The young contractor should bear in mind that suggestion is the source of business enterprise, and the highest quality of salesmanship. If people never purchased goods or had work done until they thought of doing so themselves, only a fraction of the present volume of business would be transacted. Wrapped up in their own affairs, most busy men are not aware of improvements and new devices that will increase their plant's capacity or otherwise improve their business detail until such appliances are brought to their attention, when they are gladly adopted. Business is such at the present time that all heads of concerns expect to have brought to their notice by the interested parties anything which will be of benefit to the business, and it might be added, they are waiting open armed to welcome anything providing its benefit can be demonstrated to them. The writer recalls a large sugar refinery in New Orleans which did not have a sink or slop sink on any of its several floors. Upon bringing the matter to the attention of the manager orders were immediately given to equip the building throughout, and the manager was reasonably angry because nobody had suggested the benefit of sinks before.

So, learn to suggest improvements to everybody you meet in a business way, and, wherever there is an opportunity, make a special effort to interest people in work along your line which will benefit them. As a concrete example: If the water in the locality where you are situated is hard, suggest to mills and factories where a large quantity of water is used, both for boiler feed and industrial purposes, the advisability of putting in a water-softening apparatus. Of course, to do so you must post yourself regarding water softeners, then, primed to the muzzle, go to the manager of the concern for a good, vigorous discussion of the matter. If, on the other hand, the water supply is derived from a surface source point out the value of filters as a safeguard from disease, and advise their installation wherever they will do any good.

In many homes gas ranges are now used instead of coal ranges and some means must be provided for heating water for domestic use. Instantaneous automatic water heaters will prove suitable for this purpose, and if the practice is systematically made of suggesting their installation it is surprising how many orders will be received.

Again, most people take pride in their bath rooms and want in them only fixtures of the very best type. If you point out to a man who would not wear a last year's suit of clothes, or who insists on having a new automobile every time there is a change in design, that his water closet is a washout, and not nearly so desirable a type as the syphon jet, he will not hesitate long about giving an order for the better type. "Fashion wears out more apparel than the man" is an old saying, which holds true in other lines. Almost everybody who can remember back twelve years can recall how people who rode bicycles changed the machine every year because some trifling change made the design of their machine old, and while the machine was seen in public, while bath rooms are private, still most people who own their homes want only the best in the way of plumbing fixtures.

The smoke-testing machine is another means of creating business. In most of the old buildings throughout the land, there are leaks in the drainage system, and all that is necessary is to smoke them out. Once you get the order to overhaul the piping within a building, your salesmanship ought to prevail upon the owner to install new fixtures in place of the old style fixtures now in use, and perhaps induce him to put in some new fixtures where none now exist. Make a practice, then, of advocating the smoke testing of old work.

The foregoing are but suggestions to point out to the young contractor the possibilities of suggestion. There is no limit to the business which can be drummed up by judicious suggestion cultivated and practiced. What particular lines the suggestion shall take are matters of local conditions which must be studied out in each case and acted upon. The main thing is to impress on the beginner's mind the value of suggestion.

There is another value attached to suggestion which has not yet been mentioned. If the plumbing contractor calls upon the manager of some concern, impresses him favorably and gives good reasons why his suggestion should be acted upon, conducting himself throughout the interview in a businesslike way and impressing the manager with the fact that he thoroughly understands his business, he will not be forgotten, even though he does not secure an order. The interview is at once an introduction and an advertisement, and when that manager is in need of technical information or wants work done he cannot forget the contractor.