Learn the phone salesmen´s best tricks, part II
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In this post you will get some tips on how you should think when a telemarketer calls you,
and how you can master the tricks.
We will analyze the concepts of a Hurry trick, Active answers, capturers, AIDAS and Tension-relieve.
Actually, I have no problems with product presentation, sales or marketing, even over the phone. Telephone sales can be one of the many great channels that a company has to introduce a product to their customers. In addition, we as customers can succeed to get products that are real gems, byeing over the phone.
But it´s the way sales sometimes are done, which I very much wonder about. The dealers often turn to us emotionally and use a lot of dirty tricks, both conscious and unconscious, to fatten their own and CEO ns often already fat asses.
You can find clear parallels to the abusive acts of a psychopath. The only difference is that an abusive act often lasts for several years, while a sales call will progress only a short time. But it´s actually the same tricks used.
Let´s start with the first one …
1st “Hurry trick”
“The offer is valid while supplies last.”
The Hurry trick is a very common trick in any sale. It appeals to our earliest instincts, back from the days when we hunted / collected in order to survive. When we went out, collecting so much food and materials we could come across, to bring home and stock up, before bad times came up.
We still have the instincts, even though we don´t anylonger need them for surviving.
A phone vendor uses “hurry trick”, because the customer´s very scared to miss anything. - To miss a cheap product. – To miss a certain product. - To miss the latest product. Maybee the stock runs out ?
Actually, the salesmen kidnap the biological fears and will be playing on them.
The way you can handle this, is to respond objectively to the vendor. To question him in detail about the product and then record on paper.
Then, ask for your dealer’s phone number and beg to call him in a few days.
2nd “Active answers” 3rd “Capturers”
These tricks have several different functions. Not only is the intention that the customer will “slip” into a dialogue on some equipment. For example when a vacuum salesman comes to visit and asks:”- Sorry to interrupt, but I would just ask witch cleaning equipment you use ?”.
Then the customer gets the urge to respond:”- Yes, you’ll have to come in and look at my crap here in the closet”, or the customer would answer carefully and tell the brand of the vacuum cleaner, the floor mop used, etc.
But also, capturers could be a decoy, for example when a clerk asks:”- Want shrimp salad, too?”. “- Yes” we answers (and feel the saliva flow). But the shrimp salad costed SEK 15 extra, but about that you whern´t told from the beginning.
4th “AIDAS” 4..
The vendor is working under a strategy called Aidas. This means Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction. The entire conversation from beginning to end is based upon those five words.
First, your phone rings and the seller introduces himself and the company (= Attention). The customer is offered a product which he feels he´ll bee needing (= Interest, Desire). Then, the customer make an active choice, ie direct answer YES or NO (= Action). And if the customer answers yes, then he becomes showered with praise because he´s chosen the company’s product and the company often offer warranty and telephone support for a certain period (= Satisfaction).
5th “Tension – relieve” 5
The last trick is called Tension-relieve, and that means that the seller gives a tension, an anxiety to the customer that can only be relieved if the customer buys the product. An example of this is when an ad says:
“Want to get rid of holiday flesh and become the puma of the beach ?” – Buy it, and the Or … “Join thousands of already done: – Buy Super lottery ticket…”, etc.
Another example of Tension-relieve is when they hand out free samples in a grocery store. This fills the customer with a debt of gratitude for the handing out. And the only way to get rid of it, is to buy the product.
Tension-relieve strikes three fears:
The fear of being outside a social group, fear of being regarded as stingy and fear to be a debt of gratitude.
It may also be that the seller himself is not aware of all these tricks, but this is expected and well planned by his superiors. Indeed it may sometimes pay to hire very stupid salesmen who also looks a little bit blue-eyed and innocent.
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The purpose of this post is that you must see through the tangle of tricks that dealers use, to objectively decide whether to buy a product or not.
You may not under any circumstances dance to the vendors pipe, because then you´re lost. You must go your own ways and really take part of as much factual information as possible about the product.
Do not forget that the seller is turning directly to your emotions. But YOU should turn to the dealer’s brain!
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You want to have a little fun with a phone salesman ?
Then you can seem to be interrested but say NO all the time, but not sharply, and never say YES and never put on.
That´s funny, the vendors think ; )
Sources:
Bonnier reference book, publisher Albert Bonnier AB, 2007
Great rhetoric book, publisher Wahlström & Widstrand, 2004
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