ou perceive that he is inclined to put you off or
to turn you down. Evidently, in order to prevent such a contretemps, you
need to resort now to a _different selling step_, which you have not
taken previously.

It is necessary that you have at your command a way to induce interest.
This interest-inducing means must be as _sure_ in its effects as the
sense-hitting method of compelling attention. Otherwise you could not be
certain of success with the selling process. If the effectiveness of
every step cannot be assured in advance, you will not rely confidently
on salesmanship to achieve your ambition.

[Sidenote: Discriminate Between Attention And Interest]

Probably you have never worked out in your mind exactly _the reasons why
you are interested_ in particular things and in certain people. Let us
make an analysis. Your _attention_ might be attracted so strongly to a
vicious criminal that for the time being you could think of no one else.
Yet his fate might be a matter of such indifference to you that you
would have absolutely no _interest_ in the man. But suppose you should
see in his face, or in an expression of his eyes, something that haunted
your memory appealingly. It would induce you to read the newspaper
accounts of his trial. You would feel a little sorry for him, on
learning that he had been sentenced to a long term in prison. Very
likely you would say to yourself, "I suppose he is a mighty tough
character, but I believe there is something in him that isn't altogether
bad." Your intuition would tell you he possessed undefined traits that
you like. In _your own liking_ for these characteristics that you
vaguely discerned in him when you saw him, _is the key to the interest
he induced_.

[Sidenote: What and Whom We Like]

What do we like? Whom do we like?

Things that are _like_ our own ideas. People who are _like_ the ideas we
have about likable people. Interest is all a matter of recognizing
points of likeness.

In order to draw your prospect beyond the attention stage of the selling
process, and to induce his interest in your "goods," you must impress on
him suggestions of the similarity of your ideas to ideas already in his
own mind. _He will like your ideas in proportion to their resemblance to
his own way of thinking_ on the same subjects. So you should express
yourself as nearly as possible in his terms, and attract his interest by
making him feel that your mind and his are much alike.

[Sidenot