We will assume that you have qualified yourself to succeed; that you have developed your best capabilities in knowledge, in manhood, and in sales skill; that you have completed the general preparation necessary to assure your success in marketing your particular qualifications; and that you also have learned how to find and to make the most of your prospects. After these preliminaries you are ready to take the next step in the selling process, and to begin putting your capabilities, and what you have learned from preparation and prospecting, to specific use in actual selling.

In order to succeed, you must not only be qualified for some particular service work, but you also need chances to demonstrate your capabilities and preparedness for effective service. If you stand all your life in complete readiness for success but outside the door of opportunity, you will be a failure despite your exceptional qualifications and preparations for handling chances to succeed. It is necessary that you get inside the door. We will study now the sure ways and means of entrance.

One great advantage the skillful salesman has over even the best buyer is that he can plan completely what he will do and how he will do it to accomplish his selling purpose. The prospect is unable to anticipate who will call upon him next; so it is impossible for him to avoid being taken unawares by each salesman. He can make only general and hasty preparations at the moment to deal with the particular individual who comes intent on securing his order.

The good salesman, however, works out in advance the most effective ways and means to present his proposition. Each move in the process of selling his ideas to a prospect is carefully studied and practiced beforehand. The effects of different words and tones and acts are exactly weighed. When the thoroughly prepared salesman calls on a possible buyer, he has in mind a flexible program of procedure with which he is perfectly familiar and which he can adapt skillfully to various conditions that his imagination has enabled him to anticipate. Hence the master salesman usually is able to control the situation, no matter how shrewd the prospect may be; because the salesman’s chance to plan assures him a great advantage over the unprepared or incompletely prepared other party to the sale.

If you would likewise “dominate” the man to whom you want to sell your capabilities, prepare “plans of approach” to his interest before calling on him; in order to make sure of presenting your qualifications most strongly. He can oppose your salesmanship with but comparatively weak resistance; because he has had no such opportunity as you to get all ready for this interview. The skillful salesman is confident that he can control the selling process he begins. When you seek a selected chance for the success you desire, you should feel similar assurance of ability to sell your services. You will possess this feeling if you prepare your “plan of approach” as the master salesman gets ready for his interview with a prospective buyer.

You have to make two distinct “entrances” in order to gain your desired chance to succeed. You need to get yourself into the presence of the employer you have selected. Then it is essential that you get the true idea of your capabilities and preparedness into his mind. Your “approach” to his attention and interest, therefore, involves a double process. It is important that you plan intelligently the most skillful ways and means of making the two entrances; through the physical and the mental closed doors that now shut you out from the opportunities you have prospected and desire to gain.

No master salesman would call on an important prospect before planning in his own mind how to take the successive steps of the interview expected. Nor would a master salesman neglect to think out in advance several specific methods of getting past any physical barriers he might encounter between the outer door of the general office and the inner sanctum of the man he must meet face to face in order to close a sale.

But when the unskilled salesman of his own capabilities seeks a situation, he usually neglects to make careful, detailed plans to reach his prospect in the most effective way. He does not prepare to create the particular impressions that would be most apt to assure him the attention and interest of the employer upon whom he calls. Nearly always when a man out of a job answers an advertisement or follows up a clue to a possible opening for his services, he thinks the most important thing is to “get there first.” The only advantage he hopes to gain over other applicants is a position at the head of the line.

Have you ever stopped to analyze the mental attitude of an employer toward the half dozen, dozen, or score of men who answer his advertisement for the services of one man? He thinks, “Here are a lot of fellows out of jobs. Probably most of them are no good, or they wouldn’t be out of jobs. They are competing for this place. Each sees there are plenty of others who will be glad to have it. Therefore it is likely that I can get a man without paying him much to start with, and he probably won’t be very independent for a while after I hire him. I’ll take my pick of the lot, and keep the names and addresses of two or three others in case he doesn’t make good.”

Then the employer calls in the applicants as if they were so many sheep to be sheared by sharp cross-examination. Practically every candidate enters the private office with a considerable degree of sheepishness in his feelings, whether he tries to appear at ease or not. The employer first eyes him in keen appraisal. He then proceeds briskly to clip off facts about him. The man sitting behind the desk absolutely dominates the situation. He finishes his questioning, and disposes of the applicant as he pleases.

