The Art Of The Sale
Back in the 1930s, marketing whiz and epigrammatist Elmer Wheeler wowed the world of salesmen with his Wheelerpoint No. 1: “Don’t Sell the Steak—Sell the Sizzle!”
There were other Wheelerpoints, but that’s the one that has achieved mantra status among professional persuaders.
Beyond the zippy exhortation, there is an art to selling, a discipline that the best in the business practice every time they set out to win over a client.
We surveyed several Memphians who have had the pleasure of selling, whether its a single hat to a single customer or an investment in a sports team to an entire city.
At least one of these great persuaders was reluctant to think of himself as a salesman. When asked, Henry Turley immediately said, “I don’t think I know how to sell.” Yes, he really said that, the man who gave life to a moribund downtown Memphis. Since he founded Henry Turley Co. in 1977 he’s made urban redevelopment a beautiful thing here, from Harbor Town to the South Bluffs to the Uptown revitalization.
Maybe others saw the possibilites of a vigorous downtown back then, but it was Turley who acted on it. But selling? “I think it’s just dogging it,” he said. “Dogged determination.” He further demurs: “I have to be judicious about what I say because I never take myself too seriously and nobody else did.” But we have to call him out on that. He’s an artist when it comes to encouraging collaborations.
==
Art Gilliam touches on one element of selling that if frequently echoed: “You have to believe in what you’re selling.” Gilliam has been CEO of WLOK-AM 1340 since he acquired it in 1977. He spent a year getting financing to secure the deal which make WLOK the first black-owned Memphis radio station and the city's first locally owned station.
If you believe in what you’re selling, he said, the next thing is to know how to present it. When you’ve mastered how the product or service works, then, he said, “you have to understand that other person and what their needs are because you have to fit what you’re selling into what they need.” Another thing: Shhhh! “You have to be able to listen and have empathy to understand what the other person is interested in buying.”
Beyond that, Gilliam said, the way to avoid disappointment is persistence and quantity. “Present to enough people so you know you’ll be able to make the sale,” he said. “I’m more of a throw-enough-mud-on-the-wall type as opposed to dwelling on the one that got away.”
==
For Gayle Rose, there’s never a question about her belief in what she’s championing. When she embarks on a project, it’s only after someone else has sold her on it — completely. She wants to be able to see the big picture and its benefits, whether an idea, a service or a nonprofit. “If I can connect to that higher level and I can visualize it, that will get my passion ignited,” she said.
Sell her on something and you’ll have one of the best persuaders anywhere.
Rose is founder and CEO of the 10-year-old EVS Corp., which provides data backup and recovery. That enterprise follows several executive positions she’s held while accumulating scads of awards and honors. She also is a fierce backer of civic projects. She currently is chair of the board of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra where she’s taken the lead in dealing with the organization’s serious financial difficulties.
She’s also well known for her leadership in the group that landed the NBA Memphis Grizzlies basketball team. When the idea to woo the NBA came up, she wanted to know all the reasons it would matter. “Some said it would be an economic engine, some that a big city deserves a pro sport,” Rose said. “For me, I connected when I saw it would bring this community together, that blacks and whites in Memphis would share this identity.”
Without the requisite passion, Rose said, selling can’t effectively be done. “People can read that in you. It’s the ability to persuade, the art of leadership in the sense that you know yourself and you’re very good at reading others. You have empathy and the capacity to build social networks and then, as you’re talking, you can sense where they are.” Sense resistence, she said, and you have to know to back off and ask questions.
Still, failure happens. Even with all the preparation and knowledge and skills put to use, it sometimes goes pfffft. Rose, ever analytical, said, “Where I make a mistake is thinking that the way I’m seeing things is the way others see it. You have to be willing to be open and ask questions. If you don’t consider that, you can have blind spots and you can fail.”
Ultimately, it’s still about having a thorough knowledge of what you’re representing and being persistent. “In my for-profit business,” she said, “I have to deeply understand technology and to persuade that EVS is helping businesses stay in business.”
