James A. Ward.”

The young man sent his note into the private office and left at once.  There now were nine applicants on the anxious seat in the reception room.  Ward did not wish to be asked to wait his turn.  He felt sure the executive would inquire of the costs manager about him, and he got away from the office quickly so that there would be an opportunity for his chosen prospective employer to receive the full effect of the good impression made in the cost department.

[Sidenote:  Giving Opportunity A Chance to Catch Up]

My acquaintance was not at all worried lest some other candidate be chosen in his absence.  The measures of salesmanship he had taken made it practically certain that the executive would not employ any one else before talking to him.  Ward went to his room and waited for the telephone call he was sure would come.  While he sat expecting it, he used the time to think out the best ways to approach the big man with whom he wanted to work.

The salesman candidate was summoned in about an hour.  None of the applicants ahead of him had come prepared with any definite plans.  Therefore my acquaintance, who knew in advance just what the conditions were and who had decided exactly how he would present his particular capabilities, found it easy to secure the chance he desired.  He is earning a salary of four thousand dollars a year now, and is on his way up to a five-or-six-figure job.  He will get there, “as sure as shooting.”  A salesman like that cannot be kept down.

[Sidenote:  Turning Failure Into Success]

I asked Ward one day what he would have done if the telephone call he expected had not come.  He replied that he would have gone to see the executive next morning anyhow, and that he had planned carefully how he would approach him.

“I’d have sent in a note that I was ready to report some ideas I had worked out regarding his cost-keeping as a result of the thinking I had done since learning his system.  He wouldn’t have refused to see me, even if he had hired some one else meanwhile.  Then I’d have told him the very things that got me the job.  They would have assured me a chance in his office, whether he had a place for me right then or not,” Ward asserted positively.  “If that plan of mine hadn’t succeeded,” he amended, “I’d have known he wasn’t the kind of man I wanted to work for, after all.  But it turned out exactly as I knew it would,” my friend ended with a grin.

Can you imagine a man of such sales ability failing to get a chance almost anywhere?  Yet Ward did only what any one, with a little forethought, might have done in the circumstances.  Analyze the selling process he used, and you will perceive that there was nothing marvelous about it—­it was all perfectly natural.  Is there any good reason why you cannot employ similar methods to gain the chance you want?

[Sidenote:  Service Purpose is Essence of Salesmanship]