Chapter 27

SELLING-SENTENCE ODDITIES THAT HAVE MADE PEOPLE RESPOND

Oddities in selling the have their place. But “tricky” door-openers or attention-getters harm sales. Use the odd only when it is dignified and moves the sale smoothly toward a close. The book salesman’s approach. When you find the sign, “No Canvassers Allowed.”

I HAVE ALWAYS been interested in the science of “door crashing,” the great American Art of getting inside the home of a busy housewife with a cake in the oven and two children to dress for school.

Perhaps one of the most amusing door crashers that has come to my attention recently, as used by a salesman for one of those educational schoolbooks, goes as follows:

SALESMAN: (Rapping on door.): “Do you have a little girl named Dorothy?”

WOMAN: (Wondering.): “Oh, no, I have a boy named Harold.”

SALESMAN: “Oh, yes, Harold is the name. He is backward in his history, isn't he?”

WOMAN: “Well, I didn't know. I thought it was writing.”

SALESMAN: “I would like to show you how Herold can get better marks in his writing at school. May I step in? It will only take a moment.”

WOMAN: (Wiping her hands on her apron.): “Oh, certainly, do come in.”

It is often the simple things that make people respond. Things so simple any of us could have thought them up, but so original none of us ever has. However, BEWARE. Don't use tricks to get to the prospect, because when she tumbles to the subterfuge, beware of her rolling pin!

“IF YOU RUN A LITTLE”

One tailor uses this sentence in his store, and it works:

“Pants Pressed -- $.10 a leg!”

Ridiculous? Sure. But he says it in a split second. He telegraphs his message.

When a prospect refuses to come to the back door, one door-to-door salesman I know of goes to the front door and says:

“I didn't think you were receiving at the back door today, so I called at the front door.”

Improbable? Perhaps. But it works for him.

One real estate salesman gets away with this light banter. He always tells the prospect, with a smile, of course, “Now this fine house is only five minutes from the Long Island Railroad -- if you run a little.”

Another real estate man I know has often told me: “If the place has an eight-foot closet, I'll sell the entire house.”

The management of a department store in New York told its piano buyer one day, so I am informed that he couldn't allow people to take 18 months to pay, because that tied up its money too long. The management stated that the department could allow piano purchasers only 12 months to pay, instead of the usual 18 months. Everywhere else in New York people could still purchase on the 18-month plan. After some thought, the buyer, not to be discouraged, ran full-page advertisement shouting:

“A Whole Year to Pay!”

People read the advertisement. “A whole year to pay?” they would say. “That is certainly considerate of the store.” Sales increased! This was taking a handicap and turning it into a selling “sizzle.”

Don't sell the piano sell a whole year to pay for it! Even pianos have “sizzles.”

“NO CANVASSERS ALLOWED”

W.W. Powell, of the Hoover Co., sold 92% of the people who had signs on their doors saying: “No Canvassers or Beggars Allowed.”

When I asked him what his reasoning was, he told me only people with weak sales resistance put up those signs, after they had bought so much from the front-porch salesmen that they secured the sign for self-protection.

Click Play

Zenn Kaufman, who with Ken Goode wrote, Showmanship in Business, tells how the Electrolux salesman “Says It with Flowers” by lighting a giant size match, saying, “It runs as silently as this match burns!”

One of New York City's foremost department stores saved itself nearly $7,000 in unnecessary delivery costs by giving its clerks “Tested Selling Sentences ” which we had designed to induce customers to carry their own small packages.

For instance, when a small boy finished purchasing a new suit with his mother, the clerk would say to the boy, “Would you like to wear this suit tonight?” The boy would usually reply, “Sure.” Mother would say, “Then you'll have to carry the package yourself, son, as mother's arms are full.”

“Are you in the open much?” proved an attention getter in three New York department stores during our recent tests for Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic Brush Co. to best sentences and techniques to use in selling their Stranzit hairbrush.

“Does your brush have these wave-like bristles?” proved another sales-getter, and the sentence, “Do you strand your hair while brushing?” doubled sales of this brush in Lord and Taylor's and Gimbel’s of New York in three days time!

THE MOVING VAN BUSINESS

Mr. Buell Miller, vice president of the Mayflower Warehouseman's Association, made up of leading moving companies of the nation, employed our services to help his estimators say and do the right thing when quoting prices for moving.

This research is new to us as this book goes to press, and our findings for this industry are not all catalogued, but one “sizzle” the seems to be going over very well is to have the estimators show his appreciation of fine things by picking out a piece of furniture he believes is cherished by the woman and saying: “That is a very fine piece, isn't it?”

The woman sees the estimator knows good furniture, and she has the peace of mind necessary before she gives the order. This one selling principle is helping to remove the nightmare for moving by giving the customer confidence.

When the drivers arrive to begin moving, they are instructed to wash their hands in the kitchen sink or basement, saying: “We are instructed to wash our hands before touching your furniture.” Again one sentence goes a long way toward building confidence for this moving association, and is securing business through giving customers peace of mind.

“STOP, LOOK, LISTEN”

Did you ever realize that the following three commonly seen statements are “Tested Selling Sentences” sentences that were created to make people respond?

“No down payment.”

“Send no money.”

“Free sample.”

We see these expressions so much that we don't realize they are “selling sentences,” and tested ones, at that.

I am told that since they changed the reading on the weighing machines in the subways of New York from “Insert one cent” to “Insert coin,” out of every 100 coins now received several are nickels and a few dimes! Besides that, more coins are found! People who had five-cent pieces and wanted to be weighed were afraid they would injure the machine or would not get weight if they inserted coins other than pennies. When the inscription merely said “Insert coin,” well, that could mean a five-cent or a ten-cent piece, as well as the usual penny.

THE REDHEADED BOY

Told the young fellow applying for a job found a long line of boys ahead of him, he immediately went to the telegraph office and sent a telegram saying:

“BEFORE HIRING ANYONE SEE REDHEADED BOY AT END OF LINE. ”

He didn't write -- he telegraphed, in all senses of the word! And he got the job!

“Servicing” the mechanical purchase is better than “repairing” it. So “Service Departments” have come to take the place of “Repair Departments.”

“Beware of Hungry Dogs” is more effective in front of farm houses than “Beware of Dogs.”

Here are some other popular expressions we don't realize our time-tested sales words that make people respond:

“Safety first.”

“No cash needed.”

“I can't live without you.”

There are hundreds of old sayings, queer sentences, and peculiar words that are evidently making money for people. At least people continue to use them, and they get plenty of attention because of their humor or, perhaps, lack of humor -- not because they are “magic words,” but “word magic.”

No collection of sales words would be complete without such sentences as these:

“Be the president of your own bank.”

“The best book I ever owned.” (Bank book advertisement.)

“Don't spend hours breaking your back. Let our washing machine do it for you in one hour.”

“Marriages are made in heaven but wedding rings are made by us.”

“Be your own boss.”

“They laughed when I sat down to play.”

“Do you make these mistakes in English?”

A Bronx beauty parlor, according to a recent statement by Walter Winchell, advertises:

“Permanent Wave -- $3.00”

A next-door rival counters with:

“Permanent Wave -- $5.00 -- But Permanent”

It is all in what you say and how you say it, even in the Bronx!

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