What chance to gain the desired opportunity for service does each candidate have in such an uncontrolled process of getting a job? He has one-sixth, or one-twelfth, or one-twentieth of a chance for success; according to whether there are six or a dozen or a score of applicants. Also, practically without exception, men who come seeking a position and find that it has been filled make no further efforts to secure the opportunity for which they have applied; though the successful candidate may not make good and the position may soon be vacant again. Your own experience and observation have made familiar to you this common way of looking for jobs. You know that in such cases the employer has all the advantage. Certainly the applicants who try to gain a chance to work by this method use no salesmanship at all.

How would a “salesman” candidate for such a situation proceed? First, he would avoid the mistake of presenting himself as merely one of a crowd of competing applicants. He would make his particular personality stand out. Before calling, he would do some prospecting to discover just what capabilities were needed to fill the position advertised. Then he would plan different ways of tackling the prospective employer. When all ready, but not before, he would go to the address.

If he should find a crowd there, he would not merge with it. He would avoid stating his business immediately in the outer office, rather than identify himself with the other candidates waiting. He would have a plan to get an interview later, after the dispersal of the crowd. If he should be told then that the position had been filled, he would go right ahead with his selling program regardless of the rebuff. He would proceed to sell the boss the idea that he was an especially well fitted man for the job. He would assume that no one else could give such satisfaction.

Nevertheless the employer might feel that he had no place open for the latest candidate. In this event the applicant would demonstrate with salesmanship that he was the sort of person it is worth while for any business man to keep track of. Such a real “salesman” of his own capabilities, if put off for the time being, would be reasonably sure to get his desired chance the next time that employer might require such services as he could supply.

A young acquaintance of mine wanted to secure a chance in the office of a prominent manufacturing corporation, under a certain executive whom he regarded as the most capable business man in the city. The company had advertised for a minor clerk in the cost department, which was managed by the particular executive. My acquaintance called, and found seven other applicants waiting in the general office. He did not join them, but sent in his card to the busy head of the cost department with the penciled request, “May I see you for twenty seconds in order to make a personal inquiry?” He was promptly admitted to the private office, and then stated his purpose in calling. He was careful to be extremely brief.

“My name is James A. Ward. I believe, Mr. Blank, I am the man you want for the clerkship in your cost section. In order to save your time, may I have permission to make some inquiries of the chief clerk in that department, to learn just what qualifications are required and what the work is? Then when you talk with me, it will be unnecessary for you to explain details.”

Taken unawares, the executive was not prepared to refuse the courteous request. Moreover, he was impressed with the distinctive attitude of the young man. He instructed that the candidate be taken to the cost department. There my acquaintance made an excellent impression on the cost accountant and several clerks. Thus in advance of any other applicant he secured a “stand-in” with a number of persons who might influence the judgment of their chief in selecting a new man. When he had learned the nature of the work to be done, Ward did not make the mistake of thrusting himself again into the sanctum. Instead, he wrote a note to the executive on whom he had called first.

“Dear Mr. Blank:

I know now exactly what the job in the cost department is, and that I can fill it. But I should like to think over the best ways to give you complete satisfaction, before talking with you about it. Please telephone to me at Main 4683 when it will be convenient for you to see me.

Respectfully,

James A. Ward.”

The young man sent his note into the private office and left at once. There now were nine applicants on the anxious seat in the reception room. Ward did not wish to be asked to wait his turn. He felt sure the executive would inquire of the costs manager about him, and he got away from the office quickly so that there would be an opportunity for his chosen prospective employer to receive the full effect of the good impression made in the cost department.

My acquaintance was not at all worried lest some other candidate be chosen in his absence. The measures of salesmanship he had taken made it practically certain that the executive would not employ any one else before talking to him. Ward went to his room and waited for the telephone call he was sure would come. While he sat expecting it, he used the time to think out the best ways to approach the big man with whom he wanted to work.

