How to Change Your Character
By Anne-Marie RONSEN
The development of your personality is an individual un-
dertaking. As an individual you are a complete entity, a self-
contained unit, and a combination of many qualities and
attributes. This entire complex is under your care and super-
vision. With your command you can discard any old habit
or form any new one. It lies within your domain to develop
the traits of character that will attract, receive more acclaim,
and produce the best effects that you can use in dealing with
the prospect. With your intelligence you can capitalize on
your personality. Creative selling oflFers you an unparalleled
opportunity to develop your personality and reap rewards.
The impression that you make on others is not illusive or
mysterious. It is a product of many factors, many of which
are very small. Therefore, strict attention and careful con-
sideration must be given to the powerhouse that produces
the impression. The current that flows from you to serve
others must always reflect the quality and condition of the
powerhouse. You can improve your powerhouse; here are
five suggestions that might be helpful.
I. Analyze Your Present Habits
No one knows the real truth about your conduct, behavior,
and habits better than you, and no one is better qualified
than you to catalogue and correct them. Know your faults,
and you can soon eradicate them. The best way to accom-
plish this is to analyze your present habits. The best way
to do this is to submit yourself to a test.
How many every day habits do I practice that are useful
and helpful? What is my master motive? Do I put my inter-
est and welfare ahead of the prospect? To what extent
can I judge the effect of my acts on other people? For what
kind of sales plan am I best suited? Can I tell what others
are thinking by their facial expressions, actions, and other
signs? How good am I at getting along with others? How
thoroughly do I prepare myself before calling on the pros-
pect?
It may also assist to consider the following questions:
What is my attitude toward myself as well as the prospect?
Are my thoughts and actions positive? Am I tolerant and
considerate of the prospect? Do I honestly respect his opin-
ions? Do I interrupt him while he is speaking? Do I permit
objections to deter my real mission? Do I monopolize the
conversation with a big "I" and a little "you"? Am I arrogant
and impudent? Am I honest with myself? Am I persistent
and progressive without being offensive? Am I blown around
from opinion to opinion, like a thistle in a windstorm? Do I
cultivate habits that make me strong physically, mentally,
and spiritually? Do I have confidence in my sales ability?
Do I dare to think for myself? Do I practice the little cour-
tesies in my sales activities, like "Thank you," "Pardon me,"
"Forgive me," "I am sorry," "Excuse me, please," and others?
Do I covet what others have? Am I envious? Am I jealous?
Do I pray and work against selfishness? Can I make an ob-
jective study of myself with the same intensity that I study
the prospect?
Conscious attention to improvement along these lines will
improve the impression you make on the prospect. It will
help you to take yourself in hand and rid yourself of any
bad habits. Remember you are a living, thinking, acting
being and an improvement in any of your traits reflects on
your personality.
2. Rely on Yourself
Thomas Jefferson once said: "I never ask anyone to do for
me what I can do for myself." As a result of relying on his
own talents, he developed into one of the most versatile men
of history. He was an astronomer, musician, philosopher,
humanitarian, statesmen, architect, litterateur, and horti-
culturist. You will be astounded at the improvement self-
reliance makes in every department of your life. As you in-
dulge in this personal sport, you develop many hidden traits
of character and find natural bents. You increase your power
to evaluate any situation and to meet any sales resistance
you encounter. All things in nature rely on their own in-
stinct, and in this respect they are well provided. As an
individual you should rely on your own ability. Your finger-
prints indicate this. Of all the millions of fingerprints on
record, no two are alike. Your fingerprints distinguish you.
You are a complete entity possessed of all the qualities and
attributes that unfold to form a perfect individual. You can-
not imitate another's fingerprints; neither can you assume
someone else's ability. You must rely on your own.
Train yourself to rely on your mental resources, judgment,
and ability. Have faith in your integrity; it is the soul of
your individuality and helps you to realize that no part of
you can be separated from the whole of you. You have what
it takes, at any time or place. You have only to rely on it.
Think, speak, and act your convictions, and they shall be the
means to influence the prospect. You have the power to be-
lieve in your own thoughts and to act as if it were impos-
sible to fail.
You are faced with many situations from time to time
where it is absolutely necessary to rely on yourself. Condi-
tions must be met on the spot. You must either sink or swim.
