportunity to determine your own destiny, a commitment to yourself to succeed, and an almost inhuman capacity for work and failure. Don't expect everyone to either buy from or like you.

Selling is an obligation. If you've made your pledge to success in selling, then you must recognize your obligation to yourself, to your family, your customer, your company and most of all, to your prospect.

You owe it to your prospect to improve his life or business if your product or sevice can provide the means. If it can't you'd better change companies or redefine your prospects. To take your obligation seriously, you must believe in what you have to offer, then exchange it for your prospect's time and dollars. You have then, and only then, fulfilled your obligation to your prospect. He has the right to expect no less from a professional.

You owe it to yourself, for the health of your own self-image, to achieve success with your prospect. Tell me, do you feel as good at the end of five "nos" as you do at the end of five "yeses"? A positive self-image is vital to your success. Achievement provides a positive stimulus.

And you owe it to your company, because without it you don't have a product or service to sell.