The Great “Top Sales Techniques” Hunt: What tricks are used to sell to us?

dapa

Happy_Camper wrote: »

The Technique in a Nutshell: Inaccurate benchmarking

What you were selling: Houses/flats

More Details: Someone comes in and says they want to buy/rent a place, and you establish how much they want to spend. You then show them two places. The first one is absolutely awful, making the customer panic inside "Is this all I can afford?"....

This certainly does happen. It was tried out on us not so long ago. No idea if the place was kept aside for this purpose, but it was terrible for the price. I was really tempted to call their bluff and cancel the viewing. I suggest anyone else considers doing this if they think they're being taken for a ride.

Another technique, I once had tried on me is the person doing the viewing, seeing that you're still to make your mind up on an over-priced property, pretends to get a call from someone else who has double-booked a viewing and is due to show the place in 15mins, to get you to make a quick decision to take it. Although I didn't know about this technique at the time, it backfired on them because I said I wasn't going to be rushed on this, so they'd might as well offer it to the other person!

happy_chick_3

This thread certainly seems to have to everyone's passions riding high! I'm a Media Sales Manager and I'd like to offer three practical pieces of advice to help you get a better deal:

1 - always buy at the end of the month/quarter - when the commission cutoff if looming, you are guaranteed to get a good deal.

2 - ask for a breakdown of your quote. Products are often grouped together and you will be given a package price rather than a breakdown of what's included. You are then free to remove any elements that you don't want and save yourself some cash.

3 - ask for more than you want. For a negotiation to work, both sides need to feel as though they've achieved something. Decide what level of discount you want and ask for double. The salesperson will be satisfied once they have got you to agree to half the discount you've asked for and you will get exactly what you want. And who knows? You might just get the a bigger discount than you hoped for!!

Hkem

The Technique in a Nutshell: Making the cost sound lower by breaking it down into pence per week.
What you were selling: Extended warranties
More Details: Costs £20 for two years, that's only 19p a week! It's a drop in the ocean compared to your insurance!
How successful was it: Very, and why not? Everything has still got 99p on the end of it to make it sound smaller. When you consider how much you spend on things you don't need a week, a few pence spent on something that could bring benefits doesn't seem so bad.
How should MoneySavers counter it: Just say no, or ask about the failure rate of the product. You'll probably find that it's around 5%, and if you wouldn't put £20 on a bet with a 5% likelihood.

Ogre_San

Womaniser wrote: »

And don't get me onto cold callers or chuggers!

I like cold callers, its fun to mess with their minds.

Indian call centres offering me a better mobile deal are told that we don't believe in phones, their the work of the devil.:rotfl:

Home improvement companies are told nervously that 'Mistress doesn't allow me to talk to strangers':eek:

And the poor guy from British Gas last week hung up when I shouted at my wife (who was answering the phone) 'woman, get your cute !!! in this shower NOW.....:D

Ogre

Chatterbox_3

We had a guy phone selling from India who introduced himself as Barbara!

Chatterbox_3

Years ago we had a well known shower company rep. in the house who stayed all evening (about 4 hours) and demanded we sign there and then because he's spent so much time answering our questions. Luckily, although we were a newly married naieve couple, we refused to sign anything that night...Phew!

I've also had the misfortune to have a cold caller at the door stick her foot in to stop me closing the door...until I rammed it shut! She then proceeded to shout at me through the glass!!

Thank the Lord things are different these days...I know my rights now.

NAILUJRT

I am a self employed electrical contractor also is my 20 year old newphew, who works for Central Networks. He tells me that when doing a service alteration that is, moving meter position in domestic property. They have to make an external joint even if the supply cable is long enough. Asked him why, he is told by his boss that you would be too quick and customer would complain of the cost being too high for 30 min work. These jobs are costed at around the £400 to £600 plus mark. On average thay take 1 hour. My nephew does 3 a day. He can be home finished for the day mostly between 11am & 2pm. nothing you can do about this, they have the sole right to carry out this type of work.

I would like to know how they justify extremely high costs. I could make a good living at £200 materials would be around £30.00 max for most jobs.

dapa

If you're getting a visit by a tradeperson for a job, always ask them (after giving you the quote) to break down their price in to labour (hourly rate) and materials. If it turns out they're paying themselves say £75 / hour, unless it's quite specialist, it's probably overpriced. If they try to increase the amount of hours to reduce the hourly rate... well they'll be sitting up on your roof quite a bit longer, won't they? :-)

AndyWar

I've recently been in the market for a new kitchen, so had a certain high street supplier come out and do me a design and quote.

As expected they told me a price (£27,000) that they would immediately discount down to £19,000. They also tried the 'sign up tonight and save even more', taking it down to £17,500. I was expecting all those, and had no intention of falling for it.

The new one, however, was to add a further discount if I was willing to sign up to their finance package (down to £16,000). I told them I wasn't prepared to sign up on the spot, and had no interest in their finance as I had the full funds available. The salesman suggested I take the finance and then simply cancel it after 1 month to get the discount, but--again--I needed to sign up there and then.

In the end I had to get quite forceful to turn him down and get him to leave, but had an excuse in that I had to get the boiler moved as part of the job, and was waiting for a quote on that aspect, so couldn't possibly sign up immediately. And, yes, I was aware I was losing the opportunity to get the cheaper prices.

A week later, in discussion with a friend, she recommended a local firm that had done a good job for her, so I had them out to quote. They were happy to move the boiler *and* lay the floor as part of the job, fit better units and worktops, and supply better white goods (with the option to source myself if I could get them cheaper, as they broke down the quote). The total job, including £5,000 of white goods (half of which I am getting from elsewhere) instead of £2,500, plus some other building work, came to £14,500 with a £4,000 deposit.

The interesting thing to me was the original company's push to get me to use their finance, which struck me as odd; until I figured out that that way they got 100% of the money up-front and I lost all my leverage of 1/3 on completion, when I was happy, that the second firm offered unprompted.

Funnily enough, a few days later the original company rang and was willing to match their 'only that night' offer if I took their finance and made a debit card deposit over the phone to 'reserve the cabinets'.

So despite all their tricks and promises of a good deal, had I signed up with the high-street brand I would have got a *lesser* specced kitchen for *more* money, and still had to pay for a boiler move, flooring and some sundry building work on top. No wonder they can afford prime-time advertising!

Womaniser

abjem21 wrote: »

.....I truly hope you reap what you sow.

As you ask.....

House in the country value £800K, paid for.
Flat in Regents Park, London value £550K, paid for.
Condo in Singapore value £450K, paid for.
Ferrari 360 value £70K, paid for.
Audi A4 value £23K, paid for.
Savings of £80K for a rainy day............

*Puts willy away*