Spirella Manual (1913)/Section 7

SECTION 7.

Meeting Objections.

76. OBJECTIONS are usually excuses, not reasons.

"Can't afford it."

"Of course you wear corsets?"

"Yes, I wear them all the time."

Ans. No. 1. "I can't see how you can afford to be without a Spirella Corset. The first cost may be higher than some others, I will admit, but quality and service considered, it is the cheapest corset on the market. You may take the price of one Spirella Corset and invest it in one dollar corsets, fifty-cent corsets, and you cannot get the same service, satis­faction, comfort and style out of your investment that you will by invest­ing the same money in one Spirella Corset. Stout women who break down and destroy a store corset every month or six weeks, have worn a Spirella Corset from one year to eighteen months in actual service, and not a single Spirella Stay broken. You can launder a Spirella Corset repeatedly with­out its getting out of shape or rusting the stays. If you value, dura­bility, comfort, hygienic qualities and a style that is strictly up-to-date you will certainly agree with me that Spirella is the best investment you can make."

Mrs. Mabel B———, of Gazelle, Calif., says: "After wearing my Spirella Corset one year, I can truthfully say it is the very best corset ever invented. $6.00 corsets of another make did not last me three months. Mine has been washed and there is not a speck of rust on it, and no sign of breaking over the hips."

Mrs. Seville Waterhouse writes: "I would like another Spirella Corset and my neighbor would like to try them. They are the best corset I ever had. I have had mine between four and five years; it has been washed twelve times and has never rusted one bit."

77. Ans. No. 2. "Then I cannot see how you can afford not to buy a Spirella Corset. The first price may be higher than some others, I will admit, but quality, wear and comfort considered, Spirella is the cheapest corset on the market to-day. Small first-cost, Mrs. ———, often means a large total cost. Spirella Corsets which have been worn constantly for more than one year, having been laundered repeatedly during that time are still in use, style, comfort and form as good as when new, not a stay broken. This is as true of stout, heavy figures, Mrs. ———, as of slender ones. You can buy a store corset for a dollar or even less, and yet you will not get one-fourth the wear and perhaps not a one-hundredth part of the comfort you could from wearing a Spirella Corset.

"This element of comfort you are willing to pay for in other articles. Then the guarantee that the stays in our corsets will never break is of great value to you. Besides you buy a corset primarily for the purpose of giving you the proper style of figure and do you not want that corset to preserve that style as long as possible?"

"Yes."

"The Spirella Corset is the only corset made which has really un­breakable stays, gives perfect freedom and ease to the wearer, and pre­serves the original style of the corset until worn out. This comfort and preservation of style are due to the Spirella Stay, which is very yielding, but which neither breaks nor takes a permanent bend. Surely you can see greater value in Spirella than in any other corset you can buy."

78. "I don't care to have my corsets wear too long, as they become soiled I prefer two or three cheaper corsets to one expensive corset."

"If you could obtain the same comfort and were assured that the cheap corsets were as conducive to strength and health, your argument would be good, but you know they are not.

"You do not follow that rule in the purchase of other garments, do you, Mrs. ———? Would not that line of argument lead you to buy shoes at one dollar a pair or even buy a low-priced, showy dress so that you might have several new pairs of shoes or several new dresses instead of one? You buy a good pair of shoes or a good dress because you know you are getting a better value for the price paid. The same law will apply to the corset."

"Yes; but a corset will soil with wear, and for that reason I prefer two or three low-priced corsets to one high-priced"

"That argument might hold good with most corsets, but do you realize, Mrs. ———, that the Spirella Corset can be washed and laundered the same as any other garment. You can have a clean, fresh corset every week if you want to.

Mrs. A. C. Andrews, of Oakland, Calif., who has been handling the Spirella business practically ever since The Company started, says: "It gives me pleasure to meet my customers the second time and hear the good reports about Spirella Corsets. One lady said: 'I'm making money by wearing Spirella, for before I got it, it cost me $2.75 every six weeks for corsets.' My customers say they will never wear any other if they can get Spirella. They pronounce it healthful because the ventilation is better, they can wash it (or scrub it, rather) and it retains the shape, does not rust and is just as comfortable as at first. The one I have on has been washed and boiled twice, and I am going to wash it again, starch and iron it and put it with my samples to exhibit to the public. When I take it off at night it is as straight as a new corset."

79. "Would rather have two corsets which cost $1.00 to $1.50 each, than to put the same amount into one corset." "You may think that way now, and if you could buy a corset for that money which would keep its shape—and be comfortable, I would say that you are right. Is it not better to put the price of two or three cheap cor­sets into one corset which is comfortable and has good style, and keep it perfectly sanitary all the time by laundering it, than to purchase two or three inferior corsets?

"The cheap corsets are not only rigid and uncomfortable, but they are not hygienic. They dwarf your physical development and thereby deplete your strength. Even the best of them do not fit your figure as they should. They bring too much pressure on the body, where it is often times very sensitive, and do not touch the body at other points. This unequal distribution of pressure is very injurious, and there should be no perceptible pressure anywhere. Besides the stays rusting and breaking, they do not retain their style and shape, and if you pay the same price for a store corset that you would for a Spirella, the stays are practically no better, for the stays in all store corsets rust and break with the exception of whalebone. As we have already stated, whalebone is very scarce and costs much more than Spirella. Neither does it compare with Spirella as a durable, comfortable, sanitary garment.

