Chapter 16

DON’T SELL THE WINE – SELL THE BUBBLES IN THE GLASS

Hotels Statler makes the first concentrated study in hotel history of effectiveness of words on people.   

Words that sell the better rooms.   Words that sell more wines and food.   Selling the view -- not the room number.   The important “Rule of You” in Hotels and Restaurants.   The value of your name.

It is back in the ninety’s (1890’s). And a group of men saunter to a bar.   Joe, the bartender, with his handlebar mustache, gives the boys a smile and opens his conversation with the familiar, “ What'll You Gents Have ?”

They call for a round of drinks, and Joe places his best brand of whiskey on the bar and lines up the glasses in front of them.

Now, the technique of serving people at the bar falls into two classifications, with one group of bartenders letting guests pour their own drinks and the other pouring the drinks themselves. Which is the better principle?   Which is the more profitable to the bar?

A study of these questions for Mr. Frank A. McKowne, progressive president of Hotels Statler, along with a survey on how to brighten up the language used by all other hotel employees, brought out some interesting sidelights in human behaviorism.

LET THEM POUR THEIR OWN

The average bottle of spirits contains about 22 drinks of the size that the bartender pours.   He can “rim” the glass, and he is expected to do so.   If he permits you to pour your own drink, however, and most writers like to do this, it is difficult for you to rim the glass as the bartender does.   In fact, it would be very impolite to do so; it would appear quite “Scotch” to your friends.   Therefore you pour the drink to within about a quarter inch of the top of the glass.   This is the widest part of the glass.   This quarter of an inch saving on 22 drinks, at $.40 per drink, amounts to total savings per bottle of anywhere from $.75 to $1.25!   That means the hotel can get an approximate average of one dollar more per bottle if it is gracious enough to permit the guest to pour their own drinks.   Try this technique in your own home, or watch it in practice at some bar.

THE “RULE OF YOU” IN HOTELS

Your name is the thing you like to hear most, and it is the greatest selling aid a salesman has.

We have helped to devise many interesting methods by which employees in Hotels Statler can learn your name very quickly and pass it on to other employees.   For instance, the desk clerk reads your name as you sign it on the register.   He says, “I have a pleasant room overlooking the Hudson, Mr. Smith .  You will enjoy the view!”

The bellman standing by hears your name.    He takes your bag and says, “This way, Mr. Smith.”   He gets to the elevator and announces you to the elevator boy by saying, “This is a fine day, isn't it Mr. Smith?”

The elevator boy hears your name.   If there is a floor clerk, the bellman walks up to her to get the key to your room, and says “Key 808 please for Mr. Smith.”

The floor clerk hears your name.   So on and on, from the time you enter a hotel until you leave, the “Rule of You” will be put into practice, for there is nothing more important than the sound of your own name.

SELLING GLASSES OF BUBBLES

One of the tasks assigned to us by Mr. J. L. Hennessy, the able vice president in charge of catering of this great chain of Statler Hotels, was to study the habits of people eating in restaurants to ascertain how to introduce them to the fine art of drinking wines.

We discovered that there are many reasons why wine was not being ordered.   The waiter would mechanically hand the wine list of the guest after seating him.   The guest was in a flutter, having walked across a busy hotel room.   He was busy adjusting himself to his surroundings.   The wine list was merely a blur to him.   Should he be able to concentrate on the list, he was afraid to pronounce some of the wine names that were new to him.   He didn't know whether to say “Chateau E-kem” or “Chaeau Y-kem”.   He didn't want a waiter to smile at a wrong pronunciation.   If the bewildered guest felt confident he could pronounce the name, he was afraid it might be the wrong line for the occasion.   This again caused him to hesitate in ordering a wine.   He usually closed the issue with, “Gimme a glass of ale.”

We instructed the waiters not to hand a wine list of the guest, but to say, “Would you care for some Chateau E-kem with your order, sir?”   The man heard the right pronunciation, and he knew the waiter had without doubt picked the right wine for the dish.   He would order the wine.   This idea worked expertly until one man thought Chateau E-kem was a gravy for his roast, and a woman thought it was a new salad dressing!

