Masonry Magazine October 1965 Page. 17
THE SELLING PARADE
By CHARLES B. ROTH, America's no. 1 salesmanship authority
The Selling Parade by Charles B. Roth is another new feature added by masonry. Watch for it in all future issues of the magazine for the entire Masonry Industry. Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference.
Well "Happy Ending" Stories
A sales manager friend of mine has what some other sales managers feel is a wacky notion. He is forever telling his salesmen to tell their prospects "happy ending" stories.
"Happy ending stories" - I didn't know what they were either until I asked my friend one day to come clean and tell me what these stories are and how he wants his salesmen to use them.
He told me: "Every successful Hollywood movie is built around a Formula. It is built around romancing. Of course there have to be dramatic happenings, conflict, struggle, success -and happy ending. But primarily when you tell a story you romance your goods."
"I see."
"So many salesmen don't."
"I know that all right."
"I tell my salesmen that they must dig until they find the romantic story in every piece of merchandise, then use that story for it's worth.
"One of the best stories of romancing a product I know is that of a washing machine salesman with lignum vitae bearings. Nearly all washers have these, but no other salesman ever used them as this one did.
"Somewhere in the course of his investigations he learned that lignum vitae wood, a wood so hard it takes special steel to cut it, was also used on the bearings for ocean going vessels.
"Ah, there was a chance to link his product with a great ocean liner-a real story. So when he sold washers he told about the bearings in his washer being the same as that of the great ships. He said little about other fea-
He Sold A Ton Of Tacks A Month
The sales trainer on a busman's holiday was scouting the stores in town, eye open for examples of good salesmanship or bad. Bad salesmanship he knew he would find. But good -well, maybe?
"But that afternoon I came across what I think is the most remarkable salesman I ever met," he told me. "I went into a carpet store, inquiring about carpeting. This salesman lifted me out of reality by his enthusiasm. Everything he showed me was just wonderful superb out of this world. And he had a strong fact story to back everything up he was telling me.
"The guy can be enthusiastic over big things, I thought to myself, but why don't I try him to see if his enthusiasm breaks down with small items. So I asked, 'Do you sell carpet tacks? He beamed. Do I sell tacks!' he repeated. 'Do I sell tacks! Mister, I sell the best tacks in the world. Let me show you!"
"So he got down a box of those famous tacks and he showed me, his enthusiasm coming down the home stretch fast, more about his tacks than I knew how the point was eight-sided so as to enter the wood easier how the head recessed 'so the nap of the carpet flows over it,.. he told me so much about the tacks that I bought two boxes, just because I didn't need them but couldn't help it, they were so special.
"As I got ready to leave, I said, You sell a lot of tacks, don't you?" Do I sell a lot of tacks! Do I sell a lot of tacks! I sell a ton of tacks a month."
"That I could very well believe."
Start Something Going Fast
Life, the salesman was telling me, is too short to dawdle over anything; a philosophy in which I happen to believe, so I put the salesman down as a smart man as we always do when we find somebody who agrees with us. The life of a prospect's attention is even shorter than life itself, he went on, pursuing his theme; and there is no chance for a salesman to dawdle if he wants success again agreement from me. But I still didn't know what he was driving at. He told me.
"Most salesmen," he feels, "get off to a slow start they are dawdlers. I try to set my sale in motion with my first few words. None of this long-winded stuff for me. When I get to see my man I start him headed for a closed sale with my first words."
Mind giving me an example of how you do it?
"Not at all. My standardized approach is this. How do you do. Morgan is my name. And I have a way to help you earn an extra hundred dollars a week on your service department." Then I give him a dollar-marked story. He listens. I have shown him that I am there to benefit him, so I have him from the very first words," he concluded.
Have A Target
Inasmuch as most salesmen spend three-fourths of their time looking for someone to sell to (prospecting it is called) and only one-fourth of their time in actual selling, you can get a good idea of how important good prospecting is.
One salesman I know is an effective prospector because he is what he calls a "target prospector." He is looking for a certain type individual, in one with certain qualifications and needs-if he talks to anyone else he wastes his time. So he tries each day to "Target in" only on those who measure up to his standards in every way. He is a good salesman, and his care in targeting has paid.
Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference. OCTOBER 1965 CHARLES ROTH. All rights reserved.