I sold Anacin when it was a top ranked pain reliever, neck and neck with Tylenol. The product that was most fun to sell was the highly ranked metal tin of 12 tablets - the one you'd typically see near the register in convenience stores, gas stations, drug stores and sometimes in food stores.
In the late 80s, we wanted to sell more tins to food stores because food stores had the most customers (pre Walmart dominance). How to do it? Ronnie Ayers, a crafty 'ol boy from Texas, created the following story to sell the tins to food retailers (cost $.80, price $1).
You began by asking the buyer a question: Do you think you could sell just one piece per day, per register - just one?
What salesperson ever leads a sales presentation with a question, let alone a question that goads a buyer by asking if they can achieve an anemic sales goal like one piece per day? The buyers would say, "Of course", and then you'd show the math.
Place one dispenser at each register in each store in the chain (500 stores x 6 registers per store = 3,000 placements). If you sell just one piece per register, per day Mr. Retailer, you'll sell 3,000 pieces per day, generate $3,000 in sales and $600 in profit. Multiplied by 365 days = $1,095,000 in sales and $219,000 in profit, while taking up virtually zero selling space.
The buyer would snap the worksheet out of your hand and compute the numbers for himself. Usually he'd do it twice. They couldn't believe it - how does 1 add up to $1,000,000? They all loved the idea and most of them made the same remarks. They loved the product, the simple story, the low pressure sales technique, the simple math and the simplicity of the execution. Most of the major chains bought the product and executed the plan and the company sold millions of Anacin tins. And, no chain ever met the sales goal of one piece, per register, per day - not even close. Did the buyers get mad? Did they penalize us on the next sales proposal? No.
Why? The story made sense, it was a reasonable goal and they were completely bought in, not strong armed, pressured or fooled into doing it - they were partners in the plan, and the failure.
This story will always remind me that telling a story is better than making a pitch. That simple is better than complex. That even if the product is well liked by consumers and retailers and the plan is executed to perfection, it can be hard as hell to meet even the lowest of sales expectation.
O.D.O.o.O.D.B.
