They are not very advisable practices to achieve sales and that, nevertheless, are still used.
Before seeing which is the selection that we have made of the most flaky techniques, here are three characteristics that are general in these undesirable techniques:
Lack of transparency. Alex Alegret, EAE consultant and professor, defends the need to “provide more transparency to the sale because, if the client is not deceived, in the long term they will trust you more and you will be able to sell them more things. I, for example, do not negotiate my rate: I give you the lowest price I can do, I do not haggle. The one looking for a price is a client who would finally abandon me. It is a slow technique, but more effective ”.
They forget the win-win. "The sale has to pursue mutual benefit, it should be a more relational marketing and less of here I catch you here I kill you. Hence the importance of permission marketing when developing sales strategies ”, he insists Fran Carreras, professor at ESADE and CEO of Mamis Digitales. Or in the words of Neus Soler, Professor of Economics and Business Studies at the UOC, "the sale is productive in the long term and achieves customer loyalty only if it is approached as an act that brings benefits to both parties".
They overwhelm the customer. “The sale should be like a relationship: on the first date you never ask for marriage. There are steps of seduction, identification of needs, tastes, preferences. When you are excessively interested in the sale, it is likely that in the first communication you offer a product / service that will generate immediate rejection. The approach must be more gradual, more subtle, ”says Carreras. Continuing with Soler, “you have to start from the basis that currently the consumer is very well informed, so that, in general, bad sales techniques are more attitudinal than substantive. Their objective is not so much to deceive the customer (in the most literal sense of wanting to give him a hoax), as it is to significantly influence their purchase decision and, in many cases, they are aimed at offering the user something that they do not really receive. interests and does not need at all ”.
1. Beware of coupons
In recent years we have experienced the boom in the couponing technique. Numerous startups have prospered significantly thanks to the intermediation between companies and end customers in the offer of discount coupons, both for purchases and for contracting services, and there we have the examples of Groupon or Couponation, among others. The problem is not in the marketplaces as such, but in the companies that are offered through coupons. “There are a lot of companies that launch offers through these coupons and not that they understand that, when the wave has passed, they have not captured customers but offer hunters, that they will never be faithful and that they will only buy with the coupon. Ultimately, your pricing strategy ends up being that of the coupon, not the original price. And you have to be doing these kinds of discounts every week. It is a technique that generates cash, but it goes against the business, because it directly affects your final positioning, ”says Alegret.
2. Supermarket discount vouchers
Another type of coupons - actually the original ones - are supermarket discount vouchers. In theory they are designed for the customer to repeat the purchase, but it is proven, as the EAE professor points out, “that they have a redemption percentage of the 1%, because normally they give you the coupon at the end of the purchase, that is, when you leave the store , and not when you walk in. In addition, in many cases they are only redeemable after a few days. Caprabo, on the other hand, does have coupon conversion machines at the entrance of its establishments to exchange them at the moment of purchase. In these cases, the redemption percentage is much higher ”. In some commercial areas they already begin to apply discounts at the moment of purchase, which offers significantly higher conversion rates.
3. Let me see your receipt to see if you have the discount ...
It is one of the most flaky techniques we have seen. There was a time when it was the order of the day, especially as a result of the liberalization of the energy market and the concentration of services. Suddenly, a legion of commercials began to make an appearance in the homes of the most unsuspecting (mainly older people, but not only) and, under the excuse of offering them unification of services, maintenance services or checking if they were being applied a discount, they were made with the direct debit number and the receipt number to contract new, normally abusive services. Now they also do it over the phone and it is not uncommon that, when they are asked for information via e-mail, what they send is actually a contract. “It has reached the point that the very companies that hire these commercials call later to check if these services have been hired. It is an abuse of trust, ”Alegret insists.
4. I refute everything…. and without listening, we should add
It is true that, in a sales process, one of the fundamental tools is to prepare thoroughly to counter all possible customer objections, know our product and anticipate the prevention of our potential consumers. However, the key to this argumentation and counter-argumentation process lies, says Neus Soler, “in listening to the client. When we dedicate ourselves to refuting objections without attending to their real needs, in the end the intention is not to help you, but only to sell the product ”. We see a clear example in the case of the operators' commercials: they are impervious to the client's replicas. They may be repeating their rattle for endless minutes forcing the client almost to rudely cut off the call due to the inability to be heard. In the event that the sale is achieved, a client who has acquired a product / service that does not meet their needs will soon become a dissatisfied client, which in the long run can bring more harm than good, because they will end up communicating your discomfort to more than one potential customer.
5. Minimum / maximum price trap
What is the problem in these cases? The feeling of deception that is installed in the consumer. Let's see: the first case would be, for example, that of airlines or flight search engines. Do you sell, a prioriVery cheap flights, but, when you start the hiring process, the rates do not stop rising: insurance, luggage, choice of seat, priority boarding, management fees, credit card fees, airport fees ... And in the end you end up paying double or triple the hook price. The impression passed on to the consumer is one of deception. The opposite case, that of the maximum price trap, usually applies to high-cost sales, such as cars or second-hand homes: it consists of setting a maximum price that you already know you are going to reduce. By system, in a home it is usually possible to directly discount between 2,000 and 5,000 euros and between 500 and 1,000 euros in a car. What the tactic seeks is to play with the unconscious sensation of the good price obtained. It is a very powerful stimulator.
