PLEASING PERSONALITY 617She had no sooner been seated in that big cushioned chair than
she unrolled a package, and sure enough, there was a book in it. In
fact several of them. But what she had was a complete year's file of
the magazine of which I was then editor, Hill's Golden Rule. She turned
the pages of those magazines and read places she had marked here and
there, assuring me in the meanwhile that she had always believed the
philosophy behind what she was reading.
Then, after I was in a state of complete mesmerism, and thor-
oughly receptive, my visitor tactfully switched the conversation to
a subject which, I suspect, she had in mind to discuss with me long
before she presented herself at my office. But-and this is another
point at which most salespeople blunder-had she reversed the order
and begun the conversation where she finished, chances are she never
would have had the opportunity to sit in that big easy-chair.
During the last three minutes of her visit, she skillfully laid before
me the merits of some securities she was selling. She did not ask me
to purchase, but the way in which she told me about the securities
had the psychological effect of making me want to purchase. And
even though I made no purchase of securities from her, she made a
sale-because I picked up the telephone and introduced her to a man
to whom she later sold more than five times the amount that she had
intended selling me.
If that same woman, or another woman, or a man, who had the
tact and Pleasing Personality that she had, should calion me, I would
again sit down and listen for three-quarters of an hour.
We are all human, and we are all more or less vain. And we are
all alike in this respect: We will listen with intense interest to those
who talk to us about that which lies closest to our hearts. Then, out
of a sense of reciprocity, we will also listen with interest when the
speaker finally switches the conversation to the subject closest to his
or her heart, and in the end we will not only "sign on the dotted line"
but we will also say, "What a wonderful personality!"