Many good Salesmen find it impossible to do this convincing on Paper because the customer does not stand before them, with his facial expression as an index to the line of talk the Salesman should use in that particular case.

This is where the creative power of the Salesman-on-Paper becomes vitally necessary.

He must, first of all, analyze the proposition thoroughly - master the full details of the thing to be sold, then lay out a strong logical line of argument upon it, "limelighting" the good points, and subtly masking the bad ones out of the reader's mental vision.

All this, however, is just what any good Salesman-on-the-Road, or Salesman-inthe- Warehouse, could, should, and probably does, do.

But, a glance at the Advertising pages of current publications will show how comparatively few Advertisers adopt these first principles of Salesmanship in their copy. However, it is after this that the true genius and power of able Salesman-on-paper must be exerted.

That consists in the staging of the arguments, to fit the audience.

A given argument, presented in a certain form of thought and expression, will strike responsively in the minds of a given number, among the class of people aimed at, in each thousand.

If that per cent be high, it means large profit to the Advertiser - large returns.

If that per cent be low, it means that the advertisement has not convinced, has not struck responsively upon the particular class for whom the article advertised is best adapted, notwithstanding the sound argument used.

This peculiarly "Responsive" quality in an advertisement may be called its Personality.

Observe that it need not be the Personality of the Writer at all, but the Personality which he estimates will best fit the particular class of people who compose the largest field of sale for the article advertised.

This intangible Personality feature may be likened to the keynote of a church, or of a music hall.

It is well known that every such building will respond most fully (in sound) to some one particular musical note of the scale, in proportion to the interior size and shape of the structure.

This, a note which sounds full, clear, and vibrant in one such edifice, will sound thin, flat, and harsh in another.

Because, it is not the Responsive Chord of the second building, as it is of the first.

The Musician who could look at the inside of a church, then declare its Responsive Chord, from an estimate, would be in kindred position to the Advertising Writer who could most profitably fit the Personality of his Reason-Why Salesmanship to the class he aims at.