Insurance: Good-Humored Salesmen

"I'll be dropping in to see you," Insurance Salesman Steve Nielsen told a farmer on the telephone in Hollister, Idaho. "Suppose we meet at my office at 9 o'clock?" Somewhat baffled by that, the prospect asked: "Where is your office?" Replied Nielsen: "Right in front of your farm—I'll bring my office to you."

And he did. Nielsen drove up in a Chevrolet van that contained telephone, air conditioning, fluorescent lights, desk, couch, wall-to-wall carpeting and drawers of files, facts and insurance tables. He went to work with statistical tables and a desk calculator, and had soon figured out—and sold—a $9,000...