6. I am your ally
It is very typical of automobile dealerships. It basically consists of “making the client believe that you are positioned on their side, so that they trust you and accept what you propose. As in the previous example, this technique is usually used in the sale of products with a high economic cost, so that, for example, if the customer requests a discount, the salesperson informs him that he should consult with his boss, but that it will try to achieve this by all means, when it knows in advance that the discount will not be applied ”, recalls the UOC professor, Neus Soler. With this strategy, it becomes the client's understanding and supportive ally, who will probably trust him to add benefits or more value propositions, such as insurance, extension of guarantees, etc.
7. Oh, they take it from my hands!
It is the strategy of the market seller of all life: to press with the feeling of scarcity or urgency. The online world has incorporated this tactic very well through quantity offers (“only X units in stock") Or temporary (" only today "" this offer expires in xx hours ")," getting the consumer to buy without really thinking if the product is the most appropriate to meet their needs. The objective is to urge him not to reflect too much on the acquisition and, above all, so that he does not have a lot of time to compare products and prices ”, recalls Soler. It is not a bad tactic in the strict sense, but it becomes kinky when it stops being punctual and becomes the company's usual sales strategy. In the online world they would be e-commerce, who are continually launching offers. In the offline world, businesses that have the liquidation sale poster permanently hung, for example.
8. On behalf of the competition
It is one of the most infamous sales techniques and one that is most in vogue lately among some telephone operators. Who has not received a call in which they claim to be calling all customers "of company xxxx to improve conditions"? During the presentation, it gives the impression that they are calling you from company xxxx, but in reality they are commercials from another company, just the competition. It is a tactic that plays with the understood and borders on illegality, because it is clearly misleading. It is a useful strategy in the short term to capture the initial attention of customers, but it can become dangerous in the medium term because it inspires little confidence in a company that begins by presenting itself in a way that can be considered deceptive.
9. Big donkey?
On the contrary, small format: this technique is very common, for example, in the perfumery and cosmetics sector. “Reducing the format helps the consumer to buy the aspirational product at a much more attractive price. It works very well with brand people, but in return it causes them to enter target (target audience) that is not yours ”, recalls Alegret. Before, these sectors made discounts, but they were very few. Today, however, it begins to be a daily practice, democratizing access to categories premium. The damage may come more from the hand of damage to the image and reputation of the brand, than from a possible decrease in sales.
10. Attractive discount, safe punishment
It is a technique in which the telephone operators stand out, again: I lower the fee, I give you a mobile, three months free, free megabytes, unlimited calls ... All during a very specific period of time and, in the end, when it happens During the trial period, the rate is not only the same as the previous one, but is often higher or carries some type of penalty, such as a longer stay. Again, behind this lies the desire to attract short-term clients.
11. Leverage the captive customer
It's what some airlines do low cost: They take advantage of the routes in which customers are captive because they cannot get off the plane and they are constantly selling them things. "It is a bad practice because the user has the feeling that they are being bombarded and cannot move from the site", regrets Alegret. A variation in the online world would be the inability to unsubscribe from portals or platforms, “the correct practice would be to ask why they are leaving us and letting them leave without further pressure or obstacles. However, many companies continue to resort to tactics such as withholding or making it difficult to leave: they ask you to send the cancellation by fax or they require you to register or provide a user number and password to leave, which is almost an anachronism, "he denounces Fran Carreras.
12. Sale at a loss
In this case, it is not so much that it is a cheap sale for the customer as that it is an absolutely counterproductive technique for the seller. In our country it is illegal, as stated in article 14 of the Retail Trade Law, but recently a ruling from the European Union has introduced exceptions to the rule. Often, this sale at a loss is preceded by a price war with competition that forces you to eat margins, and even go against operating profits, thinking that it will be a one-off strategy. The type of customers that you attract with this aggressive policy is usually the one of offers that, as we mentioned previously, is unfaithful by definition: they will always go to the bargain and the discount. So when you come back to reasonable prices, it will abandon you. It is therefore a very short-term technique that can literally end the company. This is what has happened, for example, with many cheap supermarket franchises, forced to sell at a loss by the parent company and driven by this practice to cease activities.
13. Watch out for the fee
It consists of selling something for monthly installments. “They hook the public by making it accessible to purchase a product that they could not otherwise afford for a seemingly affordable amount. The fact of the matter is that in reality the product they buy through this system does not belong to the customer until they pay the last installment ”, complains Alegret. In other words, it would be as if we were accessing hidden financing, so that if we stop paying one of the installments, we lose the right to the good.
14. Inopportune and insensitive
"Beware of misusing the real time marketing, that is to say resorting to a current event to promote a product. Used well, it can be a very profitable strategy, but if you are insensitive or untimely, it can turn into a disaster, ”explains Carreras. That was what happened, for example, with the North American companies GAP and American Apparel. In both cases, they took advantage of the forced domestic confinement of citizens during Hurricane Sandy to promote their e-commerce. In the first case, GAP said in a tweet “everyone affected by Sandy stay safe. We are going to do a lot of shopping for Gap.com today, are you going to participate ”. American Apparel went further and offered even a discount: "If you're bored during the storm, 20% off everything for the next 36 hours." Even the promotional discount bore the name of the hurricane: “Just Enter SANDYSALE and checkout” and was intended for the population affected by the natural disaster. Twitter was flooded with criticism of both companies for what was considered by users as a maximum example of greed and lack of sensitivity.
15. Spam
Oddly enough because it is also illegal, the spam it continues to be used because it works. It's a full-fledged kick to permission marketing. “It is estimated that the 98% of the e-mails that swarm the network are spamWhat happens is that the mailboxes are already filtering spam. Either way, incredibly the spam it works because there are still many people who are good for them and click to buy and that acts as a multiplier effect of this type of email ”, Carreras concludes.
No Comment