Chapter 22

HOW TO MAKE COMPLETE SALES PRESENTATIONS OUT OF TESTED SENTENCES

It takes only one “Tested Selling Sentence” to make a person by.  At times, however, it is necessary to put them into a series form.  The difference between a “canned” and a “planned” sales talk.

WHETHER YOU ARE selling something that takes 10 seconds or 10 days, the principles of making single sentences sell still apply.

The other person has a “fatigue” point, a limit beyond which he fails to hear what you are saying.  You must revive his interest constantly by TELEGRAPHING “sizzles” to his brain.  You must constantly make his mouth water for your proposition.  He must always look for the “square clothespin” to crash his thoughts.

Here is a sales skit given by Warren Rishel and me at the New York Sales Executives Club on March 29, 1937, at the Roosevelt Hotel, illustrating how single “Tested Sentences” can be coordinated chronologically into a sales presentation.  Again using the principle that people learn more quickly when you first show them the wrong way and then make a sudden contrast and show them the right way, we offer you the following skit to show you how single sentences can be built into a sales presentation:

WHEELER: Gentlemen, there are two weak links in your sales and merchandising campaigns.

One is the selling language and the techniques your salesmen will use when they face the dealer to sell your products.

The other is the selling language and techniques the dealer will in turn use on his customers to sell your products.

We will go back to our performance of several weeks ago to dramatize again for you the difference between the “canned” sales talk that uses hit-and-miss salesmanship and the “planned” sales talk that has been scientifically tested to make the sale more accurate, more fool-proof, and faster.

I will now take the part of a salesman who has overly memorized his sales talk and otherwise violates all the rules and principles of approaching and selling a dealer on handling butter and eggs.

THE WRONG WAY TO MAKE A SALES PRESENTATION

(Wheeler enters the store of Abernathe Schmaltz, who was busy dusting off the shelves.)

WHEELER: Is Abernathe Schmaltz in?  I take it you're the grocery boy here.

SCHMALTZ: I'll have you understand I am Abernathe Schmaltz.

WHEELER: Well, howya fixed for butter and eggs in the store?

SCHMALTZ: Fine -- wanna buy some?

WHEELER: Oh, you got me wrong, brother -- I'm a butter-and-egg salesman.  I've been sent down here to interest you in Bickley butter and eggs.

SCHMALTZ: Well, go on and interest me!

WHEELER: First, I want to tell you about the background of A. F. Bickley and Sons.  We've been in business since 1870, and --

SCHMALTZ: Well, I take butter and eggs from a farmer.  Are your butter and eggs any better?

WHEELER: They sure are, but let me tell you about the personnel of our organization.  Take our boss, for example.  He's a great old duffer.  Likes to fish down in Chesapeake Bay.  Why you should see the fish he caught last week when he --

SCHMALTZ: I like fishing too, but tell me: Are your butter and eggs better than the ones I get from the farmer?

WHEELER: (Takes pieces of candy out of box.): Sure they're better, but --

SCHMALTZ: Say, don't eat that piece of candy -- that's MY PROFITS!

WHEELER: Sorry -- but now look-it here, Schmaltz, we’re wasting a lot of time.  I want to do you one favor.

SCHMALTZ: (Angry.)  Oh, you want to do me a favor, heh?

WHEELER: I sure do.  Now if you --

SCHMALTZ: Then git the blazes out of the store!  That's the biggest favor you can do for me.  I've lost $2.85 in sales already.  Now git, you -- darn you, git!

WHEELER: Gee, these grocery fellows are certainly hard people to sell.  Guess its account of that Patman Bill.

THE RIGHT WAY TO MAKE A SALES PRESENTATION

WHEELER (To audience.): That was slightly exaggerated to be sure, but it illustrates a mighty important principle in selling today, which is this:

A salesman calling on the dealer has only ten short seconds to catch the dealers interest, and if in those ten short seconds he doesn't say something mighty important, the dealer will leave him, either physically or mentally.

Now let us see this same salesman one month later, after he has thrown away his “canned” sales talk and has made a careful study of the “planned” TESTED presentation style of selling.

Not only does he now have ten-second door-crashers, “Tested Selling Sentences,” and “Tested Techniques,” but he also has an interesting plan of giving the dealer ready-made words and sales techniques to help the dealer build his volume.

I'll again take the role of a salesman.

(Wheeler enters store in breezy manner.)

WHEELER: Good morning, Mr. Schmaltz, my name is Wheeler.  I'm from A. F. Bickley and Sons.  How would you like to build your butter and egg business?

