An introduction by Elmer Wheeler to the Confidential Directors Manual

To make a “good impression,” to sell the results the course brings, to make class “sales conscious” and to sell yourself. Your students will judge you by this FIRST IMPRESSION–so make it a sizzler!

The salesman’s Appearance makes or breaks a sale in the first 10 seconds. So it is important to show the student, early in the course, how his clothes can help him make a good “first impression” on others.

On the pages following you’ll read the teachings of Elmer Wheeler . . . tested, sure-fire and practical techniques developed over a period of 17 years in the famous Elmer Wheeler Training Laboratories.

“The sky is the limit” is a good motto for the young man and woman starting out in his or her career in selling. And here is how you can “hit the jackpot” to success.

Once people considered law as the foundation subject for any profession. Today salesmanship has become the BASIC subject for all professions. Everyone must “sell” to succeed.

Selling is not new. We might think it is, but it took selling to sell the Stone Age; and Nero did a selling job by burning his bridges behind him.

Salesmanship is selling an idea or merchandise or yourself; and the sizzle plus salesmanship is SIZZLEMANSHIP.

Sugar and spice and everything nice? Or high pressure in a low pressure way—?

The best mouse traps just don’t sell by themselves. It takes salesmen with sizzlemanship, plus Neon signs.

The sales field offers more opportunities to attain success than any other field. It is often the stepping stone to top positions!

Selling is like being in business for your self. You are your OWN boss. You make money and friends and live better than you do in many other types of businesses.

It is important to know HOW TO DRESS and HOW TO STAY HEALTHY as it is to know how to sell yourself to others. The salesman who “looks the part” has a better chance of success than one who is careless in his personal dress and habits.

A friendly smile, enthusiasm that breeds enthusiasm, a fighting heart— and the will to win; these are the things that make winners out of salesmen instead of losers.

Self-preservation is nature’s oldest law, but the desire for romance and the desire for money are close behind it. Learn the X, Y, Z, formula that will teach you at what basic buying motives to aim your sales story.

In order to sell safety pins you must watch people use them; otherwise, you are apt to say things about safety pins that mean nothing.

Sizzling Your Way through Life

IT IS THE most difficult thing in the world to make a human being do anything.

To study the reasons that make people buy; because if we do not understand what motivates people to buy, we cannot formulate the techniques to make them buy.

You can’t win if you don’t look like a winner — so we emphasize to the student how clean living makes “clean” impressions.

The finest sales talk in the world with bouquets of action, will flop with a thud if your voice is flat. Remember: your voice is the carrier of your message!

Your handshake tells people about you; it is often a first impression on others. Learn how to make it “sell” you.

You’ll hear a lot about this in the books to be read— and in the course to be studied— but here is a “flash” of things to come!

You can’t sizzle with your tongue in your cheek. Something for nothing is the fools purchase. Sincerity is the big secret in getting others to go along with you.

This, therefore, is the third Wheelerpoint to be used in this simple formula of getting along with people and selling yourself to them.

To show class that people do not buy “things,” but the “ideas” behind the “things.” It is not the product they buy — but what it will DO FOR THEM that they buy.

To summarize and re-emphasize the necessity of correct appearance and hygiene in successful selling.

IT’S WHAT YOU SAY— Not What You Sell.

WHAT WE MEAN by the “sizzle” is the BIGGEST selling point in your proposition – the MAIN reasons why your prospects will want to buy. The sizzling of the steak starts the sale more than the cow ever did, though the cow is, of course, very necessary!

“While individuals may be insoluble puzzles, in the aggregate they become mathematical certainties.”

Hotels Statler makes the first concentrated study in hotel history of effectiveness of words on people. Words that sell the better rooms. Words that sell more wines and food. Selling the view — not the room number. The important “Rule of You” in Hotels and Restaurants. The value of your name.

A grocery chain sells sardines. It increases sales of potatoes. It knows the value of ten-second sales messages. It tells owner benefits. It gives proof. It sells the “sizzle” — not the cow.

This, therefore, becomes the fourth and final Wheeler point to get along with people and sell yourself.

You-ability” will get you farther in life with other people than “I-ability.” What you will receive isn’t half so important to others as what will happen to them!

