美国国家公共电台 NPR The Art Of The Pitch: Vendors Hawk Items At The Ohio State Fair

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Most people go to the fair to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl or eat funnel¹ cakes, but not our Planet Money team. Robert Smith and Kenny Malone traveled to the Ohio State Fair to learn the secret art of selling people things they might not need.

KENNY MALONE, BYLINE²: The marketplace building at the State Fair is three acres large.

ROBERT SMITH, BYLINE: Row after row of crazy products.

MALONE: Triad air fan.

SMITH: Ultimate Hose Nozzle.

MALONE: SolarTees, T-shirts that light up with the sun.

SMITH: The Last Glue.

MALONE: What does that even mean?

SMITH: It means that's the last glue you'll ever need, dude.

MALONE: Right, right, right, right.

SMITH: Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, hey, I'm going to go to the state fair to buy a mop.

MALONE: Which is why it is such a great place to see the power of a sales pitch.

TOMMY HARRIS: How you doing, guys? You want to see how it works? Y'all ever heard of a spiralizer or a Veggetti?

MALONE: Tommy Harris is the size of a professional wrestler³.

SMITH: And he's delicately peeling the skin off a tomato with a little metal gadget⁴.

HARRIS: Once you get it home, you get used to it. You can go right-handed, left-handed. You can even do it underhanded like most politicians nowadays (laughter).

SMITH: Tommy says the hardest part of the job just getting people to stop for a moment. Grabbing someone's attention is called the hook.

MALONE: And he says, if you want to see how the hook works, just try to walk by the woman who's pitching garden tools one row over. Also happens to be his fiancee.

SMITH: Oh, so she's here?

HARRIS: Yeah. She's right around the corner.

SMITH: She's pitching?

MALONE: Can we hear her? Can we hear her from here?

HARRIS: Only if she starts laughing.

SMITH: Really?

HARRIS: Yeah.

SMITH: She got a big laugh?

HARRIS: You'll see.

HEATHER KETO: (Laughter).

SMITH: This is Heather Keto.

KETO: (Laughter).

SMITH: Heather is leaning out from her booth with this huge grin and her arms stretched out like she wants to shake my hand.

KETO: Hey, guys. Come on over here. Y'all want to try it out? It makes your life a lot easier.

SMITH: But then, all of a sudden, she's placed into my hand a set of pruning⁵ shears⁶ called the Tiger Jaw⁷.

MALONE: And without missing a beat, she holds up a tree branch for Robert to try them out.

KETO: Go for it. You know you want to. Great clips.

SMITH: Oh. Oh. I am hooked. Now, all Heather has to do is close the sale.

MALONE: But that is the hardest, most mystical part of the pitch. And people told us the king of the close is a guy named P.J. McGee. He sells showerheads.

SMITH: What's your best close?

P J MCGEE: The best close? The best close is asking for the money. I'll ask you three questions. Is this product better than one you have now? Usually, they say yeah. And then I always ask them this defensively and always back up and put my palms up. If you bought this today, would you use it? I mean, not everybody needs a new showerhead.

SMITH: You can't see it, but at this point, P.J. McGee is physically⁸ stepping back from the customer.

MALONE: He's holding up his hands as if to say, oh, no, did I cross the line or something?

My instinct is like, no, no, no. You're fine. I like you. Keep going.

MCGEE: Please, take my money.

SMITH: P.J. McGee has already sold 10 showerheads today.

MALONE: They cost $100 apiece.

SMITH: A lot of the selling we're used to is cerebral⁹. You go to amazon.com. You carefully compare the products. You read the reviews, get the lowest price. But the sensory¹⁰ overload¹¹ of a state fair short-circuits the logical mind.

MALONE: You eat things you would never normally eat. You play carnival¹² games you know you cannot win.

SMITH: And you buy a potato peeler for the thrill of it.

HARRIS: So if you can't peel a potato, you probably shouldn't drive a car. Stay away from cliffs. Watch out for lightning outside.

SMITH: It's the end of Tommy's shift, and the crowds are starting to thin out. And I think this is my moment. Have I learned the secret of the sales pitch?

MALONE: And so Robert smoothly¹³ positions himself in front of the cutting board, picks up the peeler and starts to yell at people.

SMITH: Do you like food? Do you eat food? Do you prepare food? I can do food for you. Look at this thing.

I got no hook. I got no clothes. I cannot even remember what kind of peeler Tommy called this.

So that's why we have this wonderful spiral-cutting...

HARRIS: Spiralizer.

SMITH: ...Spiralizer.

MALONE: You did manage to get everyone's attention, Robert, but maybe not in a good way.

SMITH: Yeah. Tommy just laughed at me. How was I? Was it just - was it too much? Was it...

HARRIS: You were kind of like a teenager in the back of his car for the first time, just a little like excited.

MALONE: Poor Robert.

SMITH: That's totally fair.

Hey, it is a lot harder than it looks.

MALONE: And on the bright side, you still have radio.

SMITH: Yeah, not just any radio, but the last radio program you will ever need. And today only, two reporters for the price of one.

MALONE: Kenny Malone.

SMITH: And Robert Smith, NPR News, Columbus, Ohio.

(SOUNDBITE OF BENNY CARTER'S "MY BLUE HEAVEN")

1 funnel   

n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集

参考例句：

• He poured the petrol into the car through a funnel.他用一个漏斗把汽油灌入汽车。
• I like the ship with a yellow funnel.我喜欢那条有黄烟囱的船。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 wrestler   

n.摔角选手，扭

参考例句：

• The wrestler tripped up his opponent.那个摔跤运动员把对手绊倒在地。
• The stronger wrestler won the first throw.较壮的那个摔跤手第一跤就赢了。

4 gadget   

n.小巧的机械，精巧的装置，小玩意儿

参考例句：

• This gadget isn't much good.这小机械没什么用处。
• She has invented a nifty little gadget for undoing stubborn nuts and bolts.她发明了一种灵巧的小工具用来松开紧固的螺母和螺栓。

5 pruning   

n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分

参考例句：

• In writing an essay one must do a lot of pruning. 写文章要下一番剪裁的工夫。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• A sapling needs pruning, a child discipline. 小树要砍，小孩要管。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 shears   

n.大剪刀

参考例句：

• These garden shears are lightweight and easy to use.这些园丁剪刀又轻又好用。
• With a few quick snips of the shears he pruned the bush.他用大剪刀几下子就把灌木给修剪好了。

7 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

8 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

9 cerebral   

adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的

参考例句：

• Your left cerebral hemisphere controls the right-hand side of your body.你的左半脑控制身体的右半身。
• He is a precise,methodical,cerebral man who carefully chooses his words.他是一个一丝不苟、有条理和理智的人，措辞谨慎。

10 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

11 overload   

vt.使超载；n.超载

参考例句：

• Don't overload the boat or it will sink.别超载，否则船会沉。
• Large meals overload the digestive system.吃得太饱会加重消化系统的负担。

12 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

13 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。