and said, “No one in this city knows it, but when I was eighteen years old I stole ten dollars and was sentenced to the reform school.  That was seven years ago.  I never have done anything dishonest since, and I never will again.  But you have a right to know my whole record before you employ me in a position of such trust.”  If the candidate had confessed his blemished record before making himself thoroughly desirable, it is practically certain that he would not have won the place.  He got it because he handled the objection after instead of before creating the desire for his services.

[Sidenote:  Concentrate On Suggesting Qualifications]

We shall consider in the next chapter how to meet and handle objections, how to deal with your faults.  But as we postpone our study of that step in the selling process; so should you postpone consideration of your faults and shortcomings, until you get yourself wanted.  Do not dodge direct questions, but courteously request that you be permitted to answer them a little later. At this stage of selling the true idea of your best capabilities concentrate upon the moderate, truthful suggestion of your qualifications.

[Sidenote:  Gaining Prospect’s Confidence]

The first result to be desired in selling is the confidence of the buyer.  Use all your manly qualities to win this confidence deservedly.  Then when you honestly admit your faults and shortcomings, you will be aided to win out in the end by the confidence you have already inspired in the other man.

Very often the applicant for a position fails to get it because he merely presents the abstract idea that his services are for sale. He does not picture himself in actual service.  The presentation of abstract ideas is an appeal only to the interest or mind side of the other man.  The presentation to his imagination must go beyond his interest, if his heart desire for the services is to be secured.  Therefore it is highly important to your success in getting yourself wanted that you plan how you actually would serve on the job, and when you are talking with your prospective employer, speak as if you were at work.

[Sidenote:  Picture Yourself At Work]

If you imagine yourself fitted into a particular job, and show yourself there to the mind’s eye of your prospect, he will have to go through the mental process of getting you out of the imaginary job.  That will be much harder for him than it would have been to keep you out in the first place.  If you merely present the services you could render, and don’t picture yourself as actually rendering them, you haven’t won even the imaginary job. But if you do paint yourself into a chosen place, and can make your prospect see you in that position, the suggestion will impel him to copy imagination with actuality.  He will consider you as if you were on the job. Evidently when you have won this advantage, he will be inclined to want to keep you at work, unless you do something or manifest some quality that makes you undesirable.