Suddenly a clothespin falls to the floor. Being round, it rolls under the stove. Like little dogs, clothespins love nothing better than to get under a stove and just lie there. It may roll elsewhere. The woman fails to see it, and a few moments later she backs into it. Down goes the wash and the woman – and in comes the insurance adjuster! Perhaps women would buy the square clothespins, I thought, if we told them this simple “sizzle”: A square clothespin won’t roll when it hits t he floor; if a woman drops one, she has only to bend down, pick it up, and go merrily on with her work. She would know at all times where the square clothespins were and would not trip up on them. The Idea “Clicks” With Women Taking this idea into our laboratory for polishing and smoothing, and then for tests behind the counters, we packed this selling point into a two- second “Tested Selling Sentence,” and instructed salespeople to say, when women wanted to know why they were square: “They won’t roll!” Three little words – yet they struck home across the busy counters, and customers began to buy them, showing again that what sells one woman often sells others! Story of Indian Moccasins Some time ago I was called into the Schulte-United Retail Stores to help devise selling language and techniques to sell Indian moccasins to small boys as an extra suggested sale to regular purchases. Here is a composite sales talk used by the clerks in selling these moccasins to boys shopping with their mothers, wit h the “sizzle” buried in a long line of sales conversation. Can you pick it out? SALESPERSON: “Madam, wouldn’t you like to buy a pair of real Indian moccasins for your little boy here? They have triple stitching on the back and can’t rip. The beads are put on with wire and will never break off. They have blunt toes instead of pointed ones; we call them our health moccasins, because your little boy’s foot will grow straight and healthy all the rest of his life.” CUSTOMER (Usual reply): “Nope – just give me my package.” But when the salesperson was instructed to take the Indian moccasins and place them in front of the little boy , saying, “The kind the REAL INDIANS WEAR, Sonny!,” sales increased!
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