Chinese sales tactics: questionably awesome
One of the many fun things about travelling around the world is finding out the rather different way people do common tasks.
Surprises abound, even with something as prosaic as saying "Back in 5 Minutes."
At least, that's what I assume this meant in a Chinese mall.
Similarly, the sales staff embrace different sales tactics, particularly depending on where you find yourself. There were three examples which stood out.
Hard ball haggling
At most markets and stores were haggling can happen, it's traditional for salespeople to lower their last price if you're walking away after a bit of haggling.
How odd to have the staff who will play hardball. You try and get a better price, but they don't want to budge.
So you leave - and they call after you twice, each time saying, "no, I'm not lowering the price any lower."
Sure, well thanks. Your sales pitch adds nothing to the conversation, bye. You walk away a third time only to get called again. "Ok, fine, we'll lower it."
Yay for persistence, I suppose. But on whose part in this case?
I've heard "no matter what, they're still making money." And that's no doubt true. But knowing that fact doesn't diminish the feeling of experiencing pure "win" when you are proved to be sufficiently stubborn to force some savings out of an immovable vendor.
Also pure win: the mandatory Santa Hat deployments in many stores.
Unexpected persuasion
When you're a male buying just about anything, you'll eventually encounter something a bit bizarre: the sales ladies' unique brand of flattery.
Big accounting firms talk a big story about the value you get from their consulting services. And sure, they do important, valuable work, but they're simply unable to compare with the tactics used to sell a jacket.
"You could be a model," they say.
Uh, sure.
That's not enough, of course.
They'll back up their words by smoothing out any wrinkles, and then - wait, what?
You feel a bit weird - "that was suspiciously close to feeling like a massage rather than a mere smoothing out of wrinkles. Do you not think this very pretty young woman I'm standing with who happens to be translating your Cantonese sales pitch into English for me might get a little jealous or something?"
Maybe she would be jealous too, if it wasn't for the fact that she almost fell over laughing so hard at what followed next.
Ignoring your prattling in English about how weird this is all getting, the expert sales staff continue to point out how nice you look in the mirror.
Next, they'll open up their product catalog, point to the model wearing the same outfit, and add "no really, you look great, just like this model in the photo."
Perhaps I do look great. But my judgment is now horribly clouded, so how should we continue?
Particularly if this is one of those stores where haggling isn't even permitted? Where's the fun in that?
Perhaps by fleeing with our wallet unopened?
Yes.
You've successfully escaped what you later realize was an excellent sales tactic to use on people who aren't paying attention to their own thoughts.
To answer your question, I didn't end up buying that particular jacket. That's because I was paying attention to the oddly effective sales pitch they were attempting.
Picking up on "subtle hard sells" is no doubt a skill you gain as you complete your CA training, or which you naturally acquire as an achievement from going on a few dozen such missions. Another skill an experienced CA gains when they hit the rank of senior managers is the ability to walk through walls, I'm told, but that's an urban legend to discuss another day.
The search for a good jacket ended well though: we found a much better one in an outlet store in Hong Kong a week later. And it being an outlet store, the sales staff only had one function: to discourage you from trying on the clothes.
Don't worry, it'll fit
Aside from being treated like a living mannequin, the third strangest quirk on display was the phenomenon of stores where "Fitting is forbidden."
Perhaps it's not unique to the region, but rather something I'm simply not used to, having been raised and spoiled in decadent Canada.
Fortunately, I immediately learned about one of the crucial loopholes: the rule does not apply, of course, if you're sneaky enough to find a corner to try on the item where they can't see you.
"Oh good it fits and I didn't get scolded for confirming that fact, time to buy," is hopefully the end state of this exercise.
I managed just that, found deals which were, of course, fantastic, and just this past weekend the jacket kept me toasty warm in -19 weather, which means that this inadvertent cultural immersion program was a great success.