Spill the beans... on Jedi mind tricks salesmen have played on you

MissMills81

I worked for a well known bank for many years in telephony sales and cross sold a lot of insurance products etc, we had several training courses on sales techniques, the most memorable one was on Neuro Linguistic Programming, and gave tips like the '3 Yes' the idea is to ask the customer 3 questions you know they will respond yes to in quick succession and then on the fourth question ask them if you should complete the sale and they will automatically say yes. Its amazing the amount of sales that were achieved this way, we were encouraged to mirror language and and never give an opt out by using closes like 'So now that I have explained that policy, I will go ahead and set it up, yes? I have to say that it did sound all a bit Jedi mind trick but does tend to work, especially in telephony sales when its difficult to guage a customer's body language.

Porcupine

Another standard one is 'framing'... "I'm not giving it to you for £200, not for £100, not for £50... it's yours for £30" makes you think the item is a bargain. If they'd just said it's £30 to start with without reference to a higher figure, you might think it's not such good value. Same applies to 'half price sofa' deals... is the sofa actually worth the current price, ignoring what it might have been priced at for 5 minutes in their store in the Outer Hebrides? Similarly I was once accosted in Cairo by a taxi driver offering "half price taxi"... that's only meaningful if you know what the normal price is!

On the other end, dealing with a lot of Middle Eastern clients, there are the customers who keep trying to haggle, asking for the 'best price', even if you've just quoted them the same price three times in a row.

jgriggle

Porcupine wrote: »

Another standard one is 'framing'... "I'm not giving it to you for £200, not for £100, not for £50... it's yours for £30" makes you think the item is a bargain. If they'd just said it's £30 to start with without reference to a higher figure, you might think it's not such good value. Same applies to 'half price sofa' deals... is the sofa actually worth the current price, ignoring what it might have been priced at for 5 minutes in their store in the Outer Hebrides? Similarly I was once accosted in Cairo by a taxi driver offering "half price taxi"... that's only meaningful if you know what the normal price is!

On the other end, dealing with a lot of Middle Eastern clients, there are the customers who keep trying to haggle, asking for the 'best price', even if you've just quoted them the same price three times in a row.

Very true. I work for one of those companies that always has some kind of 'sale' on.

What they don't seem to realise is that even if the price ticket says 'HALF PRICE! WAS £100 NOW £50', the £50 is still the starting point for negotiation from the customers' point of view. They won't think they got a good deal unless they get the item for less than £50. We get so many customers walking away because we won't budge on sale prices.

Far better for our company to offer 40% discount and let the customer negotiate down to 50%. That way we get the price we want and the customer thinks they've got a great deal!

This is something that retailers just don't understand. No matter how good the discount is, customers only feel like they're getting a good deal if they pay less than the price on the ticket.

Porcupine

And then there's the "Would you like fries with that? / Is that a large cappuccino?"... we feel more comfortable saying 'yes' than 'no' to things, so these questions are framed so that you'll answer yes. Even more likely if we're under stress (eg trying to impress someone, it's a present, in a hurry, etc).

A variation on the "and you'll need" is cheap goods, expensive accessories. The printer/camera/etc in PC World might be competitive, but they'll then try to sell you a £35 USB cable (cost to make about 20p). You've spent so long umm-ing and ar-ing about where to spend your £1000 on the camera, you don't pay attention to the huge markup on the cable. Same goes for cars and metallic paint - does it really cost £500 to change the paint tin at the factory?

aliasojo

I hate all sorts of sales guff. Even if I actually want to buy whatever it is the person is trying to flog me, the minute they start their sales pitch rubbish instead of just talking to me normally, I'm off. I'll go buy from whoever it is that just leaves me alone or simply answers my questions without all the embroidery.

I know lots of people do get caught up, but I find it really hard to understand why.

Even if I'm just buying my daughter a pair of shoes from Clarks (for example), I'll tell the assistant we'll take the shoes but please don't try to sell me any shoe cleaner or anything else as I'm not interested. I'm always polite but clear.

aliasojo

Nile wrote: »

I had a persistent salesman at my front door, trying to get me to switch energy supplier. After I'd politely said "No, thank you" a couple of times...........he told me that if I switched supplier I would save lots of money.

I had a woman from British Gas at the door one day. I said to her before she even got started that I wasn't interested. Her reply was 'F you then'. :rotfl: Needless to say an official complaint went in about that one.

dazalon

I always tell door to door sales people, they can leave me any information they have, I'll read it, do my own research and then make a decision. There's no way I'll sign up to anything without thinking it over for a couple of days. The more adamant they get that I might lose a special discount or whatever, the easier I find it to stand up to them.

Mojoworking

I remember a gas company kept ringing and ringing and ringing for us to swap and in the end I said "if you gave it to me for free I would still never come back to you after the way I was treated" the reply was "you are very stupid then" and they put the phone down on me! However, the plus side is I've not heard from them in 3 years now so me being stupid is a big plus sometimes!!!

It was really hard to keep saying no though - it really doesn't sit well.

peden

My answer to door to door salespersons, chuggers, genevas witneses (and the other other lot the Morons), and everey other form of low animal life the cares to contamitate my doorstep is simple after the polite "no thanks" or "i'm not interested" they get the less polite "You are trespassing on private property any if you do not leave immeadiatley I will forcibly remove you".

craigsville_2

One point to note, these people are just doing a job and trying to earn a living, it must be damn soul destroying to sell door to door. Just be polite and quickly tell them no before they invest too much time, if your firm like I am they know from experience that their time is better spent persuading some gulible person down the street. Why be afraid to say no? if i phrased a question like "would you like to sign up for a product/service that you dont need so I can earn commision?" what would your answer be?