Offer Service

Remem­ber the peo­ple you address are self­ish, as we all are. They care noth­ing about your inter­ests or profit. They seek ser­vice for them­selves. Ignor­ing this fact is a com­mon mis­take and a costly mis­take in adver­tis­ing. Ads say in effect, “Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to oth­ers. Let me have the money.” That is not a pop­u­lar appeal.

The best ads ask no one to buy. That is use­less. Often they do not quote a price. They do not say that deal­ers han­dle the prod­uct. The ads are based entirely on ser­vice. They offer wanted infor­ma­tion. They site advan­tages to users. Per­haps they offer a sam­ple, or to buy the first pack­age, or to send some­thing on approval, so the cus­tomer may prove the claims with­out any cost or risks.

Some of these ads seem altru­is­tic. But they are based on the knowl­edge of human nature. The writ­ers know how peo­ple are led to buy. Here again is sales­man­ship. The good sales­man does not merely cry a name. He doesn’t say, “Buy my arti­cle.” He pic­tures the cus­tomers side of his ser­vice until the nat­ural result is to buy.

A brush maker has some 2,000 can­vassers who sells brushes from house to house. He is enor­mously suc­cess­ful in a line which would seem very dif­fi­cult. And it would be for his men if they asked the house­wives to buy. But they don’t. They go to the door and say, “I was sent here to give you a brush. I have sam­ples here and I want you to take your choice.”

The house­wife is all smiles and atten­tion. In pick­ing out one brush she sees sev­eral she wants. She is also anx­ious to rec­i­p­ro­cate the gift. So the sales­man gets an order.

Another con­cern sells cof­fee, etc., by wag­ons in some 500 cities. The man drops in with a half-​​pound of cof­fee and says, “Accept this pack­age and try it. I’ll come back in a few days to ask how you liked it.” Even when he comes back he doesn’t ask for an order. He explains that he wants the women to have a fine kitchen uten­sil. It isn’t free, but if she likes the cof­fee he will credit five cents on each pound she buys until she has paid for the arti­cle. Always some service.

The maker of the elec­tric sewing machine motor found adver­tis­ing dif­fi­cult. So, on good advice, he ceased solic­it­ing a pur­chase. He offered to send to any home, through any dealer, a motor for one weeks’ use. With it would come a man to show how to oper­ate it. “Let us help you for a week with­out cost or oblig­a­tion,” said the ad. Such an offer was resist­less, and about nine in ten of the tri­als led to sales.

So in many, many lines. Cigar mak­ers send out boxes to any­one and say, “Smoke ten, then keep them or return them, as you wish.” Mak­ers of books, type­writ­ers, wash­ing machines, kitchen cab­i­nets, vac­uum sweep­ers, etc., send out their prod­ucts with­out any pre­pay­ment. They say, “Use them a week, then do as you wish.” Prac­ti­cally all mer­chan­dise sold by mail is sent sub­ject to return.

These are all com­mon prin­ci­ples of sales­man­ship. The most igno­rant ped­dler applies them. Yet the salesman-​​in-​​print very often for­gets them. He talks about his inter­est. He bla­zons a name, as though that was of impor­tance. His phrase is, “Drive peo­ple to the stores,” and that is his atti­tude in every­thing he says.

Peo­ple can be coaxed but not dri­ven. What­ever they do they do to please them­selves. Many fewer mis­takes would be made in adver­tis­ing if these facts were never forgotten.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

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