Imagine: You are selling from house to house. You are ringing bells. That is a good place to start life. You meet a different person every five minutes. If you can get them to listen to you, that is the first step.
 
So many simply say, "I haven't time," and slam the door in your face. You smile and go to the next. That's the game. But the man who can get inside the house to display, his goods is the man who puts it over.
The first requisite is a smile and a glad "Good morning.'' It is not an ingratiating smile, but a wholesome, big, warm smile.

A man didn't know anything about the sales game when he went into it as a boy of twenty-one. Salesmanship was not taught then as it is today. He became one of the pioneers of sales talk, teaching the art of salesmanship. But he found out that he could not sell anything unless he had confidence in the thing he was selling.
 
He was selling pianos and organs from house to house. He tried to sell an instrument in which I had no confidence, and he was an utter failure.
Then he went back to the office and asked the manager which was the best piano for such a price. He told him. He went to the factory to find out all about pianos. He wanted to know how the things were built. He went through the factory and studied them until he knew everything a young fellow could learn about the instruments. Then he went out on the road again.
 
Now he knew that he had the best thing on the market for the money. He knew that if he could get a piano into a house and get the boys and girls to practice, it would change the future of that home. He went out to help the community, and... he succeeded.
 
It was so easy to sell when he had the right mental attitude toward the people. He was trying to bless them. He was trying to help the folk who bought.
 
Do you see the point? That is the real art of salesmanship.
He was so dead in earnest about it. He was so enthusiastic about the bargain which he had to offer that he carried them off their feet. He even sold to people who had no music in them. He sold to them because of the excessive, burning desire in his heart to make them happy. That is the thing which sells.
 
Settle it in your own mind. Is the thing you are selling worth while? If it is not, then get something that is. If you are selling insurance, bonds, autos, or groceries, know this: If your entire ambition is simply to get the money out of it, you will fail. But if you are giving them something that is going to be a blessing, and you are enthusiastic over it, you will be a success.
 
That is also how come I am and always was more successful in spreading the Gospel than in selling computer parts or computer knowledge.