Art Mortell was an unhappy young man. Having convinced his employer to give him a chance at sales, Mortell had set out on his first day with the boundless energy of his 21 years. Two hours later, he had knocked on 19 doors and been turned down 19 times. Depressed and dejected, he trudged two miles back to his office, convinced he had no future in sales.

A couple of weeks later, Mortell accidentally came upon his notes from that miserable day. He was surprised to discover that two people had been interested enough to ask for samples. Mortell realized that he had been so discouraged by the 17 negative responses, he had failed to notice any success. The rest, as they say, is history. Mortell delivered the samples and made one sale. Within two years, he was working for IBM and enjoying a fruitful selling career.

Nearly 30 years later, Arthur Mortell is one of the leading motivational speakers in the country. His clients include former employer IBM, and Shearson Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Prudential Bache and Smith Barney, to name a few.

In addition to an active lecture schedule, which takes him to Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, England, Mexico, Spain and Singapore, Mortell is the author of several best-selling books, including Anatomy of a Successful Salesman (Farnsworth Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, $15).

From his first experience in sales, he learned that the ability to succeed is closely connected to the ability to handle failure. In this candid interview, conducted by Gerhard Gschwandtner, Mortell shares his views on how to achieve sales success and have more fun while you’re doing it.

"You know, from childhood we are conditioned to feel successful only if we succeed most of the time. If we get 19 right out of 20 on a test, then we get positive feedback. In selling, however, the ratios are the other way around. People are often rude to us. We confront resistance. We get 19 wrong out of 20, or 95 negatives out of 100. We call 100 people and only 5 may be receptive and only one person may buy and it’s very discouraging. And yet, people realize as they grow up that they need to change their attitudes towards negative experiences. It’s a matter of percentages. The ratio has changed.

The idea of feeling successful in an environment in which failure and rejection are normal indicates that failure and rejection may have tradeoffs and benefits after all. In fact, that’s one of my major theses – that failure is only an experience that was less than what we expected. If we can somehow change our expectations, our perceptions and our reactions, our feelings will start changing.

"Back in 1961, as a beginning salesperson I learned a valuable lesson – not to let rejection overwhelm me. I began to say, `Okay, you’re over-sensitive. You’re taking rejection too much to heart. You have to disengage your ego.’ It’s like ducks and geese that can fly in a storm and never become wet because water just rolls off their feathers.

"Imagine yourself as a famous actor or actress in a play. In your personal life, you’ve just been told that a loved one has passed away. And the depression deepens throughout the day and now it’s 8 p.m. and the lights dim and the curtain rises and all of a sudden you’ve got to hit a switch in your head. I think that the major reason people succeed in selling is because they decide to be not the person they are, but who they need to be to succeed.

"I love playing chess. Whenever I’m losing at chess, I consistently succeed if I get up and stand behind my opponent and see the board from his side. Then I start to discover the stupid moves I’ve made because I can see it from his viewpoint. The salesperson’s challenge is to see the world from the prospect’s viewpoint."

Salespeople are often torn between their desire to grow and move up, and the fear of failing, the intense pressure and responsibilities that come with success. In order to break free from their anxieties, worries and doubts, salespeople must find a balance in their own minds between these conflicting emotions. This balance is a personal challenge salespeople must overcome if they want to achieve greater success.

"There are so many ways to achieve this balance. People with high expectations, for example, think they ought to have no margin of error. They have to be perfect all the time. They go into selling and realize they can’t be perfect all the time. When you’re experiencing high failure rates and rejection ratios, one solution is to take it one step at a time. In other words, take your expectations and break them down into separate levels, so when you take a step, if you fall you don’t crash, you just trip – taking shorter steps until you eventually succeed.

"The second way to do it is shown in the movie, `Working Girl.’ The heroine pretended to be someone successful until she gained the confidence to be herself. So we ought to emulate people who are successful until we have the qualities to help us bridge the gap.

"The third approach is knowing how to discipline ourselves so that no matter what we go through we become more resilient. Our ego is very vulnerable because it’s got a sensing device. If it tends to be over-sensitive you become too intense and this causes all of our disruptive difficulties. We need to strengthen our ego so that it sheds rejection the way ducks’ feathers shed raindrops. Another analogy is that ducks and geese fly above the storm clouds.

