LET'S SELL

[Music] did you ever stop to think what it is that makes someone open a pocketbook or fill out and put his signature on a check or reach into his pocket for his wallet or count out some silver whatever it is the way people buy why they buy and how much they buy is extremely important to every man connected with the retail business no matter what he is selling every kind of retailer has a vital interest in any change in consumer buying habits the last such change began to take place over ten years ago when world war ii caused shortages of almost everything that people use and want under wartime rationing a retailer's problem was getting enough goods to meet the demand people bought what he had without any selling effort on his part creating what we call a seller's market and that seller's market didn't end with the end of the war post-war setbacks in production meant continued shortages of many essential commodities and so we have had a succession of crises allocations rationing substitutes sealing prices for years business generally has been much more concerned with the problem of producing things than with selling them this is the background for the retail marketing picture as it exists today as customers ourselves we're all familiar with to put it mildly the general indifference that exists as far as selling anything is concerned in fact at one time or another many of us have probably had a take-it-or-leave-it experience like this one shown an emotion picture called the hidden camera young men will you wait on me please sorry I didn't know you're in a hurry what are you looking for I'd like to see some men's shirt size 15 32 the treasure size 15 huh how many do you want well I'd like to see them if you don't mind here's one $3.25 do you have these many other colors yeah we got other colors blue can I think we've got some Gray's me I see them please well they're just like this only different colors what color do you want well I'd like to see them before I decide don't you even know what color you want you said this was 325 that's right well it says here they're 295 oh must be all stock the price has gone up I guess the boss forgot to mark these over well well well did you decide what color you want yes well I I think I'll shop around a little bit more thank you that's the thing dad they're getting worse every day in this episode from the hidden camera a service is involved rather than a product hello this a shop let me talk to Fred Oh Fred answers Kelly I'm over at that house on Shore Drive oh yeah that's at the wiring Jotham put some wall plugs in the bedroom hell no I ain't finished I know I've been here all day that's why I called you look I got him all hooked up but half of them don't work sure I get juice Oh y'all wait what's the matter somebody else wanted to talk to us a minute are they going to send over someone else search me lady don't think we got anybody else all the rest of guys are busy you know I sure wish I'd made up my mind to be a carbon instead of electrician lot easier work more dough do you know any more about carpenter work than you do about installing walls one I know how to install wall plugs they don't like the job that's all are you gonna patch up that big hole well then when the plaster must have been weak you know these new houses ain't so hot when it comes to being world built this house is 10 years old oh that hole looks terrible oh yeah just a minute lady your friend well look like I told you I got him all hooked up but the half of them don't seem to work stopwhat wire red wire from the switch I don't know I didn't see any other tell him to come over himself it's almost 5 o'clock lady you're in overtime as it is I don't care I want this job finished today the man said only take a couple of hours to install those for plug you been here all day and still not finished just a matter Fred she's saying some look lady I don't make the estimates I just do the work please ask him to come over himself and finish the job uh Fred she says she wants you to come over yeah right now huh well the way I figure the whole house ought to be rewired along modern lines the other ones all bad now it was billed over 10 years ago she admits it yeah uh okay okay I'll wait here for you right oh by the way tell them tell Nettie to check out my timecard for overtime okay try the price all right do you think they'll watch one of the wires on the wall somewhere you imagine anybody being that dumped here's another familiar episode taken from the hidden camera good afternoon folks no look I do for today we're looking for a new Davenport uh-huh good you came to the right place hey they are very expensive huh but on the other hand what isn't expected these days you're right it then how much do you want to spend a little more important you find out what kind of Davenport we have in mind oh I just I just thought I'd save a little time I mean assume well for our recreation room we think we want a leather one rare if it isn't well how much I mean look around now here's a nice full-size one that's where this leather or plastic oh it's genuine leather I guess it looks like leather don't you know oh yes it's that new plastic it's much better than leather and it's easy to clean too made out of two fans how does it compare with other plastic leathers well to tell the truth I don't know anyway I guess one kind is just as good as another it looks similar to the material on that Davenport at the Blair's store yeah well the way they make stuff today number two hot ask me that isn't what the man said it's a flair start he was quite sure his product was better than any other make he sounded like he knew what he was talking about - well I still say they're all pretty