The Story Of The Comb
One of those salesmen who fail to realize that the word “you” comes before “I”, even in the word “b u s i ness,” was reciting a long-winded conversation about combs on a street corner. He hadn‟t heard about the rule, “Don‟t write – Telegraph!” He was telling his small audience that the combs would “last a lifetime,” would “massage the scalp,” and would “never break, bend, or bust.” He did “Say it with Flowers,” however, by pounding the comb on his stand. He would hit it with a hammer! Very dramatic, to be sure! Yet he failed to find the “sizzle,” and so sold few combs. He said that the comb would do about all that any comb would be expected to do, yet he missed the main purpose, or “sizzle,” until a quiet little fellow, quite innocently, from the back row of a small crowd said one day:
“But, tell me, sir, will it comb the hair ?”
Don‟t, DON‟T become so fancy with your verbiage that you miss the simple selling point. Don‟t put so much sauce on top of the steak that you kill the flavor. Sell the “sizzle” – not the trimmings.
The “sizzle” is MORE IMPORTANT than the cow!
A little newsboy selling a nationally known weekly magazine gets the immediate attention of women with this “door-crasher”:
“ Do you like good stories, madam ?”
What woman can say “No” to that door approach!
“Sooey,” says John Caples, is the simple word to call hogs to their suppers. “Sooey” – one word – but the RIGHT word!
Find The “Sizzles”
Sometimes you are so close to your business, to your life, that you fail to see the “sizzles,” the “square clothespins.” You need somebody to point them out to you.
A mountaineer built his home with his front porch away from the cliff, paying no attention to the view of the whole valley below. He was so used to the good view in his “back yard” that he didn‟t see it any more.
A one-armed salesman approaches stenographers in offices with this question:
“ Do you have use for a machine gun around here ?”
P. 145
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