Page 66 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

talk. She kept repeating over and over that she had no money, and finally he
went away. When she rejoined me, she said: ‘I think if he had remained
another moment I would have bought from him. He certainly had a good-
looking can opener.’ ‘Maybe people would buy from us, too, if we stood at
the door a little longer,’ I remarked absently, and she stared at me. ‘That’s
just it. It must be!’ she exclaimed. ‘Do you know what? We don’t make half
as effective a sales talk as that man did. We must improve it.’”

The Waffles went into a huddle and came out with a brand new canvass.
They tried it out on each other that night. Long after midnight, they retired
and awakened the next morning enthusiastic over their new plan. “We’ll
check it as we go along,” they decided. That morning’s sales were better.
Their combined profits amounted to six dollars and ninety cents. But better
than that, they began to discover the weakness in their sales presentation. It
was then that they started the habit of writing out what the prospect said, and
what the Waffles answered after each interview. This took a little time and
reduced the number of calls, but within a week it increased the percentage of
sales to interviews from 10 per cent to 60 per cent. They saw another
weakness in their method. They were carrying five items, the leaders of
which were the moth tab, bowlitizer, and refrigerator deodorant. The three
items together paid them a seventy-five cent profit. They had been talking up
only one item. Now they found the way of selling the other two after getting
the order for the one. The result was more income from every sale. In two
weeks, they had increased their profit from six dollars a day to twelve dollars
daily.

“If every woman who raised an objection were counted, I guess the total
would include every woman in the country,” declared Waffles. “Certainly
they object. But a skillful turning of the objection and a little selling pressure
will make them buy. I was told fourteen times by one woman that she didn’t
have any money in the house, but each time I smiled, agreed with her, and
then pointed out how much money could be saved by using the moth tab.
After ten minutes, she invited me inside to let me show her how easy it was
to hang the tab in the clothespress. I told her, meanwhile, I did not expect her
to buy a thing, but if she knew about the products, and wanted them later, she
could phone me. I told her about a special preparation for keeping moths out