A sales pitch on the doorstep has become an art-form thanks to the digital revolution. We are flattered, bribed, teased and overwhelmed by an off-screen smoothie with a product to sell and a story to tell. And it’s not only products to sell; it’s votes to gain. It used to be known as oratory. It’s now any means to gain attention and see the colour of the victim’s money.
We are not course the first generation to have to cope with this. Prolonged exposure to salesmen has given us a proverb: ‘Fine words butter no parsnips.’ There was a time, we think, when great parliamentary campaigners, not to mention evangelists, could sway a crowd and promote a cause. Now we are teased with sound-bites and one-liners.
The art of persuasion survives none the less. If it has decayed on market-stalls and door-steps, it pesters digital viewers. Double or treble glaziers continue their patter. The art of persuasion may have been suborned by demagogues, glossed by advertisers and worn out by sponsors who have not noticed that the world has moved on. But people are still ready to be persuaded; they change their minds. They ruminate. They compare one thing with another.
Oratory (a word that began life in prayer) has gone down in the world. Along with rhetoric it is suspect. It has a reputation as a trickster. Those who notice it in the offing automatically snap on an amber or even a red light. Somebody is about to patronise, bore or irritate an audience. We do not like being patronised, bored or irritated.
The art of persuasion is part of civilised life. Without it we have to rely on browbeating and shouting louder than the other man. The trouble is that persuasion requires application and industry, hard work, knowing your stuff and taking care in the presentation.
It we’re going to butter parsnips, we need two things: good quality parsnips and fresh butter. Every retail person knows this.
NOT JUST PARSNIPS
‘Good wine needs no bush.’ ‘Speech is silver but silence is golden.’ ‘Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.’
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