If you would win a man to your cause, said Abraham Lincoln, you must first convince him that you are his sincere friend.

To get class “sizzle conscious,” Last session it was emphasized that people do not buy “things,” but the “ideas” behind the “things.” Tonight we show students how to get their ideas across by finding the “sizzles” in products, services, and themselves.

Selling before dealer groups, customer groups, and selling yourself at company sales meetings, are important for the salesman. So now we come to the phase of “mass selling” for salesmen.

A successful salesman PLANS his approach, and thereby opens doors and men’s minds. This requires knowledge about his product, the customer, and the NEEDS of the customer.

If you don’t click right off the bat with the other person, you won’t have a chance to use any follow-up or closing techniques.

DON’T WRITE – TELEGRAPH means, get the prospects IMMEDIATE and FAVORABLE attention in the fewest possible words. If you don’t make your first message “click,” the prospect will leave you mentally, if not physically.

The basic buying motives of buyers. The Wheeler X, Y, Z formula.

You have only ten short seconds to capture the fleeting attention of the other person, and if in those ten short seconds you don’t say something mighty important, he will leave you — either physically or mentally!

Pick the sizzle— that’s the first law of building a talk.

A talk moves more swiftly, less persuasion is needed, when a speaker directs his appeal toward certain basic motives in all of us.

Unity is necessary in any speech. Stick to one point. Carry it through your talk like the steel wire that runs through the center of good rope.

Take your talents off the back shelves and do as the successful retailers—put them in the show windows for all to see.

A magic way to win more friendships that no one can resist; even hardened criminals can be won over this way.

“Many a treasure besides Ali Baba’s is unlocked with the verbal key.” There is a knack in asking the questions that get the answers you want.

To instruct students how to frame their Sizzles that sell into full-length approach sentences.

To teach students how to pick the sizzle in the talk. That OUTSTANDING point you Want to get over to others.

Once the Approach is developed, then comes the telling of your story and it should be short, simple, and pertinent.

You can’t show the merchandise, so you must use EAR appeals instead of visual appeals. The telephone salesman makes many extra dollars— and saves shoe leather!

It takes only one “Tested Selling Sentence” to make a person buy. At times, however, it is necessary to put them into a series form. The difference between a “canned” and a “planned” sales talk.

Say it “Telegraphically” in your first ten words.

As YOU WILL guess from the title, there are three good ways to start your talk off with a bang.

Doing is learning-so start doing. Go over these few famous talks. Analyze them. Start working on them yourself. Some few helps are given you in the side column. But write in your own ideas. Find the sizzle yourself! And be a sizzle speaker!

Advertise to others that you have an interest in them with your smile, with your words, with your warm friendly handclasp.

Take the case of Weber and Fields— or of the “two Governors.” The method of Rockefeller, Disraeli, and Lincoln. A small chapter—but with lots of meat in it. Note: read it three times!

Why words move people. How a Frenchman was talked to death and the experiment of Pavlov.

It isn’t WHAT you know – but what you SAY. So we now show the student how to put punch into his sales presentation. We watch his first 10 words.

To emphasize need and value of openers that get attention, interest or curiosity from the audience. How to excite, startle — or ANNOY an audience with a SNORE CRASHER!

The salesman with showmanship ability makes many more sales. Showmanship keeps the eye—and mind—of the prospect from falling asleep.

SAY IT WITH FLOWERS simply means PROVE your statements! “Happy returns of the day,” when accompanied by flowers, proves you MEAN it!

A is the statement of fact; B is the proof. Confidence men sold gold bricks because proof was never required in the old days. Today it is. People now want to hear, feel, see, and hold what they are about to purchase.

Don’t overdo your facts. Spot them. Sprinkle them as you would salt and pepper on fine steak.

After you’ve found your material, picked out the sizzles, and organized your speech—start memorizing in front of a mirror. Watch the movements of your face, your hands, your body. Then have plenty of rehearsals and a test-audience speech if possible.

It’s the little things you do as you speak your words that make those words stand out, the movement of your hands, your body-the smile on your face.

Elmer Wheeler’s latest talk, showing that audiences like talks in plain language.

