What happened to spontaneity? What happened to grabbing a good deal when you see one? I think the varsity courses on marketing have spoilt potentially good deals for customers.
In days gone by you could sell anything, if you had a nice smile, attitude and pretended to care you could sell anything. Then came the evolution of marketing training and people were taught that everyone has a potential marketer inside of them. We don't know the difference between a natural born marketer and a book-taught marketer.
Suddenly advertising was deemed to be false and the whole “what is the catch? ” attitude was born. When I see marketing that offers a free gift it grabs my attention! I love free stuff. The fact that the “free” gift is built into the price is immaterial, it is a free gift. This however seems to be a warning sign to prospective buyers out in the marketplace.
A while ago I was conducting business with a prospect; all the right signals were there, the right questions, the right answers. The prospect virtually placed the order in my hands. Wow. I emailed the invoice as requested to the client and waited a few days - no money and no correspondence.
Eventually I followed up and asked if we were in business. The attitude had changed from "I want your product now!" To”exploring options" and a whole lot of other drivel. I then cut this person an even better deal via email to which I had no response. A few days later it was reported to me that the prospect liked my product very much but not the sales pitch.
This leads me to believe that some bright spark influenced her not to go with the deal of the century. Sometimes too much knowledge is disempowering.
