by Napoleon Hill
Available in 122 free installments
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And his understanding of people in addition to his knowledge of money soon developed in Charlie Sammons a very sound philosophy of a brand commonly observed in persons who are, or will be, successful. Charlie learned this philosophy at an early age. He has never lost it. Today he still maintains it.
This brand of philosophy is known as: common sense.
After he had operated a few years as a horse and mule trader, two men came to Charlie and asked him to go to work for them. These two men had developed a reputation for themselves as being outstandingly successful in the sale of insurance. They had come to Charlie because they had learned a lesson from defeat Here's how it happened...
It seems that after these two salesmen had successfully sold life insurance over a period of many years, they were motivated to form a company of their own. They were good salesmen all right. But they were poor business administrators. In fact, they were such good salesmen that they sold their company out of business.
Now it is not uncommon for salesmen to assume that financial success in a business is contingent only on sales. But this is a false premise. A poor administration can lose money as fast, or faster, than a good sales management and sales force can bring it
in. Their trouble was that neither one of these men was a good administrator.
But they had learned their lesson ? the hard way. On the day they went to see Charlie, one of the salesmen told their story of defeat and said:
"Since our company went broke, we have paid off our losses from the commissions we have since made selling insurance. We also had to pay for our living. It has taken a mighty long time but ? we have done it.
"We know we are good salesmen. And we also know now that we should keep to our own specialty ? selling." He hesitated, looked into the eyes of the young man and continued:
"Charlie, you have your feet on the ground. You have good common horse sense and we need you. Together we can succeed."
And they did.
A plan and OPM developed a $40,000,000 volume. A few years later Charlie Sammons bought all of the shares of the company he and these two men had formed. How did he get the money? He used OPM plus what he had saved. Where did he get the large amount of money that he needed? He borrowed it from a bank, of course. Remember: he had learned early that his banker was his friend.
And then in the year that his company had produced an annual premium volume of almost $400,000, the insurance executive finally found the success formula for rapid expansion that he had long been looking for.
He was ready.
It was this formula plus OPM that developed a forty million dollar premium volume in a single year. Samnions had seen that an insurance company in Chicago had successfully developed a sales plan through "leads."
Now for many years sales managers had used what is termed the "lead system" to promote a new business. And with sufficient good leads salesmen often earn exceedingly large incomes. Inquiries from individuals who indicate an interest are called "leads." These are generally obtained from some form of promotional advertising program.
Perhaps you know from experience that with human nature being what it is, many salesmen are timid or afraid to try to sell persons whom they don't know or with whom they have had no previous personal contact or communication. Because of this fear, they waste a lot of time that could be used in selling prospects.
But even an ordinary salesman will be motivated to call on as many prospects as he has leads. For he knows that many sales can be made even though he himself may have little sales training or experience ? when he is furnished good leads. And besides he has an address and a specific person to see there. He believes the prospect is somewhat interested before he interviews him.
Therefore he is not as fearful as he would be if he were forced to try to sell a person without any preconditioning whatsoever. Some companies build their entire sales program on such leads. And advertising is used to obtain them.
But advertising costs money.
Charlie Samnions knew where to go to get the money when he had a good bankable idea ? the Republic National Bank of Dallas. For it is well known in Texas that this bank helped build
Texas. And it is in the business to loan money to men of integrity like Charlie Samnions who have a plan and know how to work it.
