[Sidenote:  Be Ready for Opposition]

If this salesman had not been thoroughly prepared to meet the strongest kind of mental and emotional opposition, he could not have come back so quickly with the appropriate answer that undermined the obstacle.  You should be likewise ready for the “tough customers” one hears about. Practice in anticipation various ways of handling every imaginable objection. Then, when you face an actual difficulty, you will either have on the tip of your tongue a solution of the problem, or your forethought will assist you to devise on the spur of the moment the way to work out the right answer.  Again we observe the importance of full preparation, in assuring successful salesmanship.

[Sidenote:  Two Essentials Of Resourcefulness]

No quality is more important to the salesman than resourcefulness.  Its first requisite is knowledge, particularly advance knowledge of the points that are likely to come up in the course of the selling process.  The second is a mind trained to act quickly and effectively in using its knowledge.  If you have these two essentials of resourcefulness, no objection will ever catch you napping.  It will do you no good to look up the right answer after you leave the prospect.  Nothing can be more exasperatingly worthless than an idea of something you “might have said” but could not think of until too late.  Have all your facts on tap.  And be practiced in making use of them in every imaginable way.  Rare indeed will be cases that you are not prepared to handle successfully.

[Sidenote:  Practicing “Come-backs”]

I know a salesman who trained himself in resourcefulness by typing on about fifty cards all the objections to his goods or proposition that he could imagine.  For ten or fifteen minutes every evening he played solitaire with these cards.  He would shuffle them, held face down, and then deal off, face up, objection after objection.  He never could tell which was coming next.  In a few weeks he had trained himself to give an answer instantly to each objection, and to utilize it as a help instead of a hindrance in his selling.  Thereafter opposition and criticism from prospects had no terrors for this salesman.  He was able to get rid of objections so swiftly, surely, and completely that they never had time to grow formidable in the mind of the other man.

[Sidenote:  Adaptive Originality]

Only a little less important than resourcefulness in meeting objections, is adaptive originality in answering them.  The “pat, new” reply is always very effective.  But do not unduly stress the value of the factor of originality alone.  It must be coupled with adaptation to the particular viewpoint of the other man.  You must speak his language, if you would be sure of making him understand you perfectly.

[Sidenote:  Use Prospect’s Language]