We kept testing until we made another interesting discovery.   Americans most often identify wines by the colors red and white.   They like that “red wine I get at the Italian spaghetti house,” or that “white wine Aunt Emma serves at Christmas time.”

“RED OR WHITE, SIR”

So the waiters were instructed to approach guest with, “Would you care for a red wine with your roast, sir?”   If the dish required a white wine, they would say, “Would you care for a white wine with your fish, sir?”

Then it was found that if an American likes a red wine, he drinks it with any kind or type of food.   If the waiter suggested the white wine has been proper, certain guests demanded to know if the hotel was “out of red wine.”

How to find out if a guest was a red wine or a white wine drinker?   We went back to Wheelerpoint number four: Don't ask IF -- ask WHICH.   The waiter would say, “Would you care for a red or white wine with your dinner, sir?”

The guest could make his choice.   This approach worked until just recently, when a guest in the Boston Statler Hotel, according to Mssrs. Stanbro and Cushing, co-managers, wanted to know, “Is it on the house?”

We immediately added the word “order” to the sentence, and the sales of wines have increased from two cents to four cents per guest.  The “TESTED SELLING SENTENCE ” is now:

“Would you care to ORDER a red or a white wine with your dinner, sir?”   Such is the power of ONE WORD -- provided it is properly chosen.

FINDING THE “FIRST-TIMERS”

It is important for a hotel to know if you are a “first timer.”   If so, the hotel desires to familiarize you with its many services.

The problem of how to find out if a guest was a first timer in Statler Hotels was given to us as part of our assignment by Mr. John C. Burg, personnel director.   With the help of Mr. Burg and the Pennsylvania Hotel staff in New York, we set about making this study.   As a test we instructed the bellboys to say, when they were carrying a guests bags to his room, “is this the FIRST TIME you've been with us, Mr. Brown?”

If it was, the bellboy would tell a guest how to get radio music in the room, how to get ice water, and how to use the Servidor and other Statler features.   If the guest informed him this was in his first time, the bellboy would not annoy him with this recital of features that were perhaps well-known to the regular guest.

It was a fine system, but it failed to work!

The first day we found 10 guest who complained, “You fellows out to know me by this time.   I've been coming to this hotel for years.   If this is all the impression I make on you fellows, I'll change hotels.”

Therefore we changed the expression to, “Have you been with us RECENTLY, sir?”

The “TESTED SELLING SENTENCE” now works successfully, showing that the right formation of words gets the right responses from people.   It is all in how you say it.

THE TECHNIQUE OF THE DOORMAN

The doorman in front of any hotel or restaurant is the king of the hotel.   He is usually a pompous person, dressed up like a Mexican general. He makes the first impression for the hotel, because he is the first person you see when you visit a hotel.   If this “10 second person” makes a poor impression, your impression of the entire hotel is weakened.

A study of the Statler Hotel doormen brought out some important observations.   If the doorman holds his hand out, palm up, to a woman guest to assist her out of an automobile, she may trip accidentally and cause him to press her hand a little too tightly, which she is apt to resent.   The alert doorman, therefore, will always put his hand inside the automobile, palm down, fist clenched, giving the lady an opportunity to lift herself out of the seat, with no chance of an accidental squeezing of her hand.   The doorman then accounts the baggage and says: “Three bags, madam?”

She nods yes, or tells him there is a small black bag in the dark corner on the floor.   Many guests leave bags in taxicabs, but this simple statement on the part of the doorman is proving very valuable to Statler Hotels in eliminating the danger of lost baggage.

WHICH TYPE ARE YOU?

We have told you the one secret of choosing the right words to get proper responses from people is to know at which basic motive to direct your words.

Studying human nature as it enters a restaurant in a large Statler Hotel for breakfast has taught us there are three types of American breakfast eaters at which a waiter must direct his words.   The first is a fellow who has lost his appetite.   He needs a good waiter with the power to make the guest mouth water with highly descriptive words.   Good waiters will suggest, “A glass of chilled tomato juice, sir, with a dash of lemon and Worcestershire sauce?”

