the temporizing excuse:  “Well, I will have to think this matter over.  I cannot decide it to-day, but you come in and see me again.”  Almost without exception, this excuse means that the man who makes it knows, deep down in his heart, that he ought to make his decision—­that he will profit by it in many ways.  He fully intends to make his decision some time, or else he would not ask the salesman to come back and see him again.  But he is a little weak-kneed.  He lacks something in decisiveness.  Our friend treated practically all of these indecisive prospects of his in the same way.

“I am sorry,” he would say, “but I can’t come back to see you again.  My time is limited.  There are plenty of people who want to know about my proposition and who are eager to take it.  I must get around and see them.  I can’t afford to go back on my track and spend time with people to whom I have already explained the whole thing.  You want this and you know you want it.  You intend to have it, or you would not ask me to come back and see you again.  There is no good reason why you should not have it now, and you know there is not.  Furthermore, if you do not take it now and I do not come back to see you—­and I won’t—­then you will never take it.  That’s plain enough.  You feel more like taking it right now, to-day, while I am talking to you, than you will later, when you have forgotten half of what I have said.  If there is any question you want to ask about this, ask me now and I will answer it.  But there isn’t any, because I have already answered your questions.  You are satisfied.  Your mind is made up.  There is no reason for delay—­just sign your name right there, please.”  And only about four per cent of those to whom he talked that way refused to sign when he told them to.

The indecisive person wants someone always to decide for him.  If you are trying to persuade such a person, then you must decide for him.  Do it as tactfully as you can.  Sometimes these people want others to decide for them and, at the same time, to make the situation look as if they had decided for themselves.  They realize their own indecisiveness.  They are ashamed of it, and they do not like to be reminded of it.

INDICATIONS OF INDECISION

These are the indications of indecisiveness:  brunette coloring; moderately square and prominent chin—­sometimes a long, narrow chin; small, snub or sway-back nose; high forehead, flat at the brows and prominent above; soft consistency; great flexibility of the joints of hands and fingers; a head narrow above and behind the ears and square in the back; a timid, apprehensive expression; rather aimless movements and gestures, and a small thumb, set high on the hand.  Rare, indeed, is the person who has all of these indications.  So rare, in fact, that he is scarcely a normal being if he has them all in a marked degree.

THE BALANCED TYPE