I have often watched Billy Sunday “trade” on the word “Hell.” He used it to get people to hit his famous sawdust trail. But Billy Sunday‟s technique has gone with the cigar and the derby salesman. Yet there are other fears that will keep the children from going to the movies with the collection money and that will keep dad off the golf links until after church. One church advertises: “Your Sins – and How to Overcome Them.” The pastor realizes he is in competition with the press agents for golf courses and movies, with automobile salesmen, and with the health appeals of the beach owners. He is watching his words!
The Old Medicine Man
The medicine man can open his business on any street corner, and within three minutes he has customers. Why? Because of the words he shouts into the crowd, words that capture your ears, that turn your eyes to what he is doing. Ten-second sales messages. His leading questions are: “Do you feel tired at times? Do you feel like giving up? Does your back ache at four o‟clock every afternoon? Do your feet hurt you every night? Can you see that bird on the top of this building? Can you jump over a fence three feet high? If you can‟t, then step right up here gentlemen, and let me show you something that will put pep into your old blood, that will make you feel like a day in spring, a trip through the mountains, as refreshed as an ocean breeze.” The medicine man is trading on your fears and on your desires, alike, with leading questions that get him the answers HE wants. He is hitting your basic buying motive number 1: Self-preservation (X) ! You step up to his portable store. You are all eyes and ears. You are sceptical – but not for long when this orator begins to play on your emotions as the harpist plays on the strings of a harp. His words are music to the ears of all “sufferers,” especially of imaginary ills.
“Quick Relief” – The Drug Store‟s Best Words
Step into any People‟s, Economical-Cunningham, or Pennsylvania Drug Store where we have installed “Tested Selling Sentences” principles. You will find two words being used over and over again, “quick relief.” Grandmother has a backache. Dad has a corn. Mother has a headache. Each steps up to the drug counter. The druggist places a prescribed package in front of each, and says simply, “These will give all of you quick relief .”
Each buys because that is what each wanted most for his ailment, “quick relief.” Look at all the signs today shouting variations of these two words.
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