And whether it’s a for-profit or a non-profit situation, Rose says don’t think of it as taking something away. “My mind set is to convey that they don’t know what they’re missing,” she said. “Here is something so compelling that they don’t want to be left out.”
==
Selling at its most basic level is what you find at Mister Hats in the Poplar Plaza shopping complex.
Alvin Lansky — you feel compelled to call him Mr. Lansky — opened his topper shop 30 years ago after having sold hair care products with one of his brothers.
Eventually, he wanted to do something different, and, of course, his family had some skills in the clothing store business with another brother, Bernard Lansky who got lots of business thanks to that Elvis Presley fella.
But for Alvin (Mr. Lansky from here on out), he wanted to focus on one thing. “He was looking for something he could carry that would be simple to provide the customer,” said Mark Lennon, who married Mr. Lansky’s granddaughter and now manages the store. “He didn’t realize that product would turn into so many styles and colors, and next thing you know, he had a store with a thousand hats, and it was never enough.”
Mr. Lansky is 86 and still at the store, dressed as sharp as you please and prepared to sell you a hat.
To this day, he keeps it to the fundamentals: “We try to give the customer what we think will be pleasing to him,” he said.
That knowledge requires a keen observational power that Mr. Lansky has developed over the decades. “You put the different pieces together based on what they’re asking for — although they may not quite know — and based on body type and head type,” said Lennon. “We do it on the fly, trying to find something that will fit the customer’s personality.”
And that’s because, as Mr. Lansky says of his customers, “They’re the boss!”
Lennon said the kind of sale he most enjoys seeing Mr. Lansky make is when someone comes in, looks around critically and declares there’s nothing in the store. “And the next thing you know, he’s walking out with $300 worth of hats.”
==
Remember the old ad slogan that went, “They said it couldn’t be done.”?
That’s what many thought regarding Allie Prescott when he said he wanted to build a ball park downtown.
He’s now a senior advisor at Waddell & Associates, but he’s always been sportsman and a salesman (and lawyer and executive and civic champion), so challenges are what he eats for breakfast.
It was his biggest sale, because he had to sway politicians, corporate sponsors, potential suite holders, season ticket buyers and most of public opinion.
“At the heart of selling is building a relationship of trust,” he said. “With the Redbirds, it was ‘relationship selling’ — earning people’s trust. I was able to go into the community to people I knew and say, ‘If you trust me, I’ll build you the finest non-major league ball park in the country. Buy a scoreboard or a suite and we will deliver and you’ll be proud.’ ”
The highlight of the campaign was getting AutoZone on board. “It’s an international company with headquarters in Memphis,” he said. “They didn’t need brand exposure in the Memphis market, but they knew that stepping up would send a signal to the community.”
To young people looking for wisdom from a pro, he says to underpromise and overdeliver. “And be enthusiastic,” he said. “Be honest with every word you say. Believe in the product you’re selling because you can’t sell it if you don’t believe in it.”
==
Edward Bogard decided he’d combine his irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit with his commitment to giving back to the community.
With his passion and a talent for design, he created SoGiv, a nonprofit that raises awareness through shoes while donating proceeds to worthy causes. For example, he created an espadrille shoe with the Mid-South Food Bank logo emblazoned on the back along with the continental swoosh. Every pair sold provided a local hungry child with 120 meals plus his or her own pair of shoes.
It’s very different, this idea of selling not just shoes but of helping out as well. But like any good salesman, he keeps it true.
“i go in and I just be myself,” Bogard said. “Know your product or organization or self and be genuine. Because if not, it shows as not natural.”
And anyone might be watching.
“I was a speaker on a panel at the University of Memphis, taking about entrepreneurship,” he said. “As it happened, Shelley Alley, Chief Development Officer for the Mid-South Food Bank, was in the audience and wanted to meet me afterwards.” She was looking for ways to increase the visibility of the Food Bank’s 5K fundraiser. “That ultimately led to our partnership with nearly 10,000 meals provided.”
