That’s bad，but it can be avoided.If you make your deliveries at the pier in the morning when possible，your trucks will be able to keep moving，your freight will get immediate attention，and our workers will get home early at night to enjoy a dinner of the delicious macaroni and noodles that you manufacture.
Regardless of when your shipments arrive，we shall always cheerfully do all in our power to serve you promptly.You are busy.Please don’t trouble to answer this note.
Yours truly，
J—B—，supt.
Thousands of salespeople are pounding the pavements today，tired，discouraged and underpaid.Why？Because they are always thinking only of what they want.They don’t realize that neither you nor I want to buy anything.If we did，we would go out and buy it.But both of us are eternally interested in solving our problems.And if salespeople can show us how their services or merchandise will help us solve our problems，they won’t need to sell us.We’ll buy.And customers like to feel that they are buying—not being sold.
Yet many salespeople spend a lifetime in selling without seeing things from the customer’s angle.For example，for many years I lived in Forest Hills，a little community of private homes in the center of Greater New York.One day as I was rushing to the station，I chanced to meet a real-estate operator who had bought and sold property in that area for many years.He knew Forest Hills well，so I hurriedly asked him whether or not my stucco house was built with metal lath or hollow tile.He said he didn’t know and told me what I already knew—that I could find out by calling the Forest Hills Garden Association.The following morning，I received a letter from him.Did he give me the information I wanted？He could have gotten it in sixty seconds by a telephone call.But he didn’t.He told me again that I could get it by telephoning，and then asked me to let him handle my insurance.
He was not interested in helping me.He was interested only in helping himself.
J.Howard Lucas of Birmingham，Alabama，tells how two salespeople from the same company handled the same type of situation，He reported：
“Several years ago I was on the management team of a small company.Headquartered near us was the district office of a large insurance company.Their agents were assigned territories，and our company was assigned to two agents，whom I shall refer to as Carl and John.
“One morning，Carl dropped by our office and casually mentioned that his company had just introduced a new life insurance policy for executives and thought we might be interested later on and he would get back to us when he had more information on it.
“The same day，John saw us on the sidewalk while returning from a coffee break，and he shouted：‘Hey Luke，hold up，I have some great news for you fellows.’He hurried over and very excitedly told us about an executive life insurance policy his company had introduced that very day.（It was the same policy that Carl had casually mentioned.）He wanted us to have one of the first issued.He gave us a few important facts about the coverage and ended saying，‘the policy is so new，I’m going to have someone from the home office come out tomorrow and explain it.Now，in the meantime，let’s get the applications signed and on the way so he can have more information to work with.’His enthusiasm aroused in us an eager want for this policy even though we still did not have details，When they were made available to us，they confirmed John’s initial understanding of thepolicy，and he not only sold each of us a policy，but later doubled our coverage.
“Carl could have had those sales，but he made no effort to arouse in us any desire for the policies.”
The world is full of people who are grabbing and self-seeking.So the rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage.He has little competition.Owen D.Young，a noted lawyer and one of America’s great business leaders，once said：“People who can put themselves in the place of other people who can understand the workings of their minds，need never worry about what the future has in store for them.”
PRINCIPLE 3：
Arouse in the other person an eager want.
