The Sales Technique Ever Smart Parent Knows
Author: Robert Greenshields

What do good parents know about marketing? Plenty! Have you
ever tried to talk a preschooler into taking a bath? Smart
parents don't. What they do at bath time is a technique
revealed by marketing genius Elmer Wheeler in his 1937 classic,
Tested Sentences That Sell.

You don't say, "Do you want to take a bath?" That just allows a
prospect (in this case your kid) a chance to say No and requires
you to cajole, beg, or threaten. If you're savvy, you say,
"Which will it be – a bubble bath or a bath with the crayon
soap?"

Similarly, if you have ever worked at a fast-food restaurant,
you were probably trained in suggestive sales, as in, "Will
that be large fries?" This, too, is a method that Wheeler
discovered by scientific observation. What you may not have
noticed is that, if you employed that technique, 70% of your
customers said Yes.

Elmer Wheeler started out as a newspaper ad salesman. Stores
complained that his papers' ads got people into the store, but
then the people didn't buy anything. When Wheeler carefully
analyzed the situation, he concluded that the stores'
salespeople weren't asking the right questions or saying the
right words.

So Wheeler set up what became his famous "Word Laboratories."
He's the man who taught salespeople to, "Sell the sizzle, not
the steak." During 10 years of research, Wheeler tested over
105,000 words and phrases on more than 19 million people, and
the results of his tests will benefit you today.

Learn from these examples how to get to "Yes." For instance, a
pharmacy was having trouble selling shoe insoles. Wheeler got
the salespeople to ask, "Are you on your feet much?" Most
people, of course, would say yes to this question. Then the
salesperson could hand the customer an insole and say, "This
will ease your feet. It's especially for people who are on
their feet a lot." These words sold hundreds of insole each
week.

In a very different business, Wheeler tried and test 100
sentences until he found something that worked. Naïve salesman
at a garage had been asking, "Can I check your oil?" to which
customers routinely replied, "No." But then Wheeler had them
say, "Is your oil at the safe driving level?" About 58% of
customers had to admit they didn't know the answer to that
question, so they felt they had to let the salesman check the
oil.

Wheeler came up with a list of five Wheeler Points to help
choose the words that work for any business. These lead to very
simple, but amazingly effective, words for successful
salesmanship. One of these "Wheeler Points" is to give your
prospect a choice between something and something, not between
something and nothing.

In restaurants, this principle is at work when your waiter
says, "Will you be having white wine or red wine with your
dinner?" The point is that, at each moment of decision, you
word the options in such a way that "No" is never an
appropriate response. The choice is always between Yes and Yes.


So remember, instead of "bath or no bath," it's "bubbles or
crayon soap."

About The Author: Robert Greenshields is a marketing success
coach who helps business owners and independent professionals
who are frustrated that they're working too many hours for too
little reward. Sign up for his free tips on earning more and
working less at http://www.MindPowerMarketing.com