[Sidenote:  Short Words]

A long word or phrase may convey your idea clearly, but force is lost in the drawn-out process.  Remember that your words will meet the intuitive resistance of the other man’s mind before they are admitted to his full belief.  You cannot afford to sacrifice the driving-in power of the short word.  Therefore, when your opinion is asked, it will be better salesmanship to say, “I think” so and so than “It is my impression—­”

[Sidenote:  Definite Words]

The definite word conveys a particular meaning to the mind of the other man, not merely a vague or general idea.  Never say, when you apply for a position, “I can do anything.”  That tells the prospective employer simply nothing about your ability.  Particularize.

[Sidenote:  Vivid Words]

It is of the utmost importance to make vivid impressions with your speech.  You should employ words skillfully to produce in the mind of the other man distinct and lifelike mental images.  He may not credit the words themselves, taken literally and alone.  But he will believe in the pictures the words paint in his mind; because he will think he himself is the mental artist.  He will not be suspicious of his own work.  If you apply for a situation in a bank, and the cashier seeks to learn whether or not you are safely conservative in your views, you can suggest in vivid words that you have the qualification he requires.  You will make the desired impression if you say to him, “I always carry an umbrella when it looks like rain.”

[Sidenote:  Tone Meanings]

Our analysis of the three means of self-expression turns now to tones.  Rightly selected words are tremendously augmented in selling power when they are rightly spoken.  Most men employ but a small part of their complete tonal equipment, and are ignorant of the full sales value of the portion they use.  The master salesman, however, practices the gamut of his natural tones, and utilizes each to produce particular effects.  Thus he supplements his mere statements with suggestive shades of meaning.  The way he says a thing has more effect than the words themselves.

Conversely tone faults may have a disastrous effect on one’s chances to succeed.  For illustration, ideas of mind, of feeling, and of power can be correctly expressed by the discriminative use of particular pitches of tone.  But a wrong pitch, though the words employed might be identical, would convey a directly opposite and false impression.

[Sidenote:  Mental Pitch]