A Sell-Out In Tooth Brushes
Bloomingdale, Abraham & Straus, Stern Brothers, William Taylor, and Saks 34 th Street department stores all sold out of tooth brushes some months ago by the simple application of a sentence TESTED to capture the fleeting interest of customers in ten seconds. The Old expressions – “Need any tooth brushes today?” – “How ya fixed for tooth brushes?” – “We have a special on today,” – and so on – failed to sell the brushes, a staple item. People seldom stock up in tooth brushes. It is a “necessity” item. One day the clerks in these stores were instructed by one of our staff to approach each customer who had made a regular purchase with this statement: “Have you ever used a SCIENTIFIC tooth brush, madam?” The customer would ask what a “scientific tooth brush” was, and the salesperson would hold up the favorite brush and say: “The bristles are ADJUSTED to clean BETWEEN the teeth!” These “arrow - like words” shot to the proper niche of the brain, and sales increased. I n fact, for the first time in the history of each one of these stores, the tooth brushes were sold completely out of stock in less than a week – a testimonial de luxe to the power of “Tested Selling Sentences.” Just two sentences made customers hit the old sawdust trail for tooth brush manufactures and retailers – and helped customers have finer, well-cleaned teeth! A Counter Sign That Sells One day Doctors Beaver and Gibbs, of the People’s Drug Stores of Washington, informed us they wanted to get men to begin using an under-arm deodorant to avoid perspiration. If men could be induced to use this product, a brand new market would be developed overnight. We told them it would be easy. We would instruct the salesgirls to have their customers teach their husbands the many advantages of a deodorant. Then the bottle would be used twice as fast in the home, and the woman would be back to the store twice as frequently. A fine theory, but what a sad experience! The salesgirl would say to a buyer of a deodorant, “Why not teach your husband its many advantages, madam?” The customer would come back with, “What makes you think I have a husband?” Or, “What makes you think he needs it, young lady?”
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