"What we need to do is keep our expectations high and learn how to raise our self-image, strengthen our ego. We can do it by faking it. We can do it by taking it one step at a time. We can do it by becoming like ducks and geese that fly above the clouds. We can do it by changing our attitude toward failure.

"We can do it by experiencing the frustration and capitalizing on it. Say `Hey, this is a maturing process. I’ve got to go through this pain in order to grow up.’ Nothing can shock us in life if we’re mature enough to know that what’s about to happen is normal. That’s why, as an example, when you’re going on a trip you check the weather forecast first. You wouldn’t want to plan something and get caught in the middle of a storm, hurricane or blizzard.

"And equally, when you go into selling, you should prepare for the storm. You should predict ahead of time where your difficulties might occur. So when they start to occur you’re not shocked, you’re not in the middle of it. If you see a problem looming on the horizon, you can start to prepare yourself."

All the sales training in the world won’t help if you allow rejection to overwhelm you. Becoming defensive, depressed or discouraged by rejection will make it impossible to use your sales training successfully. By raising your level of awareness, you can have more control over your feelings, thoughts and behavior, and that will translate into sales success.

"We need to work on two words, monitor and modify. We monitor our feelings and modify our behavior. So the monitoring begins the process. For example, I run in marathons. It’s very important in marathons to monitor how you’re feeling, to check yourself frequently and ask, `Am I getting dehydrated, do I have a blister someplace, should I change my stride to reduce the pressure?’ Otherwise the blister will get worse and you’ll never finish.

"Well, in selling we also need to monitor our progress. We need to check on it throughout the day. We need to ask ourselves, `How am I thinking? How am I feeling? Am I being productive or protective?’ Monitor the thinking, feeling and behavior, and then modify any of the three that need improving.

"On the other hand, positive thinking can be dangerous if it gets us psychologically into a situation that our feelings and emotions can’t deal with. So for that reason we need to develop a thought process that deals very uniquely with our own situation.

"That’s why when we teach a salesperson to deal with rejection, we need to give the person a series of alternative solutions so she can say, `Well, this one fits me.’ Sometimes the simplest solution is faking it. It works for a lot of people, even though it’s superficial. But somebody else will be stubborn and think that you’ve got to suffer and become more resilient. Some people think negatively to create just enough stress to stimulate them into action."

There are two major emotions that people can use effectively in selling. One is aggression, the other is love. Hundreds of sales trainers demand that salespeople be aggressive and tell them they must have a killer instinct. Others insist you have to be caring and nurturing. In reality, sales success requires finding the right balance between the aggressiveness and sensitivity.

"In selling you have two objectives: relationships and results. Sensitivity creates the relationship, aggressiveness creates the results. There are many factors which determine how we create the balance. One factor is where you are in the selling process. If we assume that the sale begins with establishing rapport, then sensitivity is primary in developing relationships. As you move towards the close, aggressiveness becomes more important. But we must have both at the same time.

"If we’re selling a product that is very simple, like magazine subscriptions, and it’s being done over the phone, the aggressiveness can be stronger. There’s minimal need for a relationship. If we’re selling such complex products as computer technology or financial services, however, we need a far stronger relationship before we can ask for the order.

"In other words, we have to go through a greater need analysis. People must feel closer to us and trust us. We must understand their problems more thoroughly. It’s all a relationship process so we need to tip the relationship scale on the love side. I use love in a broad sense – trust, sensitivity, concern, sincerity.

"We need to create great relationships in order to get good results. Relationships are created by being a warm, sensitive, loving person. But results are gained by an aggressive, dominant personality. We need to be able to balance these two. The more balanced we are, the more effective we are. So balance is the answer, but balance must be modified according to the person you’re dealing with and not according to the product you’re selling and where you are in the sales process.

"Again, we must monitor and modify. Monitor the reactions of the prospect and modify your technique."

Creativity can play an important role in sales success. The ability to respond quickly to your prospect’s feelings and needs can often mean the difference between a successful sales call and a failed effort.

"Creativity depends on what you’re selling. If you’re selling something which is very simple over the phone and making many calls, then it’s almost a distraction to be creative. However, the more sophisticated the product and the market, as in selling computer technology, or financial services, the greater the demand for creativity. You must be able to see the world from that prospect’s viewpoint, be able to change terminology to fit his or her style, be able to develop a unique terminology that communicates concepts clearly.

