When I think of the term “salesman,” one of the first images in my mind is a picture of Billy Mays. I remember growing up as a little kid and watching television. Sometimes as I was watching television, I remember seeing an energetic, bearded guy that talked about household and garden products such as Fix-it, OxiClean, Orange Glo, Kaboom and many more things that a young boy should not be interested in. However I remember telling my dad after watching some Billy Mays infomercials that we should buy OxiClean so we can clean stuff around the house. It takes a good salesman to sell a cleaning product to a little kid that doesn’t clean things.
Billy Mays was an incredibly successful infomercial salesman selling over 40 products on television during his career. He was a confident and happy person onscreen, this led everyday normal people to think that the products he was selling would make them happy.
BoweryJE22
I think you really show a key aspect of selling from this example of your childhood. It is impressive that Billy Mays could get you to consider buying cleaning products as a child! Getting in touch with the emotions of the prospect is a key technique that I think advertisers use all the time to sell. Billy Mays, the Marlboro man, and many other actors/actresses trying to sell a product always seem happy on screen and act as though they have a perfect life-it makes the viewer think that the product will improve his/her life too. Advertising in this way can be a powerful way to move people, although many times if reveals the product in an untruthful light.
I’ve thought of him several times throughout the class, in my mind he is the quintessential salesman. I was a little young when his infomercials were spamming TV, but his excitement and high energy definitely had my parents calling about both Oxiclean and Kaboom!
He was such a great sales person! He was motivated and passionate about his oxi-clean. He was able to get fired up about his product but tone it back for someone who was a little bit more conservative in the sales process.