130 SELLINGLUMBER 



ever have the customer, the salesman, the goods and the money 

 without the sale? (Laughter). Well now, Gentlemen of this 

 professional and technical convention, why is that? Now let me 

 show you just one or two reasons. Certainly it is not the cus- 

 tomer's fault, because it does not matter what the type and what 

 the temperament and what the mood and what the environment 

 now of your customer is, when you have studied those four 

 that is, all four things you have got your man. I repeat it again 

 it does not matter what the type, what the temperament, what 

 the mood and what the present environment of your customer 

 is, when you have studied those four things you have got your 

 man. The salesman ought never to be taken by surprise. He 

 should always have a front or flank movement to meet the oppo- 

 sition of his enemy. In other words, he ought to manage that 

 element. The goods remain about the same, and so does the 

 money. The fault must be with the fellow that manages these 

 elements to produce the sale. He must handle them wrongly 

 somewhere along the line, or else something would be done ; a part 

 sale would be made, if not a full sale, or an order for the future. 

 I believe in selling the man for next year, if you can't sell him 

 now. So those are the five, and you can't think of the sixth. I 

 challenge you gentlemen to name any sixth element in salesman- 

 ship that is not included in the salesman, the customer, the goods, 

 the money or the sale. 



Now, if you study those five elements, surely you can see 

 what a science we have. Let's just look at the salesman a bit. 

 His value. How do you get his value? The unit, that is, you 

 and I, divided by the supervision we need. The more I 1 have to 

 be watched in the thing you have me to do, the less value I am. 

 As this supervision increases, the value of the fraction decreases. 

 If a hundred times I have to be checked up, my value fails. Where 

 Getting the ^ oes ^ e su P erv isio n come from? 1 can't go into that. But we 

 Salesman's come down to the faculties we should find in the salesman. Here 

 are the constructive ones I rather like to call them that and 

 here are the rather destructive (indicating on the chart). Health! 

 A man diseased what can he sell? The fellow that can vocalize 

 his mind, the man of good judgment, the man of tact! Tact is' 

 a great thing, wonderfully constructive in salesmanship. A man 

 in New York has written a book on salesmanship, and it is all 

 tact. He says it is simply tact. Well, it is more than that; but 

 tact is a great thing. What is tact? I have read his book, and 



