Approximate Timing
10 minutes -Welcome Class – Explain Course
5 minutes – “I Introduce Myself”
30 minutes – FBI Games of Sizzlemanship
10 minutes – “My Selling Sentences” Sheet
30 minutes – We Play “Word Magic”
5 minutes – Discuss “Friend-Makers” Card
5 minutes – Elmer Wheeler Handshake
5 minutes – “Boy, Am I Enthusiastic!”
Purpose:
To make a “good impression,” to sell the results the course brings, to make class “sales conscious” and to sell yourself. Your students will judge you by this FIRST IMPRESSION–so make it a sizzler!
Note: Director should. get himself an old cow bell. Older the better. Use this to start meetings, end discussion periods, call to “order,” and otherwise spice up the various assignments. It is a “trade-mark” of the Sizzling Salesman.
Welcome Class-Explain Course (10 minutes)
Take a minute to introduce yourself, then plunge into a speedy summary of what the course will do which, briefly, is to help the student build a sales talk or point up one he is already using, then help him find a job — if he needs one — and his prospects.
Explain that each Wheelersession is divided into Two Parts, and go over this outline with the students to sell them on the benefits and advantages they will secure.
Sell Elmer Wheeler by reading a paragraph or two from Reader’s Digest andCoronet Magazine which are to be passed out at this session. Show some of the Work Sheets and Cards that make up the course, and impress upon the class this is not a “lecture course” but a Work Shop where they will study and practice the art of selling.
“I Introduce Myself” (5 minutes)
Tell the class that later in the session they will really introduce themselves but for the present each is to stand up and give his name and his business. Do this “round robin” fashion. No applause – no comments. The purpose is to let students see who is in the class. It impresses them. It is a good warmer-upper.
FBI Game of Sizzlemanship (30 minutes)
To illustrate how fast an Elmer Wheeler session operates, note that you have been together 15 minutes and already you start a practical assignment in selling.
Explain to class that in Washington the FBI puts a dummy on the floor oftentimes called “Oscar.” The FBI students “must detect in a few seconds as many clues as possible regarding Oscar’s demise.
Tell the class that a good salesman must also be able to detect selling clues. That this game is good practice. Then hold up a piece of merchandise or a service, such as a typewriter, an umbrella, a fountain pen, a chair, a man’s hat, or an insurance policy.
The students are to sound off, as many sizzles, which are selling points, as they can detect with their eyes. Allow about three minutes per item. Keep discussion fast moving with such statements as, “can’t someone else dig up another hidden sizzle?” “Who is a good sizzle detective here!” — “George, “can’t you find a real sizzler?”
Note: So that you can begin to learn names of class, list them on pocket-size cards. As you call a name place that card to the rear of the pack. This also assures you that will not constantly call on one or two names, ignoring the others and thus causing them to lose interest because you did not “bring them into the act.”
“My Selling Sentences Sheet” (10 minutes)
You now have class write down their sales talks exactly as they use them in their own businesses, or as they plan to use in some business they will enter after the course.
The purpose of this assignment is to loosen up the class, and also to let them get their sales talks out of their systems. Within half an hour, you see, you are having them write down sales talks, and they like this action you are giving them.
Later on this sheet serves to show the student how much improvement he has made since the first night. Tell students you will analyze their sales talks by next Wheelersession.
We Play “Word Magic” (30 minutes)
What is more logical in the study of Salesmanship than to begin with the very words themselves that make people respond?
Note: Always Explain the why behind each assignment you give the class so that the students will know. Why they are required to do something. Thus they will participate willingly and wholeheartedly.
The object of this assignment is to make the class “word conscious.” Here is how to play the game of “Word Magic”:
- WORDS THAT ANNOY: Write this on a blackboard. Ask class then to shout out the words that annoy people, especially customers. Such as “dearie,” “Bub,” “dumbbell,” “stupid.” When class has exhausted itself then proceed to next group.
- WORDS THAT GUSH: Good salesmen never use words that are overly-perfumed such as “honey,” “simply divine,” “positively lush,” Absolutely gorgeous.”
