456 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWER
we use suggestion, consciously or unconsciously, when we influence
others, while we use autosuggestion as a means of influencing ourselves.
Before you can influence another person through suggestion, that
persons mind must be in a state of neutrality; that is, it must be open
and receptive to your method of suggestion. Right here is where most
salespeople fail-they try to make a sale before the mind of the prospec-
tive buyer has been rendered receptive or neutralized. This is such a vital
point in this lesson that I feel impelled to dwell on it until there can be
no doubt that you understand the principle that I am describing.
When I say that the salesperson must neutralize the mind of the
prospective purchaser before a sale can be made I mean that the prospec-
tive purchaser's mind must be credulous. A state of confidence must have
been established and it is obvious that there can be no set rule for either
establishing confidence or neutralizing the mind to a state of openness.
Here the ingenuity of the salesperson must supply that which cannot
be set down as a hard-and-fast rule.
I know a life insurance salesman who sells nothing but large policies.
Before this man even approaches the subject of insurance with a prospec-
tive client he familiarizes himself with that persons complete history,
including their education, financial status, eccentricities if they have
any, religious preferences, and other data too numerous to be listed.
Armed with this information, he manages to secure an introduction
under conditions that permit him to know the prospective client in a
social as well as a business way. Nothing is said about the sale of life
insurance during his first visit, nor his second, and sometimes he does
not approach the subject of insurance until he has become very well
acquainted with the prospective client.
All this time, however, he is not dissipating his efforts. He is
taking advantage of these friendly visits for the purpose of neutralizing
his prospective client's mind. That is, he is building up a relationship of
confidence so that when the time comes for him to talk life insurance,
what he says will fall upon ears that Willingly listen.