Black Friday.
Cyber Monday.
Boxing Day and New Year sales will be coming.
Pop ups, upsells, marketing blurb that can never meet its claims and even the old fashioned cold call.
Tis the season to be sold!
Personally these sorts of all out guerrilla sales techniques just turn me off. Constantly being arm wrestled towards a sell is not my idea of fun. Even if I want what is being sold, strong arm tactics are likely to send me fleeing.
And yet these tactics clearly work.
People are convinced to buy more and more stuff they probably don’t need and never will need. Even worse, they are sometimes convinced to get themselves in debt doing so.
The art of a good sell is to make us feel like our lives will just never be complete unless we buy. But how often are we really left totally satisfied after buying something we are sold (rather than buying something we are actively seeking)?
How often does that initial rush of feeling like we have got a bargain disappear quickly only to leave us searching for the next ‘thing’ that will make us complete?
I’m not anti-sales. I’m not anti-consuming. I spend way more than I possibly should on some things (coffee outside for example, meals out, books, holidays) but I try to make sure these purchases add to my life. I don’t need pushy sales tactics to get me separated from my money. In fact, the complete opposite.
This time of year (and any time of year) has a lot more to offer than navigating the sales so I’ll be saying thanks but no thanks.
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