Use “Invisible” Sales Words
If you let the other person become CONSCIOUS he is being sold, he will wiggle the situation around with a lot of arguments that put you on the defensive.
Big words, fancy phrases, and bombastic tones are not invisible but obvious. They attract attention to you – not to what you are saying. So if you would win the other person to your way of thinking, remember this rule: Clothe your appeals in invisible language!
Invisible language is the everyday language of the masses.
If we understand quickly and readily what the other person is saying without having to wrinkle our brows in thought, we are absorbing the story.
A hosiery salesgirl says to the woman who has just purchased a dollar pair of stockings in William Taylor‟s department store in Cleveland:
“Does one of your stockings wear out faster than the other?”
The woman naturally informs her that one stocking always gives way before the other. Seldom will runs appear simultaneously in both stockings. The clever salesgirl says:
“Then it would be advisable to buy TWO PAIRS of the SAME COLOR so that you can alternate in case one stocking tears or runs accidentally.”
Simple language. No coined expressions. But on one occasion that I know of, this store sold out a certain box of stockings that contained three pairs wrapped as a gift. If the young lady had said: “You can get three pairs for $2.85,” the woman would say one pair was sufficient. But by using logic she cleverly induces the woman to buy the second pair, and then she says:
“If you buy the third pair, you can have it for only 85c. You see you get a bargain on the third pair.”
A President Uses Tested Selling
The choice of words and the astute salesmanship used by President Roosevelt during the 1936 elections were classical.
Salesman Landon and Salesman Roosevelt each started out selling the same prospects. They each had about the same “product.” Salesman Landon, however, had the edge on Salesman Roosevelt, because he had eighty-five per
P. 101
Powered by FlippingBook