Ed McMahon’s Timeless Sales Magic

Ed McMahon is a sales superstar. I know. I’ve had the opportunity to spend time with and work with some of the best–people making $500,000 or one million dollars or more per year, take home. If he wasn’t in the entertainment business, Ed could do that in sales.

His autobiography, Here’s Ed, contains a fascinating account of Ed’s awesome sales powers in action. The scene is the Atlantic City boardwalk. The time is just after World War Two ended.

The range and sequencing of sales strategies Ed used were phenomenal. No one could resist his charm, his wit, his surprises, his honesty. While the setting seems somewhat unique–it could have been anywhere. People are people. These persuasion principles have universal application.

On the left, we will see Ed’s exact words. On the right, we will take an X-ray look at what makes them so powerful. This is the art of sales magic as performed by one of its greatest practitioners:

ED’S Pitch
“I’m about to sell ten of these empty boxes.”

Analysis
Creates SURPRISE and the Need to Understand!
“…just exactly ten… the specially selected ten I have piled up right here on the counter…”
Ed here triggers Scarcity Thinking: there are only ten!
“I’m about to sell these ten boxes to only ten lucky buyers at only one dollar each.”

HYPNOTICALLY repeats his earlier surprising statement!
“Now, I hear you saying, ‘Who’s going to pay a buck for an empty box?'”
Ed reads their minds again.
“That’s a good question.”

Flattery power.
“Not your staid, conservative, solid, unimaginative man with no romance in his soul.”

The Power of the Mlind Insult.
“But those of you who know that there’s often more to a thing than meets the eye
…those of you who can become fascinated, intrigued by an idea…those of you who wonder why a man would stand up here before you and offer an empty box for a dollar…”

SEDUCTION POWER: flattery and romancing the prospect.
“You will say to yourself. ‘There must be more here than meets the eye.'”

Ed reads the people’s minds.
“But there is a limit to the number of these empty boxes that I can sell at the price of just one dollar.”

CURIOSITY POWER: the listener wonders “Why, why, why?” and has to stay to learn!
“Here they are. I will count them for you…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten! That’s the limit.”
Undeniably truthful statement, plus Visual Involvement as he points, plus Scarcity Thinking! (In his book, Ed then comments, “At this point, I would pick up one of the boxes, look knowingly inside it, and smile provocatively at the crowd as if I wished they could see what I saw.” This, Ed correctly points out, was acting.)
“Now ladies and gentlemen, I say…I say…these boxes are empty. That’s what I say.
Hypnotic repetition: say, say, say.
“But I wonder if there are ten ladies and gentlemen among you out there who believe that I would actually presume to sell you an empty box.”
Triggers the powerful motivator of Human Curiosity.
“So this is what I’m going to do.”
Ed predicts his own behavior.
“As each of you steps forward to buy one of these little jewelry boxes…”

ASSUMPTIVE CLOSE: Ed Assumes they WILL buy.
“…I’m going to put one–the one you buy–on top of your dollar. When I have ten dollars covered by ten boxes, I’m going to ask each of you to step up here, open the box you bought and find out if I told you the truth when I said the box was empty.”
Ed predicts his own behavior.

Suspense-Building Power.
“Remember, I say these boxes are empty. Do you or don’t you believe me?”
Hypnotic Repetition plus The Power of the Challenge.

ED WOULD, IN ALMOST NO TIME AT ALL, HAVE TEN BOXES ON TOP OF TEN ONE DOLLAR BILLS!
“Now then, folks, I want each of you to step us here, open your box, and show everyone here exactly what you bought.”
Doing what he Predicted he would do. The Yes Set.
“You bought an empty box, exactly as I told you you would. Very well, ladies and gentlemen, what does that prove? It proves that I am an absolutely honest man.”

LEADING the people to believe Ed is an honest man! He could have just said it. It is much more powerful to prove it!
“So you must believe me when I tell you that the very greatest item I have ever been authorized to offer here on the boardwalk of Atlantic City is this handy Morris Metric Slicer which…”

LEADS the audience to their next belief
…this is the greatest!
“…I have here in my hand.”

VISUAL INVOLVEMENT.
“Forget the two dollars these great little gadgets were made to sell for.”
Curiosity Power: why forget?
“I’m cutting the price in half. Just look at the way it slices these cucumbers, ladies and gentlemen.”

POWER OF THE BARGAIN plus Visual Involvement.
“Is that great or is that sensational?”

FORCED CHOICE CLOSE: Either way Ed wins!
“With a machine like this, you can slice anything so thin, you could get a job with a tobacco company slicing calling cards into cigarette papers.”

