We will study particular things you can do, and exactly how to do them, to increase the number and quality of your chances to succeed.  A trained prospector for gold has more chances to strike it rich than a greenhorn because he knows the indications of valuable minerals, and is skilled in the use of that knowledge.  So your opportunities for success will certainly be increased if you know how to search for, to discern, and to make the right use of your prospects.

[Sidenote:  Prospecting Not Gambling]

Do not think, because we have compared prospecting in mining and in selling, that the success of the salesman prospector, your success, must be largely a “gamble” anyway, as is the case with the explorer for gold.  However experienced and skillful in prospecting the miner may be, he is very uncertain of discovering a bonanza.  He cannot be absolutely sure there is gold in the region he explores, in paying quantities and practicable for mining.  Though he has every reason to feel confident of the richness of a particular field, he may nevertheless be so unfortunate as not to discover the gold lode or profitable placer deposit.  He is helpless to control the existence of the indications of success.  They are predetermined by nature.  By no effort of his own is he able to increase or decrease the fixed quantity and quality of the golden chances about him.  He can only increase his likelihood of discovering gold.  Even the most intelligent, skillful prospecting will not make a miner’s success certain.

You, the salesman prospector for opportunities to succeed, are not so limited.  There are particular things you can do, and particular ways of doing them, that will assure your finding chances to make sales of the best that is in you.  If you learn the scientific principles of prospecting for opportunities, if you make yourself highly skillful in looking for and digging into the success chances that surround you always, there will be nothing uncertain about your prospects to succeed.  You will know surely that you have prospects, just what and where they are, and their full worth to you.

Of course, prospecting is only part of the selling process; so your knowledge and skill as a prospector will not suffice to guarantee your complete success.  However, at this preliminary stage you can be certain that your search for rich chances to succeed will not be a barren quest.

The present chapter will help you to make sure of gaining for yourself such opportunities as lead to complete success in the field of your choice.  We will observe and understand how the skillful salesman prospects for the purpose of increasing his sales efficiency.  We will study the principles and methods of prospecting he uses successfully; for his practices, applied to your job of selling yourself, will certainly improve your chances to succeed.  We will see also how your very best prospects can be created by masterly salesmanship.