The salesman candidate was summoned in about an hour. None of the applicants ahead of him had come prepared with any definite plans. Therefore my acquaintance, who knew in advance just what the conditions were and who had decided exactly how he would present his particular capabilities, found it easy to secure the chance he desired. He is earning a salary of four thousand dollars a year now, and is on his way up to a five-or-six-figure job. He will get there, “as sure as shooting.” A salesman like that cannot be kept down.

I asked Ward one day what he would have done if the telephone call he expected had not come. He replied that he would have gone to see the executive next morning anyhow, and that he had planned carefully how he would approach him.

“I’d have sent in a note that I was ready to report some ideas I had worked out regarding his cost-keeping as a result of the thinking I had done since learning his system. He wouldn’t have refused to see me, even if he had hired some one else meanwhile. Then I’d have told him the very things that got me the job. They would have assured me a chance in his office, whether he had a place for me right then or not,” Ward asserted positively. “If that plan of mine hadn’t succeeded,” he amended, “I’d have known he wasn’t the kind of man I wanted to work for, after all. But it turned out exactly as I knew it would,” my friend ended with a grin.

Can you imagine a man of such sales ability failing to get a chance almost anywhere? Yet Ward did only what any one, with a little forethought, might have done in the circumstances. Analyze the selling process he used, and you will perceive that there was nothing marvelous about it it was all perfectly natural. Is there any good reason why you cannot employ similar methods to gain the chance you want?

Let us dig into what Ward did, and find the “essence” of his salesmanship in the ways and means he employed to assure his two “entrances,” to the presence and into the mind of the executive. He was successful principally because he made the impression that he had come with a purpose of rendering real service to the other man. His plan of approach assured him the opportunity he wanted because it was designed to serve the head of the department in his need for particular capabilities. Very rarely will any one refuse a needed service. So, coming with a purpose of service, Ward made certain in advance that he would be welcomed to his opportunity. The essence of a successful plan of approach to the mind of any prospect is a carefully thought-out idea of how to supply him with exactly what he lacks.

Just as the service purpose well planned is the key to the door of a man’s mind; so is it the “Open Sesame” to his presence. Plan how to bring to the attention of a prospect your real service motive in coming to him, and how at the same time you can indicate to him your capabilities; then you will be as sure as was my ingenious acquaintance that no office door will long remain closed to you. You only need to use the processes of the master salesman to gain any chance you want. You will succeed almost always in your immediate object; and if you are unsuccessful in your first or second sales attempt you will be absolutely certain to get some other good opportunity very soon.

It is not necessary to wait until the employer for whom you have chosen to work advertises a job. You should plan ways and means of gaining an entrance into his business organization, regardless of any “vacancy” he may have in mind. Plan exactly how you can serve him. Prospect for a need that he may not realize himself. Afterward work out a particular method of showing him clearly what he lacks, and that you are the man to fill the vacancy you yourself have discovered and revealed to him.

An elderly man who was down on his luck and who, on account of his grey hair, had been unable to get various kinds of work he had sought, devised a novel plan of approach that gained him a coveted chance in a big department store. He came to the main office and reached the sales manager without difficulty by appearing to be just a customer of the store. Then he whisked from under his coat a pasteboard sign on which he had printed, PORTER WANTED TO KEEP SIDEWALK CLEAN.

“I’m after that job, sir,” he explained his presence.

The sales manager waved the old man away.

“You’re in the wrong place,” he said curtly. “Employment office is on the top floor.”

“I made the sign myself,” the applicant declared, standing his ground. “The employment manager you no one in this store has realized, I think, how filthy your sidewalk is. If you will come down with me and look at it, I’m sure you will want to have it cleaned and will instruct that I be given the chance. It is hurting your sales, as it is now. Kept clean, as I would keep it, it would be a fine advertisement of the store’s policies, and would help sales.”

The old man’s plan of entrance gained him his initial opportunity. He swept the sidewalk only two weeks. Then the sales manager made a place for him behind a counter, where he is serving customers with satisfaction to-day.

You will recall that in a previous chapter the ability to discriminate was stated as the distinguishing characteristic of masterly salesmanship. The ability to perceive differences, and skill in emphasizing them, will assure success in selling either ideas or goods.

