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they do not quote a price.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.
Table of Contents
Chapter Four