After recently moving in to a new home, you can imagine that our house is missing a few things, or we're using things that are second hand and dodgy.
Our toaster was one such dodgy appliance. No matter what setting it was on, you got burnt toast.
So, when visiting some family, we were bitching and joking about how nice it was to have un-burnt toast, and how our toaster was really quite annoying. Next thing we knew, we were being marched to the nearest Harvey Norman in order to have a new toaster bought for us.
Now the sales staff at Harvey Norman are pretty on the ball - always eager to up-sell you, or cross sell something. As such, we weren't surprised when a little old lady in a Harvey Norman uniform came wandering over to help us with our decision.
However, can you imagine someone trying to up-sell you on a toaster? Aren't they all pretty much the same? Don't they all just cook bread a little?
I knew it was going to be an amusing sales pitch when she started with:
"Are you going to be putting the toaster away in a cupboard? Or will it be on display on the bench?"
How could I resist replying with "Oh, definitely on display! We like to put flowers in it sometimes!"
Unperturbed, she then proceeded to show us through most of their catalogue of toasters, and pointing out their key features. And by features I mean "this one has an adjustable setting, and a cancel button, and a defrost setting!"
So we let her run through all her sales spiel - acting impressed when one toaster had a "crumpet" setting (which most of them did!) and nodding thoughtfully when she pointed out other "features" such as "oh! and this one is red rather than white!"
Honestly, she was working pretty hard for the money, and was doing a damn good job coming up with reasons that I should buy a more expensive toaster.
I did feel a bit guilty as we walked out with the cheapest toaster...
Is there a lesson to learn here? How many times have we tried to sell someone something when they're just not interested, and only humoring us? What should she have done that might have got her a better result?
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