Sales ..... gotta love some approaches....

[Alan H]

I got dragged along to a 'sales promotion' last night and while I do this very rarely, they often serve as a useful reminder/learning experience to be on your toes.

If your involved in investment you inevitably get exposed to a very wide range of 'salespeople'. Some are simply awful, some good and then there are the absolute masters. NB. I'm not putting salespeople down here at all.......they often play a vital role but you do have to realise that you can be targeted by some very skilled people out there with many, many years of experience in manipulating sentiment.

I remember a friend of mine who was involved in sales many years ago telling me that a good salesman was someone that could sell you a product that you kind of wanted anyway but the master salesman could 'sell' you a product that you didn't even know you wanted......and you'd STILL be unaware that they actually 'sold' it to you.

I found the presentation last night interesting in that some friends of ours had already been along and 'signed up'. The whole presentation was very good and professional but I thoroughly enjoyed the 'one on one' consultation at the end when the real arm twisting began.

This was a product that ran into many tens of thousands of dollars and was sold in what was really a very high pressure environment. Apparently they get a 1 in 6 hit rate too.

While I don't necessarily agree with all of Kiyosaki's approaches I do agree with his suggestion that you learn something about sales..........if only to know when your being sold something!

Well, we went away with our 'free gift' and I had a reminder of some very good sales approaches to try and make me buy something I didn't even want.....

 

[Mr Ed]

Alan H,

And the product was????

Mr Ed.

 

[Alan H]

Hi Mr Ed.

The product wasn't directly in the property related line but rather in the 'holiday' direction......

Not that the 'product' was really that important. I guess the point I was trying to make was many who start out in Property Investment etc. well read a number of good books such as Jan's etc. on Property Investment approaches but fail to include the "Confessions of a Real Estate Agent...." type books in their library. Learning more about some of the 'approaches' that you will encounter in PI is probably just as vital as many of the other factors involved with IP. For example, you may get the best loan in the world, set up some wonderful structures, but if you buy the wrong property, at the wrong price, much of the positive work you have done can be negated.

No need to be negative........indeed keep an open mind.......just be careful.

 

[landholdings]

TRENDy WESTies do it to you all the time.

I got a CD player courtesy of these people. The interest rate on the loan just to pay for the package was more than you could possibly save! Also, when I said, I won't sign anything without sleeping on it, they said sarcastically 'do you need to dream about it also?'. They can 'the vernicular' off. We don't need those sort of companies in our society IMHO.

 

[Bill.L]

Hi Alan

This reminds me of the sales techniques used on us by one of the time-share people.

We took our kids along to the afternoon sales pitch and they were allowed to have the run of the resort. I was chuckling to myself all afternoon about the mistakes that the sales team made. First they offered stale scones and luke warm tea for the afternoon tea, the que sticks for the pool table in the games room were broken, the table tennis paddles were cheap and broken, and the only ping pong ball was pretty dead. The animal sanctuary was boring and only had ducks/ geese and a couple of goats according to our 3 young experts. The kids were not allowed in the pool unaccompanied by an adult as there was no supervision.(we sent them in anyway just to see what would happen as they can swim well.)

The sales team kept at us about how wonderful the place was for families because of the facilities and showed us the appropriate photos of kids having fun. Meanwhile our kids kept coming back to us saying they were bored an could we go yet!!

Funny how they got kicked out of the pool within minutes of us saying sorry we are not purchasing(and we had to ask several times for our free gift for attending).

bye

 

[Alan H]

Landholdings,

You wanted to sleep on it? Troublemaker!

You have the hide to query that an almost 12% interest rate is excessive? Why would you even question it!

For God sakes Landholdings.........I suppose you wanted to actually READ the prospectus before you signed it too? Where is your faith in human nature?

Don't you realise that such amazing offers can't just be left on the table for days........they must be signed immediately!

.......and finally Landholdings........assuming you wanted to get anyone else such as your accountant to review the paperwork etc., I suppose you didn't even have the foresight to bring them with you on the night? Am I right? Yes....of course I am.

Sorry Landholdings......you sound like you ask too many questions to me.

 

[Jacque]

You've got to laugh at these companies- they try so hard, it's almost getting to the stage where you have to feel sorry for the poor commission-driven salespeople on the night!
I've been TRENDWESTed several times now- must have my details on some type of database. I just say no and no again to their many tempting offers.

Did, however, receive an amazing call yesterday (Thurs) from a woman claiming to be ringing from South Africa (yes it did send alarm bells ringing!) to organise a "presentation" that I needed to attend next Tues night. She promised to send promotional mail but wanted me to book my seat in Sydney immediately. The promise of a hotel holiday was also thrown in.(Yeah, with so many conditions attached it makes a house sales contract look tame!)
When I declined, saying that I preferred to wait for the mail to ascertain what they were selling, she acted surprised and informed me that the mail wouldn't reach me in time- therefore it was imperative that I booked my seat!! Well, I told her- if I can't read what you're selling beforehand, I'm not interested.
Miffed, she ended the call, reminding me again that the call was from South Africa. Who cares? I don't! Especially when they always bloody call me in the middle of dinner!