“PITCH PLANT PROFIT” 1950’S SEARS & ROEBUCK VACUUM CLEANER SALESMAN PITCH TRAINING FILM 87054
This training film from 1955 was made for sales representatives working for Sears. It follows a narrative of two sales representatives who sell vacuum cleaners, taking lunch at a diner. They are discussing a training seminar which promoted the idea of ‘pitch, plant, profit’ in order to sell their Kenmore vacuums. The film was presented by Sears Roebuck and Company (:18) and opens with two men ordering coffee and a donut (1:17). One of the pair is disgruntled with the training seminar and doesn’t believe the process could work while the other begins to share a story with him showing that it does in fact work (2:14). His story begins while he had only been working for Sears for a short time in the Nebraska location (2:15). On a slow day, the representative is seen struggling to get his pitches out when the crew manager from the zoning office stops by, whom is also the same man who gave the pair their training from the beginning of the film (2:42). The trainer asks the representative how many names and addresses he collected that morning which stuns the representative and he replies with none and that names and addresses will not get him commission (2:51). The trainer leaves him with the challenge of acquiring 20 names and addresses only by lunchtime and if he does so he will receive a free lunch (3:47). By noon, he had spoken with 190 people and was able to get 27 names and addresses (4:28). In order to do this, he used the survey pitch and was able to talk to someone every 45 seconds (4:44). Back in the diner he tells his peer that he closed five of the prospects and expected to close more (5:45). He then breaks down how he was able to close them as after the free lunch he was instructed by the trainer to visit twelve of the addresses and leave them with a vacuum overnight without pitching the home owners (7:46). Upon arriving at the houses, he left the machines in his vehicle which kept the prospects from being on guard once they opened the door (8:06) and instead of waiting for them to approve or reject the notion of leaving a vacuum overnight, he promptly grabs it from his car (8:45). He presents home owners with a brief breakdown of how to use the machine and without trying to sell anything, leaves it with them over night (9:42). The idea was to allow the machine to sell itself and to leave the top model as whatever was left for them to use would most likely be the model they would purchase (9:59). If the first attempt did not work, he was to return and leave the machine for another night and try again (10:12). As he tells his peer that the system clearly works and he was able to make sales, the trainer over hears them and joins their lunch (10:42). In his hands he has a deck of index cards with statistics from Sears sales representatives from all over the country who were using the system successfully (10:50). The film wraps up as the trainer turns to the camera and addresses viewers; who would have presumably been sales representatives from Sears, and insists they allow the machines to sell themselves and use the ‘Pitch, Plant, Profit’ system (12:51). This film was a Dallas Jones Production (13:03). Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
This training film from 1955 was made for sales representatives working for Sears. It follows a narrative of two sales representatives who sell vacuum cleaners, taking lunch at a diner. They are discussing a training seminar which promoted the idea of ‘pitch, plant, profit’ in order to sell their Kenmore vacuums. The film was presented by Sears Roebuck and Company (:18) and opens with two men ordering coffee and a donut (1:17). One of the pair is disgruntled with the training seminar and doesn’t believe the process could work while the other begins to share a story with him showing that it does in fact work (2:14). His story begins while he had only been working for Sears for a short time in the Nebraska location (2:15). On a slow day, the representative is seen struggling to get his pitches out when the crew manager from the zoning office stops by, whom is also the same man who gave the pair their training from the beginning of the film (2:42). The trainer asks the representative how many names and addresses he collected that morning which stuns the representative and he replies with none and that names and addresses will not get him commission (2:51). The trainer leaves him with the challenge of acquiring 20 names and addresses only by lunchtime and if he does so he will receive a free lunch (3:47). By noon, he had spoken with 190 people and was able to get 27 names and addresses (4:28). In order to do this, he used the survey pitch and was able to talk to someone every 45 seconds (4:44). Back in the diner he tells his peer that he closed five of the prospects and expected to close more (5:45). He then breaks down how he was able to close them as after the free lunch he was instructed by the trainer to visit twelve of the addresses and leave them with a vacuum overnight without pitching the home owners (7:46). Upon arriving at the houses, he left the machines in his vehicle which kept the prospects from being on guard once they opened the door (8:06) and instead of waiting for them to approve or reject the notion of leaving a vacuum overnight, he promptly grabs it from his car (8:45). He presents home owners with a brief breakdown of how to use the machine and without trying to sell anything, leaves it with them over night (9:42). The idea was to allow the machine to sell itself and to leave the top model as whatever was left for them to use would most likely be the model they would purchase (9:59). If the first attempt did not work, he was to return and leave the machine for another night and try again (10:12). As he tells his peer that the system clearly works and he was able to make sales, the trainer over hears them and joins their lunch (10:42). In his hands he has a deck of index cards with statistics from Sears sales representatives from all over the country who were using the system successfully (10:50). The film wraps up as the trainer turns to the camera and addresses viewers; who would have presumably been sales representatives from Sears, and insists they allow the machines to sell themselves and use the ‘Pitch, Plant, Profit’ system (12:51). This film was a Dallas Jones Production (13:03). Motion picture films don't last forever; many have already been lost or destroyed. We collect, scan and preserve 35mm, 16mm and 8mm movies -- including home movies, industrial films, and other non-fiction. If you have films you'd like to have scanned or donate to Periscope Film, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us via the link below. This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com