The discriminative-restrictive study of anything is certain to give one a much clearer and more definite understanding of it than could be secured by a study of its likeness to something else. If, when describing two people, you compare their points of resemblance, you do not paint a clear picture of either. But if you restrict your comments to the differences in their features, you will portray a pretty definite mental image of each.

You have been given several examples of ways and means to gain an entrance into the presence and into the mind of an employer. You will note that each applicant restricted his plans of approach to methods that were entirely different from those ordinarily used in getting a job. The purpose of the salesman in every case was to bring out the difference between him and competing candidates for the situation. The selling processes described were successful because discriminative-restrictive principles of skill were employed to bring to the attention and interest of the prospect the service capabilities of the one applicant, in distinction from all others.

When you plan to gain the chance you most want, you can assure yourself of success if you will work out in your own mind how to do something effective that is different from the methods commonly used in attempts to gain opportunities, and that will impress your real service purpose in applying for your chance.

First think out clearly what the other man needs. Distinguish exactly in your thoughts between what is lacking in his organization, and what he already has. Then when planning to gain an entrance to the presence and the mind of your prospect, restrict your thoughts to ways and means of indicating and suggesting that you know precisely what service is wanted. Prepare to show him that you don’t have merely a vague, indefinite idea of a job like other jobs. Plan to indicate that you are not just about the same as ordinary men who apply for positions. Be ready to make the first impression that you are a particular man with individual ideas and distinctive capability. If you can prove that, you will be certain to gain your chance through good salesmanship of the true idea of your qualifications.

When planning his approach, the master salesman combines his earlier work of preparation and his prospecting. He re-organizes in his mind all the information he previously has gained for his own benefit. Now he reviews his knowledge from the standpoint of the prospect. He plans to use what he has learned in the ways that seem to him most likely to fit the mentality, impulses, feelings, conditions, and real needs of the man he wants to influence to accept his proposition.

Having thus planned to fit his knowledge to an individual prospect, the skillful salesman arranges constructively in his own mind particular, definite points of contact with the mind of this one other man. He plans restrictively. That is, he works out only the approach ideas that are likely to fit the characteristics of the certain man on whom he intends to call. He also discards ways and means that are not especially adapted to this prospect.

Of course the master salesman purposes to make the best possible impression always; but he recognizes that words, tones, and actions which would create a favorable impression on one prospect might make an opposite impression on another. For instance, a jolly manner and expression help in gaining an entrance to the friendly consideration of a good-natured man, but would be likely to affect a cynical dyspeptic disagreeably.

The intelligence and skill used by the master professional salesman of goods in planning ways and means to gain his sales chances, can be used in the same way just as effectively by you when planning your approach to the presence and mind of any one related to your opportunities for success. Before you apply for the job you want, or before you present your qualifications for promotion or an increased salary, make in advance a discriminative selection of ideas that will be likely to prove most effective in accomplishing your purpose with your employer prospect. Then, when you interview him, restrict your presentation of your case to these discriminatively selected strong points of your particular capability.

You should suggest contrasts between yourself and ordinary job seekers or employees. When you present your qualifications for a promotion or for a raise, you will be sure of succeeding if you are able to get across to your employer’s mind the true idea that your services in the future may be different and deserving of more reward than the services for which you have previously been paid.

When an employee asks for more money because other men are being paid higher wages in the same office, or because he has prospects of better pay elsewhere, or even because of increased costs of living, he makes an unfavorable impression on the man from whom he requests a raise. His purpose in presenting his claims is evidently selfish. He appears to be looking out only for Number One, and the employer naturally looks out for his Number One when responding. By using methods that suggest a wholly selfish purpose, the applicant decreases his chances of gaining what he desires. Yet most employees ask for raises in just this way.

Contrast the impression made when an employee approaches the boss with a carefully planned demonstration of his capability for increased service, as the basis of a proposal that he be promoted or given a higher salary. He comes into “the old man’s” office with an attitude that produces a favorable impression. When he explains exactly what he is doing, or can do if permitted, that is deserving of more reward than he has been receiving, he presents the idea of a “quid pro quo” to his “prospect,” just as the salesman of goods presents the idea of value in fair exchange for price.

