Just the other day I e-mailed a person about a course that he was offering as it sounded interesting to me. I did read his ad which got me curious in wanting to learn more such as the price and how everything works. Many times I do this too as usually the way that they respond to you will tell you a lot such as if they value your business by being attentive to your questions.

In this case it was so strange as the response was mostly just replying with the cost of the course and then re-writing exactly what was said in the sales ad. To me that just showed that they didn’t really care too much if I became a customer or not as maybe they get too many requests. Therefore, I thought that would be the same attitude if I actually did try the course and so I decided to not inquire about it any further.

I was just thinking too that in situations like these a personalized response can go such a long way in acquiring customers. Even if you are copying your response off of a pre-written literature, adjusting it to make it seem like you are actually talking to the person as opposed to say simply throwing them a brochure does a lot to instill confidence in what you offer.

This was kind of a funny story. Essentially, there was a couple that bought a house from another and all of the contract was signed. As well, the deposit for the sale went through as well. Down the road the couple all of a sudden requested for more things such as the price to be reduced by $5000 and that the patio of the house to be painted. Otherwise they would not buy the house. Keep in mind this is after the contract has already been signed. So of course they would lose the deposit money. Although, this was solved as the realtor decided to deduct this out of his commission.

The couple then wanted more and asked the house owners to give them a mattress. Of course, that idea was thrown out the window as it seemed a little ridiculous. It was such a surprising story at how much people expect to get in a house sale. Especially after the fact that everything has already been agreed upon. This just showed me how when you cave in too much at times like these people just expect the moon from you after.

In many cases it is just better to stick firmly upon an agreement otherwise the other side will end up profiting over your generosity. It’s one of those times too where they have no reason to stop if you continue to allow them to take from you.

I thought this was funny. Recently a family member told me that he bought a laptop from a store. It just so happened that not too long ago they purchased a desktop from the same place and the same sales person was assisting them. While the salesmen didn’t recognize them they definitely recognized him.

The humorous thing was how the sales person tried to get them to buy an extended warranty of sort. His approach was literally the same both times where he said something along the lines of “Are you just going to throw that computer away in two years? They mass produce those things nowadays and so the quality is not as good.” Essentially, he is implying that the product will fail in due time and you need a warranty.

It’s times like that where it’s probably good to invest in some kind of monitoring procedure to make sure that people in your organization aren’t using techniques like that to up sell people. I would imagine that vendors wouldn’t be too happy if they find out that their retail partners are making those kinds of remarks about their products too. I guess secret shoppers are the most common way to do this type of monitoring.

Just from a consumer point of view I usually find negative sales techniques as a sign to go elsewhere as usually it’s an indication that most of the things they are telling you is to simply drain your wallet. Makes more sense to want to spend your money with people who are positive and want you to have the best.

I was looking at some sale prices for various products recently and of course this meant comparing what various companies were charging for them. One point I noticed was that for one business they displayed all of its sale prices by emphasizing how many dollars you were saving on the item. Example, saying a product is $10 off from the original price. The other company used percentages instead such as indicating the product is 30% less than normal.

I personally think percentage is usually the way to go as I think most people usually judge the value of the sale in their head by seeing how much they saved percentage wise. For example, if I saw a sale where it was $5 off a $10 product I would immediately think how that is 50% off which sounds like something to seriously consider.

We often associate with numbers in the range of say 50%+ off as a clearance price of sort too where it’s one of those if you don’t buy it now it will be gone forever. That’s another advantage to listing items as a percentage off instead. The over exaggerated example too would be a $1 candy item where you can save seventy five cents. Put a sign saying 75% off that candy instead and it will surely draw way more attention as seventy five cents doesn’t sound like a lot on its own.

Over the past few weeks I have received quite a bit of inquires in regards to helping people advertise some items through the use of articles. Basically, it would be articles designed to successfully get readers to buy products from a certain company. Example, reading an article about weight loss and then within the article there are information about diet pills for you to buy.

My general response was that I don’t really do things like that normally. But it did make me think whether or not that was an indication that maybe I should if there are so many requests for it. After all, it is additional revenue that one can earn if you look at it that way. I guess the main drawback would be if you are not doing it with a more long-term vision and commitment then it can just end up taking up your time and resources from doing whatever it is that you normally focus on.

Not really sure how much potential financial gain I would have to foresee to even fathom the thought of going through with it. As usual, it has to be something I would enjoy doing first and foremost.