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Creative selling is an individual accomplishment. It em-
braces you and the power within you to think and create.
These qualities and attributes are individual, and no one
but you can develop them. Cut loose and free yourself from
all negative thinking, from all petty restrictions and all
pygmy notions and all corroded resistance.

Negative thinking retards you and holds you back. Open up
the channel to positive thinking, and let the creative power
flow through.

Cast out all your doubts and uncertainties. They are of no
value. Turn the power and dominion of positive thoughts on
all your doubts, worries, and dreads. Start to develop the
power of creative selling, and expect nothing but results.

Rejoice and be glad that you have the ability as well as the
opportunity to sell. It will be a thrilling experience to sell
and serve. You will find that you feel like a new person.
You will feel like starting anew every morning. What seemed
a burden and a task will became an interesting and profit-
able adventure.

In the attributes of latent ability and creative power the
men and women who sell have undeveloped resources to
make the economy of this nation hum with unlimited pros-
perity, spin with increasing activity, and furnish more of
the good things of life to a greater number of people for
many, many years to come.

With new and better products coming into the market every day,
and with new wants and new needs being uncovered almost hourly,
everyone who sells or who prepares himself to sell has an
unparalleled opportunity to partake of all the good things of
life and share in an inexhaustible abundance. Opportunity is
not only knocking on your door, but it is ringing the door bell,
urging you to avail yourself of the greatest aggregation of un-
tapped wealth and prosperity that this nation or any nation
has ever known. The potentialities of selling are greater
today than ever before. Greater, too, are the rewards of
selling.

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Creative selling holds a very definite place in our economy
today, and it is the only power that can keep our economy
strong, balanced, and capable of expanding to meet the new
situations and new conditions that are developing with light-
ning rapidity. These new situations and new conditions will
require new products and new services. Only the salesman
can create the new markets necessary for their success.

The men and women who sell are not only faced with a
responsibility, but with a definite challenge. They must have
the daring and ability to create sales. They must stub their
toes, wake up, shake off that state of lethargy, and arouse
that sleeping giant of creative power and positive action
hidden within themselves. They must dare to think for them-
selves. They must rely on their own creative power. With
faith and confidence, engendered by positive thinking, they
can draw on their latent ability and practice and demonstrate
the power of creative selling to create sales that others may
think impossible.

Salesmen who blaze new trails, open up new markets,
pioneer new products, and create sales are salesmen who
dare to sell things that have not been sold before. While
others doubt, they go forward. They think, they seek, they
ask, they search, and they find. They open new opportuni-
ties and help to furnish employment to millions of people.

They have the challenge to dare, the incentive to undertake,
and the urge to begin, and soon their ability is turned into
power that produces sales. They realize that “he who dares
to think” stands secure in the majesty of his own might, and
enjoys the blessings of his own efforts.

Creative selling is a science and also an art. The science
teaches you what to do, and the art teaches you how to do
it. Creative selling is the ability and art of increasing the
satisfaction of the prospect by convincing him that the thing
he buys will best fulfill his needs and desires. In fact, it is
creating a market that did not exist before.

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SELLING is not a new art. It is as old as man himself. When
man first began to exchange ideas he began to sell. Sell-
ing has always been employed as a means of influencing
someone to do something. It has been demonstrated in the
form of exchanging ideas, products, plans, or services. How-
ever, it was soon discovered that, in order to influence a man,
it was necessary to please him. If the man was pleased, he
would listen and pay attention to your story; otherwise, he
paid no attention. Therefore, in order to sell him, it was
necessary to know how to please him.

Thus opened up an entirely new field for selling. To be
successful at this art it was necessary to know the charac-
teristics of the prospect. A study had to be made of his
wants, his needs, his hopes, his aspirations, and the many
other hidden attributes that controlled his desire to buy. In
order for the salesman to understand his prospect, he was
compelled to turn the searchlight on himself. This was not
all. It was necessary for the salesman to know everything
possible about his product, its history, its background, and
the part it played in the life of the prospect. It was essential
to analyze the markets to comprehend the possibilities of
the product, and the various uses in which it might be ap-
plied. The salesman had to uncover the unknown needs, and
to supply those needs, and to create markets that did not
exist before. He had to be able to sense trends and to evalu-
ate them in the light of reason and common sense.

The salesman is no longer an order taker with a worn-out
valise, a bag of tricks, a bundle of sales cliches, and a stock
of stale stories. The salesman of today is a psychologist, a
scientist, an analyst, and an artist, all rolled up in one. He is
dealing with the greatest thing in life: the mind and its ideas,
as applied to the continued development of our economy
and the distribution of its products.

I felt that a Sales Plan was the means by which I could
concentrate all my power and focus all my ability to arrest
the attention of the prospect, kindle his interest, stimulate
his desire, and convince him to act. It would enable me to
get results quickly. I also felt that it would mean money to
me—and, believe me, it has! When I stubbed my toe, I woke
up to the power of creative selling. It has been worth to me
many times the inheritance in the dream. It can be worth
the same to you, provided you stub your toe—because what
am I that you are not?

