Suppose the goods delivered later do not correspond with the particular ideas about them that have been sold.  For example, the sheet copper furnished is not as specified in the contract, or the machine shipped is not the same as the salesman pictured when he got the order for it.  Then there has been no sale of the different “goods.”  The intending purchaser bought particular ideas.  He will not accept the delivery of goods unlike the ideas sold to him.

[Sidenote:  Know Your Prospect’s Idea]

Another illustration.  A real estate salesman describes a bungalow to a prospect for a home.  He shows plans and specifications, with accurate dimensions; there is no misrepresentation of any detail.  The salesman especially emphasizes, what is his own belief, that the bungalow would make a “cozy” home.  The prospect decides to buy the property.  He says, “If it is as you describe it, I’ll take that place.” The sale to his mind has been completed. All that remains is delivery of a bungalow corresponding to the ideas sold.  The delighted salesman escorts the buyer to the “cozy home.”  But the empty rooms do not confirm the idea emphasized to the prospect.  The salesman cannot furnish them convincingly with his imaginative “cozy” word pictures.  He has made the mistake of omitting to learn the other man’s conception of a cozy home before selling the expectation of coziness.  He is shocked when the sale is declared annulled with the prospect’s contradiction of his description, “There’s nothing cozy about this place.”  The intending buyer of a home feels there has been a misrepresentation; though the bungalow is exactly like the plans and specifications shown to him.  He was sold an idea that “the goods” have not delivered; so he declares the sale off.  A sale is a success only when true ideas are sold, and afterward are delivered by the goods.

[Sidenote:  Selling Ideas About Yourself]

If you “have the goods” and would succeed certainly in your chosen vocation, you must sell to the world or to individual buyers true ideas about your particular qualifications for success—­true ideas regarding your best capabilities and the value of your services.  Your “goods of sale” may be your muscular power; your brain energy; your talents, skill, integrity, and knowledge in this capacity or in that.  Whatever qualities you possess, it is necessary that some one be sold the idea of their full worth, or you cannot succeed.  No matter how valuable your services might be, they have only potential worth until another man, or some business, or the world at large perceives desirable possibilities in you and buys the expectation that you will “deliver the goods.”

Probably you have said to yourself, “If I had the chance, I know I could deliver the goods.”  We will grant that you are able to make delivery.  However, before you will be given a chance you must get across to the mind of some prospective buyer of muscular power, or brain energy, or other capabilities such as you could supply, the true idea that you have “the goods” he needs and that your qualifications would be a satisfactory purchase for him.