Automatic Age

A NEW VIEWPOINT ON SELLING
THE EASY WAY TO THE RIGHT SOLUTION
D o y o u fin d i t h a r d e r t o in te r e s t p ro s p e c ts a n d cus­
to m e r s ? A r e y o u p u z z le d o v e r w h a t has h a p p e n e d t o
y o u r m e th o d s t h a t o n c e w o r k e d so w e ll? In this a r t ic le
y o u w ill fin d t h e s o lu tio n f o r th o s e k n o tty p r o b le m s .
Y
OU remember, of course,
those times in school when
some arithmetic problem
simply would not come out right.
You worked it over and over
again, but always you got the
wrong answer. Then, when you
were ready to declare it simply
could not be worked, you set the
figures down in a new way,
worked from a new angle . . .
and the right answer came so
easily that you wondered how
you had overlooked it so long.
The problem was the same,
your figures were the same; but
by changing the method you
used and by changing your view
of the problem, you brought
your mistakes to light and found
the easy way to the right solu­
tion.
Accountants use that method
often, when their books will not
balance. They attack the prob­
lem in a new way and solve
it. Scientists always use that
method, knowing that to keep on
working in the same way is
merely to keep on repeating the
same errors. Many of the great­
est scientific discoveries of the
world were made by departing
from the customary path and
trying a new method, even if the
method were so different that to
use it seemed foolish. Many of
the great battles of the world
were won because some military
leader employed new tactics and
found that the change alone was
worth more than a division of
troops used in old ways.
Salesm en, also, overcom e
many seemingly insuperable ob­
stacles by the same method. By
attacking their selling problems
from a new angle, by looking at
the situation from a new view,
unsuspected and amazingly pow­
erful new sales appeals appear.
Even in lines where the market
is so old and routine, that it
seems there cannot be any un­
discovered new sales appeal, a
new point of view can and often
has worked wonders.
From the new point of view,
new sales appeals appear, new
abilities in the salesman come to
light. Prospects give new atten­
tion and exhibit a new willing­
ness. Often the very people who
have previously turned a sales­
man down will buy when they
are approached in a new way.
Several years o f careful test­
ing, in practically every conceiv­
able line of business, and with
every type of salesman, have
proved that the new viewpoint
which will be described in this
article can be used with great
effect. And any salesman can
use it, no matter how weak and
ineffective he may be with con­
ventional selling methods.
There are limitless ways to
“ buy” sales.
Often they can be bought for
very little and with “ currency”
that costs the salesman not one
penny, but which is worth far
more, in the prospect’s eyes,
than money.
And once a salesman makes
that point of view— buying sales
— a natural and permanent part
of his methods, he will “ go
places” as he never was able to
before.
AUTOMATIC AGE
42
© International Arcade Museum
Yes, your business is different
and so it cannot be expected that
you can load tools and spare
parts into a car and thereby get
the unlimited time and inter­
ested attention of your prospects
(though there are many lines
in which such tactics will work
very w ell).
But, on the other hand, there
is no line in which you do not
have some form of “ currency”
whereby you can buy the sales
you want. When you have noth­
ing to give to your prospects,
why should they give you any­
thing?
To go to the extreme in little
value, there is the salesman of
promotional services who has an
unvarying policy never to leave
an office without “ paying” some­
thing, no matter how little, for
the goodwill of the girl who
guards the time and interviews
the callers of the head of the
firm. I have seen that man get
amazing returns from as little as
a stick of gum, a compliment on
a dress, or a comment on the
you n g w om a n ’ s e ffic ie n c y .
Though he is not particularly
imposing in appearance, he gets
in promptly when men of far
more impressive appearance get
polite rebuffs. “ Oh yes, Mr. Mil-
sand,” the girls say, “ Mr. Jones
will want to see you.”
“ I pay for what I want,” Mil-
sand says. “ You can’t get very
much free in this world.” And
he gets what he wants much
more often than most men in his
work.
All human beings react in very
much the same way. Though
your business is different from
others, you are selling to the
same human beings as many
other salesmen, and the basic
methods of influencing human
beings do not vary.
One of the principal reasons
why I value the salesman above
September, 1941
http://www.arcade-museum.com/