Business Marketing Advertising

A point which received much emphasis at the last convention of salesmen for the National Cash Register Company was the greater need of what might be termed “making-him-want-it” salesmanship.

A particularly successful business getter from Los Angeles made the whole sales force think when he stated that his success was due to a policy he persistently followed since the slump overtook business ?that is, putting in at least one whole hour in studying the prospect’s business before he made any attempt to sell him a cash register. He further said that the average time which he spent in demonstrating last year was five minutes and the average time spent in studying the prospect’s needs for the thing he sold was one hour and ten minutes.

Even though you are selling a product far removed from cash registers you can profit mightily by increasing the time you devote this year to studying the need a man has for the thing you are selling, and use that information to develop in him the want for it. In other words, give more time to creating the want than you give to filling the want. This is something you have heard many times before. It is old, old stuff, to be sure. You have heard the same thing many times. Yet it was a thought that met with great favor for just that very reason at the National Cash Register Company’s convention of Hundred Point Salesmen.

Even the best salesmen in the business make the mistake of overemphasizing the product itself and underestimating the importance of creating in the buyer’s mind the desire for it. This is because up until recently people have wanted things they do not want today. Two years ago everybody wanted an automobile. The sales problem was merely to fit your particular automobile to their wants. It is different now. There are a great many people who have stopped wanting automobiles, because money has as?sumed new value. Before they will buy, the desire to buy must be reawakened.