A vacuum cleaner salesman had secured the atten tion and aroused the interest of both the housewife and her husband by discoursing on the superiority of vacuuni cleaners, showing by an actual demonstration what the machine could do, and pointing out the con venience and superiority of his particular machine. He then abruptly put the machine aside, put away all literature as to its mechanical details, and, leaning forward, said: "Now, Mrs. Brown, it is not really a vacuum cleaning machine that I arn asking you to buy. I am asking you to buy an hour a day for the rest of your life. I am asking you to buy the time to get out afternoons—to take in a matinee on Wednes day—and still keep your home just as neat and clean as it is now." And then he got in a master stroke. Turning to the husband, Ile said: "And you can throw aside your irksome old whisk broom, too, and go out each morning brushed by vacuum." This ar gument, in addition to showing a further advantage, presented such a vivid appeal to the imagination, that he created a desire, not for the machine itself, but for that hour a day and for the privilege of being brushed by vacuum.
A writer on various scientific and business subjects was telling why he had bought a children's pictorial en cyclopedia. He said that even tho he had no children Ile bad been interested in the salesman's presentation, tho in a detached sort of way. Then, the salesman switched to a talk on the advantages of depicting scientific phenomena and business processes by pie tures and short, easily understood descriptions, rather than by the long and involved descriptions common to the ordinary "grown-up's" encyclopedia. Wouldn't it be easy, he wanted to know, for the writer to get information quickly in this manner for his own arti cles? He clinched his argument by showing the en tire steel industry, from the digging of the ore to the rolling of steel rails, pictorially described. The au thor said that after running over these pictures with the salesman, he understood the different processes in the manufacture of steel more clearly than ever be fore. And right there he decided that the encyclo pedia would be a big advantage to him. It will be seen that the salesman created desire by following the same old formula of showing the prospect how he would profit by buying.
There i.s a time-honored and very effective saying that when a man needs a thing he pays for it, whether Ile buys it or not ; and this principle can be applied to almost any proposition. The adding-typewriter salesman proves it to his prospect by figuring the higher cost of making out bills by 'the old method.
The branded-staple man shows the dealer tbat he will pay in lost sales if he does not stock up. The ex clusive-agency man shows that the dealer will lose profits that will go to his competitor if he does not accept the agency in question. The advertising so licitor shows that the merchant who needs advertising will pay for it many times over in trade that passes by his door if he does not secure that trade thru the medium of advertising. The life insurance solicitor will intimate that the family of the man who needs insurance and does not take it, pays the premium after he is gone. These are but variations of the "self interest" principle.
14. Desire indicated.—Desire may be indicated bv the prospect's asking the price of the commodity of fered; and if, in addition, he inquires as to terms of payments, Ile is evincing a most healthy desire. 'Most salesmen, particularly those who represent specialty propositions, adjust their presentations so as to bring out this price question at the point at which they cal culate desire will have been created.
It should not be understood that there is neces sarily any visible indication that desire has been cre ated. The salesman will find that many prospects will observe a sphinx-like silence and an unchanging expression thruout the entire presentation. And furthermore, the salesman will learn that these are among his best prospects. The converse is true also; the over-enthusiastic individual who agrees too readily with everything the salesman says, and who evinces all the signs of a healthy desire, will ofteptimes allow himself to be led right up to the closing point, and then refuse to buy or to give a definite reason for not buying. Whatever the manifestation, the instant the salesman has reached the climax of his "advan tage" talk-, is the time to take the hazard on the clos ing tactics.
15. The elose.—We now come to the crux of the whole sale—in fact, the crux of all salesmanship. It is the point, too, at which most of our failures become apparent, at least to ourselves. We may sit down at the close of each day and plan the work for the next ; we may burn the midnight oil studying our goods; we may rack our brains in an effort to clothe uninterest ing details with a garment of imaginative appeal; we may spend eight hours a day painting beautiful word pictures to numerous prospects; but our work will be largely wasted, or at least will not bring us the results it should, if the selling talk does not have a courage ous, compelling close.