Word Magic: Tested Answers to 100 Everyday Situations

By Elmer Wheeler

About ten years ago, a newspaper man developed an idea for increasing sales through a more effective use of words. Now, Elmer Wheeler, its originator, has put into this new book the fundamental principles responsible for his success and has adapted them to help you meet those many personal situations confronting you at home, in the office, and in society.

No matter who you are, no matter what your position in life is, you depend upon words for your success and happiness. The right words can win you a job, a wife, or a promotion. The wrong words can lose friends for you in social life, block your progress in business, or make you miss your big chance.

Adopting a keen, homely, back-to-the-woods philosophy, Mr. Wheeler has taken an ordinarily serious subject and dramatized it so that anyone can put it to immediate and practical use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Golden Springs Publishing
• Release date: Oct 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781787202177

Elmer Wheeler

Elmer Wheeler (1903-1968): Autor, orador y experto en ventas. Nacido en Rochester, Nueva York, Elmer Wheeler residió en Dallas, Texas, durante más de 30 años y residió allí hasta el momento de su muerte en octubre del año 1968. Su frase "No venda la tajada; venda su sabor" se transformó en una filosofía empresarial que condujo a la creación de un laboratorio de palabras conocido como "Sizzle Labs", para pesar y medir la capacidad relativa de las palabras para motivar a las personas. Más de 125 universidades, escuelas de negocios e individuos enseñan los métodos de Sizzle Lab. Hombres y mujeres de la Fuerza Aérea reciben capacitación mensual en los métodos de Sizzle Lab. Marine Corps también usan sus métodos para reclutar. Incluso los presos federales toman su curso en los centros de rehabilitación. Como conferencista, Wheeler ganó el primer y único Oscar que alguna vez se otorgó a un orador público. En el Dallas Cotton Bowl atrajo a 20,000 vendedores, tenedores de libros, secretarias y otros para aprender cómo hacer más amigos y conseguir más ventas. Dio conferencias para más de 50 Clubes de Ventas Americanos, los Jaycees y las cámaras de comercio.

Book preview

This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.pp-publishing.com

To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books—[e-mail]

Or on Facebook

Text originally published in 1939 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

WORD MAGIC:

TESTED ANSWERS TO 100 EVERYDAY SITUATIONS

BY

ELMER WHEELER

Author of "Tested Sentences that Sell"; "Elmer ‘Wheeler’s Tested Public Speaking; The Business Movie, Word Magic"

Illustrations by Rodlow Willard

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

PUBLISHERS’ FOREWORD 4

INTRODUCTION—THE NEW WORD GAME—SIZZLEGRAMS 5

1—BOY MEETS GIRL—BUT WHY DOES BOY LOSE GIRL? 9

(How to Get Along with Your Sweetheart—and Other People) 9

2—TROUBLE WAS, GRANDPOP DIDN’T HAVE THE SIZZLE IDEA 30

(Man-and-Wife Situations) 30

3—TEN LITTLE SIZZLEGRAMS SITTING ON A FENCE 51

(More Man-and-Wife Situations) 51

4—TO AVOID EMBARRASSMENT—REACH FOR A SIZZLEGRAM 72

5—WHEN THE OFFICER SAYS, WHERE YOU GOIN’—TO A FIRE? 93

(How to Avoid and Win Arguments) 93

6—WHEN LITTLE WILLIE SAYS HE WON’T EAT HIS SPINACH 115

(Parent-and-Child Situations) 115

7—THE BIG SECRET IN GETTING ALONG WITH FELLOW WORKERS AND THE BOSS 136

8—WATCH FOR THE SIZZLE WHEN YOU GO SHOPPING 157

(It’s the Sizzle That Sells the Steak) 157

9—WE ALWAYS LOOK FOR OURSELVES FIRST IN THE PICNIC PICTURE 179

10—FIND THE SIZZLE—AND YOU’LL FIND SUCCESS 200

(Test Your Sizzle-Ability) 200

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 221

PUBLISHERS’ FOREWORD

ABOUT TEN years ago, a newspaper man developed an idea for increasing sales through a more effective use of words.

Now, Elmer Wheeler, its originator, has put into this new book the fundamental principles responsible for his success and has adapted them to help you meet those many personal situations confronting you at home, in the office, and in society.

No matter who you are, no matter what your position in life is, you depend upon words for your success and happiness. The right words can win you a job, a wife, or a promotion. The wrong words can lose friends for you in social life, block your progress in business, or make you miss your big chance.

The vital importance of the right words at the right time has been put to dollars-and-cents use by Mr. Wheeler for such sales organizations as The Hoover Company, Statler Hotels, Johns-Manville Corporation, and American Airlines. What Mr. Wheeler has already done for sales people in his earlier book, Tested Sentences That Sell, he is doing for you in Word Magic.

He tells you what to say when confronted with an embarrassing situation, how to secure people’s co-operation, how to handle subordinates, how to deal with superiors, even what to say to the traffic cop who catches you speeding.

You will like this book for its keen, homely, back-to-the-woods philosophy. Mr. Wheeler has taken an ordinarily serious subject and dramatized it so that anyone can put it to immediate and practical use.