much alike him the price on this one is two hundred and thirty-five dollars plus back Oh what do you say folks maybe we ought to look at something else well how much you want to spend not one penny more than the price and the one we pick out but at least we want to know something about what we're buying not so long ago pliers service station magazine wanted to find out what happens when a car owner wants to buy a battery the plan was very simple a member of the magazine staff just walked into a service station and announced that he thought he needed a new battery according to their findings this example we are about to see re-enacted wasn't one of the worst or one of the best it was just about average yes sir I want to put a new battery in my car yes sir do you have any batteries what kind of car forty-nine Plymouth just the matter what kind of car was it 49 Plymouth well we got one battery at $28 and one at $22 well what's the difference well one's better than the other look that one on top $28 one the one below is a $22 one oh do I get anything my old battery well I think you get 250 for I think another organization that made a careful study of retail salesmanship is Fortune magazine one of the world's foremost business publications according to Fortune no other group of salespeople met by their reporters was as polite cheerful and willing to oblige as service station men but when it came to selling well let's listen to what a fortune reporter had to say about one episode following instructions I had put a really beat-up tire on the left rear wheel of my car one with a bruise that nobody with a half and I could miss my orders with a pick a station that definitely was in the tire business one that looked like they wanted to sell tires the question was with the man at the pump try to make a sale he didn't spot anything wrong so I said Dave his tire looked a little low don't you think you're right wait a minute I'll get the air hole well I figured he'd be bound to say something about that tire when he started to put air in it now it's okay hey wait a minute look at this yeah that's pretty bad you know I don't feel safe riding around on the tire like that I don't blame you that could get you in a lot of trouble maybe I'd better change it I would if I were you I waited to see if he would suggest that I change it for a new tire but he didn't so I finally said I've got a spare in the back would you change it for me sure be glad to describe your car around there away from the pump well that was it just the way it happened according to fortune now what's your guess do you suppose it makes much difference whether people are sold anything or whether they're left to buy what they think they need after a detailed survey of a number of different types of retail outlets and a careful analysis of the whole situation here is the conclusion reached by fortune the important question about retailing no longer is how much the nation's retailers are selling it is how much they are not selling how many sales are salespeople fumbling on any working day certainly it adds up to at least three billion dollars a year and if a statistical answer could be pinned down it would be one of the most sensational loss figures in business history that finding definitely includes our business too because service stations were among the types of outlets covered in the fortune study we also have another reliable source of information on service station salesmanship for years the makers of Mobil gas have been conducting fact-finding studies regularly on customer service at dealer outlets including outlets handling competitive brands of products you're going to see a couple of episodes re-enacted according to the information obtained by the more than nine hundred men and women who were the investigators for the last survey their reports covered a number of different subjects but right now we're concerned with just one thing what they had to say about selling at the stations they visited this is typical of the way they worked following the survey procedure the investigator stopped at a station for gas now like any other driver he didn't really know if his car needed oil or anything else he depended on someone to tell him they'll be 135 and that was that no attempt to lift the hood and check the oil nothing unusual about it either according to the survey at a total of three thousand three hundred and seventy three stations visited there was no attempt to sell motor oil in 21 percent of the cases that's about one out of five many times even when the oil was checked real sales opportunities were missed in this case for instance it'll take a court you get the point of course this car could have been due for an oil change instead of a court sale it could have been a 5 quart sale plus a new filter and if an oil change had been sold the chances are a Mobil lubrication a sale would have gone along with it because both are usually due at the same time as it was the chance for plus sales was lost completely because the driver wasn't asked a simple question like how far is this oil been driven in the case of many lost sales it wasn't even necessary to ask if anything was needed it was perfectly obvious like this badly worn fan belt that spoke for itself every time the hood was lifted in the same way failing to take even a quick glance at the tires while this car was on the driveway meant passing up the opportunity to point out a need and so at least the chance of making a tire sale remember according to the survey in 21% of the cases no effort was made to sell motor oil what do you think it was on other car needs like this missing wiper blade 94% aside from motor oil in 94 percent of visits made to 3373 