Sizzlemanship: New Tested Selling Sentences

Elmer Wheeler

• Publisher: Golden Springs Publishing
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781787201484
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Advertising
• Index: Business

More Than 2, 000 Successful Selling Pitches to Command Instant Attention and Buying ActionFrom the man who sold the sizzle instead of the steak—whose best-selling books have made history both in selling and in publishing—here are the many new practical applications of his magic formula that make people buy.No matter what product or service you sell—regardless of whether you sell over the counter, through salespeople on the road, direct, or through dealers—you will find Elmer Wheeler's "Sizzle Selling" methods readily adaptable for your specific needs.This completely updated book is packed from cover to cover with scores of brilliant ideas that will show you how to discover the hidden "sizzle" in whatever you have to sell. Here you will find the actual "sizzles" that have produced phenomenal sales for scores of large and small organizations.

1—LEARNING A TRICK OR TWO FROM THE CUBANS

There is more selling on the island of Cuba than on Fourteenth Street in New York or in Macy’s bargain basement. Cubans long ago learned how to sell the sizzle to Americans.

WHEN I WENT TO HAVANA YEARS AGO, MY OLD FRIEND JULES Paglin, of New Orleans, advised me to memorize two expressions. Cuánto was one of them, meaning how much; the second was es mucho, which means it is much, or, as we would say, too much.

I didn’t quite understand why my friend picked out these two phrases in particular until I arrived in Havana and found there the biggest, grandest selling campaign going on outside of Ringling Brothers circus or a trip to Catalina Island.

The Cubans are born salespeople!

I learned a lot about salesmanship from these people to whom selling is second nature.

For example, when the boat arrived, a flock of Cuban boys got aboard and, while we were waiting in line for customs inspection, offered us postal cards.

Nothing unusual about that, you say—except that these fellows had already put stamps on the cards to save us the trouble, and they held pencils in their hands while they called out their “Tested Selling Sentence”:{1}

“Let your friends Know you are in Cuba!”

A nice appeal—and they made it so easy to “let your friends know.” You just wrote a few words about “Having a good time—wish you were here,” and the boy took the card. No licking of stamps, no wondering about how many stamps to put on, no hunting for mail boxes.

That’s unusual selling technique for people untrained in the art of salesmanship—for people who in all probability never went to any sales training school. No doubt they got the idea from American mail-order houses, which long ago learned the trick of making it easy for the customer to buy.

And there I was buying postal cards, even before I landed in Cuba—just because it was so easy to buy them.

This, then, was my first lesson in Cuba:

Make it easy for the customer to buy!

HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO PAY?

As we landed, a horde of salesmen flocked upon us. Most of them were selling maracás—I would call them “rumba balls,” for they are the rattles used as rhythm instruments in Latin-American orchestras. Actually they are gourds filled with seeds and pebbles and are very typical of Cuba.

The Cuban boys shouted, “One dollar,” when I asked, “¿Cuánto?” (How much?) Hm-m-m, I thought to myself, that’s a pretty fair price, for I remembered seeing them for two dollars back in the States. But, made cautious by my friend’s advice, I put on a good poker face and said, “Es mucho? (Too much.)

The Cuban boy didn’t seem upset. He simply said, “How much you want to pay?”

Rather a harmless question, on the surface, but after two days in Cuba I realized that it contained dynamite and was a real “Tested Selling Sentence.”

The normal reply to “How much you want to pay?” is the offer of much less than the price asked, so I replied, “Fifty cents,” thinking I was driving a good bargain, and the boy came back with, “Seventy-five cents.”

A good deal, I thought, especially since I suddenly found the pair of maracás in my own hands. Another Cuban trick.

So I bought the maracás, mentally thanking my friend back in New Orleans for teaching me those two magic phrases. Later on, I found the downtown stores selling the same maracás for twenty-five cents. And I thought I had made a deal!

However, I learned my second Cuban sales rule, which was this:

When the other person says, “Too much,” don’t argue with him. Merely say, “How much do you want to pay?” Thus you make him commit himself, and then you are in a position to negotiate. Try it. It sells millions of maracás in Cuba!

BUY THE REAL CUBAN KIND

Now, the next thing you think about in Cuba is castanets. No trip to Mexico is complete without blankets and pottery; no trip to New Orleans without pralines; no trip to Texas without a sombrero; and no trip to Cuba without maracás and castanets.

The Cubans know this.

So the castanet sellers surged upon me, and before I knew it I was getting a free lesson in how to hold them and how to play them. I had been in Havana less than ten minutes, and here I was being taught to play castanets—right on the wharf.

Subtle selling—but smart.

I felt very Cuban playing the castanets, so I finally asked, “¿Cuánto?” and was told that they were fifty cents. Not to be outsmarted by these Cubans, I looked dumb and said emphatically, “Es mucho!”

The Cuban youngster came right back with, “How much you want to pay?”

Hm-m-m, I thought, another cinch. It’s too bad to rob these kids, but after all a sale is a sale, so I said, “Twenty-five cents—take it or leave it.”

Evidently he had had many customers like me before and knew all the answers, because he quickly said, “Two for seventy-five cents.” Well, he was coming down, so I said, “Two for fifty cents,” and we finally settled on two for sixty-five cents.

Well, there I was with a set of maracás and two pairs of castanets, all prepared to set forth on the streets of Cuba. What a deal maker I was! Too bad to take these Cubans for a ride, but a deal is a deal.

Five minutes later another Cuban boy came up to me and offered me some castanets. I told him I had some. He looked at mine. They were light in color. His were dark in color, so the rascal said:

“Buy the real Cuban castanets that the professionals use!”

I told him mine were the professional kind. He shook his head and smiled, pointing to the dark mahogany color of his and the light, pale color of mine. I had been sold down the river for sixty-five cents.

Well, I decided I might as well have the real Cuban kind, so I went through all the trouble of making another deal, and got these castanets two for fifty cents, and began patting myself on the back again.

Later, in a small store of the five-and-ten-cent variety, I saw my professional castanets, and the others, selling for the regular price of ten cents each. Twenty cents a pair! What a deal maker I turned out to be!

But I learned my third lesson in Cuban salesmanship:

Get the prospect’s interest aroused by showing him how to work or do the trick. Let him do it himself. Teach him. He’ll buy it more quickly.

A TAXI DRIVER MAKES A DEAL

Not once was I approached by a beggar in Havana. It’s too easy, I guess, to sell an American tourist something at a big profit to bother trying to get something from him for nothing.

Still not actually in the heart of Havana, I started down the street. A string of Cuban cabs began to pull up beside me, their drivers shouting, “See the sights—the night life of Havana!”

I was tempted, but I looked indifferent and said, “¿Cuánto? The cab driver nearest me shouted, “Fifty cents downtown—a dollar fifty for an hour.”

“Es mucho,” I replied, and kept on walking down the street with my party. He followed us, stuck his head out the cab window, and said, “How much you want to pay?”

“Twenty-five cents to go downtown,” I said, and we made the usual split deal—this time for thirty-five cents. I chuckled, and winked to my friends.

Why, I knew the magic words cuánto and es mucho! They nodded approval and began to learn the words themselves.

Once downtown, I found that all the cabs had signs in their windows reading “Twenty-five cents anywhere.” And I had paid thirty-five cents, after making a deal!

But it taught me another good lesson in sizzlemanship.

THE LATINS HAVE THE RIGHT WORDS

Armed...