Internet Marketing Business Strategies

Elmer Wheeler was born in 1904. He was a salesman who researched how what a sales clerk says can affect the response of potential customers. He discovered that small changes of phrase could improve sales on small transactions by as much as seventy percent.

Wheeler tested 105,000 statements for 5,000 products and eliminated or replaced 100,000 of them.

What is the key to Wheeler’s method?

“Don’t think so much about what you want to say as about what the prospect wants to hear – then the response you will get will more often be the one you are aiming for.”

This principal can be used in any situation, written or spoken, where you want to influence the decision the listener makes.

Today’s guest blogger, Craig Garber, looks at Elmer Wheeler’s technique in more detail.

Large One?

Here’s a proven, and truly easy way to start increasing your sales, immediately.

All you need to do is add these 2 words to your selling system, and you’re good to go.

In fact, this trick’s so good, I wish I could take credit for coming up with it, but the truth is, it comes from a little-known marketing legend.

Here’s the deal:

In 1947, Elmer Wheeler was one of the best-known salesmen of his time. His “Wheeler Institute of Words” developed a “best practices” of selling, by testing a variety of words in over 19 million selling situations.

I’m right in the middle of reading one of Elmer’s most famous books, “Tested Sentences That Sell”.

And here’s a great little selling trick that comes straight out of this book:

Ever go into a restaurant and order a drink?

Of course you have.

And what does your server usually ask you, right after you place your order?

They usually say “Small or large?”, right?

Well, imagine for a moment… you’re the owner of this restaurant.

Do you have any idea how much your sales would increase over time, if… instead of saying “Small or large?” after your customers ordered their drinks … you told your servers to instead, say…

“Large one?”

Let me take the guess-work out of this and make your job easier for you.

Elmer Wheeler tested this experiment out in five-thousand separate selling situations. And the results showed, when your server asked “Large one?”…

7 out of every 10 people, answered “Yes!”

So, let’s say a large soda costs you 35¢ more than a small soda — are you with me on this? This means, by saying “Large one?”… 7 out of every 10 customers that walk through your door, end up giving you an extra 35 cents!

Now you may be thinking, “So what?… It’s only 35 cents.”

A-h-h-h, but remember….

Little Hinges Swing Big Doors Open!

Follow me here for a minute: If you’ve got 5 servers… and each of them does this with 100 customers a day, this means each of them will be serving large sodas to an extra 70 people a day.

That’s an extra 350 large soda sales a day. (5 servers x 70 large sodas each).

350 extra sales, at 35¢ each, is $122.50 a day in extra gross sales for you… which translates into $857.50 extra a week, and over 52 weeks, this turns into…

$44,590 Dollars A Year… With ZERO Extra Marketing Costs Involved!

Not bad, hey?

And if your large sodas cost 50¢ more than your small sodas, in that case, your annual bump in gross sales would be $63,700 Dollars!

70¢ more? O.K., that one’s easy — just double the 35¢ figure — now you’re selling $89,180 Dollars more!

See how easy this stuff is?

It’s insane, isn’t it?

But what if you don’t have a restaurant?

How can you use this trick in your business? Well, let’s say you own a photography store. When people are filling out their forms to get their pictures developed, instead of saying “Singles or doubles?”, you can say “Doubles?”.

If you own a landscaping company, instead of asking “Shrubs and lawn?”, you’d say “Whole yard?”

And if you’re a hairdresser, instead of asking “Cut and shampoo?”, you just say “Shampoo?”

Make sense?

When it comes down to it, the basic premise of this selling trick, is…

If You Don’t Ask… You Don’t Get!

But polishing your request up so it’s “benefit-oriented” to your prospect… makes this work smoothly… effectively… and without looking like you’re trying to “sell more”.

Notice how you’re not asking “Do you want a large soda?” — you’re just saying “Large one?”

See, you’ll have to experiment a little bit to find out what works best in your situation, but not you’ve at least got one helluva head start on things, no?

And can you think of any easier way to make this kind of extra money?

Elmer Wheeler really was a “selling genius” and you’ll pick up quite a bit from him.

And, from the excitement and enthusiasm he comes across with, you know he enjoyed his work.

Here are a few of Elmer’s famous quotes:

“Your first 10 words are more important than your next 10,000.”

“People seldom want to walk over you until you lie down.”

And…

“Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle.”

P.S. Remember, little hinges really DO swing big doors open — and success lies in the margins, not in the vast open spaces. So keep your mind open to finding the small things that others let slip… through the cracks.

“Craig Garber is America’s Top Direct-Response Copywriter. You’ll find hundreds of marketing tips to increase your sales, and his insanely popular FREE Direct-Response Marketing Tip Of The Week, on his website, www.kingofcopy.com. Copyright © Craig Garber. All rights reserved.”

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