"Today in selling we’ve got to stop using flipcharts. We’ve got to stop using overheads. When you’re courting someone – let’s say you’re on a first date – you don’t bring overheads, you don’t bring an outline with you, you don’t have notes in front of you, you don’t do handouts. I think if we’re going to really successfully sell, we’ve got to drop all the audio visual devices. We’ve got to make it a conversation. We’ve got to bring humor into it. We’ve got to force ourselves into a spontaneous love type of relationship. The greater the relationship, the better the results are going to be. The relationship is where selling begins.

"So you’ve got to be very creative in the sense that you disengage your own ego and totally tune into the other person’s needs from his viewpoint, from his side of the table. And then be creative in changing terminology so that what we’re selling doesn’t need to be shown because it comes alive just from the word pictures we create. Even when it comes to giving a lecture, some of the best humor comes from word pictures so your audience can visualize it happening.

"We talk about repetition being so important in selling, but it’s not. For example, people from my generation remember when John Kennedy was assassinated. You can remember how you found out, where you were, how you felt and the way you reacted at that exact moment. It’s so vivid in your mind 27 years later. And it didn’t require any repetition. You never needed to experience it again to remember that moment 27 years ago.

"When I’m giving a lecture my objective is to create such a real life experience, such an emotional impact, that they never have to hear me speak again to remember what I said. And I have people who will tell me when I’m sitting in an airplane, "I heard you 20 years ago, you made a change in my life." They give me word for word – very nearly – of what I said. It’s changed over the years, it isn’t really the way I said it, possibly. But in their minds that vividness is still there. And it’s because I was successful in creating word pictures, creatively personalizing the material to what their needs were and making it come alive for them. It didn’t require the repetition. Repetition is when you’re teaching something that people aren’t interested in and it must be pounded into their heads. This is fine only if you’re working in a factory on an assembly line or doing canned presentations for a very simple product over the phone."

There are three primary ingredients to success in any job: a strong self-image, high expectations and an ego resiliency to handle failure and rejection.

"Self-image is such an elusive factor. It’s how we see ourselves, our sense of identity, our sense of value, our sense of importance, our viewpoint of ourselves, who we are. We don’t have one self-image; we have many self-images. We can look at it in three categories. We have positive self-images about how we feel about ourselves: `I can do this very well.’ We have negative self-images: `I’m not good at these things.’ Then we have this vague area in between that we’re not certain of. But I’m saying that for everything imaginable in our lives we have a self-image. If we do something we’ve never done before…we even have an image in that area, based on similar experiences.

"To strengthen your self-image, you might discuss your problem with people openly. When you discuss a problem, the less fear you feel and the more capable you feel to resolve it. We must recognize that our fears have power and yet they are visible. We must either disengage or disarm our fears. You ask, `How can we do that?’ Often it’s just by telling people about them. Sometimes just expressing the fear negates its power by exposing it to light. So there are many ways to do it. Express your fear, have role models, take each fear apart and examine its component parts. Take it a step at a time.

"Sometimes the answer may be as simple as taking an acting class. Today professional salespeople and those in management are finding that taking acting classes is one of the best ways to develop and improve their self-images, because, regardless of their feelings, they learn to play different roles. There are even consultants – experts who have a background in theatre – who specialize in offering such instruction."

Creativity helps to strengthen relationships; a strong self-image helps to handle rejection. Both are essential ingredients for sales success.

"A lot of our interpersonal creativity is really not creativity at all but a series of computerized modules in our mind from past successes in which we, as a director of the show, are hitting buttons at high speed and giving the actor on the stage the lines to use. We have this little voice in the back of our minds saying, `This great line last year would work super right now.’ We have high speed spontaneity. We can’t have that kind of spontaneity if we have a negative self-image or if we have fears of rejection. So to be able to have this kind of fluidity requires a strong self-image and then an amusement with rejection.

"In other words, we know that if we take a chance and wipe out, it’s going to be kind of funny rather than a disastrous experience. If we think, `Disastrous experience, whoa, I better not take a chance,’ we may lose spontaneity. But the spontaneity might not be so creative. In reality, our ability to make high speed changes in our computerized modules – to pick number 7A or number 12B – may be the important quality.

"Children are very creative without having the modules in their head to choose from because they haven’t had the experiences yet. And children have a spontaneity because they know ahead of time they’re going to be loved automatically for whatever they say. They’re also great role players. In other words, they’re on stage all the time. They’re playing improvisation. So what we need to do is develop the improvisation skills and the spontaneity of a creative child.

