The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Real Hard Sell, by William W Stuart

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Title: The Real Hard Sell

Author: William W Stuart

Illustrator: Anonymous

Release Date: January 21, 2010 [EBook #31038]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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| |
| Transcriber's note: |
| |
| This story was published in _If: Worlds of Science Fiction_, |
| July 1961. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence |
| that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

Naturally human work was more creative, more inspiring, more important
than robot drudgery. Naturally it was the most important task in all the
world ... or was it?

THE REAL HARD SELL

By William W. Stuart

Ben Tilman sat down in the easiest of all easy chairs. He picked up a
magazine, flipped pages; stood up, snapped fingers; walked to the view
wall, walked back; sat down, picked up the magazine.

He was waiting, near the end of the day, after hours, in the lush, plush
waiting room--"The customer's ease is the Sales Manager's please"--to
see the Old Man. He was fidgety, but not about something. About nothing.
He was irritated at nobody, at the world; at himself.

He was irritated at himself because there was no clear reason for him to
be irritated at anything.

There he sat, Ben Tilman, normally a cheerful, pleasant young man. He
was a salesman like any modern man and a far better salesman than most.
He had a sweet little wife, blonde and pretty. He had a fine, husky
two-year-old boy, smart, a real future National Sales Manager. He loved
them both. He had every reason to be contented with his highly
desirable, comfortable lot.