The goal of every speaker is to have his word live in the memory of his audience. The right words will burn in the brains of your listeners.

“I’m not mad at anybody!!!”

Popularity isn’t any one rule or two, but here is a Basic Rule that goes a long way toward bringing people Success.

Spanish Proverb: You may believe any good of a grateful man. Arabic Proverb: Consideration may take the place of experience.

Iron dogs in front yards can’t sell. So tonight we train the student how to synchronize his sizzles and telegraphic sentences with SHOWMANSHIP!

To show students how to follow through on their openers. The customer has been “excited,” “startled,” or “annoyed.” Now we show student how to give the meat of his sales talk.

Quality merchandise always gives more satisfaction to the customer, and results in higher commissions for the salesman. Here are some ways to sell UP to quality, instead of d-o-w-n to price.

There is one big lesson to be learned from the Roosevelt-Landon campaign. The days of the “Perils of Pauline” are over. Don’t spoil a sale with butter fingers.

The best looking dotted line won’t sign itself, as many a door-to-door salesman has discovered. And many a white-haired sales manager has discovered that the best made product won’t sell itself.

All the cigar-store Indian did was attract people to the store. A live clerk inside had to make the actual sale. Many a salesman is a wooden Indian and doesn’t know it. The Automat is the only place to date where you can drop coins into slots and get waited on. But even the Automat can’t “trade-up,” sell “extra items,” or make “multiple” sales.

The dessert is the final taste in the mouth!

Keep your audience thinking, but thinking your way.

Your aim in making a talk is to sell an idea to an audience . . . to get the audience to adopt your idea as its own. Do it with question marks. Avoid the bludgeoning exclamation point.

Microphone technique differs from platform technique. Facial expressions and gestures mean nothing. The tone of your voice and the length of your pauses are what count.

If the audience sighs with relief when you get to your “–in conclusion,” you’ve failed to get across. Make your speech as foolproof as possible.

WORDS ARE LIKE sunbeams, someone sagely said, for the more you concentrate them the deeper they burn.

People like “peppy” people—people who make them feel “alive.” You’ll create a better impression if you have “zing!”

A smile and a good “thank you” warm me up faster than a thousand other things can do.

To emphasize the compelling power of action and SHOWMANSHIP!

It is one thing to have a good opener and plenty of steak – but if the customers walk away wondering what they are to do — the talk fails. So tonight we teach how to END the talk with a 10-second CLOSER.

You may gain attention, interest, and desire for what you have to offer, but if you can’t CLOSE the sale, you are not a Winner but a Loser.

Low-pressure closings are easier than high-pressure. Using suggestion to get the right answers. Wheelerpoint Number 4 appears again.

So important is this Elmer Wheeler close that Readers Digest wrote a story on it in February 1948.

BY “DON’T ASK IF – ask which” I mean you should always frame your words (especially at the close) so that you give the prospect a choice between something and something, never between SOMETHING and NOTHING.

When the time comes for you to get action, do so in sixty-seconds, before “sales — talk fatigue” sets in on him. The proof of the pudding is the dotted line! Watch for the “brass ring.”

Make it easy for the buyer to agree and say yes. How a porter does. How to do it on “callbacks.”

As you walk to the platform or sit at the “speakers” table you are being judged by the audience. Actually, your speech has begun.

The Sandman is your greatest competitor. Avoid being an “aher,” an “erer.” Use words that etch themselves into the brain of the audience. Avoid making their eyes heavy with details.

Bells, barks, whistles, and drums have only one tone-yet those tones each mean something. What do the tones of your voice mean to people?

Here is a “product” you already have. Take it off the back shelf and use it. A Dutchman paid $40,000.00 for it— a French lady $50,000.00. You can have it for nothing.

A “knack” used by famous people to make the other person feel “important”— to get things done for you willingly.

If the student presents his sizzles telegraphically with Showmanship, the prospect theoretically should buy. Closing techniques that crystallize this desire into ACTION is the next logical step.

If a sales group does not like its “chief” it will fall asleep. Many a dull sales manager knows what a “snoring session” is. So tonight we put the students through a practical experience in life.