THE PUBLISHERS.

INTRODUCTION—THE NEW WORD GAME—SIZZLEGRAMS

HERE’S HOW you can use WORD MAGIC to get what you want in life—that job, that sweetheart, or that promotion.

Every person, place, or thing has its sizzles—those arousers of emotional urges that make people want something, or make them like you better.

Your sizzles are your outstanding selling points—the things that are as individual with you as your own thumb print.

Some of you have more sizzles than others; sometimes these sizzles are buried deep below the surface. But they’re there. It’s just a matter of digging them out or refining them. To help you, I am giving you this new game of Sizzlegrams, based on the five Wheelerpoints.

DON’T SELL THE STEAK—SELL THE SIZZLE

(Wheelerpoint 1)

When you see a steak sizzling on a platter, when you hear it sizzling, your mouth waters. You want it—you’re sold.

So, in my lexicon, the sizzle stands for saleability. It’s the sizzle—and not the cow—that sells the steak, although the cow, of course, is mighty important.

Why not take a tip from sales technique and stress the sizzles in yourself?

Your smile, for example—your friendliness, your parties, your style of dress, hobbies, jokes, sincerity, modesty, energy, sense of fairness, faculty for remembering birthdays and names—the things you say and the way you say them are your sizzles.

Take a walk around yourself. Put your sizzles in the order of what others—not yourself—think are important.

I call this You-ability—your ability to think You, not I; your ability to say You, not I.

Don’t talk about "my car, my home, my children, my trip to California. Talk about the other fellow’s car, his home, his children, HIS TRIP to California. Be a real Grade-A Sizzler. Use You-ability."

DON’T WRITE—TELEGRAPH

(Wheelerpoint 2)

After you’ve found the correct sizzles in yourself, the next important step is to express them to others telegraphically!

People form snap judgments of you which influence them for a long time to come.

Think how many times you’ve been bored by folks who clutter up their conversation with such a mess of details that you lost track of the main points!

Sometimes your first 10 words—or your first 10 seconds—are as important as the next 10,000!

This is the split-second age—no time for horse-and-buggy ideas or presentations. Boil your words right down to the meat. Learn the art of speeding up conversation—of putting even your big thoughts into 10-second capsules that take precedence just as a telegram takes precedence over a letter.

Find the sizzle in whatever you are trying to get across; then express the sizzle in a telegraphic statement. You will have a first-class Sizzlegram ready to be served while it is still red hot.

SAY IT WITH FLOWERS

(Wheelerpoint 3)

Most sentences work better when backed up with appropriate actions and gestures. Weak words are strengthened; forceful words take on added meaning. Thus, after you’ve found your sizzle and expressed it telegraphically, fortify your words.

What you do as you speak is as important as what you say. The movement of your hands, the smile on your face, the attitude of your body—all tell the other person as much and often more than your words.

Don’t have Zazu Pitts hands, waving helplessly in mid-air. Avoid semaphore hands, flying about the other person. People who must duck your hands will duck your thoughts.

Back up your words with showmanship—fortify your thoughts with drama, action, and more action.

The car starts like this, says Mr. Jones, snapping his fingers to emphasize how quickly it starts.

My refrigerator is as silent as the burning of this cigarette, says Mr. Smith, getting across to a friend just how silent his new refrigerator is.

Take a Tip from Stage People

Watch how actors, movie stars, and public speakers sway their prospects with actions as well as words. Then support your own talk so that it won’t hang in mid-air like a skeleton.

DON’T ASK IF—ASK WHICH!

(Wheelerpoint 4)

When your conversation reaches the point at which you want to feel out your listener, or you’re ready to close, here is your vital point:

Always frame your words so that you give the other person a choice between something and something else—never between something and nothing.

Say to hubby, Are we going out tonight, dear? and chances are that you will get an automatic No. You made it easy for him to say No and hard to say Yes. Turn the phrase around and apply this see-saw method and see what happens:

You: Where shall we go tonight, Joe, to the Criterion or the Rialto Theatre?

Joe (deciding which show is the cheaper): Oh, I guess the Rialto is good enough, dear.

Avoid saying, Do this—or else! Instead, say, Which do you prefer, this or that?

Get people’s minds fluctuating between two things you want to do—and ask them, Which do you want? What is your opinion? will get more people thinking and working in your interest than saying, "My opinion is, we should go to a show tonight."

Ask the other person which, where, when, what, how they want to do a thing—not if.

You can apply this famous principle to almost anything you’re talking about—to get action from others in your favor!

WATCH YOUR BARK!

(Wheelerpoint 5)

The way you say a thing may be as important as what you say.

The tone of the voice often means as much as the words—for static is a real handicap!

The little dog has only one word and one tail to wag; it’s the tone behind his woof and the wag of his tail that tells you anything he wants.

So watch the bark that can creep unintentionally into your voice, and the wag that can get behind your words when you least suspect.

The peanut vendor’s cart has a whistle with only one toot," but it is the right toot to sell you peanuts.

The Cigar Store Indian never sold a cigar, because he lacked a voice.

Your voice is the carrier of your message. The finest sizzle in the world,