"It is important that a corset should retain its shape, you know that. The Spirella Corset does that. Here are testimonials from different ladies bearing on that point. Let me read some." (Read Testimonials.)

"The best dressers, that is, people who present the best appearance, realize the fact that the corset is the foundation of a correct style. Take the French, even among the working classes, a French lady will invest $5.00 for her corset, stockings, shoes and spend a smaller sum for her dress, because she realizes that the corset is the one thing that gives her an attractive appearance. She realizes that it takes a carefully constructed garment, especially for her awn figure, to give the effect which she de­sires. It is this which distinguishes the French women from those of every other nation. With them the corset is the primary feature and the dress or outside garment is the secondary feature of their elite make-up. The French realize that the whole foundation of dress is selecting a well-con­structed, perfect-fitting and properly designed corset over which they drape the most inexpensive materials.

"A neatly fitting dress, showing the lines of the body, does more to give a woman a stylish appearance than almost anything else, and Spirella Corsets modeled on the latest designs, bring out the lines of the body, give a better fit to the dress, produce a more stylish appearance than any other corset. Our ladies are fast coming to appreciate the French lady's posi­tion on the question of the corset, and the more you think of it the more you will be inclined to view the matter in the same light.

"Did you ever stop to think that you are spending two-thirds of your life in your corset? To a woman who wears her corset all the time, it is certainly a serious question whether the make she wears is comfortable, pliable and healthful. Those who wear Spirella say they hardly realize that they have a corset on." 80. "I always buy ----- make of corsets, which I have worn for years, and they give me perfect satisfaction."

"Yes; you no doubt have found better satisfaction in wearing ---- ­corset than in any you can procure up to the present time, but I am sure you will not rest content with it if there is a better one you can obtain, and one which will give you better satisfaction for your money.

81. "Is your corset perfectly comfortable? Have you perfect free­dom of movement? Are you not apprehensive at times that your corset steels will break and cause you trouble? Can't you see that your corset does not possess the health properties which the Spirella Corset possesses? Can you buy your corsets with the guarantee of the firm that they are stainless and rust-proof, and that the stays are unbreakable?

"Demonstration is always more powerful than argument, and what I desire to do is to demonstrate to you that what we claim for Spirella is true,—that it has, desirable qualities which the corset you wear has not.

"Now, do you not think that an article of so much importance as a corset, which you wear 365 days in the year, and which is so important in one's dress and appearance, should receive our first attention, and that we should secure the best one obtainable regardless of what we have worn in the past?

82. "On the average I break down a corset every month. I have tried every make I could hear of and have found one as good as another. They all break in a short time."

"I don't blame you for being skeptical. I might be more skeptical than you if I had been through your experience, but I want you to try just once more. The fact that you have not been suited before does not prove that you cannot be. The Spirella Company guarantee their cor­sets not to break. They guarantee them also to be rust-proof. Should a Spirella Stay break in regular corset wear within a year from the date of purchase, The Spirella Company agree to compensate you by making you a new corset free of charge. Besides they guarantee their stays to be rust-proof, and the eyelets, hooks and tips used in their corsets are stain­less."

Mrs. Ida G. Meyer, of Steubenville, Ohio, says: "I have great faith in Spirella, believing it is what it is claimed to be. My customers are well pleased with it, many having given their sixth and eighth order. They like Spirella because it will not take a permanent bend or break on the hip and consequently keeps its shape until worn out, and one corset will outwear two or three corsets of other makes, and when properly worn are perfectly comfortable and healthful, and always retain shape and style."

"I believe if you will give a Spirella Corset a trial, you will be ready to pronounce it 'Corset Perfection.'

83. "If I put so much into one corset, I would prefer a whalebone corset." "By this statement you prove to me that you do not fully appreciate the merits of Spirella. I am sure you would not buy a whalebone corset if you could buy it for half the price of a Spirella Corset. But you cannot buy a full whalebone corset for less than $10.00.

"Furthermore, there is not the same comfort and ease in a whalebone corset that there is in Spirella. It does not retain its shape like Spirella, and after it has been worn a few weeks the heat from the body and pres­sure cause it to take the shape of the wearer, spoiling the style of the corset. Whalebone becomes brittle after wearing a while and breaks—Spirella does not break."

Mrs. M. ——, of McCloud, Calif., writes: "I have always worn a good, high-priced corset, but never found comfort, durability and fit so thoroughly combined until I found the Spirella Corset. I will never wear any other if I can get this."

84. "Spirella seems too easy. Don't believe it will support the body sufficiently."

"Spirella to-day is supporting and satisfying many women weighing over 200 lbs. It gives the body all the support that is consistent with hygiene and good health. The rigid, unyielding corset which supports the body in an armor-like fashion, is never healthful.

