Simon and schuster

P.S. The enclosed reprint from the Blankville Journal will be of interest to you, and you may want to broadcast 
it over your station. 
 
[Finally, down here in the postscript, you mention something that may help me solve one of my problems. Why 
didn’t you begin your letter with, but what’s the use? Any advertising man who is guilty of perpetrating such 
drivel as you have sent me has something wrong with his medulla oblongata. You don’t need a letter giving our 
latest doings. What you need is a quart of iodine in your thyroid gland.] 
Now, if people who devote their lives to advertising and who pose as experts in the art of influencing 
people to buy, if they write a letter like that, what can we expect from the butcher and baker or the auto 
mechanic? 
Here is another letter, written by the superintendent of a large freight terminal to a student of this 
course, Edward Vermylen. What effect did this letter have on the man to whom it was addressed? Read it and 
then I’ll tell you. 
A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc. 
28 Front St. 
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 
Attention: Mr. Edward Vermylen 
Gentlemen, 
The operations at our outbound-rail-receiving station are handicapped because a material percentage of 
the total business is delivered us in the late afternoon. This condition results in congestion, overtime on the part 
of our forces, delays to trucks, and in some cases delays to freight. On November 10, we received from your 
company a lot of 510 pieces, which reached here at 4:20 P.M. 
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We solicit your cooperation toward overcoming the undesirable effects arising from late receipt of 
freight. May we ask that, on days on which you ship the volume which was received on the above date, effort be 
made either to get the truck here earlier or to deliver us part of the freight during the morning? 
The advantage that would accrue to you under such an arrangement would be that of more expeditious 
discharge of your trucks and the assurance that your business would go forward on the date of its receipt. 
Very truly yours, 
J----- B ----- Supt. 
After reading this letter, Mr. Vermylen, sales manager for A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc., sent it to me with the 
following comment: 
This letter had the reverse effect from that which was intended. The letter begins by describing the 
Terminal’s difficulties, in which we are not interested, generally speaking. Our cooperation is then requested 
without any thought as to whether it would inconvenience us, and then, finally, in the last paragraph, the fact is 
mentioned that if we do cooperate it will mean more expeditious discharge of our trucks with the assurance that 
our freight will go forward on the date of its receipt. 
In other words, that in which we are most interested is mentioned last and the whole effect is one of 
raising a spirit of antagonism rather than of cooperation. 
Let’s see if we can’t rewrite and improve this letter. Let’s not waste any time talking about our 
problems. As Henry Ford admonishes, let’s “get the other person’s point of view and see things from his or her 
angle, as well as from our own.” 
Here is one way of revising the letter. It may not be the best way, but isn’t it an improvement? 
Mr. Edward Vermylen 
A. Zerega’s Sons, Inc. 
28 Front St. 
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 
Dear Mr. Vermylen, 
Your company has been one of our good customers for fourteen years. Naturally, we are very grateful 
for your patronage and are eager to give you the speedy, efficient service you deserve. However, we regret to 
say that it isn’t possible for us to do that when your trucks bring us a large shipment late in the afternoon, as 
they did on November 10. Why? Because many other customers make late afternoon deliveries also. Naturally, 
that causes congestion. That means your trucks are held up unavoidably at the pier and sometimes even your 
freight is delayed. 
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. 
Barbara Anderson, who worked in a bank in New York, desired to move to Phoenix, Arizona, because 
of the health of her son. Using the principles she had learned in our course, she wrote the following letter to 
twelve banks in Phoenix: 
Dear Sir, 
My ten years of bank experience should be of interest to a rapidly growing bank like yours. 
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In various capacities in bank operations with the Bankers Trust Company in New York, leading to my 
present assignment as Branch Manager, I have acquired skills in all phases of banking including depositor 
relations, credits, loans and administration. 
I will be relocating to Phoenix in May and I am sure I can contribute to your growth and profit. I will 
be in Phoenix the week of April 3 and would appreciate the opportunity to show you how I can help your bank 
meet its goals. 
Sincerely, 
Barbara L. Anderson 
Do you think Mrs. Anderson received any response from that letter? Eleven of the twelve banks invited 
her to be interviewed, and she had a choice of which bank’s offer to accept. Why? Mrs. Anderson did not state 
what she wanted, but wrote in the letter how she could help them, and focused on their wants, not her own. 
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 the 
policy, 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.” 
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If out of reading this book you get just one thing—an increased tendency to think always in terms of 
other people’s point of view, and see things from their angle—if you get that one thing out of this book, it may 
easily prove to be one of the building blocks of your career. 
Looking at the other person’s point of view and arousing in him an eager want for something is not to 
be construed as manipulating that person so that he will do something that is only for your benefit and his 
detriment. Each party should gain from the negotiation. In the letters to Mr. Vermylen, both the sender and the 
receiver of the correspondence gained by implementing what was suggested. Both the bank and Mrs. Anderson 
won by her letter in that the bank obtained a valuable employee and Mrs. Anderson a suitable job. And in the 
example of John’s sale of insurance to Mr. Lucas, both gained through this transaction. 
Another example in which everybody gains through this principle of arousing an eager want comes 
from Michael E. Whidden of Warwick, Rhode Island, who is a territory salesman for the Shell Oil Company. 
Mike wanted to become the Number One salesperson in his district, but one service station was holding him 
back. It was run by an older man who could not be motivated to clean up his station. It was in such poor shape 
that sales were declining significantly. 
This manager would not listen to any of Mike’s pleas to upgrade the station. After many exhortations 
and heart-to-heart talks—all of which had no impact—Mike decided to invite the manager to visit the newest 
Shell station in his territory. 
The manager was so impressed by the facilities at the new station that when Mike visited him the next 
time, his station was cleaned up and had recorded a sales increase. This enabled Mike to reach the Number One 
spot in his district. All his talking and discussion hadn’t helped, but by arousing an eager want in the manager, 
by showing him the modern station, he had accomplished his goal, and both the manager and Mike benefited. 
Most people go through college and learn to read Virgil and master the mysteries of calculus without 
ever discovering how their own minds function. For instance: I once gave a course in Effective Speaking for the 
young college graduates who were entering the employ of the Carrier Corporation, the large air-conditioner 
manufacturer. One of the participants wanted to persuade the others to play basketball in their free time, and this 
is about what he said, “I want you to come out and play basketball. I like to play basketball, but the last few 
times I’ve been to the gymnasium there haven’t been enough people to get up a game. Two or three of us got to 
throwing the ball around the other night—and I got a black eye. I wish all of you would come down tomorrow 
night. I want to play basketball.” 
Did he talk about anything you want? You don’t want to go to a gymnasium that no one else goes to, 
do you? You don’t care about what he wants. You don’t want to get a black eye. 
Could he have shown you how to get the things you want by using the gymnasium? Surely. More pep. 
Keener edge to the appetite. Clearer brain. Fun. Games. Basketball. 
To repeat Professor Overstreet’s wise advice: