PREPARATION of THE SALESMAN

was able to, because of the things he had packed into his mind through the work of his objective faculties, to pour them out and give them to his opponents.

You would be lost if you did not have a mental storehouse. Your subjective mind holds in store that which your objective mind has supplied.

First—A life insurance salesman must have a knowledge of the life insurance business. That knowledge must be imbibed and packed away in the sub-conscious mind till the proper time. Second—he must have a knowledge of sales methods, which is not hard to get these days. A man could profitably catalogue in a scrap book arguments under various headings which can be obtained in many ways, for example, some splendid ideas and arguments may be culled from the Life Underwriters News. Then when you are preparing a case in which you expect to sell, you can turn to the book and refresh your memory. In the years 1919 and 1920 a salesman could get along fairly well sometimes without much knowledge, but every life insurance company knows that we are past that now. There never was a time in the history of life insurance when there was so surely a necessity for a scientific knowledge of sales methods for life insurance men. We have got to do it now; we never had to do it before, and the outstanding salesmen of America are the men who have familiarized themselves with methods.

What is the psychology of a sale with reference to the subjective? It is the registering of the passions and impressions of your mind upon the subconscious mind of the prospect; it is the lighting of the natural fire with your coals. One of the finest salesmen in America, when preparing a large case gains all the information he can about his prospect, then goes to a room and absolutely alone spends two. three. six, eight hours in preparation centering upon the one subject on which he is basing the appeal, he outlines the canvass. Do you know that the man who does that kind of thing, by the very laws of nature, by his very mental make-up becomes an enthusiast for the placing of that policy to fit the needs of the man. He is so full of the thing that he can-not fail to leave an impression upon his prospect.

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