Chapter 32

SUMMARY OF THE FIVE WHEELERPOINTS

DURING THESE YEARS of building the world's first and only Word Laboratory wherein sales talks are manufactured and then tested, I have often been asked for our formula in putting words together with their techniques into sales presentations, and for the first time in this book I have given you these principles.   Let's review them quickly:

WHEELERPOINT 1.   DON'T SELL THE STEAK

-- SELL THE SIZZLE!

The sizzle has sold more steaks than the cow ever has, although the cow is of course mighty important.   Hidden in everything you sell are “sizzles.”   The “sizzle” is the best-selling argument.   It's the bubble in the wine; the tang in the cheese; the whiff in the coffee.

Look for the “sizzles” in your sales package and use them first to get the sale started -- so you will have a chance to follow through.

The first thing the prospect asks himself about what you are selling is, “What will it do for me?”   You must put on your “sizzles specs” and look at your product through his eyes so you can answer this big question.

Being able to say “you” instead of “I” is what I call “YOU-ABILITY.”   By developing “You-ability” you soon learn how to find “sizzles” and how to fit them to each prospect in tailor-made fashion -- and in the order that the prospect, not you, considers important!

A little old woman was looking at stoves.   A salesman with a “canned” talk but no regard for his prospect started at the bottom of the stove and outlined each and every “sizzle” to his prospect.   He told her about the good paint job; how the stove was high enough to permit a dog to sleep under it; how the enamel wouldn't chip; how fine cakes and pies could be baked.   When he was finally exhausted, the little woman asked sweetly and simply:

                        “But will it keep a little old lady warm?”

The rule to remember is this: What is a “sizzle” to one person may be a “fizzle” or a whole bonfire to another person.   Therefore, fit the “sizzle” to the prospect on hand!

WHEELERPOINT 2. “DON'T WRITE -- TELEGRAPH!”

By this I mean, get the prospects IMMEDIATE and FAVORABLE attention in the fewest possible words.   Your first ten words are more important than your next ten thousand -- for you have only ten short seconds to catch the fleeting interest of the other person, and, if your first message doesn't “click,” the prospect leaves you mentally -- if not physically!

Therefore, the second rule for successful presentation with “Tested Selling Sentences ” is to make every word count by using “telegraphic” statements, because you have no time for long “letters.”

People form snap judgments and make up their opinions about you during the first ten seconds.   Their first judgment affects their entire attitude toward what you are selling.

When you face your prospect don't guess and gamble -- don't stammer and stutter -- don't hem and haw!   Know what you are going to say and do.   Be sure it is “TESTED  ”!  The rule to keep in mind is this: it's all in what you say the first ten seconds!

If you apply this simple rule, the technique that goes with what you say will come naturally to you in Wheelerpoint 3. 

WHEELERPOINT 3. “SAY IT WITH FLOWERS” 

This simply means, PROVE your statements.   Give a quick customer benefit -- but then prove it the next second. “Happy returns of the day” when accompanied with flowers proves you MEAN it.

You have only ten short seconds and two able hands to sell a prospect -- so fortify your words with performance -- back up your selling “sizzles” with showmanship!

Your words will get much better results if SUPPORTED with action than if left hanging mid-air to themselves, no matter how good the words may be.

You know how little a perfunctory “Thank you” of some clerks means to you.   It lacks the reinforcement of sincerity.

It's the little things you DO as you speak your lines that make the sales presentations stand out.   The movement of your hands -- your head -- your feet -- tells the prospect how sincere and honest you are.

Don't be a “comic valentine” salesman with a shine in your sales talk and bags in your selling technique as well as in your pants.   Don't be the telegraph operator who knows the message but fumbles the keys.

Make the wires sing out -- but make them sing DRAMATICALLY.

Get action with action!

Demonstrate -- but DEMONSTRATE TO SELL!

Synchronize your “sizzles” with SHOWMANSHIP!

The motion that accompanies utterance of words -- the expression on the sellers face at the time -- the manner in which he handles the product -- all are a part of a successful presentation with “Tested Selling. ”

The rule for you to apply is this: Say the “sizzle” quickly -- but say it with gestures!

And then when the time comes to stop your parade of “sizzles” and ask the prospect to buy, use the principles in the next Wheelerpoint.

WHEELERPOINT 4.   DON'T ASK IF -- ASK WHICH!

We mean you should always frame your words (especially at the close) so that you give the prospect a choice between something and SOMETHING, never between something and NOTHING.

Ask leading questions like the good lawyer -- but always ask a question that gets the answer YOU want!   Never take a chance and ask a question unless you know the reply you will get.

There are two kinds of salesmen, those who talk with question marks and those who talk with exclamation marks.   Be the question-mark salesman who hooks his prospects interest with leading questions -- do not whack him into submission with exclamation marks.

Never ask the prospect if he wants to buy it -- but WHICH!   Give him a choice.   Ask what, when, where, or how much he wants to buy.   Not if -- but which!

Ask the right question and you'll get the answer YOU want!

“Tested Questions ” revives wavering sales.   Whenever you feel the sale slipping, ask a question that will start you off on a new tack.   A “Tested Question” gives you a breathing spell while a prospect answers.

