And so the successful correspondent should draw arguments and
talking points from many sources; from the house, from the customer,
from competitors, from the news of the day from his knowledge of
human nature.

"What shall I do first?" asked a new salesman of the general
manager.

"Sell yourself," was the laconic reply, and every salesman and
correspondent in the country could well afford to take this advice
to heart.

Sell yourself; answer every objection that you can think of, test
out the proposition from every conceivable angle; measure it by
other similar products; learn its points of weakness and of
superiority, know its possibilities and its limitations. Convince
yourself; sell yourself, and then you will be able to sell others.

The first source of material for the correspondent is in the house
itself. His knowledge must run back to the source of raw materials:
the kinds of materials used, where they come from, the quality and
the quantity required, the difficulties in obtaining them, the
possibilities of a shortage, all the problems of mining or gathering
the raw material and getting it from its source to the plant--a vast
storehouse of talking points.

Then it is desirable to have a full knowledge of the processes of
manufacture; the method of handling work in the factory, the labor
saving appliances used, the new processes that have been perfected,
the time required in turning out goods, the delays that are liable