Chapter 15

MAKING ‘EM HIT THE SAWDUST TRAIL FOR YOU

Back to that old fear appeal again. The pastor says, “you will go to hell!” The quack says, “it will prevent fallen arches, and premature age.” The old medicine and with his Indians to knew how to play on your fears with his swamp root tonic.

A vacuum cleaner salesman is working hard in Mrs. Jones home. He has produced eight small piles of dirt from her rug. He knows the woman is becoming nervous and embarrassed by the sight of the dirt he is able to get from her rug. He puts her at ease by saying, “Don't let this dirt embarrass you, Mrs. Jones. Wherever I use this wonderful machine it digs dirt, because only this machine has patented grit removers that get the dirt below the surface, out of reach of ordinary cleaners. Why only this morning at Mrs. Smith's house I got 16 piles of dirt!”

That puts her at ease. She has eight piles less than Mrs. Smith has!

The salesman notices Mrs. Jones children. He plays on her fear for her children's health by saying, “where do your children play on rainy days, Mrs. Jones?”

“In the house, of course”, she replies to the leading question, wondering.

“Then this is your child's rainy day playground, Mrs. Jones!” He says, pointing to the eight piles of dirt!

Gracious -- she hadn't realized that this dirt pile what was “her child's rainy day playground” -- his “indoor sand piles”. Those were dynamite words. They exploded inside her with a bang -- because they were pre-tested!

Hell -- once the world's greatest fear appeal.

After my talk recently before the Buffalo Rotary club, a well-known pastor approached me and said, we used to keep people coming to church on Sunday with the word hell, but today it has lost its effectiveness.

How true. The word hell has become trite. It once stood for brimstone and fire. But it does no more.

I have often watched Billy Sunday trade on the word hell. He used it to get people to hit his famous sawdust trail. But Billy Sunday's technique has gone with the cigar and derby salesman.

Yet there are other fears that will keep the children from going to the movies with the collection money and that will keep dad off the golf links until after church. One church advertises: “Your Sins -- and How to Overcome Them.”

The pastor realizes he is in competition with the press agents for golf courses and movies, with automobile salesman, and with the health appeals of the beach owners. He is watching his words!

THE OLD MEDICINE MAN

The medicine man can open his business on any street corner, and within three minutes he has customers. Why? Because of the words he shouts into the crowds, words that capture your ears, that turn your eyes to what he is doing. Ten-Second Sales Messages. His leading questions are:

“Do you feel tired at times? Do you feel like giving up? Does your back ache at four o'clock every afternoon? Do your feet hurt you every night? Can you see that bird on the top of this building? Can you jump over a fence 3 feet high? If you can't, then step right up here gentlemen, and let me show you something that will put pep into your old blood, it will make you feel like a day in spring, a trip through the mountains, as refreshed as an ocean breeze.”

The medicine man is trading on your fears and on your desires, alike, with leading questions that get him the answers he wants. He's hitting your basic buying motive number one: Self-Preservation!

You step up to this portable store. You are all eyes and ears. You are skeptical -- but not for long when this orator begins to play on your emotions as the harpist plays on the strains of a heart. His words are music to the ears of all sufferers, especially of imaginary ills

QUICK RELIEF -- THE DRUGSTORE'S BEST WORDS

Step into any Peoples, Economical-Cunningham, or Pennsylvania Drugstore where we have installed Tested Selling Sentences principles. You'll find two words being used over and over again, “quick relief.”

Grandmother has a backache. Dad has a corn. Mother has a headache. Each steps up to the drug counter. The druggist places a prescribed package in front of each, and says simply, “These will give all of you quick relief.”

Each buys because that is what each wanted most for his ailment, quick relief. Look at all the signs today shouting variations of these two words.

You see: “instant relief from headaches, quick relief for corns, prompt relief from heartburn, and so on.”

These two words are making millions for drug manufacturers and for drugstore owners everywhere – QUICK RELIEF!

But don't OVERDO this fear appeal! And be sure when you say it will give “quick relief,” that you are HONEST!

