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Chapter 17 -
How to Turn Your Imagination Into A
During the last half of the 15th Century there was a little boy who lived in Genoa, Italy. He helped his father as a wool weaver, and at school he studied Latin, mathematics, and astronomy. In his spare time, he would visit the busy harbor of Genoa and watch the strange ships coming and going to and from their particular ports. He also listened to the stirring tales of the rugged seamen. He was fascinated and inspired, and soon his imagination illuminated the way for him to study navigation. He became very adept as a skilled maker of maps and charts. He was training himself to be a sailor. He could picture himself as a sailor—a seafaring man sailing the seas, embarking on new voyages, finding new routes, making new discoveries, and, perhaps, discovering a new world. And that is exactly what he did. Due to his imagination, we are living in America today. That man was Christopher Columbus, who is the most important navigator of all time. Men who blaze new trails, chart new routes, pioneer new methods, make new improvements, make new discoveries, and invent new things, are men like Columbus. They dare to use their imagination to do the things that seemingly can't be done. While others falter, they go forward. Seek, search, and all things shall be revealed, even the innermost things of perfection. A salesman does not need "pull" or so-called influential friends. He needs to use his imagination and turn it into a Junior Salesman. But what, you may ask, is imagination? It is the act or process of imagining. It is the power to think in terms of images or words. It is the workshop of the mind. It is the power to envision in action new ideas and plans and to transform them into a useful service. It is looking upon the present circumstances or conditions with a view of improving them. The imagination is a perfect means to visualize the service that you can render. You can see around and through your proposition. You see it from all sides. It enables you to put yourself in the shoes of the prospect, and thus it gives you a greater appreciation of his needs. Instead of trying to force him, you help him to reason out his needs to his complete satisfaction. With this form of persuasion, you not only make a sale, but you also make a friend. By using force, you may make a sale, but, in all probability, you will lose a friend and a future customer. A Junior Salesman is a very important adjunct. He can save the salesman a lot of time and energy. He can perform many useful errands and uncover many good leads that can be turned into sales. It costs money to hire a Junior Salesman, and yet every salesman needs one. Here is a secret. Every salesman has one. He is hidden right within your own consciousness and can be put to work at a moment's notice. That Junior Salesman is your own imagination. How to Put Your Imagination to Work The question is, how can you put your imagination to work? The best way to do this is to become conscious and realize that you have an imagination. You certainly have the ability to think, and therefore you have the capacity to put your imagination in operation. My purpose in this chapter is to unfold a few suggestions that will help you to train your imagination to work for you in uncovering many new opportunities in your present sales activities. I will illustrate these and demonstrate ways and means of putting them into positive action. 1. Train Your Imagination to Visualize Every prospect, in his particular business, affords an ample opportunity for observation and study, and the imagination can take advantage of these different surroundings. The imagination may see an opportunity that will actually prove helpful and beneficial to the business of the prospect. It may observe a new slant, a new angle, or a new need, and be able to offer a suggestion to improve the service that the prospect is now rendering. In doing this, the imagination opens new sales opportunities for you. Once you begin to exercise the imagination, it will furnish you with much ammunition and valuable information with which to think. Ideas will come to broaden your outlook, enlarge your perspective, enrich your understanding, sharpen your wits, and actually make you aware of new ideas you never thought of before. To illustrate, I am going to relate an actual experience that took place in my own selling activities. In 1921, I sold a young business man a $5,000 life insurance policy. At that time this was all he could carry. However, he was engaged in a very favorable business with unusual possibilities for development. I sensed this, and I also sensed that he was not fully aware of the unlimited possibilities and opportunities that his business had in store for him. After visualizing the possibilities of his business, I decided my client needed an injection of ideas in order to arouse his slumbering imagination. I did not tell him this, but little by little I began to feed him with ideas of a constructive and creative nature. It was like putting yeast into dough. I could almost see his imagination working. It seemed to fill his whole consciousness with a new zest, a new attitude, a new outlook, and a new enthusiasm. The business began to grow with leaps and bounds. Of course, he was well pleased and, during the next ten years, I sold him a total of $500,000 worth of life insurance, or an average of $50,000 per year. It only proves that the minute you exercise your imagination to help someone else, you automatically help yourself. 2. Train Your Imagination to Think Up Something One of the best means to improve the power of creative selling is to start thinking about what you are doing. This kindles the imagination and generates enthusiasm. You have a desire to improve the technique of your own selling ability. Every improvement in selling is brought about by imagining something better. You ask yourself: How can my selling imagination be improved? Think of every consideration in the sale at hand in relation to your planned presentation. This starts a chain of thought; one idea blends into another, and soon a new and better way to do it unfolds before you. Very few selling plans are perfect, and they can all be improved upon. It will pay you to think how you can improve your present sales technique. As an example, here is a story that will interest you. In July, 1920, the life insurance business was rather quiet, and I undertook to sell an advertising proposition. In order to make this proposition profitable, it was necessary to sell it out within a period of six weeks. My imagination went to work, and, after visualizing the proposition, I decided that it could be sold by a telephone campaign. Upon this decision I proceeded. I visualized the advertising proposition over the telephone by means of a prepared Sales Plan. I drafted a Plan in line with the findings of my imagination and went to work. Six weeks later, the advertising proposition was sold out and my bank account showed a handsome new balance. This experience inflamed my imagination with the results that could be accomplished in selling by using the telephone. My imagination instructed me that, if I could visualize an advertising idea over the telephone, I could also visualize a life insurance idea over the telephone. I heeded