Chapter 31

THE CIGAR-STORE INDIAN NEVER MADE A SALE

All the cigar-store Indian did was attract people to the store.  A live clerk inside had to make the actual sale.  Many a salesman is a wooden Indian and doesn't know it.  The Automat is the only place to date where you can drop coins into slots and get waited on.  But even the Automat can't “trade-up,” sell “extra items,” or make “multiple” sales.

AN INSURANCE salesman got into my office yesterday and asked, “Who is your worst enemy?”  This took me off my feet.  I knew he was prospecting for “leads,” an insurance salesmen usually wants names of friends, relatives, or acquaintances.  This man wanted my “worst enemies.”

When I asked him why, he explained that he received too much resistance when he asked for names of friends.  People do not want to have salesmen calling on their friends.  He hit upon the “worst-enemy” angle, and he tells me it works!

A favorite way, if you are a life insurance salesman, to get the prospect talking is to ask leading questions, such as “Are you married?”  -- “ Have any children?”  -- “Are they boys or girls?”  -- “How old are they?”  The prospect finds himself responding to these questions, warming himself up, and at the same time giving needed information to the salesman. 

A GOOD LEADING QUESTION

 Another insurance salesman finds this to be his favorite leading question, “What is the thing you'd like most to give your children if something happens to you?”

Most men say, “A million dollars,” and this salesman shakes his head slowly, saying, “That would be the worst thing you could do -- it would ruin them!  What you would like to leave your children would be the FULL TIME of their mother, with no financial worries, so that she could help them become the fine people you would like them to be.”

Whenever a sale is slipping, another insurance salesman uses this “Tested Selling Sentence” to get his prospect coming after the “bait.”  He says, “How long is it since you have had your blood pressure taken?”  And then, “Do you think you could pass this examination?”  This reflection on his health will challenge many a man.

It takes a “live wire,” not a wooden Indian, to know when and how to use these “power words” effectively and make people respond, especially when they ask the age-old question on seeing several different pieces of merchandise or sales packages, “What's the difference?”

A book salesman came into my office the other day.  I told him I was too busy at the moment to talk with him, and he said, “I know you're busy -- I call only on busy people!”  He received my full attention.

The old-fashioned statement, “Miss, is your mother home?”  has worked successfully on many a doorstep, and he may be surprised to learn that it is still being used, and rather successfully too, on the newer generation.  Often one word makes or breaks a sale, so weigh your words carefully before, not after, you use them.

THE HOLLYWOOD CASTING OFFICE

It is the little things you say and do that put you across.  Realizing this, the main casting office in Hollywood has abandoned the old statement to people calling up for assignments, “Nothing today,” and has substituted the words, “Call tomorrow.”

I am told that this simple change in language is giving hope to many people who must call up, day after day, for assignments, and that the number of suicides was lessened by these two encouraging words, “Call tomorrow,” instead of the pessimistic “Nothing today.”

It is not a pleasant thing to talk about “feet,” but it is quite proper to talk about your “foot.”

Back in the days when Niagara Falls was the favorite place for newlyweds, there were leather wall pieces with pictures of Indians, dogs, beautiful girls, and other things being sold to the tourists.  You perhaps have seen one of these leather pieces hanging in your grandparents home.

One of them showed the picture of a dog with the inscription, “He won't bite you.”  This particular picture was a poor seller until one day the inscription was changed to, “All I do is growl a little.”  Sales tripled.  The word “bite” in the poor seller evidently brought up a negative thought.  Besides, the first caption was not as personal as the second, which was the dog's own words, theoretically.

Henry Ford changed a billboard headline from “Buy a Ford and Bank the difference” to “Buy a Ford and Spend the difference,” and gained added goodwill from the merchants.

Whatch your words.  Look out for the wag behind what you say.  Watch your bark.

THE BEGGAR USES TESTED SELLING

Last spring in Central Park I noticed a blind man with an unusual sign that stated, “It's spring -- and I am blind.”  Many were the coins dropped into his hand.

A salesman who is a wooden Indian visits farmers to sell them implements.  His usual approach to new prospects is, “How would you like to have a new cow every year?”  The farmers always rest on their plows and acquire, “How?”  Then they receive the sales story.

When I finished my recent address before the International Stewards and Caterers Convention in Philadelphia, the Anheuser-Bush representative from Texas stated he had difficulty selling beer in bottles in that state.  He informed me that the young people ordered beer in glasses, and while they danced the beer went “dead,” and the drinking places got complaints.  He told me he would try using “Tested Selling Sentences” and would change the words, “Draught or bottled beer?” to merely, “Bottle beer?”  He felt that this would prompt people to buy beer in bottles which could be left unopened until ready for drinking.  I think he is right.  I think he has a mighty good “sizzle” for his dealers.

“Just add water,” is mighty important to the sale of several products.

Good sales words must be simple and clothed in “innocence” to work effectively, for once you recognize that you are being sold with a sales talk, you will close your reasoning and become a poor prospect.

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