s that you are not
sufficiently experienced to earn the salary you want, and that you don't
know enough yet to fill the job. It would be poor salesmanship to try to
convince him that you have had a good deal of experience. If you
exaggerate the importance of the things you have learned, he almost
surely will judge you to be an unfair weighman of yourself. So you
should tacitly admit your inexperience and treat the value of experience
lightly by reminding him that his business is unlike any other. Then
bear down hard on your eagerness to learn his ways and to work for him.
Thus you can make him perceive the two sides of the scale _as you view
them_.

[Sidenote: Tipping the Balances Your Way]

It is possible for you so to tip the balances in your favor, though
previously the mind's eye of your prospective employer may have been
seeing the greater weight on the unfavorable side. _It is legitimate
salesmanship to influence the decision of the other man in this way._
Your weighing is entirely honest; though you sharply reverse the
balances. Certainly you have the right to estimate the full worth of
your services, to depreciate the significance of points against you, and
to picture your desirability to the prospect as you see it, however that
view may differ from his previous conception. _If your picture of the
respective weights is attractive and convincing, the other man will
adopt it as his own and discard his former opinions about you._ Not only
will he accept the idea of your capabilities that you make him perceive;
he also will see that your deficiencies are much less important than he
had before considered them.

[Sidenote: Serving Hash For Dessert]

Beware of a mistake commonly made by applicants for positions who do not
understand the art of successfully closing the sale of one's services.
When they try to clinch the final decision, _they just repeat strongly
all their best points. They make no mention of their shortcomings._ For
dessert, in other words, they serve a hash of the best dishes of
previous courses. Is it any wonder that such a close takes away any
appetite the prospect may have had?

What would you think of a lawyer who had closed his case by simply
reading to the jury all the testimony that had been given on his side,
but who had made no reference to the opposing evidence? If you were a
juror, would you vote for a verdict in favor of the side so summed up?
Of course you would have heard the testim