Chapter 1
Don’t Sell The Steak – Sell the Sizzle!
(Wheelerpoint 1) What we mean by the “sizzle” is the BIGGEST selling point in your proposition – the MAIN reasons why your prospects will want to buy. The sizzling of the steak starts the sale more than the cow ever did, though the cow is, of course, very necessary. Hidden in everything you sell, whether a tangible or an intangible, are “sizzles.” Find them and use them to start the sale. Then, after desire has been established in the prospect’s thinking , you can bring in the necessary technical points. The good waiter realizes he must sell the bubbles – not the champagne. The grocery clerk sells the pucker – not the pickles, the whiff – not the coffee. It’s the tang in the cheese that sells it! The insurance man sells PROTECTION, not cost per week. Only the butcher sells the cow and not the sizzle, yet even he knows that the promise of the sizzle brings him more sales of his better cuts. For instance, let us take a certain modern vacuum cleaner and see how many “sizzles” we can develop to get the prospect saying “I want!” instead of “Oh hum!”: 1. Positive Agitation. 2. Time-to Empty Signal. 3. Dirt Finder. 4. Automatic Rug Adjuster. 5. Non-kink Cord. 6. Instant Handle Positioner. 7. Non-tangle Revolving Brush.
8. Grit Removers. 9. Lint Removers. 10. Dust Removers.
These ten big “sizzles” will make people buy this particular make of vacuum cleaner. The construction, the mechanism, and the prices are important, of course, but the “I want” points, as Paul Lewis puts it, a re labor-saving, more leisure, cleaner homes and health. Therefore, the vacuum cleaner salesman must advise himself: Don’t sell the price tag – sell less backaches! Don’t sell construction – sell labor-saving! Don’t sell the motor – sell comfort!
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