None of us really like “teachers.”  Nowadays the most successful educational methods follow the rule laid down by Alexander Pope, “Men must be taught as if you taught them not; and things unknown proposed as things forgot.”  Do not suggest that you are a “know it all.”  Much less make the impression that the other man does not know.  Communicate to him the idea that you believe he has overlooked the lack to which you call his attention.  With modest confidence present your capabilities.  You need not assert in words that you will fill the bill.  Your prospect can see that.  In everything you suggest and say, show that you genuinely like him and his business.  Manifest sincere admiration. Make him feel that you have come to his office because you especially want to work there.  That will make him want you in his service.  Use suggestion to increase his desire for you.

[Sidenote:  Reduce Resistance By Suggestion]

Direct presentation of ideas indicates an intention to inform, to teach, to direct the mind of the other man.  Every human individual, whether a child or a centenarian, re-acts in opposition to such an effort at instruction.  There is something in all of us alike which makes us wish to think and decide for ourselves.  Hence the value of the art of suggestion in getting yourself wanted.

Ideas you suggest enter the mind of the other man so unobtrusively that he does not realize you originated them.  He has no feeling that you intend to influence his mind.  Consequently he makes no resistance to the suggested ideas. It never pays to reason when selling an idea; because reasoning invariably brings out a reaction of opposition.  You will not create a desire for your services by presenting them logically, or by making an argument regarding your capabilities.  One of the greatest students of the human mind assures us that “most persons never perform an act of pure reasoning; but all their acts are the results of imitation, habit, suggestion, or some related form of thinking.”

[Sidenote:  Three Reasons For Using Suggestion]

Suggestion is remarkably effective in persuading and in arousing desire because: 

First, every “suggested” idea is accepted as absolutely true unless it is contradicted by other ideas already in the mind of the prospect.  This is because the prospect thinks a suggested idea is his.  He adopts it and makes it his own.  That is, his mind takes the suggestion and interprets it in terms of his own thoughts.  Of course he believes what he himself thinks. Say to a prospective employer that you would particularly like to work in association with him, and he may believe you are “shooting hot air.”  He will have no such feeling if you tell him details about his business that have especially interested you. Show him that you have been studying and observing his methods.  Give him to understand that you have also investigated other businesses.  Thus without saying it, you suggest to his mind that you have come to his office because you really would prefer to be employed there.  He will believe the suggested idea; though he might have scoffed at the statement.