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Show Author of "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Iff' J THE LAW OF AVERAGES : ' Twenty-three years ago 18 salesmen in Philadelphia Philadel-phia sat down to listen to the regular Monday morning morn-ing "pep" talk. Most of the men yawned and dawdled, but one man had the course of his life changed by what he heard that morning. That man who had his life changed was Franklin Frank-lin L. Bettger, and he lives at 547 Heath Road, Mer-ion, Mer-ion, Pa. The man who delivered that talk was Walter L. Talbot. He said that most salesmen did not make enough calls. He said that if a salesman got out and really made calls a mighty law would come to his rescue res-cue the "law of averages." Frank Bettger decided he would keep an accurate ac-curate tally of the calls he made. He was aston- ished at what he discovered. He was making 1 about three calls a day. But he had perfectly good excuses. Bad weather; wasn't feeling well; prospects pros-pects were not in; his wife had a toothache; wanted to see a fine movie in the neighborhood. Oh, yes! wonderful excuses. After analyzing the cause of his failures he decided de-cided to increase the number of calls he made every day. So earnest was he that he actually ran from one call to another ! At the end of eight weeks he had sold more life insurance than he had the previous eight months ! He was thrilled. He did a little figuring and found that he was making $2.30 from every call he made. He did more figuring and discovered that seventy per cent of all his sales were made on the first interview; twenty-three per cent on the second sec-ond interview with the same man, and only seven per cent on the third interview. It took fifty per cent of his time to make those third interviews. So he stopped going back to see prospects for the third time and presently he found that his calls were averaging $3.60 profit! ! Next he began to solicit more prosperous and in-) in-) fluential men. And he studied and read on the sub-s sub-s ject of insurance until he was an authority. Well, would you like to know how much each call during 1938 netted him? I have his permission to use it. The amount is $19. This was a very simple discovery. He hasn't got a patent on it. You can use it. Do what Friend Bettger I calls "organize yourself." Do this and you will find I that the "law of averages" will be working for you. |