The ready-to-buy signal is an indication by the prospect that he may be then interested enough to buy. Something he says or does will give him away. Don’t pass a buying signal.

Everybody has his favorite method of closing sales; and here are many of the best ones—from Ben Franklin to the modern door-to-door salesman.

We look on the wall to see the temperature of the room, to determine whether it is too hot or too cold, and just how to adjust the windows. We should learn to take the temperature of the prospect as well.

Every good salesman instinctively, or consciously, looks for the signals that tell him the other person has been sold and that the time has come for him to ask for the money or the signature.

How to raise the ego of an audience, and make them feel important. This is necessary to get them to like you. It breaks the ice of the coldest audience. It should be done in the first ten seconds.

There is no such thing as “magic words,” but there are words that “work magic.”

We all want to make a good impression the first time we meet someone, so what do we usually do? What is normal—the human thing to do?

Six simple points that will make you the life of the party, and not the bore. Traveling salesmen are back—but they have forgotten how to tell winning jokes that make friends and business.

Every buyer sends out a sign or signal that tells the alert salesman “I’m ready to buy.” Should the salesman pass up this GREEN LIGHT he may soon find a RED LIGHT. Tonight we emphasize the art of knowing WHEN to ask the customer to buy.

To teach students how to put a group of salesmen or customers at ease by starting and ending a presentation with a joke. Also to teach them the art of telling a “funny story,” the salesman’s ancient “stock in trade.”

It takes the friction of sand to make a train go uphill; and it takes objections to make the sale go forward.

When the buyer hesitates, don’t you hesitate. “I just can’t make up my mind” means you must sell harder. How to overcome last-minute buying fears. Analysis of why people don’t buy when you brought them to the buying point. The verbal push is something you need to develop.

WE COME NOW to the last Wheelerpoint, and upon its proper execution hinges the test of how much your sales words will succeed or fail – for your VOICE is the “carrier” of your message!

Selling is like fishing. He must make sure the hook is baited with food the prospect likes. Joseph Day sells Carnegie a building.

Microphone technique differs from platform technique. Facial expressions and gestures mean nothing. The tone of your voice and the length of your pauses are what count.

If the audience sighs with relief when you get to your “–in conclusion,” you’ve failed to get across. Make your speech as foolproof as possible.

WHEN WE WANT more money, such as a raise in pay, or in income, what is our natural reaction?

Aaron Burr is perhaps the best example history could offer of how not to sell yourself. He had brains, ability, courage. He had just about everything except the ability to get along with people.

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.–SHAKESPEARE.

To train students in the art and science of avoiding and overcoming objections — by having PRE-TESTED replies for standard objections.

The American “ear” is tuned to radios these days. The salesman today must know how to handle a microphone. So tonight we give students practical training in the art of talking over a “Mike.”

No matter who we are, we still have “lemons” among our customers or prospects—“people who just won’t buy.” But often the “lemon” can be turned and squeezed just enough to make delightful lemonade.

One little word that was worth a thousand dollars. The voice with a smile wins over the telephone. Handling the maid. Your first ten telephone words are more important than your next ten thousand.

This is the story of a man who took 50 years to find a “Tested Selling Sentence” with sufficient “sizzle” to overcome a typical customer objection. He makes six words sell hundreds of pounds of pipe tobacco.

The audience will never love you if you have false whiskers on, or serve them the wrong kind of mental food. The women’s club wants words addressed to them—the smoker wants words that suit them. Fit your words to the audience and the occasion.

Dress for the occasion. Fancy clothes keep the eyes of the audience on you and detract from your speech. Dress quietly. Let your words do the shouting for you.

Why the motion picture is more interesting than the phonograph, and why schools have blackboards. Can you talk in pictures?

“If you want to make more money you’ve got to serve other people. If you can figure some way to make the people around you more prosperous—you, yourself, will prosper!”

How not to pack a gripe in your grip—and to let everybody else have a good time— and return friends, not enemies!

To train students in additional methods to capitalize on objections. No matter how good the salesman’s approach, presentation, and close – he must know how to answer objections. *An original Elmer Wheeler Coined expression.

You never can tell when the boss, a customer, a friend, or a lodge member will suddenly call you for an impromptu talk. So tonight we have this practical training.

