Chapter 26
“OLD
MAN JOHNSTON” FINDS SIX WORDS THAT SELL PIPE
TOBACCO
This is the story of a man who took 50
years to find a “Tested Selling Sentence” with sufficient
“sizzle” to overcome a typical customer
objection. He makes six words sell
hundreds of pounds of pipe tobacco.
FOR FIFTY YEARS
C.E. Johnston, tobacco blender of Cleveland, Ohio, worked for a
leading tobacconist. One morning he was fired. “Old Man
Johnston” was let out because he was thought too old to carry
on.
But with grim determination to carry-on he
began selling electrical devices of all kinds door to
door. But the devices have no “repeat
value.” They were “one time”
sales. Mr. Johnston couldn't build up a
trade -- a following.
He began to sell other gadgets; then suddenly
he decided to capitalize on his 50 years as a tobacco
blender. A natural thing to do -- such
an obvious thing -- yet it had taken him fifty years to think
of the idea. He invested in $22 worth
of Irish tobaccos. He blended them to a
taste he felt would please a great number of particular pipe
smokers.
“YOUR
TOBACCO IS TOO EXPENSIVE”
He used only good tobaccos, and since good
tobaccos are expensive, they must bring a fair
price. So he charged three dollars a
pound. Naturally he had a price
resistance, the same one he had heard for fifty years at his
former place of business. People would
say to him, “Your tobacco is good, Mr. Johnston, but it is too
expensive for me to smoke regularly.”
With this objection facing him wherever he
went, Mr. Johnston was quite
discouraged. It took him 42 days, he
told me, to sell his first order of Irish
tobacco.
One day he hit upon an answer to the
objection. He tried it
out. It
clicked. It began to convince people
that his tobacco was not expensive -- but really
cheap.
SIX SIMPLE SALES
WORDS
How did he accomplish
this? With six simple sales words,
tested to make people buy his
tobacco. Here is how he did it: He
would listen to the old objection and then asked the prospect
for a cigarette. He would hold the
cigarette in his hand, dramatically (Saying It with
Flowers). He would then
say:
“Did
you know cigarettes cost you nine dollars a
pound?”
The prospect
gasped! What? Nine
dollars a pound!
Sure -- figure it out for
yourself! Cigarettes do cost that much
per pound, but who realizes it?
The prospect saw how cheap pipe tobacco was
-- even the most expensive pipe tobacco -- when the “Tested
Selling Sentence” was hurled at him, and he came to a
sudden realization that Mr. Johnston's fine Irish blends, at
three dollars a pound, costs six dollars a
pound less than cigarettes.
THIS
TESTED SENTENCE GETS 1600 CUSTOMERS
During the past three
years Mr. Johnston has built up a following of nearly
1600 businessmen of
Cleveland. All of them know Mr.
Johnston. He is welcome in all
their offices.
Those six
well-thought-out words, fifty years in the making, have sold
hundreds of pounds of tobacco for Mr. Johnston.
Sometime try his Number 12
tobacco. You'll like it
-- and you’ll like a man who, at 70 years, found that you are
never too old to learn the rule: “Consider The Prospect's Response to What You
Say.”
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