If the service now being rendered by the employee, or the new service he wishes permission to render, is really worth more money to the employer, the applicant for a raise is practically certain to get it, provided he has chosen a fair boss. And, of course, a good salesman of himself does not go to work in the first place until he has prospected the squareness and fair-mindedness of the employer.

A young woman was employed in a secretarial capacity shortly before the world war began. In the course of the next two years her salary was voluntarily doubled by her employer. But her necessary expenses increased in proportion; so she was able to save no more money (in purchasing power) than it would have been possible for her to put in the bank if there had been no increase either in her earnings or in the cost of living. That is, if the war had not happened, and she had continued at work for two years without any raise at all, she would have been practically as well off at the end of that time as she actually found herself with her doubled pay.

As the months of her employment passed, she had made herself progressively much more valuable to her employer. She was rendering him now a very large amount of high-grade service. But in effect she was being paid no more money than when she was engaged. The young woman knew her employer intended to be fair with her. Undoubtedly he felt he had treated her well by voluntarily doubling her salary in two years. If she had gone to him and had asked for more pay in the manner of the ordinary applicant for a raise; if she had stated her request without skillfully showing the difference between actual conditions and his misconception of the facts; she likely would have made an unfavorable impression. But she was a good saleswoman of her ideas. She made a discriminative-restrictive plan of approach to gain her object, and used first-class selling skill to get into her employer’s mind a true conception of her worth to him.

She compiled from her budget the exact amount of increased living costs. The comparative figures of two years showed that her necessary expenses were approximately double what they had been before the war. Then she used the percentage ratio to demonstrate in neat typewriting that approximately all of her salary increases had gone to some one else, and had not remained in her hands. On another sheet she typed a summary of the most important business responsibilities she carried for her employer at present, but which she had not been qualified nor trusted to bear when she was first engaged. The secretary brought the two exhibits to the desk of the business man, laid them before him with brief explanations of what they represented, and concluded with a simple personal statement which she worded most carefully.

“Mr. Blank, I know you mean to be perfectly square with me. So I want you to realize what has been the actual purchasing power of the salary I have received, and what I have done with it. This percentage slip shows that my additional pay was all used for additional expenses. I have been unable to increase my savings. I really have been paid only for the same kind of services I was able to render when you employed me. Now I know how to do all these additional things.” She pointed to the list typed on the second sheet of paper. “In effect, I haven’t been paid anything for them, you see. I am sure you have not appreciated the difference between the increased service I have rendered, and the buying power of the raises you have meant to give me but which have all gone to some one else. Please study these lists. I believe you will feel that I am earning a larger salary and really am worth more to you than two years ago.”

Her “different” approach gained the secretary not only an immediate increase of fifty per cent in her salary; but five hundred dollars back pay that her fair-minded employer was convinced she should have received.

Such an approach commands the respect of the prospect. It is the approach of an equal, not of an inferior. So greatly does it reduce the chances of failure that the salesman is practically certain to succeed in his purpose

Recognize that the initiative in gaining your chance should be in your own hands. Do not wait for any opportunity to come to you. “Go to it.” Go prepared to control the situation you have planned to create, but be ready also to meet unexpected possibilities. The object of the master salesman in his preparation is not only to make the selling process easy, but also to meet any difficulties he can foresee that may arise to block him. He is ready to take full advantage of favorable conditions he has planned to meet, and is equally ready for turn-downs. If you use the discriminative-restrictive method to gain admission to the presence and into the mind of your prospect, it is altogether unlikely that you will be denied the chance you seek. Nevertheless go loaded for refusals. Be ready with the quick come-back to every turn-down you can imagine.

A clerk in a real estate office wanted an opportunity to prove that he was capable of selling. Times were very hard, and the firm had flatly announced that it would not promote anybody or grant any raises. But this clerk, who had made up his mind to secure a salesman’s job, carefully prepared a plan of approach before he went to the president’s office. His ostensible purpose was to get a raise; so he had worked out an ingenious reply to every objection he could imagine his employer might make to paying him more money. But he really wanted a different job, not just a larger salary.

