630 THE PRINCIPLES OF SELF-CREATION
It is intended for the man or woman who is creative and has the
talent to write advertising and sales materials. To make practical and
profitable use of this suggestion you will need the Cooperation of
a good advertising agency and from one to five firms or individuals
who do enough advertising to warrant going through an agency.
This is where you will need Imagination, Cooperation, and a
Pleasing Personality, as you will first need to go to an agency and sell
them on the idea of paying you a percentage on gross expenditures
of all accounts that you bring to it. This percentage is to compensate
you for getting the account and for writing the copy and otherwise
serving the client in the management of their advertising.
Then you go to a firm or individual whose advertising account
you wish to handle and say in effect that you wish to go to work
without compensation. Tell what you can do and what you intend to
do for that particular firm that will help them to sell more goods.
If this firm employs an advertising manager, you are to become vir-
tually his or her assistant, without pay, on one condition-that the
company's advertising is to be placed through the agency with which
you have the connection.
Through this arrangement the firm or individual whose account
you thus secure will get the benefit of your personal services, without
cost, and will pay no more for placing its advertising through your
agency than it would through any other. If you are convincing and
you really take the time to prepare your case, you will get the account
without much argument.
You will also give the advertising agency a reputation for effective
service, and you will please your clients because they will see satis-
factory returns from your efforts. As long as you keep the agency and
the clients whom you serve satisfied, your job is safe and you will
make money. You can repeat this transaction until you have as many
accounts as you can handle.