Chapter 22
HOW TO MAKE COMPLETE SALES
PRESENTATIONS OUT OF TESTED SENTENCES
It takes only one “Tested Selling Sentence” to make a
person by. At times, however, it is
necessary to put them into a series form.
The difference between a “canned” and a “planned” sales
talk.
WHETHER YOU ARE selling something that takes 10 seconds or 10 days, the principles of making single sentences sell still apply.
The other person has a “fatigue” point, a
limit beyond which he fails to hear what you are saying. You must revive his interest
constantly by TELEGRAPHING “sizzles” to his brain. You must constantly make his mouth water
for your proposition. He must
always look for the “square clothespin” to crash his
thoughts.
Here is a sales skit given by Warren
Rishel and me at the New York Sales Executives Club on March 29, 1937, at
the Roosevelt Hotel, illustrating how single “Tested Sentences” can be coordinated chronologically into a
sales presentation. Again using the
principle that people learn more quickly when you first show them the wrong
way and then make a sudden contrast and show them the right way, we offer you
the following skit to show you how single sentences can be built into a sales
presentation:
WHEELER: Gentlemen, there are two weak links in your sales and
merchandising campaigns.
One is
the selling language and the techniques your salesmen will use when they face
the dealer to sell your products.
The
other is the selling language and techniques the dealer will in turn use on his
customers to sell your products.
We will
go back to our performance of several weeks ago to dramatize again for you the
difference between the “canned” sales talk that uses hit-and-miss salesmanship
and the “planned” sales talk that has been scientifically tested to make the
sale more accurate, more fool-proof, and faster.
I will
now take the part of a salesman who has overly memorized his sales talk and
otherwise violates all the rules and principles of approaching and selling
a dealer on handling butter and eggs.
THE WRONG WAY TO MAKE A
SALES PRESENTATION
(Wheeler enters the store of Abernathe Schmaltz, who was busy dusting off
the shelves.)
WHEELER: Is Abernathe Schmaltz in? I take it you're the grocery boy
here.
SCHMALTZ: I'll have you understand I am Abernathe
Schmaltz.
WHEELER: Well, howya fixed for butter and eggs in the
store?
SCHMALTZ: Fine -- wanna buy some?
WHEELER: Oh, you got me wrong, brother -- I'm a butter-and-egg
salesman. I've been sent down here
to interest you in Bickley butter and
eggs.
SCHMALTZ: Well, go on and interest
me!
WHEELER: First, I want to tell you about the background of A. F. Bickley
and Sons. We've been in business
since 1870, and --
SCHMALTZ: Well, I take butter and eggs from a farmer. Are your butter and eggs any
better?
WHEELER: They sure are, but let me tell you about the personnel of
our organization. Take our boss,
for example. He's a great old
duffer. Likes to fish down in
Chesapeake Bay. Why you should see
the fish he caught last week when he --
SCHMALTZ: I like fishing too, but tell me: Are your butter and eggs
better than the ones I get from the farmer?
WHEELER: (Takes pieces of candy out of box.): Sure they're better, but
--
SCHMALTZ: Say, don't eat that piece of candy -- that's MY
PROFITS!
WHEELER: Sorry -- but now look-it here, Schmaltz, we’re wasting a lot of
time. I want to do you one
favor.
SCHMALTZ: (Angry.) Oh, you
want to do me a favor, heh?
WHEELER: I sure do. Now if
you --
SCHMALTZ: Then git the blazes out of the store! That's the biggest favor you can do for me. I've lost $2.85 in sales
already. Now git, you -- darn you,
git!
WHEELER: Gee, these grocery fellows are certainly hard people to
sell. Guess its account of that
Patman Bill.
THE
RIGHT WAY TO MAKE A SALES PRESENTATION
WHEELER (To audience.): That was slightly exaggerated to be sure, but it
illustrates a mighty important principle in selling today, which is
this:
A
salesman calling on the dealer has only ten short seconds to catch the dealers
interest, and if in those ten short seconds he doesn't say something mighty
important, the dealer will leave him, either physically or
mentally.
Now let us see
this same salesman one month later, after he has thrown away his “canned” sales
talk and has made a careful study of the “planned” TESTED presentation style of
selling.
Not only does he
now have ten-second door-crashers, “Tested Selling Sentences,” and
“Tested Techniques,” but
he also has an interesting plan of giving the dealer ready-made words and sales
techniques to help the dealer build his volume.
I'll
again take the role of a salesman.
(Wheeler enters store in breezy manner.)