Even as a potential client is watching you, you need to watch them as well. “When you talk about the product, you want the head-nods and not the question-mark faces,” Bogard said. “Make sure they understand.”
==
Pat Kerr Tigrett found success by designing and selling unusual and gorgeous gowns, especially for weddings.
But she’ll tell you that it’s so much more than that.
“You need reputation, trust and knowledge,” said the owner of Pat Kerr Inc. “My clients invite me into the most private parts of their worlds, to the most important events.”
Neiman Marcus discovered Pat Kerr designs during Fashion Week in London 35 years ago and invited her to the Dallas store the following week. Pat Kerr has since developed a worldwide client list that includes royalty.
The designer’s couture has been worn at events in Notre Dame and the Vatican, at English estates and even underwater. It takes a special savvy to develop those relationships, but the principles of selling remain the same: ask and listen.
“I’ll ask a client about the wedding,” she said. “What time of day will it be? Cathedral or outdoors? Is the bride a dancer? Long train or short? What’s your favorite dress? Are there religious restrictions?” She has to factor in the bride, of course, but also the groom and the fact that each are marrying into new families.
Pat Kerr clients realize that her knowledge is extensive, going well beyond wedding etiquette and fashion awareness. For example, she knows the subject of antique lace, which she collects. The hand-made works of art have been hoarded, smuggled and treasured for centuries. Go ahead, ask her about the lace-makers who faced beheading for stealing patterns. Her authority on the subject is invaluable when dealing with clients.
Tigrett has expertise on something else she loves to sell: Memphis. “It’s the easiest thing to do. We have this maverick, extraordinary city that’s totally unique. I’m passionate about our music and musicians and what Memphis has contributed globally, from rock and roll to FedEx.”
She is founder and general chairman of the Memphis Charitable Foundation, which presents the annual Blues Ball among other events. “I go on the premise,” she said, “that whatever I’m working on, whether a gown I designed or a ticket to the Blues Ball, I must believe in it 100 percent.”
Inside Memphis Business, August-September 2015
There were other Wheelerpoints, but that’s the one that has achieved mantra status among professional persuaders.
Beyond the zippy exhortation, there is an art to selling, a discipline that the best in the business practice every time they set out to win over a client.
We surveyed several Memphians who have had the pleasure of selling, whether its a single hat to a single customer or an investment in a sports team to an entire city.
At least one of these great persuaders was reluctant to think of himself as a salesman. When asked, Henry Turley immediately said, “I don’t think I know how to sell.” Yes, he really said that, the man who gave life to a moribund downtown Memphis. Since he founded Henry Turley Co. in 1977 he’s made urban redevelopment a beautiful thing here, from Harbor Town to the South Bluffs to the Uptown revitalization.
Maybe others saw the possibilites of a vigorous downtown back then, but it was Turley who acted on it. But selling? “I think it’s just dogging it,” he said. “Dogged determination.” He further demurs: “I have to be judicious about what I say because I never take myself too seriously and nobody else did.” But we have to call him out on that. He’s an artist when it comes to encouraging collaborations.
==
Art Gilliam touches on one element of selling that if frequently echoed: “You have to believe in what you’re selling.” Gilliam has been CEO of WLOK-AM 1340 since he acquired it in 1977. He spent a year getting financing to secure the deal which make WLOK the first black-owned Memphis radio station and the city's first locally owned station.
If you believe in what you’re selling, he said, the next thing is to know how to present it. When you’ve mastered how the product or service works, then, he said, “you have to understand that other person and what their needs are because you have to fit what you’re selling into what they need.” Another thing: Shhhh! “You have to be able to listen and have empathy to understand what the other person is interested in buying.”
Beyond that, Gilliam said, the way to avoid disappointment is persistence and quantity. “Present to enough people so you know you’ll be able to make the sale,” he said. “I’m more of a throw-enough-mud-on-the-wall type as opposed to dwelling on the one that got away.”
