d be able to stand
on his own feet, and if he and his product together do not form a strong
enough combination to break down all obstructions there is something
wrong with one or the other of them.

The best card of admission at the door of a business office is a
pleasing personal appearance coupled with a calm and assured manner.
This is a universal standard of measuring a man's character and calibre.
Until we have heard him speak we judge him by the way he looks. It is a
dangerous practice, as the proverb warns us, but the percentage of hits
is high enough to make us continue to use it.

A favorite device with a certain cheap type of salesman is to give his
name to the girl at the entrance desk and ask her to tell Mr. Brown that
Mr. Green has sent Mr. Smith to call. The Mr. Green is entirely
fictitious, but since Mr. Brown has several business acquaintances of
that name, he interrupts his work and comes out to see Mr. Smith and
discovers that he is a life insurance agent who thinks that if he can
once get inside he can "put it across." Most business men have no use
for such practices and rarely allow the salesmen who employ them to stay
in their offices any longer than it takes to get them out. Besides, the
salesman places himself under a handicap to begin with. He will find it
pretty hard to convince the man in the office that he is not dishonest
about his goods just as he is about himself. He is the greatest enemy of
his profession. And he makes the work of every one else engaged in it
infinitely harder. It is something every business and profession has to
fight against--the dishonest grafter who is using it as a means of
swindling society.

Most salesmen give their names at the entrance desk instead of
presenting their cards. Psychologists and experience have taught them
that the card is distracting and that even if the interview is granted
it is harder to get the attention of the other man if he has a card to
twiddle between his fingers. It is more conventional to send in a card
(a good card is a letter of introduction in itself) but if the salesman
finds it a handicap, however slight, he should by all means dispense
with it. If the card is cheap or flashy or offensive in any way it
arouses prejudice against the man who bears it before he has had a
chance to present his case in person. The business card may be the same
as the personal card, simply a bit of pasteboard bearing the name and
perhaps the address, or