"What that really means is having no fear of rejection while still being sensitive to the person you’re dealing with."

In his lectures, Mortell seeks to change people’s perceptions of reality. He tries to help them see that failure does not exist, and wants them instead to realize that the reality they experience is always for their benefit. The goal is to develop entirely new reactions to rejection – to capitalize on it.

"Very simply, we have two major solutions. One is psychological. Like ducks and geese that can fly in a storm and never get wet from the rain, we can be traveling toward our objective in the middle of a storm and never become depressed by the rejection.

"We can fly above the clouds, which means raising our self-image and deciding everything is petty, everything is like an amusement to us. Or we can have the raindrops just roll off our feathers so we disengage the ego. And even though we’re in the middle of the storm, not flying above it but in the middle of it, we can protect our self-image by disengaging our ego and still stay in motion as we move toward our goals.

"The second solution is behavioral. People can think negatively. They can be depressed. They can still succeed. They can behave as they need to regardless of how they think or feel."

Success in sales is fundamentally a matter of overcoming resistance. In many ways, the entire objective in sales is to deal with resistance.

"We can look at resistance as a varying degree of tension. All the reasons why people don’t buy become points of resistance and as tension increases they become like invisible walls – all these walls of tension. And so maybe the primary objective in selling is to eliminate resistance and increase receptivity, and that requires knowing how to disengage from the tension. So how do we get rid of tension? We can get rid of tension by establishing rapport. What does that mean? Being friendly, being sensitive, caring, seeing the world from the other person’s viewpoint, and creating word pictures, being spontaneous and creative.

"We can also relieve tension through humor. Some people, including myself, are not humorous by nature. If we can disengage our fear of rejection and allow ourselves to be spontaneous, then the humor comes to us naturally.

"As an example, we know that many aggressive, dominant people have difficulty staying hostile or aggressive over lunch or dinner. So environment is a factor. People have different personalities at work than they have at home. So get them in more of a home environment over lunch or dinner.

"The second approach would be to bring humor into it. Many people will not laugh at themselves but will,laugh heartily at somebody else. That’s why Rodney Dangerfield is so good. He laughs at himself and we can enjoy that because he’s not attacking us.

"Personally, I like simple lines. I like to reduce the pressure by saying something humorously: `How about if I call you five years from now?’ I’m actually telling people why I’m enjoying their hostility, why it’s a benefit to me. `I’ve been doing so well lately I really appreciate your working me over like this. I haven’t had a challenge like this in a couple of months. I’ve been losing my sharpness. I really could use this. Thanks a lot. Can I call you everytime I’m feeling good and you can work me over?’ If we phrase it properly, that technique will work with any hostile prospect.

"Sometimes the simplest things work so well. For example, I often tell this story: Imagine a barracuda and a mackerel in the same pool of water together. A barracuda just loves mackerel. The only thing he does not know is that in between him and the mackerel is a great big piece of glass. The barracuda takes off like a shot and – wham, hits the glass. He has no idea what he hit so he reels around and tries again. Wham – into the glass! After a while he looks at the mackerel and gets a headache just looking at it. And that `gets a headache’ creates an audience response.

"As a personal example, I’ll never forget when I was real young, out in the ocean for a day and it was really quiet in the water. I had a ball with me and I lost it. The current began taking it away. I began to walk out trying to catch up to the ball but when the water reached my waist, I got frightened and went back.

"Later in the day I was getting more and more used to the water and was walking further out, up to my ears and nose. And Mom said to me, `Now Arthur, if you were as confident this morning as you are now, you would have gotten the ball back easily.’ The idea is that we often condition ourselves to back off at certain points. As time goes by we may gain confidence, but we still avoid the same challenge because the conditioning, even with the new confidence, keeps us from a breakthrough. Simple thoughts, simple ideas."

Resistance… where would salespeople be without it? It’s been said that without resistance, the world would cease to spin, rain would stop falling to earth, the seasons would disappear, sticks rubbed together would never make a fire, teeth could not grind food, tires would not grip the road. Without resistance, selling just wouldn’t be. So look for that argumentative prospect, that irate customer, that reluctant client, that hesitant buyer, that procrastinating purchasing agent. They’re your opportunities to sell!