The word “why” is the hardest single word in the English-language and in a salesman’s vocabulary for an objecting prospect to answer.   Use the word “why” whenever the prospect objects.   Watch him wiggle trying to put phantom objections into words to answer your “why.”

Try this “why” system at home.   The next time the wife asks for a new hat, politely ask her, “Why do you want one?”   Watch her struggle to get the reasons, which are usually so silly she doesn't want to tell them to you.

During the Depression you found it necessary to say “No” because you had little money with which to say “Yes.”   The depression may be over, but from force of habit you still say “No,” unless a clever salesman makes the “No” difficult to say.

The rule to remember is this: You can catch more fish with hooks than with crowbars.

Now with these important selling points in mind, there is still one more necessary to the making of a successful sales presentation.

WHEELERPOINT 5.   WATCH YOUR BARK!

Consider how much the little dog can express with just ONE WORD and ONE TAIL to wag.   What he can do with the tone of his “woof” and the wag of his tail in conveying his many messages to you is well worth emulating.

Watch the bark that can creep into your voice -- watch the “wag” behind your words.   This is the fifth and final element of a successful “Tested Selling” presentation.

The finest “sizzle” that you “telegraph” in ten seconds with huge bouquets of “flowers” and lots of “which,” “what,” and “how,” will flop if the voice is flat.

Don't be a Johnny-one-note.   Train your voice to run its entire scale.   Cup your hands behind your ears and hear yourself talk.   Be a director who can play all the instruments.   Avoid voice peculiarities.   Have the voice with the smile, but not the smile that has been automatically “turned on” for the immediate benefit of the prospect.   Never smile insincerely like the Wolf at Red Riding Hood’s door.

Remember: The wooden Indian tattooed with selling words never sold a cigar.   He merely brought customers into the store for a real, live-wire salesman to sell.

This fifth rule is simple: It is all in how you say it and the way you say it as well as what you say!

If you will apply these five simple selling points, you will find that your sales are bound to be more accurate, more fool-proof, and faster -- for these five principles come fresh off the firing line, and are TESTED to make people respond to your way of thinking.

We told you how when the John's-Manville Housing Guild salesmen approach their prospects on front porches and cold canvas calls, their opening “Tested Selling Sentence ” is “Here is your FREE COPY of 100 Ways to Improve Your Home. ”  This is how they solved the screen-door problem!

We told you how the Texas Company used a single “Tested Selling Sentence ” to introduce their New Texaco Oil two years ago, and how their 45,000 dealers got under 250,000 hoods in one weeks time -- exposing themselves to this much business!

We told you how Mr. H. W. Hoover knows that the finest idea on his Hoover cleaner will be accepted as matter-of-fact by women unless that idea is dramatized in words that blaze themselves effectively across the minds of the prospects, and so each Hoover selling statement must be (1) easy to speak, and (2) have remembrance value.

Therefore, the signal that tells the woman the bag needs cleaning is not called a “danger device” but the “Time-to-Empty-Signal,” and a salesman says: “You may forget to clean the bag, but this new Hoover won't forget to remind you.”   The headlight is called the “Dirt Finder” and the “Tested Statement” that goes with this colorful description is, “It sees were to clean, and it's clean where it's been.”

We have found after analyzing 105,000 such word combinations and techniques as the above examples and having tested them on 19 million people that the “canned” sales talk is not as effective as the “planned” sales talk which is made fool-proof through intelligent pre-testing in the field under normal selling conditions, to make the statements scientifically defensible.

“WORD MAGIC” – NOT “MAGIC WORDS”

Now I've given you these five points, the result of ten years study of the sales words and techniques used by successful salespeople in many kinds of businesses, and you can apply them to your own business.

Successful selling depends on many things, of course, but after all, it is the words you use in the things you do as you stand face-to-face with your prospect that make or break the sale for you.

“Tested Selling Sentences ” are never “high-pressure” or “canned” statements -- we do not recommend either -- but are well-chosen sentences designed to give the prospect the necessary information in an acceptable manner so that he or she can easily and naturally reach the conclusion YOU are aiming for.

In every buyers mind there is always a “dream” and a “need” whenever he is making a purchase of any consequence.   The first thing the seller should do, therefore, is to satisfy the “dream” desire but, secondly, be sure to fill the “need.”   The “sizzle” stimulates as well as satisfies the “desire” but be sure the “steak” came from the right part of a good “steer” or the reaction will be disappointment.

A $20,000 automobile will stop if a $.10 gas connection fails.   A business will stop  if the salesman fails to say and do the right thing at the right time. 

The chain with one link holding fifty pounds, another sixty pounds, and a third three pounds is only as strong as the “pulling power” of a three-pound link, and so it is with your business; it is only as strong as the selling power of your salesmen.

What your salesmen do on the firing line, whether it be out on front and back porches, or behind selling counters, or in business offices, determines, remember, the amount of smoke that will come out of your factory chimneys.   This smoke is in direct RATIO to the salesmanship of your selling force!

Summed up, the philosophy behind “Tested Selling” is simply this:

Don't think so much about what you want to say as about what the prospect wants to hear -- then the response you will get will more often be the one you are aiming for.

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