As class sounds out with other such words mark them down on blackboard. When class has exhausted itself, proceed to next group.
- WORN-OUT WORDS: When words are worn-out from their real meaning; such as “cut-rate,” “our loss your gain,” “bargain.” Proceed as before.
- COMPLICATED WORDS: Many salesmen believe big, high-sounding words impress people. This is all wrong. You should talk the language of the people you are selling. Now ask class to list big words and their simple counterparts, such as:
- WORDS WITH BAD MEANINGS: Certain words bring up negative or ugly thoughts in people’s minds. They won’t buy anything that the salesman calls “cheap,” but they do not mind buying something he calls “inexpensive.” So get class to make up a blackboard list such as:
The boy-friend might call his girl-friend a “cute tomato”” but he never will make friends with her if he calls her a “pineapple.” The most bitter word is “alone”; the most revered is “mother”; most tragic, “death”; most beautiful, “love”; most cruel, “revenge”; warmest is “friendship”; the coldest, “no” most peaceful is “tranquility”; most comforting, “faith,” and the saddest is “forgotten.”
Note: Assignments in a Wheeler course are rapid fire and often do not allow time for each student to participate. However, during an entire session there will be time for each student to participate in some assignment. So while you ask always for volunteers, always be on the alert for some shy personality who won’t volunteer. Then call on him. Never let a few “front row” students dominate an entire session. Get everybody into the act.
Discuss “Friend-Makers” Card (5 minutes)
The card is self-explanatory, but always before passing out any booklet, card, or magazine, or reprint to students read a paragraph or two to whet their appetites. Do not pass anything out to class yourself. Get students to help. They love to “play teacher.” It is another way to get shy students “into the act.”
Elmer Wheeler Handshake (5 minutes)
This handshake is fully Explained on the Handshake Card that you will have passed around. It is also Explained in Tested Salesmanship. With another member of the staff, give a speedy demonstration of the wrong way to shake hands. Burlesque these wrong ways.
Then you and your assistant give the Elmer Wheeler Handshake. Do it slowly several times. Explain it is simple and that is why it is good, for the handshake should never attract attention. Then have the entire class stand up, pair off, and practice the handshake.
After several practices and while the students are Still on their feet, go right into the following “class yell.”
“Boy, Am I Enthusiastic!” (5 minutes)
This is the “class yell.” It is more than a cheer. It serves a deep psychological purpose. For by repeating, “Boy, am I Enthusiastic!” day After day, the student gains enthusiasm – because it sells himself on the fact he IS Enthusiastic.
You see, a salesman needs above all other things ENTHUSIASM. Tell him he must practice this daily in front of his mirror while dressing, — in fact, in front of gum machine mirrors or plate glass windows, just before making a sales call.
It might be well for you to read Prentice Hall’s new book, “The Magic of Believing,” by Claude Bristol. He tells you if you believe hard enough in something, it will happen. Coue proved it with his, “Day by day in every way I am getting better, and better.”
The most backward student can gain enthusiasm if he will continue to say, over and over again “Boy am I ENTHUSIASTIC!” And if you will explain this psychology behind our “class yell,” the students will take it in the right spirit. So explain this thoroughly. Then explain the Bouncing Ball idea. This is explained in the back of the Manual.
Then run the class through their “yell” several times. Precede the yell with:
“Salesmen WERE born – NOW they are Wheeler-trained. Boy, am I ENTHUSIASTIC!” (Raise Bouncing Ball on capital letters.)
On all Bouncing Ball drills, first get entire class to participate. Then in sections. Then in sides. Vary it in many ways, women versus men; front rows versus back. Make it “fun with a purpose” – and then with students on their feet ring the old cow bell and announce the 10-minute Intermission.
Thus the class saunters off in a gay, high mood — most receptive for Part Two which will follow. Just be sure to start ON TIME. If the class sees you are sloppy in your “starts,” they will think you are a bad “salesman” and not fit to be their Director.