service stations by the investigators nobody made any effort to sell them anything at all take gasoline some service station men think there's nothing they can do to improve gasoline sales and yet time after time natural opportunities are missed that can improve any stations gallonage figures probably the biggest one is failing to ask for the full tank sale this motorist is a good example he asked for 10 gallons and that's just what he's getting he isn't being told that just a few more gallons would fill the tank maybe he wouldn't buy them then again maybe he would one thing is sure enough people do buy the full tank sale when they're asked for it to make it worthwhile asking every time here's another gasoline selling opportunity that's often lost the driver who comes into a station for information road maps or anything else except gasoline and who leaves without being reminded that filling his tank now will save him a stop later on and how about this situation the car that has been left for an oil change mobile lubrication or any other kind of service all too often it's turned back to the owner without any attempt to sell in a tank full of gasoline before he leaves and yet buying gasoline is every motorists most expected purchase the one he resists the least but the seriousness of today's lack of selling isn't limited to gasoline business or oil business it extends to everything that people buy remember this little episode do you have any battery you know it's a rare bird who asks that question these days we all know that on just about every kind of commodity America's tremendous productive capacity sooner or later was bound to start catching up with the nation's demands despite all the setbacks despite all the shortages and allocations of critical materials and so as a result these days fewer and fewer people are just asking for items more and more people have to be sold because for the first time really since 1940 we are back in a buyers market and in our business as in every kind of retail business this change in people's buying habits reestablishes the importance of four simple fundamentals of retail salesmanship the first one is to understand that customers must be sold in other words that there is a need to sell maybe that sounds elementary but if you remember this man had no idea the need to sell as proved by the way he asked well did you decide what color you want yes here of course as in all retailing even when a customer knows what he or she wants there is a need to sell in our business every dealer should understand that there is a still greater need to sell because 50% of the gross income should come from the item that people most often do not know they need and so must be sold that in this buyers market customers are not going to ask for merchandise they must be sold and that the increased cost of doing business these days requires each employee to produce more gross every employee should know that his ultimate job is selling not just pumping gas the second fundamental is being organized to sell which means having the right stocks of products good displays proper tools and above all a knowledge of whatever you're selling that you will recall was one big fault of the salesmen who tried to sell a couch this leather or plastic oh it's genuine leather I guess it looks like nothing don't you know oh yes it's that new plastic it's much better than leather and it's easy to clean too made out of two fat people want to know something about whatever they're offered and knowing what to tell them is part of being properly organized to sell the third fundamental is having the desire to sell every dealer should want a sell because it means a chance of improving the financial standing of himself and his family and those who work for him in addition there is the satisfaction of accomplishment that comes with making a sale every station employee should want a sell because selling is part of his job because it's made worth his while and because knowing how to sell is a lifetime asset to anybody that's the fourth fundamental of retail salesmanship knowing how to sell using a sales technique to follow a logical series of steps in making a sales talk remember there's no problem about people buying they'll be buying alright more of everything cars need why because there are more cars in use than ever before and they're being driven more too so they'll be greater demand for the things you sell but they'll also be greater supply greater competition to creating a buyers market above everything else that calls for more and better selling by every man in the service station business that's the problem faced by mobile dealers everywhere that's the problem tackled by the makers of mobile gas in the let's sell program a proven practical plan to help mobile dealers and their men with a sound understanding of the need to sell how to properly organize to sell creating the essential desire to sell and using an effective sales technique based on a simplified breakdown of steps to a sale just for common sense principles that's all there is to the let's sell plan there's nothing complicated about it but there's nothing magical nothing quick and easy about either any dealer who expects to get real results out of a let's sell plan must be willing to put in two at the time and effort it deserves and needs to make it work that's the main thing it does work as proved by every dealer who has tried it out and really given it a chance properly applied the let's sell plan can help any dealer meet the changeover from the sellers to a buyers market get the gross profit needed to offset today's higher operating costs get a full share of today's bigger and better service station business [Music]