HOW TO “TRADE-UP” SALES OF MERCHANDISE

HOW TO “TRADE-UP” SALES OF SERVICES

HOW TO SELL “RELATED ITEMS”

HOW TO SELL “RELATED SERVICES”

“Nuts and Butts!

Above all don’t get angry. Capitalize on distractions if you can. Showing temper—or disgust—will lose audience goodwill. Turn the handicap into a laugh if possible.

“WISE WAYS” TO GET ALONG WITH PEOPLE YOU LOVE

WHY DO MOST INVENTORS DIE POOR?

HUSBANDS–TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS

It costs no more in gas, light, rent, shoe leather or rubber on tires to sell two things to a customer, than it does one. So we teach the class now Tested Methods of “making two blades of grass grow where only one grew before.”

To give students practical training in how to overcome the NORMAL distractions that throw an unprepared salesman off balance.

It takes a little extra effort to “keep the door open” for future calls. This is a “big market” for the alert salesman.

Salesmanship is the art of providing products that won’t come back to customers who WILL!

Learn how to keep an audience of salesmen awake. Use drama, stunts–let the men participate. Otherwise the Sandman will work against you.

Don’t try to hoodwink her today. She knows more about Broadway than the traveling salesman does. Hokum is gone with the wind. People are fountain — pen shy and sales — talk conscious.

How to raise the ego of an audience, and make them feel important. This is necessary to get them to like you. It breaks the ice of the coldest audience. It should be done in the first ten seconds.

The cigar-store Indian never sold a cigar because he lacked the human voice. Your voice advertises your personality! Put the voice in “neons.”

“When I got out of school, I decided I had only average ability and intelligence, but that I could work hard to achieve the things that would make up for any lack of brilliance.” “By being a hard worker, I could get the attention of those who could help me. I did that–in fact I overdid it!”

Because the prospect says “No” does not mean that he can’t be sold. The finesse is how to maneuver that “No” into a “Yes” and make it an enthusiastic “YES.”

To emphasize to class that the two essentials for a successful sales meeting are (1) Careful planning, and (2) Fast-moving talks.

Learn how to complement the prospect who answers the door. Don’t insult. Don’t argue. Try using complements; they go a long way. Your words can go right to the heart of the prospect.

Back to that old fear appeal again. The pastor says, “you’ll go to hell!” The quack says, “it will prevent fallen arches, and premature old age.” The old medicine man with his Indian stooge knew how to play on your fears with his swamp root tonic.

Give the novice chairman some help. He usually wants to know how you’d like him to introduce you. If he flops, you flop-at least temporarily. So give him a helping hand.

If you are called upon to be a toastmaster, follow these few suggestions, remember you’re giving a series of short, short speeches. Make each one a gem!

The playboy throws his money away; the miser hoards it–both do so for the same reason: PLEASURE!

PERHAPS YOU remember reading about the man in New York City who perched himself on a narrow ledge on the eighteenth floor of a New York hotel for eighty minutes, threatening to jump to his death.

It even makes the tax collector popular. It is a trait of leadership–the art of overruling objections, tactfully.

If you cannot get in to see the prospect, your sales presentation is worthless. So this session we study Tested Methods for getting the interview.

Sales luncheons and banquets present problems. If they are handled improperly they are boring. So we train students in this practical art of managing such meetings.

The fishermen with the right pole, the right bait, won’t catch a single fish unless he knows where to fish. That is why prospecting is so important to salesmen.

Leads are the life blood of a salesperson, whether retail, direct-to consumer, show rooms, or in the selling of intangibles. Without leads–without business.

You seldom can see what he has for sale, so honesty and integrity are his best assets in developing a prospect list.

You will profit much by reading Dr. Russell Conwell’s immortal “Acres of Diamonds,” the lecture that made $4,000,000, based on a single idea.

The selling word is mightier than the price tag. With words we govern people. A million people every week buy gasoline and oil because of certain tested words they hear from the Man at that Pump.

Making sure you are “underpaid” is a hard pill to swallow, but here is what will happen to you if you are underpaid!

