Back to: Elmer Wheeler Career Course in Tested Salesmanship
Selling is an Art, a Science AND a Trade. Anybody, with a little effort, can master all three ingredients.
IT USED TO BE SAID THAT “SALESMEN ARE BORN”, NOT trained. That saying is now old-fashioned.
Of course there are always people who could never sell, but they are few in number.
It may be better said that some people don’t like selling, but that does not mean they could not sell if they wanted to sell.
Also, some people prefer various forms of selling and will master these forms rather than others.
The lawyer will not want to sell merchandise door to door, yet he wants to sell a jury.
The man selling brushes on door steps may feel stuffed up and confined in a jury room. He prefers, perhaps, to study the art, science, and methods of door to door selling to make his “trade”.
Selling, you see, is all three–the arts–the sciences–and the trades.
TAKE THE ARTS
Selling becomes an art when you master the techniques of selling. The finesse with which you use the techniques makes the result art.
What is art? Books have been written about art to try to describe it. Art to me is mastery of something to a point where you have changed it from work into finesse.
Art is skill in performance.
It is systematic application of knowledge or skill.
So you see selling IS art.
Once you have perfected the methods and techniques in the course, you will have become an “artist” in the sense that you are skilled in this profession.
An “artist” is not necessarily one who uses a brush on canvas; anybody can become an artist who has perfected a skill or a knowledge.
There are “artists” in cooking, “artists” in sweeping floors, “artists” in meeting people in offices, on front porches, in sales rooms, or in retail stores.
Andrew Carnegie became an “artist” in handling workers; Ford became an “artist” in making a low priced car; Edison became an artist with scientific knowledge.
Charles Markham was a janitor for the Illinois Railroad. He used to sweep the floors in the stations and did such an “artisitic” (thorough) job, that he later became President of the railroad.
Yes–he was an “artist” with a broom!
Andrew Carnegie made 20 millionaires–because, as I said, he was an “artist” in handling people, in bringing out their value.
You can become an “artist” in sizzlemanship!
IS SELLING A SCIENCE
Selling IS a science, an exacting science.
It is the science of knowing when and what to say–and to whom–to influence that person to your way of thinking.
You can BOIL selling tactics and methods into a fine science, so that it works regularly with almost mathematical precision.
Sherlock Holmes once said that he could not foretell how any one criminal would react under circumstances, but that he knew with precision how ALL criminals would react in the aggregate.
You may not be able to tell how any one customer or client will react to sales stimuli, but before you are finished with this course you will be able to foretell how people, on the whole, will react to word stimuli.
You will know, for example, what a woman will say to herself when you ring the doorbell. One woman says this, another that, but on the whole they will say, “Wonder who is at the door–hope it isn’t another salesman–I’m busy.”
Knowing this thinking of women, in the aggregate, when you press the buttons helps you to anticipate objections, and to prepare yourself against the objection with a scientifically tested approach that works on women, in the aggregate.
Selling IS a science! A most exacting science.
It removes the guess and gamble, the stammer and stutter, from the sale…from meeting people socially or commercially.
Selling is both an art and a science. Once the science has been perfected, then it automatically becomes an art and you are “an artist of selling.”
SELLING A TRADE?
A trade is a craft, a business, or a profession.
Therefore your trade is selling.
“What is your stock in trade?” they used to ask years ago, and the answer in your case would be that your trade is selling things to people.
“The business one practices” is the official definition perhaps of a “trade.”
So you see that selling is a trade…as well as an art…as well as a science.
First you learn the methods and techniques of selling. You study the science of selling and, as you perfect it, you find it is an art.
The art then is your trade.
IT IS ALL THREE
So selling is an art, a science and a trade.
It is all three.
You can so perfect your trade that it becomes art to you. You can master selling to a degree where it becomes as precise as scientifically blending medicines.
Anyone who masters his trade is an artist of that trade.
Anyone who sells, trades in selling.
The hit and miss salesman is surely NOT an artist, nor has he a trade.
He has failed to see that selling can be scientifically planned in advance, with accuracy.
He says, “Aw, everybody has to be handled differently. You can’t study that.”
You can. You can know the desires of most people, the hopes of most people, the fears of most people, and how to make your “approach” as scientific as a motor car.
Basically, we are ALL alike in wanting money, love, freedom, happiness, power…and a good salesman boils these instincts into a science.
He masters the science. He makes it a trade.
When he has fully mastered it–it then becomes an art, and he is a real “word artist.”
Thus, you see, selling is an art plus a trade plus a science.
QUESTIONS:
Sizzle plus science is “Sizzlemanship”