Showmanship

Money Attracts Money

A creative salesman has found a new way of getting the attention of unsuspecting prospects. He spends his mornings riding up and down the elevator in a large Chicago office building wearing a round button saying: “Ask me about success.”

Right below the button, clearly visible, he’s pinned a dollar bill.

This attention-getter elicits comments like: “Have you got any more of these?”, or “What can you tell me about success?”

After the prospect initiates the conversation, the salesman zeros in with: “If you’ve got 10 minutes, I could show you how you can get hundreds more,” or “If you’ve got 10 minutes, I can show you how to become successful.” The new method has increased his sales by 150 percent.

Beep-Beep….wanna buy floor covering?

Mannington Mills has installed computerized store displays in over 100 retail stores.

The new device attracts shoppers with periodic electronic beeps – a technology borrowed from video-arcade machines.

Prospects can enter information about room size, color and other data. A specific sales suggestion is displayed after a six-minute product presentation (featuring Ed McMahon).

By the end of 1983, the company plans on having approximately 2,000 units installed.

Robert Hennessey, manager of sales promotion at Mannington, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying:

“…It just seemed the time to do this, and unlike a salesman, the computer never takes a coffee break or goes to the bathroom.”

A customer quipped about the new computer: “The beeps are actually primitive victory chants of first-generation computers taking the place of retail salespeople.”

Telephone Selling at a Tradeshow

At a recent trade show an exhibitor equipped several attractive models with portable telephones.

When they identified important prospects (by reading name tags), they caused the phone to ring and then informed the surprised visitor that the call was for him.

A concealed cassette recorder (in the model’s purse) played a one-minute canned sales talk over the telephone inviting the visitor to come to a certain booth.

The exhibitor attracted a record number of new prospects. (Note of caution: check with show-management prior to using a similar technique.)