==
For Gayle Rose, there’s never a question about her belief in what she’s championing. When she embarks on a project, it’s only after someone else has sold her on it — completely. She wants to be able to see the big picture and its benefits, whether an idea, a service or a nonprofit. “If I can connect to that higher level and I can visualize it, that will get my passion ignited,” she said.
Sell her on something and you’ll have one of the best persuaders anywhere.
Rose is founder and CEO of the 10-year-old EVS Corp., which provides data backup and recovery. That enterprise follows several executive positions she’s held while accumulating scads of awards and honors. She also is a fierce backer of civic projects. She currently is chair of the board of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra where she’s taken the lead in dealing with the organization’s serious financial difficulties.
She’s also well known for her leadership in the group that landed the NBA Memphis Grizzlies basketball team. When the idea to woo the NBA came up, she wanted to know all the reasons it would matter. “Some said it would be an economic engine, some that a big city deserves a pro sport,” Rose said. “For me, I connected when I saw it would bring this community together, that blacks and whites in Memphis would share this identity.”
Without the requisite passion, Rose said, selling can’t effectively be done. “People can read that in you. It’s the ability to persuade, the art of leadership in the sense that you know yourself and you’re very good at reading others. You have empathy and the capacity to build social networks and then, as you’re talking, you can sense where they are.” Sense resistence, she said, and you have to know to back off and ask questions.
Still, failure happens. Even with all the preparation and knowledge and skills put to use, it sometimes goes pfffft. Rose, ever analytical, said, “Where I make a mistake is thinking that the way I’m seeing things is the way others see it. You have to be willing to be open and ask questions. If you don’t consider that, you can have blind spots and you can fail.”
Ultimately, it’s still about having a thorough knowledge of what you’re representing and being persistent. “In my for-profit business,” she said, “I have to deeply understand technology and to persuade that EVS is helping businesses stay in business.”
And whether it’s a for-profit or a non-profit situation, Rose says don’t think of it as taking something away. “My mind set is to convey that they don’t know what they’re missing,” she said. “Here is something so compelling that they don’t want to be left out.”
==
Selling at its most basic level is what you find at Mister Hats in the Poplar Plaza shopping complex.
Alvin Lansky — you feel compelled to call him Mr. Lansky — opened his topper shop 30 years ago after having sold hair care products with one of his brothers.
Eventually, he wanted to do something different, and, of course, his family had some skills in the clothing store business with another brother, Bernard Lansky who got lots of business thanks to that Elvis Presley fella.
But for Alvin (Mr. Lansky from here on out), he wanted to focus on one thing. “He was looking for something he could carry that would be simple to provide the customer,” said Mark Lennon, who married Mr. Lansky’s granddaughter and now manages the store. “He didn’t realize that product would turn into so many styles and colors, and next thing you know, he had a store with a thousand hats, and it was never enough.”
Mr. Lansky is 86 and still at the store, dressed as sharp as you please and prepared to sell you a hat.
To this day, he keeps it to the fundamentals: “We try to give the customer what we think will be pleasing to him,” he said.
That knowledge requires a keen observational power that Mr. Lansky has developed over the decades. “You put the different pieces together based on what they’re asking for — although they may not quite know — and based on body type and head type,” said Lennon. “We do it on the fly, trying to find something that will fit the customer’s personality.”
And that’s because, as Mr. Lansky says of his customers, “They’re the boss!”
Lennon said the kind of sale he most enjoys seeing Mr. Lansky make is when someone comes in, looks around critically and declares there’s nothing in the store. “And the next thing you know, he’s walking out with $300 worth of hats.”
==
Remember the old ad slogan that went, “They said it couldn’t be done.”?
That’s what many thought regarding Allie Prescott when he said he wanted to build a ball park downtown.
He’s now a senior advisor at Waddell & Associates, but he’s always been sportsman and a salesman (and lawyer and executive and civic champion), so challenges are what he eats for breakfast.