You must know what to do and what not to do. You must
know when to smile and when to frown, when to talk and
when to keep silent, when to laugh and when to be grim,
when to move and when to keep quiet. All these traits affect
the prospect. It is now or never, so train yourself to rely on
your own qualities.
Self-reliance develops character and helps you to perfect
yourself, and to perfect yourself is to perfect selling. Much
of the wisdom of civilization has been developed by those
who had the courage to rely on themselves. Make use of
your own resources. They are a capital investment to make
you a bigger and better salesman.
3. Develop the Spirit of Optimism
Infuse the spirit of optimism in your selling. It not only
lights your way, but it reflects on the prospect. A little light
makes a big difference. No matter where you are or what you
are selling, the minute you light up your consciousness you
light the spot around you. Look for the best, expect nothing
but the best, and you will always share the best.
Optimism is thinking straight. It is an excellent vaccine to
prevent failure. It is maintaining a sense of equilibrium, re-
gardless of what happens. It puts in practice an adage of
Marcus Aurelius: "Whatever happens at all happens as it
should happen."
There is an old saying: "When you walk toward the light,
the shadows are back of you. When you walk away from the
light, the shadows are before you." Practice and demonstrate
optimism in your selling, and you will always be walking
toward the light. The prospect has troubles of his own and
the spirit of optimism often dispels them and places you in
the limelight. Therefore, let your light shine.
4. Keep Active
Sales follow action. When intelligently directed, each sale
is one step closer to the next one. Keep active, and you will
soon get there. Everything in nature is always active. Move-
ment teaches a great natural law. It tells you to keep on the
move. You will find that it is more fun to wear out than to
rust out. Keep on keeping on. As the old proverb says: "He
who tills the soil shall eat." Keep active. It is the real way of
life. The bees are active, the ants are active, the cells in your
body are active, and everything around you is active. Why
should you not be active?
When you keep on the move, you advance. Do not let
grass grow under your feet. Keep on the go and form good
habits. Turn pessimism and defeat into action and achieve-
ment. Turn negative thinking and discouragement into posi-
tive thoughts of confidence and power. Wring success from
failure. All things come to him who waits.
5. Take It Easy
One of the best habits to acquire in selling is patience. It
denotes self-composure, self-confidence and self-assurance.
It is the capacity to realize that all conditions and situations
are only temporary; if you exercise forbearance and remain
cool, calm, and collected, the most trying situations will right
themselves. Patience teaches us to grin and bear it. Trials,
tribulations, troubles, obstacles, delays, disappointments, and
failures are only stalking shadows that instantly disappear
in the light of patience. They will all soon disappear. "In
your patience possess ye your souls."
Many hours are spent in waiting to see the prospect; this
spare time may best be spent in reading a good book. Slip
a good book in your brief case, and spend your spare time
reading. It will enable you to enjoy the time, and you will
be better qualified to interview the prospect.
There are many details in selling and the one way to
master detail is to exercise patience. Learn to love it. With
the proper attitude, chores are a pleasant pastime, especially
when you realize that everyone else is doing them. Every
task begins in detail, and ends in detail. A kindly feeling to-
ward detail relieves tension and strain, develops the power
to concentrate, and the task is soon completed. Relish detail
and detail loses its sting. Do not heed detail, and detail will
heed you. With all your manifold details, exercise patience.
It will reward you.
When you put these five suggestions into action, each de-
partment of the powerhouse will work harmoniously and
produce more power to be transmitted over the wires that
carry the current of your personality.
The wires of the powerhouse carry your personality to the
prospect—give him a jolt, and he will buy. These wires are
your manner, your tone of voice, and your mode of expres-
sion.
Many transmissions from the powerhouse of personality
rely on the art of expression. What is expression? The word
comes from the Latin word "exprimere," which means to ex-
press. It is the act of pressing out. It is the stuff you employ
to make your message felt. As Alexander Pope wrote:
But true expression, like the unchanging Sun,
Clears and improves whatever it shines upon;
It gilds all objects, but it alters none.
Expression is an art for the individual to master; anyone
can improve on it. Improvement may be accomplished
through interest, concentration, application, a little patience,
and a few minutes practice each day.
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