I found that the institution of life insurance was one of the sustaining pillars of our
American economy, and it was worthy of the attention of any prospect. After getting
thor­oughly saturated with all the knowledge pertaining to life insurance, I began to
study the prospect. Where does he fit in? Where is his place in this great network
of economic, social, and financial relations? I found that the whole system of life
insurance was set up for one purpose only, and that was to serve the needs of
the prospect. A life insurance policy was a declaration of financial independence,
embodying  guarantees that would solve the prospect’s family problems, help him
to solve his estate problems, help him to solve his retirement problems, and help
him to realize his hopes, am­bitions, and needs. The prospect was not aware
of all the wonderful things that life insurance could do for him. I must tell him.

In creating this Sales Plan for life insurance, I felt I had  a lot in common with
the prospect. I knew he had a family, a home, a job, and, in all probability, a lot
of unfulfilled de­sires. I appreciated one great fact about the prospect: he was a
rational human being with problems and needs and would listen to an appeal on
how to meet them, based on common sense and reason.

Therefore, with a good understanding of life insurance, and with the prospect
as the center of interest, I fitted a life insurance policy about his shoulders. I made
it talk. I made  it reveal its benefits and what they meant to him and his family.
This is the Sales Plan I created. In this Sales Plan I refer to the prospect as “Mr. Doe”
and the insurance com­pany as “Every Man’s Life Insurance Company’

Selling is a good deal like farming. In farming, the farmer
must plant the seed. He knows that he must sow before he
can reap. The farmer and the salesman are alike. The farmer
plants seeds. The salesman plants ideas. Your ideas, like
seeds, will never grow a crop unless they are planted. The
salesman reaps as he sows. The more ideas he sows, the more
sales he will reap.
Therefore, I realized that in order to reap a harvest of life
insurance sales I must sow a crop of life insurance ideas. I
also realized that these ideas must convey to the prospect
the real value of life insurance and the advantages that it meant
to him and his family. They must satisfy the prospect’s sense of
caution, security, and safety. Therefore, it was nec­essary to
create a Sales Plan around the needs of the pros­pect, conveying
the idea that life insurance would satisfy those needs.

In building and creating this Sales Plan, I studied life in­surance
from every angle. Not a phase was overlooked. I sought every
available source for knowledge and informa­tion. I read every
book that I could find on the subject. I compared all major companies.
I analyzed all important types of policies, including term insurance,
ordinary insur­ance, 20-payment life insurance, all kinds of endowment
life insurance, all forms of annuities, and all forms of retire­ment income
plans. I reckoned with mortality tables, com­pound interest tables, life
expectancy tables, cash reserves, disability clauses, and tables and
clauses for optional settle­ments. I studied the protection that life insurance
affords to partnerships, executives of corporations, and the interests of
individual proprietors. I searched tax laws relating to estates, wills, and trusts.
I familiarized myself with inherit­ance tax laws, both state and Federal.
The social, economic, and financial aspects of life insurance were carefully
weighed, analyzed, and considered.

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.

To gain attention and get interest is not enough. With a
feeling of confidence and earnestness you must arouse the
desire, incite that inward, invisible intensity of being and
make others want to do what you propose. You have the
power to intensify your thoughts. Concentrate this power on
a sale, and you will attract all the forces necessary to accom-
plish it. You will attract that which you want to accomplish
by putting a lot of thought into it. When you proceed along
this line, you are in a position to draw on all the necessary
elements and entities and make full use of them. The sale
will build itself if you center your thoughts on it. Thoughts
turn into realities. Your great creative power is within you
now, right where you are, ready to go to work for you. You
can apply the Law of Attraction as a means to help you put
this power of creative selling into action. It will turn your
sales ability into cash.

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The power of creative selling lies not in the product, not
in the service, and not in the prospect—it lies in you. It lies
in your ability to apply the Law of Attraction to draw the
prospect to you. As a salesman, you want results; you want
to make a sale, and you want to be of service to the prospect.