He tackled the “old man” at a selected time when he knew the president would not be busy. One after another, in quick succession, he came back at every reason given for turning him down on his application for additional pay. Finally the cornered employer stated frankly that the clerk was entitled to a raise, but as frankly said it could not be granted because of general business conditions. The applicant, having gained his immediate object by proving his worth, then switched to the second part of his plan of approach.

“I didn’t expect more money for my clerical work, but haven’t I proved to you by the way I handle turn-downs that I possess the qualifications of a salesman? It would be just as hard for a prospect to say ‘No’ to me as it has been for you. I don’t want a raise. I want a chance at selling real estate. Give me a drawing account equal to my present salary, and I’ll earn it in commissions. I’m going to make it hard for anybody to get away from me after I tackle him to buy a lot or a house.”

Of course the clerk got his chance.

Another important detail of good salesmanship in planning to approach opportunities to succeed, is touching the tender spots of the subordinates in the office of the big man you want to reach. Also plan to touch tender spots in him. You can do it with a courteous bow, or with the tone of respect. Employ the personal appeal that is, make contact between your personality and the personality of the other party you desire to influence. There is no better way than by manifesting your real friendliness. One who comes as a friend is able to feel and to appear at ease. The bearing of perfect ease makes the excellent impression of true equality in manhood, and helps very greatly in gaining for one a chance to succeed.

Sometimes self-respect will require you to use very forceful methods to secure the opportunity you desire. A snippy clerk may refuse you admittance to the private office. The big man himself may send out word that he will not receive you, or perhaps he will attempt to dismiss you brusquely after you are granted an audience. So be prepared to manifest your strength, as well as your resourcefulness, should such force of personality be needed in any imaginable situation. If you have planned exactly how you will show your strength, you will make the impression when you manifest it actually that you are strong in fact, and not just a bluffer. Often you can prove your strength by looking another person fearlessly in the eye.

It is evident from what has already been outlined that to make a successful approach one needs particular qualifications. There are four essentials: First, mental alertness in perceiving; Second, good memory for retaining the impressions received; Third, constructive imagination in planning the approach; Fourth, friendly courage in securing an audience and in making the actual approach to the mind of the other man.

All your senses must be wide awake if you are to perceive every point of difference that can be used effectively to sell your particular ideas in contrast with ordinary ideas.

It is necessary not only that you see distinctions clearly, but that you be able to remember them instantly, when you need to use them in selling your ideas.

You cannot make any certainly successful plan to deal with a future possible chance unless you cultivate your power of imagination by working out in advance every conceivable situation that may be anticipated.

And all your other capabilities in gaining your chance will be of no avail if your purpose meets resistance; unless you are equipped beforehand with friendly courage, the kind of real bravery that is likable.

It is highly important to your success that you be able to make the impression that you are a person of genius. Genius, analyzed, is no more than the exceptional application of natural ability to doing work. Application demands complete attention. Attention leads to discrimination. Discrimination concentrates, of course, upon the recognition of differences. And differentiation depends principally upon sense training in alertness. Unless a sense is very keen, it cannot make distinctions sharply. So we get back to the primary necessity of developing all your senses and of keeping them wide awake to perceive and act upon chances for success.

Your discriminative power of perception will be well-nigh valueless to you, however, if you are unable to recall whenever needed, all the points of difference possible to utilize in your salesmanship. Therefore you should train your memory. We will not enlarge just now upon this factor of the process of making success certain; because in previous chapters and also in the companion book, “The Selling Process,” the right methods of developing a good memory are indicated.

The value of constructive imagination, not only in planning your entrance to the physical presence and into the mind of the prospect, but all through your salesmanship, cannot be over emphasized. If you are to gain your chance with another man, you must be able to see imaginary future situations, through his eyes. In advance of your interview it is necessary that you imagine yourself in his place when a caller like yourself is received.

Some so-called “realists” condemn imagination. They say it is apt to make men visionary and unable to recognize and meet successfully the every-day problems of life. But the big men of finance, industry, and politics have become pre-eminent because of the fertility and productiveness of their imaginations. What the “hard-headed” man condemns is not imagination, but inability to use it constructively. He deprecates imagination not carried into action. Constructive imagination, however, has always been man’s greatest aid in making progress.

