Save Money by…Thinking Like a Salesman
Saving money is very important for getting and/or staying out of debt. It is therefore a subject close to my heart! Actually there are more stages to my saving money strategy, including asking: Do I need it? Can I get it free? Can I get it secondhand? Do I need it? (again!). You really don’t want to be stuck behind me in a line in a store! But back to the subject of this post.
During a period of unemployment I decided I would try out IT Sales as a career. I was actually not a very good salesman, but it did teach me something about the value of negotiation. I was paid commission on the amount of profit that I earned for my company, so if I sold a server to a customer for $800 then the profit on the deal would be doubled by buying it for $700 rather than $750. Of course when buying things for myself I’m not usually thinking of selling the again, but any money saved is still useful. The one thing that I took away from this job was:
“You can always try and improve a deal”
This is not the same as saying that you always WILL be able to improve it, but if you don’t ask (or investigate) you will never get. As a salesman I had to not care what people thought of me, and if you are going to get the best deal on things that you buy in all instances then you will have to start to think the same way.
The typical sales technique works best for big-ticket items like cars, furniture, home improvements etc. Never take what you are first offered, make a counter offer even if it seems ridiculously low. Take your business elsewhere and try to get two (or more) people competing for your business. If you can’t get the price any lower then you can sometimes have more luck asking for extras to be included for nothing. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a deal, you can always (despite what the sales person might say) come back if you can’t find it cheaper anywhere else. If the person that you are dealing with says that they don’t have the authority to give you a discount then ask to be seen by their manager. If it is a very big purchase then try and get the salesman to make a time investment in the deal by asking for more demos etc. This way they will be even less keen to see the deal fall through.
All of the above may seem pushy, but a good salesman will relish the challenge of a skilled negotiator and will settle on a price that benefits you both in the end.
If you are buying a substantial amount at one store then try and negotiate a bulk discount – they will not want to see the business go somewhere else.
Smaller purchase are more of a challenge, but there are still possibilities. If you are buying online use a price comparison site. If the checkout has slot for a promotional code then try and find one – do a google search or just look through the store’s website! If you are buying in store then make sure that you make use of any coupons or store promotions that are running.
Whenever you try and negotiate always make sure that you are dealing with someone that has the authority to make decisions. In a store this is likely to be the customer service department rather that the checkout operator!
I would suggest that everyone reads a basic book on sales. Even if you don’t use sales techniques yourself at least you will be aware of the tricks that salespeople use when selling to you! Saving money is the same as earning more money! All those savings can be used to pay off debt or invest.