The second type of breakfast eater is the “morning grouch.”   He comes storming in.   He was awake all night.   Or he has indigestion.   Or he cut himself shaving.   The alert waiter says nothing to him, not even good morning, unless it is quite unobtrusively spoken.   But he gets rolls and butter in front of the “morning grouch” in a hurry, because with a roll in his mouth “the fellow finds it hard to complain.”

The third type of guest is familiar to all of us.   He comes flying into the restaurant.   His necktie is twisted.   He flings his hat to the waiter.   He is the guest who is always late for an appointment -- always in a hurry.   He wants three-minute eggs in two minutes!   Waiters know better than to tell the gentleman this is an impossible feat.   Instead, they hustle about with great emotion. This technique satisfies the guest that he is getting quick service.

Study again the three basic emotions --   X, Y and Z -- then direct your statements to hit the mark, especially if you are in a business that depends on servicing the public efficiently and unobtrusively.

A BAKED IDAHO POTATO WITH SWEET BUTTER

Don't sell the steak -- sell the sizzle.   It is the sizzle it makes the guest mouth water, not the cow!

Don't sell potatoes -- sell a baked Idaho potato with sweet melted butter.

It's the bubbles in the wine that make the eyes sparkle in anticipation.

On three occasions lately we sold out completely the “chefs special” in the Café Rouge of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York within two hours time, by use of TESTED descriptive words.   For instance, the fish was not just baked fish to Mr. Hennessy, but “fish baked in the Back Bay manner,” and the stew was not an ordinary stew, but “beef pie à la mode.”

“Would you care to order a Martini or a Manhattan, sir?”   Has increased sales of these two drinks in all the Statler Hotels.

How much better are the suggested sentences than the obsolete approach used by Joe, the old-time bartender, “What’ll you gents have?”

“LISTENING A LITTLER CLOSER”

I always wondered why I enjoyed the company of Grandpop Strobel so much.   He would sit for hours listening to me telling about the things I was doing, and he never seemed bored.

A lot of people, especially complaint managers and organizations, have this knack of letting you do all the talking.   Once in awhile we catch ourselves being “coaxed on” and, remembering the Rule of “You-ability,” we start the other person talking.

Then, too, there are some people who listen to us, but when we look into their eyes directly, we immediately see that they're supposed interest in us is an acquired act, and that in reality their thoughts are far away.

These people are like the famous “Yes people,” who keep saying “Yes” –“ How interesting” – “So exciting” – “Is that so?”   -- “Hum, what do you think of that,” but who never buy.   These people are professional listeners.   They know the art of letting the other person do the talking, but somehow or other we quickly “catch on” to these professionals and make up our minds we will not get caught in their trap again.

GRANDPOP STROBEL KNOWS HIS STUFF

But not Grandpop Strobel.   He really listens, especially when GrandmaStrobel talks, and I have always wondered what his charm was for getting people to do the talking while he sat peacefully back and smoked his pipe, resting his vocal cords and winning new friends.

One day I found the answer through accidentally hearing someone on the street, a mere passerby, say, “He has a habit of listening a little closer, if you get what I mean.”

I got what he meant.   Grandpop “listened a little closer.”

He has seen this type of salesman.   He bends toward you physically, and leans on you mentally, with every word you wonder.   He is “with you” every moment, nodding and smiling at the right times.   He “listens a little closer” -- which is the best way I know of describing why people like to tell Grandpop about the things they're doing, and why they tell Grandpop all their troubles.

This is a fine art for a salesman to acquire, that of “listening a little closer.”   I like salesmen who “listen well” to what I'm saying.

Therefore, one way to raise your selling average is to “listen a little closer” -- if you see what I mean, if you see what I see in Grandpop Strobel.   It is a sound rule to follow for social and business success, especially if you are a hotel or restaurant owner, or if you are on the complaint staff of your business.

“Listen a little closer!”

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