Selling with WORD PICTURES.
“And I’m about to give this little machine more use and abuse in the next two minutes than you would give it in a entire lifetime.”
Power of the Challenge, plus Power of Curiosity: What will he do with it? They must stay!
“It’s guaranteed not to rip, rust, bust, split in the back or smell bad in warm weather.”
Power of the guarantee, plus humor power.
“Just a minute, what was that I heard? Did someone say cabbage? Thank you. Perfect stranger. Get a load of how this remarkable little machine handles your cabbage problems.”
Power of the (self-imposed) challenge. Need-building power: describing cabbage as a problem.
“For coleslaw, hot slaw, sauerkraut, or anything that may constitute your cabbage pleasure. Could I hear it for this coleslaw, ladies and gentlemen.”
The Power of Word Pictures.
The Power of Humor in Selling: cabbage “problem” has been changed to “pleasure.”
“But wait a minute, that’s not all!”
Suspense-building statement.
“Did you ever see a lady slice a tomato? She takes a poor defenseless tomato and plunges at it with a butcher knife. And the poor little tomato dies of a hemorrhage before it ever reaches the table.”
The Power of Word Pictures, plus the Power of Sales Humor.
“Now watch as I show you how this wonderful little invention handles your tomato problem.”
Ed predicts his own behavior, plus, hypnotic repetition of vegetable “problem” theme, uniting the whole sales presentation.
“Look at those slices, ladies and gentlemen. Each one is so thin, it’s no wonder stingy people adore this little machine.
Visual FOCUSING of audience’s attention to keep them from straying. Plus humorous appeal to desire to save money: “stingy.”
“Why, I sold one of these to a lady in Bayonne, New Jersey, and it made one tomato last her all summer long.”
Repetitious SALES HUMOR. People are laughing so much now they can’t help but like Ed (and his product).
“Look at those slices!”
Visual Focusing of audience’s attention.
“And…wait a minute, ladies and gentlemen, that’s not all!”
Suspense-building statement.
“Today, and for today only,,I’m including with each and every sale of this remarkable slicing machine a rotisserie cutter invented by the famous dean of the Parisian School of Potato Surgery. It was he himself who taught me how to use it.”
Triggers scarcity thinking: “today and for today only.” More powerful Sales Humor!
“Any child can learn.”
Psychological reassurance statement.
“Look at this!”
Attention Focusing Statement.

AT THIS POINT, ED WOULD SPIN A POTATO ON IT IN SUCH A WAY AS TO PRODUCE A SPRINGLIKE SPIRAL OF POTATO THAT HE’D PULL OUT AND LET SNAP BACK.
“When company comes to dinner, spread it out. When they go home, let it snap back together again. One potato could last you a lifetime.”
Intoxicating Sales Humor. At this point, the audience is laughing so much and feeling so good they’d buy anything from Ed!
“And in addition to the slicer and the machine for performing miracles with a potato, I’m adding the juice-o-matic…here it is folks…all for one dollar.”
Appeal to bargain-hunting mentality, plus sales humor.
“Plunge this handy little juice-o-matic into an orange, a grapefruit, or a watermelon like this.”
Visual Involvement and Attention-Focusing.
“Take it with you on your way to work and drink the juice right out of the fruit on your way downtown.”
The Selling Power of Word Pictures.
“We don’t supply the vodka.”
Still more Sales Humor!
“Stick this into a lemon and you have juice for a salad, a little lemon for your Tom Collins, and some for Mary and Jane Collins, too. There’s enough for the whole damn Collins family.”
More Sales Humor! Ed has us laughing so much, we have forgotten all of our worldly problems.

“And wait till you try it on a grapefruit. Take this number two grapefruit. With this juice-o-matic you get enough juice to float the USS North Dakota.”
More Sales Humor. At this point, I like Ed so much, I’d like him to be my son-in-law!
“Who’ll be the first to raise her hand and say, “I’ll be the first to give you a dollar for these three marvelous kitchen innovations?”
Ed uses the power of Hypnotic Suggestion and tells them what to say!
“Lady over there? Thank you very much, my dear. And there’s a man who wants two. He’s obviously leading a double life, the sly old fox. Good luck to you, sir. And thank you all for your enthusiasm. You have made this sale a success for all of us. And to those of you who didn’t buy, I hope you won’t regret the mistake too much in the future when you might want to become a little cutup.”
Play on words: cutup (what his product does).

As the crowd wandered away, Ed would start his pitch again, always beginning with the empty boxes to show how truthful he was. No one ever complained about the boxes because no sucker wants to be caught in the act of sounding like one. Ed made 400% profit on everything he sold, plus the dollar on the empty box was free and clear. Nobody ever took the box he bought! It was a wonderful summer job and Ed earned enough money to register at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., to study drama. SALES MADE IT ALL POSSIBLE. And, this same sales presentation would undoubtedly be just as effective if performed today. TRY IT YOURSELF!

Dr. Donald J. Moine is known as “The Sales Doctor.” A sales trainer and consultant to many Fortune 500 corporations and smaller companies, he has studied and worked with some of the most powerful and successful salespeople in the world.