cent of the newspapers and nearly all the big businessmen on his side. But Salesman Landon violated fundamental selling principles that many a door-to-door salesman would have observed instinctively. First, he talked more about his compet itor’s product than about his own. He told what his competitor’s product was failing to do instead of telling the benefits and advantages to be secured from his own. Second, he called his competitor names, and he referred to his competitor by name, where as Roosevelt usually referred to his competitor by the impersonal “they.” A good salesman seldom dignifies a competitor by using his name. All competition is known to the Hoover man as a “Bo - jack.” Third, Salesman Landon “oversold” himself. He didn’t see m to sense when to stop talking about himself and against his competitor. He talked himself quickly into a sale and then out of it. Fourth, he used language that the public failed to comprehend and language the public knew to be trite, bombastic, and old-fashioned in the game of politics. He used the worn- out “fear campaign,” with such phrases as “the country’s going to the dogs” and “Roosevelt and Ruin” and “grass growing in the streets.” Roosevelt Used Word Magic On the other hand, Roosevelt gained the confidence of his prospect. He used language the “prospects” understood. He would say something amusing, cheerful, hopeful, and logical, such as this: “Four years ago the White House was like an emergency hospital. Businessmen came to me with headaches and backaches. No one knew how they suffered, except old Doc Roosevelt. They wanted a quick hypodermic to relieve the immediate pain, and a quick cure. I gave them both. They got action. In fact, we cured them so quickly and efficiently in Washington that now these same people are back, throwing their crutches into the doctor’s face.” President Roosevelt knows the value of choosing words, of using “Tested Selling Sentences.” He knows that some words sell people and others do not, and he makes certain that he uses only language tested to stamp itself on the mind of his prospect directly and instantly, and to remain there forever. That is why the American public “bought” from him in the last election. The rule is a simple one: Talk in a language the other person can understand without having to wrinkle his brow.
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