"What Zest!"

'What Zest'

In London's dignified Connaught Rooms, eleven U.S. businessmen last week tackled a tough job. They were there to persuade 500 members of Britain's Incorporated Sales Managers Association that Britain could sell more goods in the U.S., but only by adopting U.S. methods and working at the breakneck speed of U.S. salesmen.

Arthur H. Motley, president of Parade Publication, Inc. set the "let's-be-realistic" tone of the meeting. The U.S. market, said he, "is rugged [and] competitive ... but it is a huge market and [you] have not even cracked the surface . . ."

Well then, asked a clipped British voice from the floor, would the U.S. cut tariffs? No, said "Red" Motley; that was a problem that the British have to buck. Asked another: "Are you going to make it any easier for us to sell in America?" Certainly not, snapped Don Mitchell, president of Sylvania Electric Products, Inc. "Americans don't just buy things," he added. "They get sold."

"Why," asked one baffled Briton, "do Americans wear braces as well as a belt?"

"Don't start to wonder whether it's wise," replied Motley. "The trick is to make people want something new."

To show how Americans are made to "want something new," the U.S. businessmen explained their exhaustive market research and sales training methods, and displayed some visual sales aids (e.g., a pocket-sized refrigerator, colored seeds that show what color the flower will be). All of this market information is available, they told the Britons, if they only go after it.

But how could Britons cope with the vast size of the U.S. market? Replied the U.S. salesman: concentrate on one spot and work out from there.

After two days in London, the Americans split into three groups for tours of Manchester, Edinburgh and other cities. In some cities, the Americans found the speaking platform crowded with the mayor and other local dignitaries. The Americans politely told them: "One of the first selling points is that all attention must be concentrated on the salesmen. So if you please, we'll have to clear the platform." The astonished dignitaries politely stepped down.

At week's end one pin-striped Briton, exhausted by the U.S. hustle & bustle, nevertheless got the point of it all. Said he: "When you think of it, there was nothing very new in what they told us. But what a performance! What zest!"

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