Why Aggressive Selling Don’t Work?

As you are walking in the street in your neighborhood, how do you feel when someone is trying to sell you some services by showing a pamphlet? Do you have a look at them? Do you think it's interesting? Does this type of selling work for you? If you said no, you are not alone in this choice. It usually doesn’t. This type of selling technique falls under aggressive selling. Let’s talk about what it is. 

Introduction 

So, what does aggressive selling mean? Anything that involves pushing people to become customers not through influence or attraction but by aggressive means is aggressive selling. It usually involves loud noises or an unexpected loading of information onto people which feels like being sold something without the person permitting to do so and without the individual wanting the product/service.

Aggressive selling can take many forms. A few examples are placing time limits, and seat limits on products and services, offering unrealistic discounts, making people on the street/malls awkward into buying/listening about the company products, sending cold messages/calls or emails to businesses and individuals, and so on.

Many products sold in this market tend to be everyday items or most things you will require on a daily basis. Hence, it is pretty natural to buy these type of productstypes some will buy them without feeling any pushiness or pressure in the process of doing so. Yet, it cannot be said that this applies to many people enough for the company to profit.

Why this approach doesn’t work?

People are usually busy on the street going about their day, so they do not expect someone to come to them to be dumped with a series of information about any product or service. So there are better approaches than trying to market or sell products at large in a busy street as this doesn’t appeal to many. The article supports this view. 

The article states that in today’s digital age, people are savvier than ever and all information and shopping are only a few clicks away. The internet and social media teach everything from how to shop for groceries in a department store, how to check for authenticity and ingredients of products to how to shop for them at their own pace. 

Hence, people will sniff out the ulterior motives of the salesperson. They may become suspicious of the manipulating behavior of the company or the individual, the article points out. 

Pushy salespeople are such a turn-off for customers. It looks and feels more unnatural to the customers as salespeople become pushier. Pushy salespeople tend to be more aggressive, and loud and appear not very trustworthy for that reason it turns the customer away from buying what they’ve offered them. 

According to Christina Chua, for a salesperson being pushy can cause a downfall for them. The reason why people don't buy from a pushy salesperson is because of the nature of how customers see this type of selling which makes them feel uncomfortable. Customers do not like being pushed into buying a product or service and that is exactly what happens when this type of selling takes place. In other words, it is dishonest to sell something without being allowed to first introduce it to the customer. 

Pushy selling does not work because it does not attract customers naturally and can make a lot of people turn away from buying their products and services. It shows imposing one's will onto others. It makes them think that this is fishy and become suspicious. The more one tries to shove the company products, the more violated they may feel and can be defensive so they don’t feel like going in the direction they didn’t choose.

Although being pushy is one way aggressive sellers use, it can involve subtle language yet still give an edge that they the customers need to try or buy what the salesperson is offering. According to an article in Forbes, the salesperson may sound subtle in his manners, gestures, and being polite, yet still bully the customers into thinking they are either missing out or doing injustice by not trying the products offered to them.

In addition, the article also talks about how offering heavy discounts and setting time limits or available resources to buy to create urgency is unnecessary. It lets the people know that they are desperate to sell their products/services as they are not worthy or are not valued in the market. This degrades the value and worth of the product and services that people would have considered buying and decreases the goodwill of the company.

How are aggressive sellers losing? 

Aggressive selling may trick or deceive people once and a few people may give in to the excessive efforts or being made to feel uncomfortable into buying from the salesperson, but it is not always the case. All clients also have an individual perception of being sold something and have a different threshold of being pressured into purchasing products/services. Some may cave into the purchase, some may shrug it off and some may even be offensive or enraged about it. So the individual using this technique is not only at risk of more rejection but offensive language and, in extreme cases, even physical attacks. 

Even if a few people may give in to buying due to fear or feeling uncomfortable. However, they never go to the same person to buy again. This causes the business to lose to be customers and repeat customers. This means losing more as getting the attention of new customers and persuading them to buy products is costlier than maintaining the demands of old or loyal customers.

Aggressive selling is a push method. Here people are pushed to be made aware of the products, feel them, pay attention to them and buy them. In this age of data, technology, and information, this a seen as a low-level marketing strategy even if the product may be something new or something that may be good. Today, customers rely on pull which involves emphasizing the benefits and importance of the customers and the value of the features of the product seen as valuable. 

At last, techniques like offering reasonable discounts or bonuses rather than time limits or seat limits make customers feel like they made the right decision buying a product. It's best to become the customer first and then look for ways to sell them by offering discounts or bonuses in exchange.

It is wise not to risk the individuality of the company being a sell-out to close some deal. Aggressive selling harms the reputation of the salesperson and the company. It also hampers the relationship with its potential customers. It is best to know the customers and make tactics that work. Today brands are more focused on the personalization of products than targeting people through more direct and disrespectful ways to increase sales.