WOMAN: “Well – I don ’t know if my husband would approve.” SALESMAN: “One -fifty per week is only about two dimes a day. Why, you perhaps spend that much every day for knickknacks, don’t you?” WOMAN: “Come to think of it, I do.” SALESMAN: “Then I’ll place my O.K. here, an d just above my name is a place for your approval; and the problem of keeping your rugs free from dog hair will be solved! (She signs.) Thank you, Mrs. Jones.” WOMAN (Stands, facing audience.): “Wait until I tell my husband I bought a New Hoover, and he can let the dogs back in the house!” WHEELER (Facing audience.): “That was certainly a fine example of scientific salesmanship. You see, gentlemen, that although the New Hoover embodies all of the newest cleaning principles which make it the first basically new cleaner in ten years, the Hoover Company realizes that these marvellous cleaning devices will pass unnoticed, or be taken as a matter of fact by women, if they are not dramatized in “sizzle” sales language. “Therefore, Salesman Powell used his ten - second ‘door - crasher’ and got into the home, and once in the home he put on a short three-minute presentation. “Salesman Powell followed his plan, and he made a sale without ONCE asking his prospect to ‘sign on the dotted line.’ Not once did he use those trite words, ‘sign here,’ yet the prospect signed up all right.” A Story From England What happens when you don’t follow a TESTED PLAN such as this? Well, it brings to mind the Hoover salesman in England who said that no good British salesmen needed a “Tested Selling” plan of what to say and do. So he made up his own selling presentation. He rapped on a door and said, “Madam, I am here to show you how to cut your cleaning time in half and make life more pleasant for you.” Being a polite Englishwoman, she admitted the salesman, saying, “Any man who can make life more pleasant is always welcome!” Inside the home he began to scatter dirt around the parlor rug, remarking, “Now, madam, the best way to show you the advantages of a Hoover is to scatter dirt about and then clean it up.” The woman quite agreed. Thereupon he tore up some paper; he took a cup of flour and scattered it; he scooped up dirt in the fireplace and messed it about on the rug; and finally, he emptied all the ash trays on the floor.
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