PSYC3D web 3.0
The inner chaos of a web guy's mind.
Sales Secrets – Price
Mar 29th
Ok we all want a deal when we are shopping , remember what I said earlier though a deal is only a deal when you get a quality product at a fair price. This is the easiest part of the sales process, you want to get a salesperson in your pocket? It is as simple as saying this statement, “ I am buying today but if I can find the right product for my needs.” Yes it’s that simple you can have almost any sales person eating out of the palm of your hand by holding the proverbial carrot in front of them. If you want the best price on a product use the internet before you go shopping in the store and narrow down the search to 1-3 items. This is what the sales person is going to do during the initial sales process. Check the online stores and policies before you go to the retailer of choice to make your purchase. The online stores work on a much lower profit margin due to lowered overhead and gives you an idea of what you should be paying for your product. When you enter the retail store you are now armed with ammunition to get the best price. Most stores offer a price match policy and you should take advantage of this. If you want to maintain credibility with your sales rep under no circumstances should you mention what you saw this on E-Bay for. This is a total joke and you lose all the power in the conversation when you say this. E-Bay is an online auction not a retail store you never really know what you are going to get even from credible stores on E-Bay and the price you see may not have reached the reserve price.
When it comes to negotiating for the final price of your purchase you have all the ammo and its time to unleash this ammunition on the sales person. Don’t get caught up in the game of running back and forth to the manager for the best price. This futile process just frustrates everyone involved and does not really lead to a mutually agreeable sale. Once the price of the product is settled based on your research it is time to talk about the add on bits. On most sales in electronics there are cables and accessories that are required to make using this product a positive experience. The sales person should have informed you of these before the end of the sale if they haven’t then they did not do their job right. You have options and choices in these accessories. The sales person will always try and get you in to the BEST of the cables and accessories but in reality you don’t need the best but don’t grab the cheapest stuff. Get the cables etc. that are in the middle road to ensure a quality experience with your product. The top end stuff is not necessary unless you have to have the best.
These products are where the company make the most profit on generally from 50%GM to 80%GM plus on these items so make sure not to get ripped off. Look for the package deal and have the products itemized so you see what you are paying for each item. There are often packages that include the cables and accessories and give a total discount equal to the difference between what you found that you could buy the core product for on its own and the price the retailer sells it for. This is not a deal!
Well that should be enough on price for now. If you are interested in more information or have a question please feel free to leave a comment and I will reply with an answer.
Sales Secrets – General
Mar 28th
Anyone that has read my resume will know that I spend many years in retail sales. Many of those years was in training new sales people and as a Sales Manager for a big box retail store. What I am going to tell you now is some secrets in the retail industry that are used to train the sales people how to play the psychological game of selling with you the consumer when you come in to the store. I trained and developed some top sales people in the company and managed top performing sales departments in two different stores. Here are some of the tools that I trained my team to use.
General Sales Process
The entire sales process from beginning to end is a game if you don’t agree with this try it out sometime. There is a winner and a loser in this game. The winner is the one who gets what they are working for in the end, the sales person get his/her sale or the customer leaves without purchasing the product that was trying to be forced on them. Sometimes the customer is going into the store to get something specific the game begins when the salesperson gets involved and tries to add the up sell products or extended warranties.
The best defense against these tactics and the up sell is not to get into a debate with the sales person or to demand a discount but simply ask tough questions designed to stump the knowledge of the sales person. Only the best of the best will be able to answer them all and if they can’t they will find out the answer for you right away. A sales person that in confident enough to say I don’t know but I will find out for you is someone that is worth dealing with and is generally going to be honest with you about your concerns.
Avoid like the plague that sales person who preys on the human need to get a “deal”. As I trained my sales people with a simple statement “A deal is only a deal when you get a quality product at a fair price”. Getting some no name 90day warranty brand for $200 less than the quality product is not a deal it’s a waste of money. You’ve seen them they litter the boxing day flyers and weekly sale flyers trying to get you into the stores to talk to a smooth sales person that will up sell you into something else. Its not bait and switch but really who wants the crappiest product just because it is cheap.
If you want to keep the sales people away tell them that you are not buying anything today you are just shopping around for some gift ideas and generally all but the eager newbies will go away and leave you alone.
That’s enough for an introduction more specifics in price and negotiating tactics etc will be coming soon…If you are interested in more information or have a specific question please feel free to leave a comment and I will reply with an answer.
Torrent Spy Eulogy
Mar 27th
Torrentspy.com R.I.P March 24th 2006
As my fears suggested in my previous post torrentspy.com is now permanently shutdown. I guess the US government and MPAA scare tactics and demands to invade the personal privacy of its citizens came to a screeching halt when torrenspy.com owners refused to relinquish information protected by their privacy act. The owners of torrentspy.com made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the rights of everyone that has ever used the site and for that sacrifice on behalf on site owners across the globe I thank you and bow to your values. The injustice you have suffered will not be forgotten, the battles you fought and the rights that you stood up for will forever be remembered.
The following is posted in the torrentspy.com site:
Friends of TorrentSpy,
We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.
The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.
Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users – permanent shutdown.
It was a wild ride,
The TorrentSpy Team
“Big Brother in the form of an increasingly powerful government and in an increasingly powerful private sector will pile the records high with reasons why privacy should give way to national security, to law and order [...] and the like.” – Justice William O. Douglas
I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, keep up the good fight!
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