Show-tell-sell philosophy brings in dollars

GIOME of the best salesmen in Clvour store never fill out a time card and never get a paycheck, although they may sell hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise each day.

Highly visible and easily understood, these sellers are product demonstration programs, clinics, brochures and point of purchase signing. Most of them are available through manufacturers for little or no cost.

For example, show-tell-sell is the philosophy behind the in-store product demonstration program being reinstituted in key major market areas by DeWalt, a Division of Black & Decker. Inc. Radial arm saw demonstrations, which proved ef fective in expanding business during the 1950s, are being updated for home centers and hardware stores.

Scheduled for continuous presentation during peak store traffic hours. each demonstration takes l0 to l5 minutes. In addition to covering the features of the stationary power tool line. the demonstrator shows consumers how the saw can perform four basic woodworking cuts as well as be converted into virtually any woodworking machine with available accessories.

In reviewing this program, Douglas M. Campbell,v.p./ marketing, says that when I I demonstrations in one locale result in 500 sales "you know that show and tell basics do sell stationary power tools."

Mannington Mills is another manufacturer which follows the approach of arming the retailer with tools that allow him to successfully serve the customer. Two years ago they introduced cartoon characters Dick and Dottie Doowell as symbols of the typical do-it-yourselfer, letting them act as company spokesmen in brochures and clinics as well as in tv, radio and newspaper co-op advertising.

The company has pioneered in

Story at a Glance

of sheet vinyl flooring. The audiovisual demonstration offers the consumer tips on measuring and room preparation in addition to step-bystep installation directions.

training sales personnel in the stepby-step installation of their products thus providing them with in-depth product knowledge and installation information which is in turn passed along to consumers in d-i-y clinics held in the stores.

This year they are expanding with the addition of a 3Vz minute LaBelle film strip demonstrating installation

A field study by J. Patrick Kelly, professor of retail management; Gary G. McKinnon, associate professor of business management, and E. Doyle Robison, director of Skaggs Institute of Retail Management, all at Brigham Young University, Provo, Ut., focused on how retailers should use signs, considering priceonly signs, descriptive benefit signs, signs for sale items and signs for items at regular prices. Results suggest that at a regular price, a benefit sign should be the only type of sign used, while at a sale price, both a price-only and a benefit sign will increase sales over a no-sign condition, with benefit signing being the most effective.

These results are in accord with earlier studies by both trade and academic sources which reported point of purchase in-store signing effective in increasing unit sales. The price and benefit information supplied to the shopper through signing is thought to influence product selection, especially in situations where there is an absence of product information from other communication sources or sales clerks.

Phifer Wire Products, Inc. utilizes this theory in providing a merchandise display which has an informative benefit headerboard in color as well as a holder for illustrated point-ofpurchase brochures. The company reports that this merchandising rack has helped them to get their share of sales of window screens which, according to the Do-It-Yourself Research Institute, were among the top 20 items purchased by do-ityourselfers at building supply stores during 1982.

Dealers should become aware of the point of purchase helps available and use them to their advantage.