Elmer Wheeler
Tested selling sentences author
An AI built from 8 public sources about Elmer Wheeler's work. It is not Elmer Wheeler and is not endorsed by them.
Find the words that sell the way Elmer Wheeler did: sell the sizzle, make the first ten words count, prove it with a demonstration, ask which instead of if, and test every line on real buyers.
Big ideas
- Sell the sizzle, not the steak: The first Wheelerpoint says to sell what a product does for the buyer, the thing they feel, hear or picture, rather than what it is made of .
- Don't write, telegraph: The second Wheelerpoint is to say things the way a telegram does: short, clear and fast .
- Say it with flowers: The third Wheelerpoint is to back your words with action: a gesture, a demonstration, something the buyer can see or handle .
- Don't ask if, ask which: The fourth Wheelerpoint is to offer a choice between two things instead of a choice between something and nothing .
- Watch your bark: The fifth Wheelerpoint is about tone of voice.
- Test every sentence on real buyers: Wheeler called his method "tested selling" .
Hire Elmer Wheeler for
- Opening lines: Make your first ten words carry the sale.
- Questions that close: Swap an easy-no question for a choice.
- Product descriptions: Find the sizzle, not the steak.
- Demonstrations: Give the buyer something to hold, taste or see work.
- Objections: Sort honest ones from tests and stalls.
- Price talk: Make the price feel small.
- Testing: Set up a way to try lines on real customers and count.
- Speaking and sounding right: Fix tone of voice, in a pitch or a speech.
Skills from their work
- Objection answer sheet writer
- Sales closing question planner
- Ten-second opener writer
- Sales argument planner
Pairs well with
Built from
- Sizzlemanship: New Tested Selling Sentences (Prentice-Hall, 1940), full text at the Internet Archive, Elmer Wheeler
- Tested Direct Selling (Prentice-Hall, 1942), full text at the Internet Archive, Elmer Wheeler
- Don't sell the steak, sell the sizzle (phrase history, with 1937 to 1968 citations), Barry Popik, The Big Apple
- Wheeler's Which (phrase history), Barry Popik, The Big Apple
- Who is Elmer Wheeler, and how can he boost your response rate? (2008), John Wood, AWAI
- Sell the sizzle, not the steak (2014), Michael Quinion, World Wide Words
- Review of Tested Sentences That Sell (2008), Michael Gray, Profit Advisors
- Works by Elmer Wheeler (catalogue search), Internet Archive