It was his biggest sale, because he had to sway politicians, corporate sponsors, potential suite holders, season ticket buyers and most of public opinion.
“At the heart of selling is building a relationship of trust,” he said. “With the Redbirds, it was ‘relationship selling’ — earning people’s trust. I was able to go into the community to people I knew and say, ‘If you trust me, I’ll build you the finest non-major league ball park in the country. Buy a scoreboard or a suite and we will deliver and you’ll be proud.’ ”
The highlight of the campaign was getting AutoZone on board. “It’s an international company with headquarters in Memphis,” he said. “They didn’t need brand exposure in the Memphis market, but they knew that stepping up would send a signal to the community.”
To young people looking for wisdom from a pro, he says to underpromise and overdeliver. “And be enthusiastic,” he said. “Be honest with every word you say. Believe in the product you’re selling because you can’t sell it if you don’t believe in it.”
==
Edward Bogard decided he’d combine his irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit with his commitment to giving back to the community.
With his passion and a talent for design, he created SoGiv, a nonprofit that raises awareness through shoes while donating proceeds to worthy causes. For example, he created an espadrille shoe with the Mid-South Food Bank logo emblazoned on the back along with the continental swoosh. Every pair sold provided a local hungry child with 120 meals plus his or her own pair of shoes.
It’s very different, this idea of selling not just shoes but of helping out as well. But like any good salesman, he keeps it true.
“i go in and I just be myself,” Bogard said. “Know your product or organization or self and be genuine. Because if not, it shows as not natural.”
And anyone might be watching.
“I was a speaker on a panel at the University of Memphis, taking about entrepreneurship,” he said. “As it happened, Shelley Alley, Chief Development Officer for the Mid-South Food Bank, was in the audience and wanted to meet me afterwards.” She was looking for ways to increase the visibility of the Food Bank’s 5K fundraiser. “That ultimately led to our partnership with nearly 10,000 meals provided.”
Even as a potential client is watching you, you need to watch them as well. “When you talk about the product, you want the head-nods and not the question-mark faces,” Bogard said. “Make sure they understand.”
==
Pat Kerr Tigrett found success by designing and selling unusual and gorgeous gowns, especially for weddings.
But she’ll tell you that it’s so much more than that.
“You need reputation, trust and knowledge,” said the owner of Pat Kerr Inc. “My clients invite me into the most private parts of their worlds, to the most important events.”
Neiman Marcus discovered Pat Kerr designs during Fashion Week in London 35 years ago and invited her to the Dallas store the following week. Pat Kerr has since developed a worldwide client list that includes royalty.
The designer’s couture has been worn at events in Notre Dame and the Vatican, at English estates and even underwater. It takes a special savvy to develop those relationships, but the principles of selling remain the same: ask and listen.
“I’ll ask a client about the wedding,” she said. “What time of day will it be? Cathedral or outdoors? Is the bride a dancer? Long train or short? What’s your favorite dress? Are there religious restrictions?” She has to factor in the bride, of course, but also the groom and the fact that each are marrying into new families.
Pat Kerr clients realize that her knowledge is extensive, going well beyond wedding etiquette and fashion awareness. For example, she knows the subject of antique lace, which she collects. The hand-made works of art have been hoarded, smuggled and treasured for centuries. Go ahead, ask her about the lace-makers who faced beheading for stealing patterns. Her authority on the subject is invaluable when dealing with clients.
Tigrett has expertise on something else she loves to sell: Memphis. “It’s the easiest thing to do. We have this maverick, extraordinary city that’s totally unique. I’m passionate about our music and musicians and what Memphis has contributed globally, from rock and roll to FedEx.”
She is founder and general chairman of the Memphis Charitable Foundation, which presents the annual Blues Ball among other events. “I go on the premise,” she said, “that whatever I’m working on, whether a gown I designed or a ticket to the Blues Ball, I must believe in it 100 percent.”
Inside Memphis Business, August-September 2015