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In presenting a Sales Plan, I think that it would pay you
to take a lesson from the actor. On the stage, on television,
on the screen, and on radio, you must have been thoroughly
impressed by the correct and precise way in which actors
and performers present their lines. They seem to give every
sentence, every word, and every gesture its proper place and
time. They feel and live their parts right before your eyes,
and the strange part is that you live the parts right along
with them. Suppose they came on the stage without knowing
their lines. Suppose they did not know what they were go-
ing to say or how they were going to say it. What do you
think their sponsors would do? They would discontinue their
services, and, of course, they would be justified. Performers
know their lines because they want to please you. By pleas-
ing you, they please their sponsors, and their sponsors are the
ones who pay them—and pay them well.

If it pays these actors and performers to know their lines,
it will certainly pay you and me as salesmen. This is the way
I felt when I composed the Sales Plan.

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I had plenty of prospects. What next? I needed a sales ap-
proach. It was only good sense on my part to create a Sales
Plan that would set forth, in plain, understandable language,
the many benefits and values of life insurance, and what they
really meant to the prospect. The Sales Plan to present these
important ideas had to be good, compelling, and concrete.
It had to contain the power to attract the attention of the
prospect. It had to possess the power to arouse the interest
of the prospect. It had to create the power to stimulate the
desire of the prospect. It had to generate the power to per-
suade and convince the prospect to act.

I spent many many hours of study and meditation in cre-
ating this Sales Plan. I checked, I double checked, I anal-
yzed, I visualized. Was it interesting? Was it comprehensive?
Was it stimulating? Was it concise? Was it persuasive? Was
it convincing?

Every idea, every sentence, and every detail was attended
with the strictest attention. Every word was studied for the
correct pronunciation, for the proper enunciation, and for
the right sound and inflection. Every thought in each sen-
tence was studied for proper emphasis. Every particular was
weighed and balanced. Nothing was taken for granted, and
no detail was overlooked. When I had this Sales Plan in
good form, I memorized it. I read it out loud many times. I
dramatized it. I felt it. I lived it. I perfected it. Then I used it.

The Sales Plan presented a good proposition and a sound
idea. What about the prospect? Was he attracted? Was he
interested? Was he stimulated? Was he convinced? The re-
sults were beyond my fondest expectations. That Sales Plan
sold millions of dollars worth of life insurance.

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I decided that the only scientific way for me to demon-
strate my faith in selling life insurance was to create a sales
plan that would carry the message of its benefits and values
to the prospect and convince him that he would enjoy satis-
faction and peace of mind by owning it. It was up to me to
use my ability and draw on the hidden power within and
create a sale that did not exist before.

In applying your ability to think and create a sale, it is
wise to get the right attitude toward yourself as well as your
product. You must realize that you are not merely a rag, a
bone, and a hank of hair—you are greater than your body.
Your power to think does not confine you to your own skin.
You can project thought. You can organize and visualize the
ideas and thoughts about the thing you sell with such power
that it creates a sale. To do this scientifically and effectively,
it is essential to build these thoughts and ideas into a plan.
What is a plan? A plan is a method of action, procedure,
or arrangement. It is a program to be done. It is a design
to carry into effect an idea, a thought, a project, or a devel-
opment.

Therefore, a plan is a concrete means to help you fulfill
your desires. In the field of selling, your desire is to create
sales and render a useful service. To do this effectively, it
is wise to have two plans:

First, a plan of operation to govern, guide, and control
your general activities. To organize and arrange your activ-
ities each day is to save time, conserve energy, and elim-
inate chaos. The orderly arrangement of time will guide and
direct you through the labyrinth of the most busy day.

Second, a Sales Plan to govern, guide, and direct your
sales procedure.

Prospects are influenced and motivated to action by ideas,
and the more quickly they receive ideas about the value of
the product, the sooner they will react. I decided that life
insurance was an idea guaranteeing many valuable benefits
to the prospect and his family. I also decided that the quick-
est, the most practical, the most efficient, the most feasible,
and the most scientific method of carrying that idea to the
greatest number of prospects in the shortest period of time
was by means of a Sales Plan.

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First, I analyzed the principle of life insurance thoroughly
to determine its value and to appreciate its worth. I con-
cluded that it was a very excellent idea. I liked the idea of
the protection it could provide. I liked the idea of the estate
it could create. I liked the idea of the savings account it
could establish. I liked the idea of the income it could guar-
antee for old age. In fact, I liked the idea of all the benefits
that life insurance could provide for the individual and his
family.

This analysis of life insurance gave me a comprehensive
interpretation of its function and a clear picture of the bene-
fits that it could provide for the prospect. I was thoroughly
convinced that it was a good idea; a sound and practical
proposition. I firmly believed that I could sell it. I had faith
in it.

Faith is believing in something, and so it remains until
you demonstrate your ability to fashion faith into reality.
Now arose the question of how I could convert my faith
into results by selling life insurance. How could I get the
idea of life insurance and its many benefits over to the pros-
pect? How could I convince the prospect that it was a safe
place for him to invest his capital? How could I make the
prospect feel as I felt about life insurance?