SCHMALTZ: Guess I would.  Who wouldn't?

WHEELER: Feel the weight of this egg.  (Puts eggs into Schmaltz right hand.)  Now feel the weight of this egg!  (Puts another egg into Schmaltz left hand.)  The egg in your right hand is much heavier than the egg in your left hand, yet both eggs are the same size.  Isn't that true?

SCHMALTZ (Puzzled.): Yes this egg is heavier -- how come?

WHEELER: That is a Bickley farm-controlled egg, Mr. Schmaltz, laid by a hen that has been fed scientifically balanced food that contains calcium.

SCHMALTZ: Calcium?  What is calcium?

WHEELER: Calcium is a bone and body-building food in an egg.

The more calcium and other food in an egg, the heavier it is.

The outside of an egg is no indication of the inside.

Whether the egg is brown or white is no way to determine the food value inside the shell.

You must weigh eggs to determine the amount of food value in them.  Good eggs should weigh no less then 24 ounces a dozen.

The hen who laid that egg in your left hand was fed on run-of-the-farm left-overs.  It has little food.  That is why it feels so light.

The egg in your right hand is the same size and same color, yet weighs much more.  It is a Bickley farm-controlled egg.  It is filled with body-building calcium.

SCHMALTZ: My, I never knew that.

WHEELER: And I'll bet few of your customers know this interesting story of eggs.  They merely buy eggs by color and price.  But if you took ten short seconds to tell them this Bickley calcium story, you'd sell more higher-priced eggs, wouldn't you?

SCHMALTZ: Guess I would.  Calcium farm-controlled and eggs sound good to me.

(As he is thinking out loud, a customer enters.)

CUSTOMER ONE: I want some pepper.

SCHMALTZ A: Five or ten-cent size?

CUSTOMER ONE: Oh, the five-cent size will be all right.

SCHMALTZ: How about some sardines today?

CUSTOMER ONE: No, just a five-cent pepper, please.  (Customer leaves.)

WHEELER: How would you like to sell your customers large sizes instead of small sizes?

SCHMALTZ (Interested): Sure I would.  Got some more of them magic words for pepper?

WHEELER: Yes.  The next time a customer asks for anything that comes in two sizes, don't suggest the small size, but use this “sizzle”: Say, the Family Size?  Or, the economical size?

SCHMALTZ: The family size?  The economical size?

WHEELER: Now if you want to sell sardines, as a suggested extra sale, place a box down in front of the woman and say: These sardines are turned upside down every month.

When the woman asks why, tell her that this allows the olive oil to seep through the sardines so that they won't dry out in the can.

SCHMALTZ: Say, those are swell merchandising ideas!  Here comes a customer.  Watch me try these “sizzles” on her.

CUSTOMER TWO: I want some Rinso.

SCHMALTZ: The economical family size, Mrs. Perkins?

CUSTOMER TWO: Oh, of course.

SCHMALTZ (Gives her the Rinso, and then holds sardines in front of her.): These sardines are turned upside down every month, Mrs. Perkins.

CUSTOMER TWO (Surprised and interested.): Turned upside down every month?  My, what for?

SCHMALTZ: So that the olive oil can seep through the little sardines and keep them from drying up.  They'll taste better.

CUSTOMER TWO: That is an idea, and I'll bet those sardines do taste good.  I'll take a can.

SCHMALTZ: The economical family size?

CUSTOMER TWO: Oh, yes I always buy economically.(Gets package and leaves store.)

SCHMALTZ (Delighted.): It worked, young man!  That's the first time old Lady Perkins ever bought the large-size package of soap, and lordy, I've never sold her twenty-five-cent sardines since just before the depression!

WHEELER: That's a practical example of what Tested Techniques and Tested Selling Sentences, or magic words, as you call them, really do in making people buy.

Mr. Schmaltz, which do you sell the most of, the white or the brown eggs?

SCHMALTZ: Oh, I sell nearly all white eggs in this community.

WHEELER: When would you like me to send you a box of our white calcium eggs, on Monday or Tuesday?

SCHMALTZ (Absent-mindedly.): Monday will be all right.

WHEELER: Good-day.  I will send this order out promptly C.O.D., and I'll be back next week with some more Tested Selling Sentences to help you build your business.

SCHMALTZ (Suddenly comes out of daze.): Say -- say you, young feller -- too late -- he's gone, and I bought some eggs from that feller, and I really didn't need them till next week.  He musta used some of that magic on me.  But pshaw!  He's a nice fellow.

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