In order to develop your constructive imagination most effectively you must follow certain laws with regard to the re-adjustment of parts, qualities, or attributes of things you know. You can re-construct an idea; (1) by merely enlarging an old mental image; or (2) by diminishing the size of the previous image; or (3) by separating a composite image into its parts; or (4) by imaging each part as a whole.

Let us illustrate how these laws of constructive imagination might be applied effectively in planning the approach to a prospective employer.

He perhaps has an idea that the possibilities of the job you want are limited. You should plan to enlarge the picture of your possible service and to show that you could do more things than he is likely to expect of you.

So you can diminish his idea of the salary you want, by planning to show him that in proportion to the enlarged service you purpose to render, the pay you ask is not really big.

In order to make him appreciate better just what your contemplated job means, you can separate it into the different functions you will perform. The mere fact that the job has a great many parts will be effective in impressing him with the idea that it is worth more pay.

Then you can take each part or function of your job and show it as a whole opportunity. For instance, if you are a correspondent, you might demonstrate just how letters of different length could be spaced on the stationery to develop a uniformly artistic impression that would help to get more business by mail.

All your imaginative powers can be made to work together to accomplish the one certain result you desire. “Constructive imagination is always characterized by a definite purpose, which never is lost sight of until the image is complete.”

Thousands of men have failed, after getting right up to the door of opportunity, because they had to turn away in order to screw up their courage. No one can hope to succeed if he lacks the quality of bravery necessary to gain chances.

True bravery is not cockiness or swaggering. It is simply a kindly self-confidence that makes no impression of a threat to others, and gives no suggestion that the man who has it feels there is the slightest reason for being afraid of anybody else.

Really, if you have planned just how to approach each prospect with a true service purpose, there is no one in the world you need to fear. Lack of courage is usually due to lack of preparation for what might be anticipated. Sometimes a man is fearful of another because of his own consciousness that he has come to that other man principally for the purpose of taking something away from him. This consciousness causes a guilty feeling, which undermines courage. If through imaginative planning you know in advance about what to expect, and if you feel your intentions toward your prospect are absolutely square, you will not be afraid to seek your chance anywhere. Your courage will not ooze.

True courage is based on a permanent consciousness of right feeling and thinking, coupled with the sense of power that is expressed in the maxim, “Right is might.” Such courage can be developed by the discriminative-restrictive process with absolute certainty, as is explained in the companion book, “The Selling Process.”

Our study of plans of approach would be incomplete without emphasizing the prime necessity for a big mental outlook. To assure your success in gaining the chances you want it is necessary that you vision imaginary situations of the future and fit into them the facts you know now or may be able to learn.

However, you cannot develop maximum skill in gaining your chances if you are unable to learn anything except through personal experience. Personal experience is valuable, no doubt. But you must develop the ability to think out the significance of other men’s experiences, and must be capable of applying what you learn to your own imaginary use.

The big view-point, the ability to learn from observation as well as from experience, will develop in you broad and varied conceptions of other men. It will make you tolerant of characteristics that differ widely from your own. You will respect the view-point of the other fellow, and will recognize that he may be perfectly fair in his attitude and opinions, however widely he may differ from your ideas. Your big mental outlook should make you feel friendly toward him as your prospect, and you can make the approach of courage that is friendly.

Perhaps you will meet opposition to your entrance when you come to gain your chance. It is likely that some sentry in the outer office of your prospect, or the sentry of his own mind when you reach his presence, may halt you at the portal of opportunity with the challenge, “Who goes there?”

Your answer should be spoken confidently, “A friend.”

The test will then be made by the sentry, “Advance, friend, and give the countersign.”

The secret pass-word to Opportunity is, “Service."

Prove you know the countersign, speak it with courage, and you will find yourself no longer an object of suspicion, no longer regarded as a possible enemy.

You have nothing to fear if you plan to approach your prospect as a true friend who has come with a carefully thought out, intelligent offer of service that he lacks