A Short Story Number 10

The prospector may have the best tools to dig for gold, but unless he knows WHERE to prospect, his tools and muscles are useless. So it is with a salesman. He must be equipped with tools that help him know WHERE to find his prospects.

To stress that salesmen must sell themselves before they can sell products or services. The art of making people thirsty.

If you know what a prospect is thinking to himself during an interview, you’ll know how to fit your sales talk to him.

The other person begins to respond with his first “no.” But try not to give him a chance to be negative. Avoid trite words that mean nothing. Words that are baggy in the knees lose business. Press up your words. Keep the shine off them.

A correct way to correct people. Wrong criticism can curdle the milk of human kindness. Give him a chance to save his face.

Each person in life is governed by dreams, needs, and nightmares, and here is how you can put them to successful use for you.

You can’t sell yourself to others, if you don’t relax, and here are some ways to relax yourself, and others.

A salesman must know how to handle people. This requires an interest in people and a knowledge of them. Tonight we will emphasize this point to the class.

To emphasize the practical rules in Human Relations that will help each student in getting along with people, gaining happiness and success in life.

Just as the work of a carpenter, electrician, mechanic, or artist is no better than the quality of his tools, the work of a salesman is only as good as his equipment.

Oddities in selling the have their place. But “tricky” door-openers or attention-getters harm sales. Use the odd only when it is dignified and moves the sale smoothly toward a close. The book salesman’s approach. When you find the sign, “No Canvassers Allowed.”

People like to hear their names spoken–which is why they have loudspeakers in hotel lobbies, movies, and restaurants these days for calling names of people.

Three Wheelerpoints that will help. Get It–Repeat It–Associate It–that’s all there is to remembering names!

Sales aids and tools are the ice cream on the pie, the whip cream on the strawberries, the baker’s dozen. Many times they are the things that put over the sale. Tonight we show students how and when to use them.

To continue the teaching of practical rules that will help each student get what he wants out of life.

A salesman who doesn’t keep records is like a ship without a rudder. He drifts with the currents, not knowing where he has been or where he is headed.

Time is a salesman’s greatest asset. The salesman who “sales manages” his time properly can double his income from the same territory.

The same principles that make people buy shirts, neckties, rowboats and automobiles make executives hire man-power. These same principles can be used by the beginner to get himself a suitable sales job.

What an executive looks for in an applicant. What an applicant looks for in an employer.

All you have learned thus far will be of no avail in your life–selling yourself–unless you read this chapter, and put it into immediate effect!

Now that the salesman has learned the elements of the sale – one thing remains. To tie them all together. So tonight we have a Grand Review, and then show the student how he should PLAN HIS SALE.

To show students how to apply the same principles that make people buy shirts, neckties, rowboats, and automobiles – to getting a job for themselves.

Advertising helps ease the selling load–a good salesman boosts his income by using advertising. Here is a little background on “advertising “for the student.

Public Relations is letting people know things that will make them like you. All salesmen should have a working knowledge of Public Relations.

A good salesman keeps in mind that a successful sale is not completed UNTIL THE GOODS ARE PAID FOR. Credit knowledge helps the salesman.

In a letter it is mostly HOW you say WHAT you say. The salesman who can write a good sales letter boosts his income.

Most salesmen know how to get the goods on the dealer’s shelves. But helping the dealer to move those goods OFF his shelves is “merchandising”–one of the highest forms of salesmanship.

How a hotel stopped its guests practice of removing pictures from the walls of the rooms — and thus saved its profits.

The time to “stand up for yourself.” Often the breaking of the rules serves a good purpose. Anger has it’s place.

Editors Note: This chapter was written for Kiwanis Magazine in September of 1946. It has been reprinted so many times it is almost classical. Wisely, Elmer Wheeler concludes his book with this timely advice.

Do not take them lightly. This is a serious matter to most students. They have earned their Graduation, and respect their diplomas, so treat this final phase of the course with extreme dignity.

It has taken over 17 years to Collect these “tested tips” on handling this course. Numerous directors have helped, and we would like to keep these tips up-to-date. So as you find a new “tip,” please send it on to Elmer Wheeler, Sizzle Ranch, Dallas, Texas.

Selling is an Art, a Science AND a Trade. Anybody, with a little effort, can master all three ingredients.