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Over with over sellingby Alok Das |
Am I the only one who is sick of overselling approaches by sales people and businesses everywhere? Or, does it happen to others as well? I have done a count of how many times in a single day I have been approached to buy something which in most cases I did not need, and the list is overwhelmingly long! The methods sales people and / or businesses follow to approach us are numerous: face to face on the road, emails, outbound sales calls, flyers, follow up calls, referral from a friend, existing customer list, knocking at your doors, in the virtual world, the list goes on … Ever wondered how much it can actually cost you? I have. Let us consider this article as a guided tour where you will walk with me and then tell me if you get similar experiences on a daily basis. Why would you? I have an incentive for you: I will do the numbers for you to show you how much you run the risk of blowing your family budget.
At 10 in the morning, two colleagues and I go for a coffee. The smiling sales girl offers us a discount card to have stamped every time we buy a coffee: every 10th coffee is free! (The catch is, to get your free coffee you have to go back to them another nine times to spend for nine cups of coffee.)
At lunch break I go to a food shop and the sales person asks me smiling, “Have you tried our new deal so and so?” or “Do you want to upgrade for so and so?” Just to oblige a nice and courteous person I feel like going for that meal, costing me a few dollars more than what I had planned to spend. Being a food lover I try it and later regret why I spent so much on a lunch.
After lunch I go for a short walk. As I happen to walk past a gym, three ravishingly good looking and scanty dressed sales girls from the gym, who were there to woo customers for the gym, approach me to sign up for a membership deal with a ‘discount’ on the joining fee. In a normal situation I would be poetic to narrate the beauty of these girls to you; however, as explained to you earlier, through this article I am taking you on a guided tour, and accordingly I abstain from doing so for the moment. I use a lie just to get rid of them, “Sorry dear, I am on a rush, give me your card or leaflet and I will contact you later.” On another occasion, I get a call on my mobile and the caller (a lady) claims to represent a gym, to have got my number from a friend of mine who is a current member. What’s the purpose of her call? The gym is encouraging its members to recommend their friends and family members to join at a ‘discounted price’! Apparently, if friends / family members join the same gym, it ‘enhances’ their motivation level for health and fitness.
I haven’t bought new clothes for a while and so I drop into a retail clothing shop. My plan was to buy two new shirts. Again two beautiful sales girls approach me with ‘discounts and specials’ and try to explain to me that ‘life is hectic’, and from time to time I need to pamper myself too. Convinced with their philosophical approach to life, this time I end up buying four shirts and one pair of shoes, and most of them were not even on my shopping list! They also make me sign up for a discount card so from now onwards each time I buy from their shop, I am eligible for a discount. Later on, I suffer from the guilt of spending too much on items which were actually not necessary.
After work, I go to a GP close to my work for a minor health problem. He declares my health is sound, however, I should consider an appointment with the Dietician who is available in the premises. He can book an appointment for me, and there is a cost of consultation but it’s worth having it! I remember I never told him anything about my food habit problems and in my last visit to him he indeed said that my food habit was indeed ‘excellent’.
Last time when I booked an appointment with an optometrist over the phone I had to give her my address and telephone number. The aftermath? I receive flyers on promotional sales on a regular basis.
For a minor problem I see a podiatrist who said the problem would be fixed up just by changing shoes, there was no other issues at all. However, he keeps insisting that I should see him at least three more times in the next four weeks as he would set a plan for me to ensure future health for my legs.
On a Friday night my wife and I go to a restaurant as we were too tired to cook. The smiling wait staff offers us a new deal which will cost us ‘a little extra’ but it’s ‘worth’ tasting it. Because it was a Friday we think ‘ok let us try it’ and eventually end up spending more than what we had initially planned for.