WHEELER: Good morning, Mr. Schmaltz, my name is Wheeler. I'm from A. F. Bickley and Sons. How would you like to build your butter
and egg business?
SCHMALTZ: Guess I would. Who wouldn't?
WHEELER: Feel the weight of this egg. (Puts eggs into Schmaltz right hand.) Now feel the weight of this egg! (Puts another egg into Schmaltz left hand.) The egg in your right hand is much heavier than the egg in your left hand, yet both eggs are the same size. Isn't that true?
SCHMALTZ (Puzzled.): Yes this egg is heavier -- how come?
WHEELER: That is a Bickley farm-controlled egg, Mr. Schmaltz, laid by a hen that has been fed scientifically balanced food that contains calcium.
SCHMALTZ: Calcium? What is calcium?
WHEELER: Calcium is a bone and body-building food in an egg.
The more calcium and other food in an egg, the heavier it is.
The
outside of an egg is no indication of the
inside.
Whether the egg is brown or white is no way to determine the food value
inside the shell.
You must weigh eggs to determine the amount of food value in them. Good eggs should weigh no less then 24 ounces a dozen.
The hen who laid that egg in your left hand was fed on run-of-the-farm left-overs. It has little food. That is why it feels so light.
The egg in your right hand is the same size and same color, yet weighs much more. It is a Bickley farm-controlled egg. It is filled with body-building calcium.
SCHMALTZ: My, I never knew that.
WHEELER: And I'll bet few of your customers know this interesting story of eggs. They merely buy eggs by color and price. But if you took ten short seconds to tell them this Bickley calcium story, you'd sell more higher-priced eggs, wouldn't you?
SCHMALTZ: Guess I would. Calcium farm-controlled and eggs sound good to me.
(As he is thinking out loud, a customer enters.)
CUSTOMER ONE: I want some pepper.
SCHMALTZ A: Five or ten-cent size?
CUSTOMER ONE: Oh, the five-cent size will be all right.
SCHMALTZ: How about some sardines today?
CUSTOMER ONE: No, just a five-cent pepper, please. (Customer leaves.)
WHEELER: How would you like to sell your customers large sizes instead of small sizes?
SCHMALTZ (Interested): Sure I would. Got some more of them magic words for pepper?
WHEELER: Yes. The next time a customer asks for anything that comes in two sizes, don't suggest the small size, but use this “sizzle”: Say, the Family Size? Or, the economical size?
SCHMALTZ: The family size? The economical size?
WHEELER: Now if you want to sell sardines, as a suggested extra sale, place a box down in front of the woman and say: These sardines are turned upside down every month.
When
the woman asks why, tell her that this allows the olive oil to seep through the
sardines so that they won't dry out in the can.
SCHMALTZ: Say, those are swell merchandising ideas! Here comes a customer. Watch me try these “sizzles” on
her.
CUSTOMER TWO: I want some Rinso.
SCHMALTZ: The economical family size, Mrs.
Perkins?
CUSTOMER TWO: Oh, of course.
SCHMALTZ (Gives her the Rinso, and then holds sardines in front of her.):
These sardines are turned upside down every month, Mrs.
Perkins.
CUSTOMER TWO (Surprised and interested.): Turned upside down every month? My, what for?
SCHMALTZ: So that the olive oil can seep through the little sardines and keep them from drying up. They'll taste better.
CUSTOMER TWO: That is an idea, and I'll bet those sardines do taste
good. I'll take a
can.
SCHMALTZ: The economical family size?
CUSTOMER TWO: Oh, yes I always buy economically.(Gets package and leaves store.)
SCHMALTZ (Delighted.): It worked, young man! That's the first time old Lady Perkins ever bought the large-size package of soap, and lordy, I've never sold her twenty-five-cent sardines since just before the depression!
WHEELER: That's a practical example of what Tested Techniques and Tested Selling Sentences, or magic words, as you call them, really do in making people buy.
Mr.
Schmaltz, which do you sell the most
of, the white or the brown eggs?
SCHMALTZ: Oh, I sell nearly all white eggs in this
community.
WHEELER: When would you like me to send you a box of our white
calcium eggs, on Monday or Tuesday?
SCHMALTZ (Absent-mindedly.): Monday will be all
right.
WHEELER: Good-day. I will
send this order out promptly C.O.D., and I'll be back next week with some
more Tested Selling Sentences to help you build your
business.
SCHMALTZ (Suddenly comes out of daze.): Say -- say you, young feller -- too late -- he's gone, and I bought some eggs from that feller, and I really didn't need them till next week. He musta used some of that magic on me. But pshaw! He's a nice fellow.