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As I pondered over this dream in 1920, the thought came
to me that I did not need to inherit one hundred thousand
dollars. All I needed was to stub my toe, wake up, shake
off the state of lethargy, get out of the rut, and come to a
conscious, vital realization of the power of creative selling
that was hidden within me. I firmly believed that the devel-
opment of this positive and creative power of thinking, ap-
plied to selling, would enable me to make many hundred
thousands of dollars. However, in order to claim my herit-
age, to realize the full impetus of my latent power and
ability, and to derive the full benefit from that creative sell-
ing, it was necessary for me to develop a definite and con-
crete plan of action.

At that time I was attempting to sell life insurance. In
those days there was no scientific plan of action for selling
life insurance. It was a hit-or-miss proposition—mostly miss.
Creative selling was only a dream, like my inheritance. The
general agent of a life insurance company was usually a
pompous gentleman. He would put his hands on your shoul-
ders, rear back with an air of great authority, and hand you
a rate book and some application blanks with the remark,
“Now, go out into the world and sell!” That was the extent
of your training as a life insurance salesman.

It was sink or swim, so out into the world I went—and I
floundered. I walked the streets, stood on the street corners,
and watched the people go by. Prospects! prospects every-
where! But I had no definite plan of action to contact any
of them. Now and then someone would grant me an inter-
view for the sake of courtesy, but the inevitable answer was
“not interested.” Thus, with sore feet, a tired back, a sour
disposition, a weary body, and with both hands empty, I
would slowly trudge back to the office.
This procedure lagged on for many days. I began to ques-
tion—what’s the trouble? Is it me or the life insurance busi-
ness? I decided to do something about it.

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ONE MORNING in 1920,1 left my office in the Commercial
Trust Building in Philadelphia and walked down Chest-
nut Street, on my way to see a prospect. Suddenly I felt
someone tapping me on the shoulder. I turned around and
faced a gentleman whom I had never seen before. “Is your
name Earl Prevette?” he inquired. “Yes,” I replied. “Are you
originally from North Carolina?” “That’s right!” I said. At
this juncture he extended his hand very graciously and in-
troduced himself as George Peabody, Jr., an attorney-at-law
from Boston, Massachusetts. Still this did not mean much
to me. Then he told me that my uncle, Henry Slater of Prov-
idence, Rhode Island, and more recently of Boston, Massa-
chusetts, had passed away and that his law firm Peabody,
Peabody, and Peabody had been appointed the administra-
tors of his estate. He also informed me that, in going over
the will of the late Henry Slater, his firm had discovered
that I had been named as one of the beneficiaries. He said
that a sizable sum of money was waiting for me in Boston
and that his firm was prepared to make a settlement with
me.
Without further ado, he suggested that I should journey
to Boston with him in order to claim my inheritance. Soon
we were on the train, and, upon our arrival in Boston, I made
an appointment to call on his law firm the following morn-
ing.

I arose early the next morning. It was one of those beau-
tiful spring mornings in Boston. The sky was clear and
flooded with bright sunshine. The air was crisp, fresh, and
fragrant. It was a most invigorating day, and I was thrilled
and exhilarated. I was walking on air, all aglow with the
hope and expectation of what was soon to be realization.
Exactly at 9 o’clock I was in the Old Colony Bank and
Trust Building, on my way to keep my appointment with
the law firm of Peabody, Peabody, and Peabody and claim
my legacy. The receptionist at the office of the law firm was
very gracious and most accommodating. In a moment Mr.
George Peabody, Jr., came forward and greeted me with a
most cordial and pleasant, “Good morning.”
Immediately he escorted me into the office of Mr. George
Peabody, Sr., who was the titular head of the law firm. Of
course he was very delighted to see me and to realize that
I was the nephew of his old friend and colleague, the late
Henry Slater. After a few remarks that established my iden-
tity securely in his mind, he said that my uncle, Henry
Slater, had willed me quite a sizable sum of money, and that
his firm was now ready to give it to me, after I had signed
a few routine papers. Indeed, I was most happy to sign those
papers as a token of my sincere gratitude. After I had signed
all the necessary papers, Mr. Peabody called his secretary
and asked her to draw a check to my order. This she did.
Then he asked me if I would like to cash the check in Boston
before returning to Philadelphia. This I thought a splendid
idea. He called his son, George Jr., to take me down to the
first floor, where the Old Colony Bank and Trust Company
was located. There, George, Jr. introduced me to Mr. Jerome
Knickerbocker, the cashier, who said he would be glad to
give me the cash when I had endorsed the check.
I endorsed the check, and Mr. Knickerbocker asked me
how I would like to have the money. I told him that I would
like to have it in thousand-dollar bills. He walked over to
the vault and casually brought back 100 thousand-dollar
bills. He counted them out one by one, deliberately and care-
fully. I put these 100 thousand-dollar bills into an envelope
and thanked Mr. Peabody and Mr. Knickerbocker very gra-
ciously for their splendid courtsey and co-operation. I picked
up the envelope containing the one hundred thousand dol-
lars and placed it very carefully and securely in my inside
coat pocket. Just as I turned to leave the bank, lo and behold,
I stubbed my toe and woke up!