On a lazy Saturday I go to the local barber’s for a quick haircut and the hairdresser suggests me to try a new style that will cost ‘only’ a little more and a new gel for the care of my ‘delicate’ type of hair. I am their regular customer, and do I really need to oblige them? I am not a movie star, media celeb, model or any such thing for that matter; so I decline the new style cut. But as am I a very kind hearted person, I oblige them by buying the hair gel.
Then I walk to the local super market to do my weekly grocery shopping. The smiling check out operator is there to ask me, “Do you have our rewards card?” I don’t want one and the smiling operator would try to convince me, “You are a loyal customer and we want to reward your loyalty”. Already tired of over selling, I just assure her that I will strongly consider it and next time I will discuss the details.
I often get telephone calls, emails and flyers from real estate agencies offering me to assist them in buying or selling my property. I also get correspondence from mortgage brokers, advising me “This is the best time to buy a property” and “Don’t miss out”.
My service provider and other telecom service providers are calling, emailing, sending promo flyers offering me ‘the best deal’. When I am walking in the local shopping mall, sales people approach me offering ‘the most innovative mobile phone plan’.
While walking almost anywhere in town, I am approached by enthusiasts from multiple charities to convince me to contribute ‘a little’ to do my bit to the service of humanity / refugees / tigers / monkeys /environment / hygiene / literacy / public health / a lot more. What is the contribution that they recommend? “It’s really a minimal amount, only the price of a cup of coffee a day”, replies the fund collector / charity worker. “O really? A minimal amount!”, this is my reaction but I do not say it to them. What I tell them is by using their reverse strategy, “Well, true, it is only a cup of coffee per day but there are 365 days a year and after a year I will be paying $1168 ($3.20 for a cup of coffee x 365 days, albeit a cup of coffee can be more expensive). Isn’t that a few weeks’ rent / mortgage repayment?”. Irritated the charity person tells me “Nice talking to you” and shakes hands with me. It gives me a little satisfaction that I have successfully vexed them.
I get numerous calls from overseas call centres offering me a numerous products and services including TV plans. To avoid them I just tell them a lie, “I am actually travelling and I can’t talk right now”.
This much was for the physical world. Now let us move to the virtual world. I believe I am fair in assuming that you have a Gmail account (or anything similar), a Facebook account and probably a LinkedIn profile. You have probably been inundated with endless number of offers starting from cheap holidays, taxation advice, fitness advice and training offers. The most dangerous online offer I am yet to discuss is a very cunning one: join an online bid and buy an iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy or any other gadgets for $20. Intrigued? Too good to be true? What should you do? What would you do? Well let me explain the catch and then you decide: the catch is hundreds (probably thousands) of people will give $20 from their credit card to join the bid. Just calculate how much money the person / company making the offer has made. Out of hundreds (or may be thousands), what are your chances of winning the deal? What percentage? Very simple calculation- you don’t have to be an actuarial genius to figure it out. So what should we deduce? Again the same adage, ‘If anything is too good to be true, it is probably not true.’
I have counted that there are roughly 16 different occasions I have mentioned above where I have been approached to purchase something and on each occasion even if I have spent at least $5 extra (actually it is more, especially in a cloth shop you can’t buy anything for $5), I have spent $80 ($5 x 16 times) extra in a week. So in a year it will cost me $4,160 ($80 x 52 weeks in a year). To my surprise (a very unpleasant one), I discover my budget planning will not work, I will be far behind.
What could have I done in $4,160? I could have made extra repayments to my mortgage and be well ahead in repaying my debts, I could have made voluntary additional contributions to my superannuation for a secure future and potentially receive favourable tax treatment, or could have used it towards an around the world trip or, probably the best thing could have been spending part of it in a donation for a genuine charity in a third world country where a small bit of that money could have brought a qualitative change to someone’s life. I was initially thinking of naming this article How to save $4,160 but then you probably would not have read it, thinking “Is that another over selling?” or “Is that another hoax?”.
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So next time someone approaches to sell me something that I do not need, I will say ‘No.’ If you are approached, what will you do?
