This man who had a position paying $6,000 a year waiting for him
spent two months at $9 a week preparing to write. A more conceited
chap would have called it a waste of time, but this man thought that
he could well afford to spend eight weeks and sacrifice nearly a
thousand dollars learning to write letters and advertisements that
would sell clothes by mail.
At the end of the year he was given a raise that more than made up
his loss. Nor is he content, for every year he spends a few weeks
behind the counter in some small town, getting the viewpoint of the
people with whom he deals, finding a point of contact, getting local
color and becoming familiar with the manner of speech and the
arguments that will get orders.
When he sits down to write a letter or an advertisement he has a
vivid mental picture of the man he wants to interest; he knows that
man's process of thinking, the thing that appeals to him, the
arguments that will reach right down to his pocket-book.
A man who sells automatic scales to grocers keeps before him the
image of a small dealer in his home town. The merchant had fallen
into the rut, the dust was getting thicker on his dingy counters and
trade was slipping away to more modern stores.
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