The most scientific and practical way to do this is to give
the prospect all the knowledge and information possible
about your product. Make an effort to give him a complete
and comprehensive picture of what the product is, what it
can do for him, and the pleasure and satisfaction he will
derive from owning it. In doing this, you give the prospect
an idea of what you can really do for him. He feels the im-
pact of your impelling presentation. You stimulate and in-
cite his consciousness with a genuine reason for buying. You
feelingly persuade him to act. The prospect says to himself:
“This is an appeal to my reason and to my interest, and ac-
cording to my judgment it is a sound presentation. It makes
sense. This salesman is telling me the truth. He believes
what he says. Therefore, I am going to act on his advice
and counsel.” Prove and demonstrate that the product that
you are selling has merit, that it is faithfully meeting the
needs and satisfying the wants of others, and that it will
therefore serve and benefit your prospect.

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The Law of Attraction is very plainly expressed in the
Bible. It reads: “To him that hath shall be given, and from
him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he
hath.” As applied to attracting the prospect, this simply
means that if you have the thoughts and ideas to attract him,
and give them out, then you attract other things to you, and
therefore more things shall be given unto you. On the other
hand, if you do not make use of the thoughts and ideas you
now have, then even that which you already have shall be
taken away. It merely expresses the inexorable and immu-
table law that you have to give in order to get.

In selling you have only one thing to give, and that is
your ability, intelligently reviewed and appraised, and con-
veyed to others through a system or a plan of action. Your
ability can be expressed through a Sales Plan. You can
create this plan in a haphazard, hit-or-miss way, or you can
create it in a scientifically planned way. To attract a pros-
pect and to create a sale, the latter is imperative. The per-
fection of selling starts with you. How high do you register
in the scale of perfection? What are you doing to improve
your efficiency? Have you learned to harness all your forces
and concentrate them on the job of selling? Have you ac-
quired the knowledge and skill to do the greatest amount of
work with the least possible amount of effort in the shortest
period of time? Can you get maximum results with minimum
effort? Are your thoughts liquid? Can you adjust yourself
quickly? Have you the power of adaptability? Can you apply
common sense? Do you assume the role of self-importance
when shouldered with the responsibility of serving others?

Does your expert knowledge and keen sales ability lose its
charm and savor at the expense of impudence and arro-
gance? Do you use your head for other things as well as a
place to hang your hat? Always remember that if the product
or service could talk and reveal its qualities, services, merits,
usefulness, and its benefits and advantages to the prospect,
the power of creative selling would be unessential and your
services as a salesman would no longer be needed. However,
since the product or service cannot do this, it is your job to
do it effectively. This requires positive thinking, creative
planning, and dynamic action.

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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.

A knowledge of ourselves, and what appeals to us, often
gives us a definite clue to what appeals to and attracts others.
We discover an appeal that makes them act. Most prospects
are fundamentily alike. What will appeal to one will appeal
to all. Most of us are constantly and eternally trying to per-
suade and even convince ourselves that we are different
from everyone else. With 42 years experience in selling and
experimenting in the laboratory of human relations, I know
differently. We all have a lot in common with each other.
The sooner we realize this, the sooner will we generate the
power to attract. We must realize and appreciate one great
fact about the prospect: he is a rational human being. He has
desires, problems and needs, and he will listen to a reason-
able and common-sense appeal on how to meet and fulfill
them.

The attributes, characteristics, and qualities of the pros-
pect can usually be determined by an understanding of our
own. Your purpose should be to understand what the pros-
pect thinks and to express your power to him through a well-
formulated Sales Plan. Therefore, with this understanding,
using the prospect and his needs as a center of interest, you
can build and create thoughts into a Sales Plan that will
impel him to act. You can attract and inspire him to have
full confidence in your proposition.

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However, you have your own row to hoe; you have your
own life to live, and you have your own sales procedure to
follow. You have your own living to make, and I hope some
of the ideas expressed in this book will help you. Be coura-
geous and put your creative power into action, and you can-
not fail to be successful. Courage, you know, is a spark from
heaven. It fills you with the faith to act, and this gives you
the dynamic power to perform and to go ahead.

Man does not know how good he is until he begins to use
his courage. Courage is that quality that enables you to
encounter any situation with firmness. It makes you daring
and bold. It fills you with valor and the dauntless spirit to
conquer all adversities, overcome all obstacles, surmount all
conditions, solve all problems, hurdle all hindrances, and
make you the master of your affairs. Courage will arouse
within you the very essence of creative power, and enable
you to make sales you never thought possible.

You can increase your sales production a hundredfold and keep our
economy prosperous and expanding. You can demonstrate
the power of creative selling as a vibrant reality.

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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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