SELLING LUMBER 



129 



isfaction of the salesman and the dissatisfaction of the customer, 

 the customer can't stay in business either; but when it is to the 

 satisfaction of both, you have business construction, or the sale. 

 Now that is all. Any experience that any salesman ever had is 

 not peculiar. There is no peculiar work under the sun. Tesla's 

 work is not peculiar, my work is not peculiar, neither was Spen- 

 cer's work peculiar. It is bound to be classified there. You will 

 find that within the professions which are supposed to be so far 

 remote from the business world that they feel that they are not 

 business people, why, that they actually cater to those elements 

 right along, and they can't escape it. And goodness alive! If 

 many a minister and lawyer, doctor and artist would study sales- 

 manship, the minister would be a better fisher of souls, the law- 

 yer a better pleader for justice, the artist a better salesman of 

 his creative work. You have those five the salesman, the cus- 

 tomer, the goods, the money and the sale. Now, those will be 

 there. The doctor is a salesman. He is selling to the sick per- 

 son ; that is the doctor's customer. What does he sell ? Medicine, 

 treatment. What does he sell it for? Money. And the engage- 

 ment is simply the customer's agreement to buy the goods the dor- 

 tor displays there. And take the lawyer. His customer is called 

 a client. He sells the law, or his knowledge about the law ; that 

 is his goods. He sells it for money; and the engagement is the 

 agreement, or the sale; and he has got to persuade his client that 

 he has the goods, knowledge of the law, or the client will never 

 buy from him. You take the minister, that seems to be so far 

 removed from our work, gentlemen, and he is a salesman. His 

 custo-ner is the sinner, or the heathen. What is he selling? The 

 Bible, the church and religion ; that is what he sells and repent- 

 ance and faith ; and it is supposed to be free, but after they get 

 in they pay money to stay in; and the sale is called conversion, 

 where the customer agrees to the proposition about the church, 

 the Bible or religion that this man makes. And so you find that 

 these five elements are absolutely essential, and you can't get along 

 without any one of them. 



For instance, did you ever have, can you have a salesman, 

 the goods, the money and the sale without the customer? Cer- 

 tainly not. Can you have the customer, the goods, the money 

 and the sale without the salesman? Certainly not. It is impossi- 

 ble. Can you have the salesman, the customer, the goods and the 

 sale without the money, or its equivalent? Not today. Did you 



All Voca- 

 tions Are 

 "In Business" 



The Minister 

 a Salesman, 

 Too 



The Five 

 Elements 

 of a Sale 