Click Play

Making up Your Mind

Several years ago, the Cunningham Drugstores of Detroit, in the person of Mr. Nat Shapiro, came to our laboratory. His extensive chain of Midwestern stores was overstocked with products for the feet.

“How can we introduce these products to men and women?” He asked me.

Fifty-five customer approaches were tabulated for his use. One after another of these sentences was tried, until this subtle, indirect, harmless, split-second attention getter was successfully created:

“Are you on your feet much?”

Here was a leading question to which nine out of every 12 people would remark that they were. All of us feel we are on our feet more than we should be or wish to be. With this wonderful opening, then, the salespeople in this chain of stores would say:

“This will ease your feet. It is made ESPECIALLY for people who are on their feet a lot.”

Customers would pick up the product. The appeal was directed to them. It was directed to their instinct of self-preservation. It shot by their natural resistances, and hit those tiny “mental pocketbooks” inside the emotional part of their brains. Hundreds of packages were sold the first week! Again the right words -- spoken at the right time!

People WILL hit the sawdust trail for you if you motivate them by first appealing to them emotionally.

A SELL-OUT IN TOOTHBRUSHES

Bloomingdale's, Abraham and Strauss, Stern Brothers, William Taylor, and Saks 34th St Department stores all sold out of toothbrushes some months ago by the simple application of a sentence TESTED to capture the leading interest of customers in 10 seconds.

The old expressions –“ need any toothbrushes today?” --“ We have a special on today,” -- and so on -- failed to sell the brushes, a staple item. People seldom stock up in toothbrushes. It is a “necessity” item.

One day the clerks in these stores were instructed by one of our staff to approach each customer who had made a regular purchase with this statement:

“Have you ever used a SCIENTIFIC toothbrush, madam?”

The customer would ask what a “scientific toothbrush” was, the salesperson would hold up the favored brushes say:

“The bristles are ADJUSTED to clean BETWEEN the teeth!”

These “arrow-like words” shot to the proper niche of the brain, and sales increased.

In fact, for the first time in the history of each one of these stores, the toothbrushes were sold completely out of stock in less than a week -- a testimonial de luxe to the power of “Tested Selling Sentences.” Just two sentences made customers hit the old sawdust trail for toothbrush manufacturers and retailers -- and helped customers have finer, well-cleaned teeth!

A COUNTERSIGN THAT SELLS

One-day Doctors Beaver and Gibbs, of the Peoples Drug Stores of Washington, informed us they wanted to get men to begin using an underarm deodorant to avoid perspiration. If men could be introduced to use this product, a brand-new market would be developed overnight.

We told them it would be easy. We would instruct the sales girls to have their customers teach their husbands the many advantages of a deodorant. Then the bottle would be used twice as fast in the home, and the woman would be back to the store twice as frequently.

A fine theory, but what a sad experience! The sales girl would say to a buyer of a deodorant, “Why not teach her husband its many advantages, Madam?”

The Customer Would Come Back with, “What makes you think I have a husband?” Or, “What makes you think he needs it, young lady?”

We then tried several ideas at the cigar counters, man-to-man stuff. But again we experienced difficulty. A man would buy some cigars, and the clerk would say, “How about some deodorant today, sir?”

“No thanks” the man would reply. “My wife uses Flit.” He didn't even know what a deodorant was! When he found out, he was insulted, wondering why the clerk suggested it to him!

THE HE-MAN APPEAL

Finally we placed a sign on the cigar counter reading: “For Men.” In front of the sign we placed a bar of Life-Buoy soap and a bottle of Odorono. The Life-Buoy suggested the use of the Odorono, for men do read the ads of he-men in showers using Life-Buoy. Instinctively they felt the bottle on the counter was for the same purpose. They would pick it up and ask, “What is this?”

Here is proof of the great power of words properly chosen -- even on countersigns!

Look for the “sizzle” in your product; look for the “square clothespin “in whatever you are selling; find the “swamp root”; look for the “Hell”; then remember Wheeler-point number 5, and “Watch Your Bark!”

That's the simple formula for making people hit the sawdust trail for you!

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