05.13
Have you ever gone to a shop and wanted to buy something and left empty handed? I have, in fact it happened last week.
Over a couple of weeks I had researched which laptop I wanted online, but preferring to buy it from a store, I decided to visit a well-known retailer of electrical goods.
On arriving at the store, I noticed the price was a little higher than I had seen at other retailers, so asked if he could match it. He asked which retailer had it cheaper. Not recalling the exact one I mentioned a name and he disappeared out the back to return (with a cheeky grin) and a laptop showing a competitor’s website and a price which was more or less the same.
Acknowledging that it obviously wasn’t that competitor, I asked what was the best he could do. Still not budging, I asked whether they had the laptop in stock. Having only the floor model left, he still refused to budge.
So I walked out. No sale, nada, nothing.
Now you could think I was just being frugal, but I actually would have bought their floor model at their list price, if the sale person had been more flexible.
But what annoyed me the most was that this same retailer ran an advertising campaign that week spruiking that “we don’t just match computer prices, we smash them”.
Lesson: If you set an expectation in your marketing, you’d better tell your sales people.