Automatic Age

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