this instruction, and as a result of that idea, sponsored by my imagination, I sold $10,000,000 worth of life insurance over the telephone. In fact, I sometimes sold as much as $50,000 worth of life insurance without ever seeing the prospect. This idea is completely unfolded in my book, How to Sell by Telephone. How do you know what the imagination can do to help you to improve your sales technique? How do you know what you can do for the prospect until you begin to analyze and visualize the possibilities of his business? As you gather material for the benefit of one customer, it helps you to visualize the needs of another customer. All businesses are basically alike, and the improvement of one usually reflects itself in the improvement of another. Therefore, try to visualize how to improve your customer's business or service. The only way to do this is to visualize the various characteristics of each customer or prospect in conjunction with his business. Ask yourself: Is there any way to improve the business of the prospect? Is he fully aware of his present opportunities? Is there anything lacking in his present procedure? Then ask yourself: Can I offer him a suggestion or an idea that will improve his present business? How can I obtain additional business from him? Have I only half sold him, and left the field wide open for my competitor? Many times you fail to get additional business because you underestimate the capacity of the prospect to buy. Stay with him until he yields all, but by all means deserve it by rendering him a genuine service. As you journey along, try to heed any suggestions made by your imagination. They may come through hunches or intuitions, but always remember that ideas are very much like lightning: They only strike once in the same place. The time to act upon an idea is when it strikes; if you do this, you will be amazed at the many different angles, slants, and ideas that you will get to aid you in getting additional business. Ideas will not only come to you on how to improve your own sales technique, but ideas will comes to you on how to improve the service of your prospect or customer. All of this means more sales for you. 3. Train Your Imagination to Observe Children Children can teach you a very excellent lesson in the development of the imagination. Philipp Frank, in his book:
Einstein, His Life and Times People in Princeton tell many anecdotes about Einstein. It is related that one of his neighbors, the mother of a ten-year-old girl, noticed that the child often left the house and went to Einstein's home. The mother wondered at this, whereupon the child said: "I had trouble with my homework in arithmetic. People said that at #112 there lives a very big mathematician, who is also a very good man. I went to him and asked him to help me with my homework. He was very willing and explained everything very well. It was easier to understand then when our teacher explained it in school. He said I should come whenever I find a problem too difficult." The girl's mother was alarmed at the child's boldness, and went to Einstein to apologize for her daughter's behavior. But Einstein said: "You don't have to excuse yourself. I have certainly learned more from the conversation with the child than she did from me." There is an old Chinese proverb that says: "It is only the great that truly appreciate that the real great always remain as children." A valuable lesson may be gained by observing the vivid way which children demonstrate their imagination. Picture a child who is expecting Santa Claus. So vivid is his imagination that he seems to hear the clicking hoofs of the reindeers, and the gliding tune of the sleigh as it swiftly cuts its way. He can actually visualize old Santa himself sliding gracefully down the chimney, silently leaving his little bundle of joy and departing with the same grace with which he came. The child is free from doubt, free from dread, free from distortion, and free from inhibitions; he is able to give free range to the imagination. Therefore, the moral is to purge your consciousness, clear it, clean it, purify it, and separate it from all the mental vagabonds of worry, dread, discouragement, stubbornness, and skepticism that are only wasting your time and imagination. Get rid of all the sordid gang, and make room for your imagination. Let it really prove to you what it can do to increase your power and demonstrate your efficiency as a real creative salesman. Every now and then I take my little six-year-old granddaughter, Lindy, out for a stroll. It is certainly a source of great delight to travel with her. She observes so many things, and her imagination visualizes them into some very fetching pictures. She teaches me not only to observe more things, but she gives me a lesson on how to visualize them. Only the other Sunday we were strolling down Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, when she suddenly stopped, pointed her finger into the air and shouted: "Look, Pop-Pop." People stopped on the street and craned their necks in the direction her finger was pointing. By this time, "Pop-Pop" was straining his neck to the point of breaking and yet I could see nothing. Finally, up about four stories, perched on the eaves of the building, I saw a flock of pigeons. I thought: And a little child shall lead them, especially into the kingdom of imagination. 4. Train Your Imagination to Ask Questions Every question mark has a hook on it, and if you put out enough hooks you are bound to gather some valuable information and ideas. To associate and assimilate this information in the light of your own experience feeds the imagination and enables you to anticipate the needs of your prospect. In many instances it also enlivens the prospect's imagination. It seems that the imagination of one man quickens the imagination of another. Some years ago, when selling life insurance by telephone, I had another experience that illustrates the value of questions that stimulate the imagination. I telephoned a manufacturer whom I had never seen. After presenting my Sales Plan, his reaction was: "I am not interested in life insurance, and I think you would be wasting your time to talk to me about it." At this point I had no more to say about life insurance. I turned on questions. I asked him how business was, and how he felt about things in general. This started the flow of ideas. He was anxious to talk. In the course of his remarks, he told me that his company had recently built a new addition to the plant at a cost of $90,000. I asked him if his company had a mortgage against the plant building. He told me that the company had a mortgage of $50,000. At this juncture, my imagination immediately took possession of the situation and I visualized this company is placing a $50,000 ten-year endowment life insurance policy on Mr. Manufacturer's life to cover the mortgage. I pointed out to Mr. Manufacturer that, if he was living at the end of ten years, the policy would accumulate the $50,000 to liquidate the mortgage; if he died in the meantime, the policy would immediately liquidate the mortgage. In other words, the policy guaranteed to protect and liquidate the mortgage. It all originated through the imagination, by asking a question. Prospects are not dumb. They are
open-minded and considerate. Treat them as a unit of intelligence.
