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Selling tips from America’s greatest salesman – Elmer Wheeler

In this article, we see about some of the proven selling techniques developed and adopted by Elmer Wheeler and how it has been applied in selling various goods. The techniques mentioned here are referred from Elmer Wheeler’s book titled ‘Tested sentences that sell’. Mr. Wheeler’s purpose in this book to help the salesman by showing him how to add powerful sales words and techniques so that he will always have complete command over any selling situation. The insights he shares and describes are the result of his 10 year study of and thinking about what successful salesmen, of all kinds are saying and doing to make more sales. The rules shared here are based on ‘5 Wheelerpoints’; it is explained to you in relation to whatever you are selling.

5 Wheelerpoints are

  1. Don’t sell the steak – sell the sizzle.
  2. Don’t write – Telegraph
  3. Say it with Flowers
  4. Don’t ask if – ask which!
  5. Watch your bark!

Don’t sell the steak – sell the sizzle

The ‘sizzle’ is the biggest selling point in your proposition. The main reasons why your potential customers will want to buy your product. The sizzling of the steak starts the sale more than the cow ever did, though cow is very necessary.

For example, the insurance man sells protection, not cost per week. The vacuum cleaner salesman sells ‘less backache’ not price. He sells comfort not the motor.

While selling the sizzles, use ‘You-ability’ i.e. the ability to get on to the other side of the fence and see your product through the eyes of the customer. You-ability is the ability to say ‘You’ and not ‘I’ in the order that the customer considers important.

TIP: Sell the big reasons called ‘sizzles’ with the You-ability in mind.

Don’t write – Telegraph

Get your potential customers immediate and favorable attention with fewest possible words. Mr. Wheeler says if you don’t make your first message ‘click’, the prospect will leave you mentally, if not physically. Because, people form ‘snap judgments’. They make-up their opinions about you in the first ten seconds. So, use the 10 seconds telegram to attract your prospects. In the case of vacuum cleaners, follow the below phrases.

  1. The grit removers take out your dirt you never you had
  2. You may forget to clean the bag, but the time-to-empty signal won’t forget to remind you

TIP: First 10 words are more important than the next ten thousand.

Say it with flowers

Say it with flowers means prove your statement with the physical object or with your product. The flowers in the right hand as he proposes, tell her more than the mere words from his lips.

  1. In the case of vacuum cleaner, run the cleaner under table, point a dirt finder, turn switch on and off to dramatize the light and say ‘it sees where to clean – and it’s clean where it’s been’.
  2. Push the cleaner away from you, maintaining your hold on the cord. Then pull it back to you, saying ‘it has ball bearing action – a child can move it’.

TIP: Use ‘Showmanship’.

Don’t ask if… ask which

It means frame your words (especially at close) so that you give the prospect a choice between something and something; never something and nothing.

Do not be a ‘how about it’ salesman or ‘would you be interested in’ or ‘could you afford the better priced one?’ salesman. Because these questions won’t get the reply you want. Eliminate these from your vocabulary. Being a question mark instead of an exclamation mark salesman is an important difference between a winner and a loser in salesmanship. Perhaps, these are the winning statements.

  1. Which of these do you prefer?
  2. How do you prefer paying, weekly or monthly?
  • Where do you plan on using it, here or over there?

TIP: Ask the right questions that get you the answers you want.

Watch your bark!

The last point in 5 Wheelerpoints is ‘Watch your bark’. That is, your voice is the carrier of your message. How much your sales words will succeed or fail depends on the delivery of your message.

The finest sizzle that you telegraph in 10 words in 10 seconds, with a huge bouquet of flowers and lot of which, where and how flops if the voice is flat.

Smile when you say these

  1. This will shorten your cleaning time by hours.
  2. You have only one back – one life to live.

TIP: If you fail to smile, you are signalling the prospect to beware. But don’t be ever insincere.

The above mentioned 5 Wheelerpoints are applied in some products or advertisements which use and see in our day to day life. You may observe these in telebuy shopping.

  1. Orbitrek elite
  2. Ervamatin
  3. Tablemate
  4. Super ladder
  5. Ceramicore ladder
  6. Sewing genie – portable.
  7. Smart mob
  8. Roti queen
  9. No no oil dosa
  10. Super dicer pro.

Guest Post by R Ragavendra Prasath, a volunteer for iSPIRT. An avid reader, wannabe entrepreneur and chocolate enthusiast…! He tweets @ragavendra1

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With 16000+ installations in more than 10 states, in just 3 years. KisanRaja is growing big!

Perseverance or persistence are the 2 most important characteristics for an entrepreneur, says Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu, the Chairman and CEO of KisanRaja. In an exclusive interview with Ashutosh Ranjan and Ragavendra Prasath of iSPIRT, Vijay shares how he came out of the monthly salary mania and started working to solve the problem of farmers. Here is the edited excerpts from the interview.

Our first question to you is, how did you come out of the monthly salary mania?

  • Starting Vinfinet Technologies (KisanRaja) was not a sudden decision. In fact, I was doing research for quite some years during my weekends and evenings after work hours on how do we solve the problem of farmers. Before starting KisanRaja, I took an excel and jotted down how much will be my family expense with out my salary for the next 2 or 3 years. How to manage it. I wanted to keep my expenses very minimal.

How many iterations and months have gone into developing KisanRaja?

  • It took 8 iterations to reach our current version of KisanRaja which is very compact. The very first prototype was 8 Kg. We used 2 wheeler battery to power it. Many months have gone into each iteration. One iteration took 2 months and some others took more time.

You get lot of ideas when you start developing products? How did you prioritize Must have and Good to have features in KisanRaja.

  • We use the term Co-Creation. We collaborate, ideate, explore and experiment with farmers who are our customers. We understand what is actually required to them. We note down the conversations with them and work based on those inputs. We learnt that our first version had too many features which are actually not required by the farmers and as I mentioned it was 8 Kg. Even in our IVR to assist farmers, we use local slang. For example, slang used by people who speak Tamil in Chennai is not the same as people speak in Madurai. So took a blend of slang using it in our IVR.

Currently, the world is moving towards smart phones mania. We are a GSM based controller. Do you have any plans to upgrade to App based monitoring?

  • We have an Android App. Farmers can control the motor from their smart phone. So far 100 downloads done. We are working on the UI part to provide better experience.

How currently, how big is your team? (employees)

  • Currently, we are 20 member organization.

Are you a still a bootstrapped or funded startup?

  • We are looking for funding. So far, we have taken bank loans and support from family members. We want to expand in other regions in India. Currently, we have 16000+ installations in more than 10 states through our dealer network.

Any other new products that we expect from Vinfinet Technologies?

  • KisanRaja is our current focus. We are working on similar products lines with some enhanced features.