In my experience I have sold many different things. I have
sold advertising, paint, cement roofing, oil, varnish, direc-
tories, patent churns, electrical appliances, washing ma-
chines, books, entertainment, billboard advertising, tooth
paste, shoes, tailor-made suits, and all kinds of insurance,
including life insurance.

Strange as it may seem, it has always been necessary for
me to create a market, or a demand, for everything that I
sold. It entailed the power of creative selling. It was either
create a sale or starve.

In selling, it was never a question of prospects—I always
had more prospects than I possibly could see. My problem
was to cover the available prospects effectively and effi-
ciently. To do this, it was necessary to have a good sale
approach. Therefore, I spent many hours in preparing and
creating a good, concrete Sales Plan, around the product or
service that I was endeavoring to sell. This Sales Plan needed
the qualities and attributes to attract the attention of the
prospect, to arouse his interest, and to stimulate his desire.
It also had to have the dynamic power to convince, and to
motivate and impel the prospect to act. This Sales Plan had
to center the prospect’s thought on my proposition to the
exclusion of all others.

In making an analysis of these causes and interests, we
discover that they may be influenced by certain advantages
and the effect they have on the life of the prospect:

First: The first advantage that the prospect desires is hap-
piness or peace of mind. The prospect derives great satisfac-
tion from what he buys. His purchases buoy him up. He
feels that he is really doing something worth while.

Second: The second advantage the prospect desires is the
gain of health. He places a great value on this because it is
his greatest and most important asset, and he will buy almost
anything if he is convinced that it will improve and safe-
guard his own health or his family’s.

Third: The third advantage he desires is a gain of money
or wealth. The prospect realizes that it is necessary to spend
money to earn money. Therefore, he will buy those things
on which he can make money or those that he can resell and
make a profit.

Thus you have a direct road to the prospect’s interest, a
direct road to the sources of his decision to buy, and a road
map of the advantages by which you can attract him. You
have a psychological background. This is the foundation on
which to create a scientific sales presentation. With this
scientific knowledge and information about the prospect,
you can create thoughts and ideas from within that will at-
tract him, and, by gaining his confidence, you can sell him
your particular product. Thoughts about the thing you want
to sell, built around his interests, his needs, and his wants,
and believed in by you, will convince him to buy.

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After distinguishing the nature of the sources that control
the prospect’s acts to buy, you must uncover the situations
that prompt them. The first source that motivates a man to
buy is interest. Man has many interests, but sift them all
down and you find that he has three main interests in life.
On these three interests are based most of his reasons for
buying:

First: The first interest in a prospect’s life is his family.
He buys things to aid them and to give them comfort and
good living.

Second: The second interest in a prospect’s life is his vo-
cation or business. He buys things to resell, things to use in
his own operations, or things that help him to be more ef-
ficient in his activities.

Third: The third interest of a prospect is to add comfort
and pleasure to himself and to satisfy his own personal
wants.

Image by aflcio2008 via Flickr

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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Image via Wikipedia

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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