Sincere questions provoke ideas, arouse response, stimulate interest,
create a desire, and give you the inside track on how to do 5. Train Your Imagination to Gather Ideas The best way to gather ideas is to center your attention on ideas. Pay strict attention to your environment. Many interesting things surround you most of the time. The imagination helps to classify them as to their importance. The field of selling affords you the opportunity of making a broad application of this principle. You can apply this principle to your own affairs, as well as to those of the prospect. You have eyes with which to see, ears with which to hear, a mind with which to think, and an imagination with which to visualize. One sure way to gather and develop ideas is to encourage yourself to read. Read some good books. Emerson's Essays, Bacon's Essays, Shakespeare's plays, and philosophy are helpful in stimulating the imagination. The Bible is the greatest of all books to develop the imagination. You will find it stimulating and most helpful. There is another book published by Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, entitled, How to Turn Your Ability into Cash. I spent four years preparing this book, and it contains many ideas and thoughts that will give your imagination something on which to feed. In addition to reading good books, read trade papers and magazines. Try to read Time, Life, Newsweek, Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, American, Science Digest, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, Cosmopolitan, Readers Digest, Nations Business, and Forbes. You can drop in your nearest library from time to time and glance over these magazines. They will not only entertain you, but they will provide you with some very interesting ideas to stimulate your imagination. Try not to read too quickly. Reading is like eating. By doing it too quickly you may get the flavor but you do not get the full essence. It is not what you eat, but what you digest. It is not what you read, but it is what you absorb and visualize that really develops the imagination. As you read, your imagination will pose questions to you every now and then. By no means ignore them. They may be a clue to an idea worth developing. I have often spent at least 30 minutes on a particular sentence, permitting my imagination to survey, analyze, and visualize every phase and aspect of its content. Reading in this manner increases understanding and gives an insight into the thinking of others. It stabilizes thought, ripens judgment, eliminates error, and teaches you to be tolerant and considerate of others. It helps you to grow and expand. Do you ask yourself how others always "get the breaks"? Opportunities come to those who prepare for them. Instead of complaining about not "getting the breaks," just start to equip yourself with an active imagination, and soon you will wonder where they are all coming from. How You Can "Get the Breaks" "Breaks" come to those who have an idea and the imagination to develop them. In speaking of "getting the breaks," let me recite a few illustrations of men who used their imagination and "got the breaks." Asa Candler took an antiquated formula, mixed it with his imagination, and turned it into a world famous drink Coca-Cola. Henry Ford captured the idea of cheap transportation, mixed it with his imagination, turned it into a Model T automobile, and built a billion-dollar corporation. Thomas A. Edison took a tungsten coil, mixed it with his imagination, and turned it into the electric bulb. Charles Schwab took the idea of steel, mixed it with his imagination, and turned it into the United States Steel Corporation. Make Your Imagination Your Junior Salesman for Life In preparing this book, I have endeavored to use my imagination. My true purpose has been to visualize myself in your shoes. I realize that many books on selling are dull and uninteresting. In fact, you grow tired and weary trying to read them. Instead of inspiring you and making you want to sell, they really make you sigh, "Ho-hum who brought this up?" In preparing this book I have asked myself many times: Is it interesting? Is it instructive? Is it inspiring? Is it getting over the right idea? I have endeavored to express to you exactly what I would like you to express to me if you were writing the book. Every idea advanced has one objective in view: your interest. Will it stimulate you? Will it inspire you? Will it increase your understanding? Will it contribute to your growth? Will it help you to be a bigger man and a better salesman? It has taken a lot of time, thought and effort to write this book. All the ideas I have incorporated in it have been designed to inspire you to think and exercise your imagination in the field of selling. In concluding, by all means train your imagination to visualize, to think up something, to heed the attention of children, to ask questions and to gather ideas. Return to this chapter and reread it. Take the brakes off of your imagination, and your imagination will put the "breaks" on you. Applying the suggestions outlined in this chapter will be like hiring a Junior Salesman for life. Try it.
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