Resisting Sales Resistance

Buyers with high 'sales resistance' have often prided themselves on their ability to staunchly turn down an offer, no matter how lucrative it appears. They are not convinced by the cunning of the salesman and cannot be swindled into making a purchase through the gimmicks employed by marketers. They put up a wall between themselves and sellers..and they assume such a barrier to be representative of strong character.

Perhaps sales resistance can be beneficial and there may have even been a time when it was generally necessary. Today, however, sales resistance has achieved a certain level of ubiquity in human psychology. The moment we feel we are being sold something, we put up our wall. It is no longer a resolute choice to refuse an offer but rather an instictual reaction. Someone calls on our phone or knocks on our door and the moment we recognize the sales pitch, we have already spoken a resounding 'no' in our minds. We are offered additional merchandise at the check-out lanes and immediately suspect ulterior motives. Why are they selling me this stuff? Are they just trying to get rid of it? What's wrong with it? Today, we never have to give a second thought to turning an offer down.

But what if the offer is beneficial to us? What if it's a good deal? Could it be possible that, in some situations, sales resistance is a bad thing? I think so. Today, when skepticism is so engrained into our purchasing mentality, we need to think not so much of sales resistance as we do of sales acquiescence. We need to force ourselves to consider offers that may benefit us. Companies today are going out of their way to appease skeptical consumers. The market is awash with product samples, demonstrations, free trials, etc. Sometimes, it would not hurt us as consumers to say, "yes."

The obvious question we must ask ourselves is when to be sales resistant and when to be sales acquiescent. The answer, I believe, lies in the way we make decisions. Our initial reaction to an offer is always emotional. By default, we are emotional decision-makers. The second-thoughts are those of rational decision-making. The question when making a purchase of a product or service should not be, 'How do I feel about it at the moment?' Rather, the question should be, "How will I likely feel about it through the duration of its use to me?' The reason why we are instinctually sales-resistant is because the stigmatization of selling resonates with our emotions the moment we recognize it. Our immediate response is that we are being taken advantage of. On the other hand, there are times we find a sale irresistible. Again, something about the product or service has struck on emotional chord that causes the gut reaction of, in this case, making the purchase.

What we need to do as consumers is become rational decision-makers. Of course, we cannot make a truly rational decision because we cannot really know how much the product or service will end up benefiting us. However, we can always think twice. We can always question our gut instinct. That questioning is where emotional decision-making becomes rational decision-making. Of course, sellers would rather buyers be emotional decision-makers if they can find the right 'buy-buttons.' An impulse sale is a lot easier and less costly to make. (This is the same thing as buyers preferring sellers to offer the lowest possible price in fear of buyers not paying the higher price that they are, in actuality, willing to pay). However, making rational purchasing decisions keeps the sellers honest and improves the quality of products and services.