My friend was thoroughly interested.  He took home the salesman’s prospectus for further study.  Since he was a good business man, he satisfied himself that the investment would be profitable.  But he subscribed for fifty thousand dollars worth of securities principally because they represented a project like his own ideas of the way money should be put to work for human happiness.

[Sidenote:  Know Prospect’s Likes and Dislikes]

When you call on the man you have selected as your future employer, go equipped with all the prospecting knowledge regarding him that you have been able to get.  Be sure you know his strongest likes and dislikes.  Size him up on the spot, for the purpose of supplementing what you have previously learned about him.  Hit his attention with sense-appeals related to his peculiarities.  Then, in order to make sure of his interest, present some idea that is of the kind he especially likes.  He will open his mind and welcome your idea at once.

[Sidenote:  The Man of Quick Decisions]

Suppose he has a reputation for brusqueness and quick decisions, and is impatient about any waste of time.  You probably would help your cause by looking him straight in the eye and saying bluntly something like this: 

“I want to work for you because you are my kind of a man.  Ask me any questions you want, now.  You won’t have to call me on the carpet for information about my work after you hire me.  Pay me two hundred dollars a month, and I won’t be back in this office to get a raise until you send for me.”

I know a young man who secured a good job from an “old crab” in just that way, within three minutes after they first met.

Two men sought the position of office manager of an automobile company.  The owners of the business were thorough mechanics who had designed their own car, but who were comparatively unfamiliar with office operations.  They were not at home outside their factory.

[Sidenote:  Mistake of Speaking Different Language]

The first candidate for the vacant position brought the finest recommendations of his qualifications for office management.  The other applicant had had much less experience, and was not nearly so well qualified.  But the first man was a poor salesman of his capabilities.  He failed to recognize, when he explained his ideas to the partners, that he was talking to a pair of mechanics.  They did not understand the language he used.  His presentation of his qualifications as an office manager would have impressed an employer accustomed to sitting at a desk.  But the partners were intuitively prejudiced against the capable candidate who was so very unlike themselves in all respects.

[Sidenote:  Speaking the Same Language]

The other applicant was shrewd.  He used salesmanship in presenting his lesser qualifications for the position.  He talked in terms borrowed from the language of shop practice.  He compared the plans he suggested for the office supplies stock room, with the “tool crib” in the factory.  He explained his idea of office organization by using as a model a chart of the plant departments.  He compared office expenses with factory overhead.