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.

In analyzing the prospect, we find his acts to buy are con-
trolled by three sources. So important are these three sources
that I again enumerate them. By all means, initiate them
into your activities and appropriate them to your use.

First: The prospect has a desire, and a desire is an unfilled
want, seeking satisfaction.

Second: The prospect has a urge, and the urge stimulates
and incites him to buy;

Third: The prospect has a reason, and the reason is based
on definite knowledge of an established need.

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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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The highway to the interest of all men lies on the fertile
plain of ideas. Hazel McCann used this highway to attract
Dr. Douglas, and as a result she was highly rewarded. As a
salesman, you have access to this highway from a choice
field of selling ideas. Your ability and power as a salesman
must be expressed through ideas. You must be able to pre-
sent these ideas by creating a Sales Plan to merchandise your
proposition. You must turn over what you have in order to
get something else; in short, you must sell.

You must keep on the move, and consider the ups and
downs in your activities as a stepping stone to greater
achievements. Has it ever occurred to you why the ocean’s
waves constantly roll and break against each other with
clocklike regularity? Without this persistent motion the
ocean would become stagnant. Everything in and around
it would perish. These movements keep the water teeming
with wholesomeness and vitality.

Ups and downs in selling act as a tonic to provoke thought
and stimulate action. The world is a proving ground. The
prospects you call on furnish you with material for your
laboratory of human relations. Your salesmanship is the head
chemist who compounds formulas, and, if these formulas are
scientifically compounded, you can attract the prospect and
sell whatever you desire. In this chapter there are formulas
compounded in the laboratory of human relations, tested in
the field of experience, and proved on the proving grounds
of hard knocks.

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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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