Chapter 28

A CIGARETTE GIRL CHANGES AN EXPRESSION INCREASES FOR BUSINESS

“Cigars, cigarettes, and almonds” stops hotel guests. “Very hot chestnuts” clicks on Seventh Avenue and in Advertising Age.  The “perambulating sandwich.”  Selling combs on Sixth Avenue.

ONE DAY WE WERE asked by the Hotels Statler chain to devise a new expression for its cigarette girls to use.  It seemed, after some study on the subject, that “Cigars and cigarettes” failed to rouse people and crash through their cloud of thoughts, dreams, or conversations, as they sat in the restaurant.

People living next to a railroad soon failed to hear the train whistle.  People in a hotel concentrate so much on their dining, conversation, or dancing that they fail to hear or see the little girl with her cigars and cigarettes.

Just to show you the power of changing a statement around ever so slightly, and gaining added results, we had the young lady in the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City, as a test, say:

                        “Your CHOICE of cigars and cigarettes.”

She would “Say It with Flowers” by holding a package of cigarettes in full view of the people sitting at their tables.  We also tried another simple “attention-getter” and “daze crasher”:

                        “Cigars, cigarettes, and almonds.”

Simple changes -- but sales increased, because the young ladies received “renewed” attention with this new sales story that penetrated the haze!

There was a humorous twist to this last sentence, at least so I am told.  It seems that up to 12 o'clock at night the girls would use the statement all right, but after 12 they would let down somewhat and say:

                        “Cigars, cigarettes and al-monds!”

And by three o'clock they were so tired that they would simply mutter:

                        “Nuts and butts -- nuts and butts!”

Anyway, this is a good story, illustrating our fifth principle:

                        It is all in HOW you say it, as well as in WHAT you say.

HOT CHESTNUTS FOR SALE

I saw an advertisement in Advertising Age endeavoring to show the importance of advertising properly.  One of those fellows you see in the fall selling hot chestnuts on street corners was saying:

                        “Hot chestnuts.”

His business was poor.  The fellow down the street who was getting all of the business was saying:

                        “ Very hot chestnuts!”

One small five-and-ten-cent store conceived, sometime ago, the idea of selling ice cream sandwiches in front of the store entrance.  On the first warm day of the season, the manager had the porter bring the ice cream cooler outside, placed ice cream in it, and employed a pretty girl to sell it.  You have seen these stands in front of many a five-and-ten-cent store.  In this particular case, the sign was:

                        “The best ice cream sandwich in the city -- $.05.”

It seemed that every year the ice cream business increased everywhere but in front of the store.  A study of the situation showed that when one person bought a sandwich, he stood right there and ate it.

A PERAMBULATING SANDWICH

That was good advertising, at first, seeing people eat the ice cream, since it prompted other people to buy.  But soon the entrance became so jammed that the shoppers could hardly get into the store, and many turned away because of that fact.  To keep traffic moving away from the store entrance, yet to sell ice cream sandwiches, was really a problem for the store manager.  One day, however, it was solved by giving the sandwich a name.  What do you suppose the name was?  It was “Walk Away Sandwich.”

And people, realizing they could eat and walk, did walk away, leaving room for other shoppers to step up to the little counter in the store entrance and purchase sandwiches.

Three action words -- that got action!

THE STORY OF THE COMB

One of those salesmen who fail to realize that the word “you” comes before “I,” even in the word “business,” was reciting a long-winded conversation about combs on a street corner.  He had heard about the rule, “Don't Write -- Telegraph!”  He was selling a small audience that the combs would “last a lifetime,” would “massage the scalp,” and would “never break, bend, or bust.”

He did “Say It with Flowers,” however, by pounding the comb on his stand.  He would hit with a hammer!  Very dramatic, to be sure!  Yet he failed to find the “sizzle,” and so sold few combs.  He said that the comb would do about all that any comb would be expected to do, if he missed the main purpose, or “sizzle,” until a quiet little fellow, quite innocently, from the back row of a small crowd said one day:

                        “But, tell me, sir, will it comb the hair?”

Don't, DON'T become so fancy with your verbiage that you miss the simple selling point.  Don't put so much sauce on top of the steak that you kill the flavor.  Sell the “sizzle” -- not the trimmings.

The “sizzle” is MORE IMPORTANT than the cow!

A little newsboy selling a nationally known weekly magazine gets the immediate attention of women with this “door-crasher”:

                        “Do you like good stories, madam?”

What woman can say “No” to that door approach!

“Sooie,” says John Caples, is the simple word to call hogs to their suppers. “Sooie” -- one  word -- but the RIGHT word!

FIND THE “SIZZLES”

Sometimes you are so close to your business, to your life, that you fail to see the “sizzles,” the “square clothespins.”  You need somebody to point them out to you.

A mountaineer built his home with his front porch away from the cliff, paying no attention to the view of the whole valley below.  He was so used to the good view in his “backyard” that he didn't see it anymore.

A one-armed salesman approaches stenographers and offices with this question:

                        “ Do you have use for a machine gun around here?”

“Of course not,” says the astonished girl, sitting back, giving him her full attention, wondering why he said what he did.

With the complete attention of his prospect in ten seconds, the one-armed man holds up some pencils and says:

                        “ Then perhaps you could use a good pencil!”

But again BEWARE -- don't use obvious tricks!  They boomerang!

Don't help the customer say “No” by such statements as these:

                        “Is there anything else?”

                        “Something else today?”

                        “Will that be all?”

Word your questions so that it is impossible for the other person to respond with the two-letter negative, “No!”

Try saying: 

                        “What else?”

The other person begins to think, “What else do I need?”  He can't say “No” to “What else?”

Of course, where possible, tell some ten-second story about some item you want to sell, and by selling the sizzle and not the steak, the bubbles and not the wine, the whiff not the coffee, the pucker and not the pickle, your chances of making that extra sale are greater.

“Corns gone in five days or your money back,” is a famous old headline that is tested.  What else can you say?  It comes out in ten short seconds; you “Say It with Flowers” with a guarantee.  What a “sizzle” to a person with corns!

Selling the other person is so simple.  Why make it complicated?  Remember, the selling word is mightier than the price tag. 

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