PRINCIPLE 6：
Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Don’t you have much more faith in ideas that you discover foryourself than in ideas that are handed to you on a silver platter？
If so， isn’t it bad judgment to try to ram your opinions down thethroats of other people？ Isn’t it wiser to make suggestions—andlet the other person think out the conclusion？
Adolph Seltz of Philadelphia， sales manager in an automobileshowroom and a student in one of my courses， suddenly foundhimself confronted with the necessity of injecting enthusiasm intoa discouraged and disorganized group of automobile salespeople.
Calling a sales meeting， he urged his people to tell him exactlywhat they expected from him. As they talked， he wrote their ideason the blackboard. He then said： “I’ll give you all these qualitiesyou expect from me. Now I want you to tell me what I have a rightto expect from you.” The replies came quick and fast： loyalty，honesty， initiative， optimism， teamwork， eight hours a day ofenthusiastic work， The meeting ended with a new courage， a newinspiration—one salesperson volunteered to work fourteen hoursa day—and Mr. Seltz reported to me that the increase of sales wasphenomenal.
“The people had made a sort of moral bargain with me，” saidMr. Seltz， “and as long as I lived up to my part in it， they weredetermined to live up to theirs. Consulting them about theirwishes and desires was just the shot in the arm they needed.”
No one likes to feel that he or she is being sold some-thingor told to do a thing. We much prefer to feel that we are buyingof our own accord or acting on our own ideas. We like to beconsulted about our wishes， our wants， our thoughts.
Take the case of Eugene Wesson. He lost countless thousandsof dollars in commissions before he learned this truth. Mr.
Wesson sold sketches for a studio that created designs for stylistsand textile manufacturers. Mr. Wesson had called on one of theleading stylists in New York once a week， every week for threeyears. “He never refused to see me，” said Mr. Wesson， “but henever bought. He always looked over my sketches very carefullyand then said： ‘No， Wesson， I guess we don’t get together today.’ ”
After 150 failures， Wesson realized he must be in a mentalrut， so he resolved to devote one evening a week to the study ofinfluencing human behavior， to help him develop new ideas andgenerate new enthusiasm.
He decided on this new approach. With half a dozen unfinishedartists’ sketches under his arm， he rushed over to the buyer’s office.
“I want you to do me a little favor， if you will，” he said. “Here aresome uncompleted sketches. Won’t you please tell me how wecould finish them up in such a way that you could use them？”
The buyer looked at the sketches for a while without utteringa word. Finally he said： “Leave these with me for a few days，Wesson， and then come back and see me.”
Wesson returned three davs later， got his suggestions， tookthe sketches back to the studio and had them finished accordingto the buyer’s ideas. The result？ All accepted.
