nderstandable ways to make success not only _sure_, but _easy_ to
attain.

CHAPTER VI

_Gaining Your Chance_

[Sidenote: Getting Inside The Door]

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.

[Sidenote: The Salesman's Advantage Over the Buyer]

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 chanc