Masonry Magazine October 1966 Page. 17
THE SELLING PARADE
by Charles B. Roth, America's no. 1 salesmanship authority
The Selling Parade by Charles B. Roth is another new feature added by Masonry. Watch for it in all future issues of the magazine for the entire Masonry Industry. Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference.
Be Quick on the Draw
If you are only an occasional watcher of TV Westerns you know that it is always the guy who is quickest on the draw, hence first with the shot that wins the gun battle.
You may not know it, but the same thing's true in selling, and many a salesman has lost out because he was too slow on the draw in providing the prospect with information.
One purchasing agent told me about this phase of selling and salesmen not long ago.
"I am impressed by the salesman who offers me, without my asking, information that is valuable to me," he said.
"I hate to have to drag facts about a salesman's product out of him. Yet many times that's the only way to get them.
"I call these salesmen who are reluctant to divulge facts "hoarders.' They seem to want to keep the facts for their very own private use."
The purchasing agent also told me something interesting about salesmen who are free with facts: the facts don't necessarily have to do with the product or even the purchasing agent's business or even with business.
He had one salesman who, knowing of the purchasing agent's interest in golf, would frequently call him and give him a new and useful technique to improve his golf game.
"To offer facts freely, it seems to me," the purchasing agent said, "shows that a salesman is really trying to render worthwhile service. I feel I can trust a man like that to serve my company well also."
Establish Empathy
He arose to talk. I knew him to be a brilliant man, always in control of any situation. So I was disappointed when I first heard him try to make a public address. He stammered. He stumbled. He had a hard time finding exactly the right word. At first I was annoyed, but then I found myself trying to help him make the speech. I began to feel sorry for him.
This man is a salesman. He is a good salesman. He is one of the best salesmen I ever met. I wondered if he gave a selling presentation with the same difficulty.
A few days later I found out. And he did. He was not the brilliant man I knew in personal conversation, but a poor stumbling fellow who I felt needed help.
A few weeks later I learned that this was part of his studied selling technique. He admitted that he had invested $5,000 in public speaking lessons. He said that the one big thing he had learned from them was to be hesitant in speech!
A doctrine so startling as that demanded an immediate explanation, which I asked for and got:
"When you heard me give my stumbling speech," he asked, "didn't you find yourself trying to help me give it?"
"I did."
"That's what I wanted."
"To establish empathy. I wanted you to be on my team, feeling I needed help and wanting to give it to me, I didn't want to be so self-assured and arrogant that you wouldn't like me. I wanted you to have the feeling you were helping me, hence superior to me rather than inferior."
Read what this man told me over, will you? There is a master of persuasion talking; a man who knows better that to put himself above those whom he wants to persuade, but rather willing to put himself under them.
Keep Your Word
When a salesman makes a promise to me and then promptly forgets it and does not keep it, I like to think about an incident in the life of a great man; it always reaffirms my belief in people.
He had borrowed $5 from a friend. He said that on a certain date, and he was specific about it, six months hence he would return the $5. On that date there was a terrific blizzard sweeping across Illinois where this man lived, but he braved it, he breasted it, he walked three miles to return the $5 he had borrowed.
Mark this point: he returned it at exactly the time he said he would, even if it meant a six mile trudge through sub-zero weather.
A silly thing? It could be. He could have waited till the storm died down, couldn't he? He could. But he didn't. He was a man who, when he gave his word, kept it. This little character trait didn't hurt him in his future career. His name: Abraham Lincoln.
Cut out this article and future articles and place them in your business file for further reference.
All rights reserved. OCTOBER 1966 CHARLES ROTH.
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