WATCH YOUR BARK!

(Wheelerpoint 5)

WE COME NOW to the last Wheelerpoint, and upon its proper execution hinges the test of how much your sales words will succeed or fail – for your VOICE is the “carrier” of your message!

The finest “sizzle” that you telegraph in ten words in ten seconds, with a huge bouquet of “flowers” and lots of “Which,” “When,” “Where,” and “How” FLOPS if the voice is FLAT.

It is not necessary or advisable to be an actor and elocute – but a PROPER TONE OF VOICE carries the message swifter and TRUER to the other person with least “static.” 

“HIS MASTER’S VOICE” 

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 is well worth emulating!

Watch the “bark” that can creep into your voice! Watch the “wag” behind your words! 

DON’T BE A “JOHNNY-ONE-NOTE”

Train your voice to run it’s entire scale of tones. Read a book out loud to yourself at night. Cup your hands behind your ears to hear yourself talk. This is excellent drilling in how to pitch your voice properly. Avoid a mechanical, monotonous voice. Inflect! Emphasize! Lower – raise – talk slowly – then speed up dramatically. Vary the tempo of your words! This makes you interesting to the listener.

Don’t be a Johnny-one-note. Learn to highlight your sales points by playing the full “organ” of your vocal chords – the entire range! Not just one note!

Be the director who can go from instrument to instrument.

Above all, avoid tone and voice peculiarities that attract attention to themselves  rather than to your message.

Here are a few examples to illustrate this point:

SMILE WHEN YOU SAY THESE – AND REACH FOR THE “DOTTED LINE” 

“This will shorten your cleaning time by hours.”

“You have only one back – one life to live.”

If men did the cleaning, we couldn’t make these cleaners fast enough.”

WHEN NELLIE SAYS, “I’LL THINK IT OVER,”

WAG THESE WORDS AT HER

“Think also of the DIRT that is ruining your rugs.”

“Think also of the MANY BACKACHES still in store for you.” 

WHEN NELLIE SAYS, “I’LL BUY LATER,” TELEGRAPH THESE MESSAGES 

“Would you continue to use a toaster that didn’t work?”

“Would you use a washing machine that left clothing dirty?”

“What will you SAVE yourself by buying later – not your rugs or your back – just two dimes a day!”

SUMMARY OF WHEELERPOINT 5

Have the “voice with the smile” – but the smile that hasn’t the insincerity of being automatically “turned on” for the immediate benefit of the prospect.

Don’t ever smile insincerely, like the wolf at Red Riding Hood’s door!

If you fail to smile, if you stick your chin out, or if you look grim, down and out, tired, bewildered, scared, or overly confident, you are SIGNALING the prospect to BEWARE!

The last principle, therefore, to make your sales talk “stick” is to watch HOW you say it. So apply Wheelerpoint 5, “Watch Your Bark,” and then watch your sale go merrily down the road to success!

The wooden Indian never made a sale.

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