"The strength of the muscles which God has given you, well devel­oped, is all you need to support your body. Any unnatural support or pressure given the bust or waist line is weakening and contrary to the laws of health. What you need in a corset is a garment to fit your form per­fectly and give you the grace and style which nature intended you should possess. It is not the stay that supports the figure but the cut of the garment.

"You want corset stays that are comfortable and will not break. Spirella fills the requirement and is all that can be desired. It will not vary from the original shape and it will outwear any corset on the market.'

85. CLOSING.—"Don't you think, Mrs. ——, that we are really offering you a great deal more for the money than you have yet received in any corset you have purchased? You are paying twice as much for a Spirella Corset as you have been in the habit of paying, let us say, but you are getting three or four times the wear, you are getting a better figure, a better corset over which to fit your dresses, you are getting a corset that retains its shape at all times, a corset that can be laundered when soiled. and back of it you are getting a guarantee that the Spirella Stay will not break nor rust in regular corset wear within one year from the time of purchase. If The Company did not know the merits of Spirella, it would not make this guarantee. On the whole, Mrs. ———, do you not regard Spi­rella as a cheap corset rather than a dear one, if the claims I make for it can be established?"

"I certainly do." "Wherein have I failed to demonstrate any claim I have made? You are satisfied that it stays firm, that it is durable, that our guarantee is good and is going to be lived up to and that the corset plays an import­ant part in forming the figure of a lady, are you not?

"I certainly do not believe, Mrs.———, that after considering these facts, you will hold to the opinion that cheapness in corsets and hose sup­porters is a virtue, nor that you can secure the best value for the money in­vested by purchasing cheap goods. I believe you are convinced that it is to your interest to order a Spirella Corset with the Spirella Hose Sup­porters attached."

86. "Just bought a new corset."

"Even if you have just purchased a corset, you will want another before many months, and would you not better give me your order for Spirella, which I will deliver later? If you don't want me to bring it on my next delivery, let me take your order and measure to-day, and I will bring the corset on my second or third delivery. And besides the fact that you have bought a corset ought not to keep you from realizing and securing the benefit of Spirella.

"Even though you have a comparatively new corset, would it not be well to have a Spirella for dress wear? There is certainly as much reason in having a 'best' corset as in having a 'best' 'pair of shoes. The 'Dry Goods Economist,' the leading trade paper, in a recent issue. had a long article on that very line, Mrs. ——, and said that ladies are beginning to realize the need of having more than one corset at a time, if they want to appear to best advantage.

"You certainly appreciate the elite style of our corsets and their wonderful durability. Can you afford to continue to wear a garment boned with the unyielding, unsanitary stays of the average corset, women you can buy Spirella for only $4.00 to $6.00?

"It cannot be that you can afford to put off anything which has so much to do with your daily health and comfort. If you were to consult your physician or anyone who has a knowledge of anatomy and the laws of health, I am sure he would advise you to lay aside every corset you have and purchase Spirella, and begin to wear it at once. Besides, from point of economy, it would not take the savings of many doctor's bills to make up the amount necessary to make the purchase. It is simply a question of economy and health, comfort and style. I believe that your judgment tells you that your best economy consists in purchasing Spirella now."

87. "Will order one later on."

"I feel, Mrs. ———, that you fail to appreciate fully the wonderful merits of Spirella. You certainly would not consider it wise to procrasti­nate in a matter which would be of special value to yourself. If you believe as I think you do, that Spirella is all that we claim for it, that it is the only hygienic corset on the market that combines perfect comfort and ease with good health, you certainly cannot afford to delay ordering; besides it will be a month or six weeks before I deliver and this will give you ample time to prepar to take the order. It is always best to order several weeks ahead, because if you wait until you are about to have a new dress made or want the corset to wear in a short time, you are liable to be disappointed, because the demand for Spirella is so great, and the fact that we are doing a strictly order business, makes it necessary for me to send in the orders at least three weeks or a month ahead of the time of delivery.

"You cannot purchase a made-to-order or custom corset in a hurry, as you can a ready-made store corset. You must give me sufficient time in which to order the goods and get them to you. So if you want a Spirella Corset, now is the time to order it, and I will bring it on any of my later deliveries here. YOU SURELY WANT ONE. Your full name, please."

After answering her each objection, fully, it is a good plan to approach for the order and close the sale, if possible. In closing always have ap­preciative testimonials at hand and use them effectively. Commit these testimonials, do not read them.

The above are only a few of the objections which may be raised, and we have only suggested answers which might be extended indefinitely. You must be original and use good judgment if you would win. DO YOUR OWN THINKING. REMEMBER, THERE IS NO OBJECTION WHICH CANNOT BE SUCCESSFULLY ANSWERED, AND YOU WILL DOUBTLESS THINK OF THE ANSWER IF YOU MAKE THE EFFORT. IF YOU ATTEMPT TO ANSWER EVERY OB­JECTION RAISED, YOU WILL BE SURPRISED BY THE GROWTH OF YOUR STRENGTH AND POWER IN YOUR WORK. Go at your work determined to remove every obstacle and answer every objection.