SELLING LUMBER 



137 



customers we should ask them if they were satisfied with the 

 order they gave us before?" I said: "Certainly; I would do 

 that." He said : "I would not. You just give them a chance 

 to complain." I said: "If they don't complain to your face they 

 will to your firm or to your competitors. I would very much 

 rather have the customer come to me and tell me what the trou- 

 ble was then to/make complaints to my firm or to my competi- 

 tors." The man was content; and I went on for eighteen or twen- 

 ty minutes, and he got up again, and he said: "May I ask you a 

 question?" I said "Certainly," and he came with that same old 

 question. I felt I ought to wipe the floor up with him, and I 

 just called him told him what his character was and he was 

 that kind of man. He chose that thing. You could tell the state 

 of mind he was in by the sign he left on the outside. 



I went to East Aurora to lecture for Elbert Hubbard. He 

 came down to the station to meet ,me. He said : "I am glad you 

 are here. We need some instruction in salesmanship." I said: 

 "I am glad to be here. You are different from the rest of us. 

 You are hunting right ideas. Do you know how I can tell you 

 are different from the rest of us?" He said: "From my writ- 

 ings?" I said: "No, not from your writings, but from your in- 

 describable necktie and the way you wear your hair." He said: 

 "Come up and dig yourself out of the dirt you are in and I will 

 see what kind of a chap you are." 



But I wasn't flattering him. I was telling him the truth. 

 A man who dresses like he does wants to be different from the 

 rest. And it wasn't flattery, it wasn't praise, it wasn't criticism. 

 I was simply stating a fact, and he was proud of it. I was ap- 

 proaching my man and getting his confidence in the first crack 

 out of the box. 



Why, you can get something by the way a man wears his 

 hat when you approach him (placing a straw hat level on his 

 head). If a man wears his hat like that, on a level, you can take 

 it for granted that he is a level headed, ordinary man of common 

 sense, like you and I are. That man I would approach with a 

 straight business proposition and get it across as soon as I can 

 so that in his common sense he, can sit in judgment upon it. If 

 a man wears his hat like that (illustrating, on the back of his 

 head), he is a heart man; he is a man of heart, and approach- 

 able. "Walk in, ladies; walk right up!" He is a heart man. 

 And I would go up to him and, slap him on the back. That is 



Sizing Up 



Elbert 



Hubbard 



Significance 

 in the Angle 

 of a Hat 



