simple and logical action that
was well within the prospect’s
grasp. Therefore he readily
bought; no eloquence or “domi
nating personality” or excep
tional force and aggressiveness
was needed to make that sale.
I know those who read this
are thinking, “That’s all very
well; but how am I to know what
a prospect will readily buy be
fore I try to sell him? Am I a
mind reader?”
It is not one-tenth as difficult
as it may seem to you. Just fol
low this one basic fact about
people: “We think and act ac
cording to little things!”
As an old lady once said to
me, “We human beings live aw
fully close to ourselves.” The
man or woman who would sell us
must also be close to us, must see
as we see, think as we think and
feel as we feel.
And we emphatically do not
follow the “copybook maxims”
of life!
The grand generalities move
us exceedingly little!
“profit” used as a sales appeal so
many times that it has become
threadbare and monotonous.
bring in more people before 11
a.m. and between 2 and 4 p.m.
be of value to you?” more than
80 of them would reply, “Yes!”
And of the other 20, probably 15
would reply “yes” if they did not
think you would try to sell them
something!
Restaurant owners have the
common characteristic of “dull
spots” in their days. Those “dull
spots” mean they have unused
capacities, idle waitresses, idle
clerks, idle equipment. Their
costs run on, but their revenues
cease. That is an irritating,
common problem and so they are
easily interested and will readily
listen when a salesman touches
on that small but ever present
problem.
I doubt that any one prevent
able cause of failures among
salesmen and saleswomen is so
common as the attitude that “I
can sell This to Everybody!”
There is no such person as
“Everybody!” There is a prac
tical old saying that “Every
body’s business is Nobody’s busi-
"O L D STUFF" LA C K S APPEAL
No salesman can afford to use
a sales appeal that is “old stuff”
to a prospect. No salesman can
afford to have his opening re
marks (and a man’s “opener”
largely determines the success
of his entire sales talk) depreci
ated because they sound just like
what many other salesmen have
said. “Familiarity breeds con
tempt” and prospects become
“contemptuous” of “openers”
they have heard over and over
again, just as surely as you and
I become bored and then irri
tated with a song we have heard
plugged on the radio too often.
While each individual is some
what different from every other,
yet our needs, problems, ills, and
hopes tend to be uniform accord
ing to the group of which each is
a member.
As an example, if you were to
say this to 100 restaurant own
ers, “Would a proved method to
(Continued on page 69)
G EN ER ALITIES F A IL
A merchant turned to me one
day, after an expostulating
salesman left, and exploded, “If
another salesman pulls that old
gag, ‘You want to make money,
don’t you’ on me again today, I ’ll
murder him !”
He had turned down five sales
men that afternoon, every one of
them who built his entire appeal
around the generality of “prof
it.” Every one of those men
doubtless thought that “profit”
is the one desire of every busi
ness man and therefore it is the
most powerful sales appeal that
can be used. So they also
thought that if they sold a prod
uct which had a sales appeal of
“profit” they would be sure to
make sales.
They did not get “close”
enough to their prospect (and he
but typifies thousands of other
merchants) to see the very obvi
ous fact that such a man hears
August, 1941
© International Arcade Museum
With exception of weekends during
August, when Army Maneuvers will
be held, there is no shortage of hotel
rooms anticipated for Little Rock You
are invited to visit this great south
western citv and stop at. ..
HOTELS
★ MARION
★ M CGEHEE
* ALBERT PIKE
★LAFAYETTE
Southwest Hotels Inc., Mrs. H G ra d y M anning, Pres
AUTOMATIC AGE
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
67