Justify and explain your decision to lie about having the second offer, and what were the consequences of your decision to lie to the buyer.
The decision to create an illusion of having already had an offer placed for the good at hand is not a lie but a strategy. The strategy is to focus on how the customer perceives the product. The world we live in is characterized by people who invent how they perceive the value of a good before and while making their purchases. In most cases, if they feel that the value is greater than the price attached on the goods, then they shall make a purchase. If not, then they disregard the goods. It is common to find buyers suing the price of a product to represent the quality of that product. The assumption is that, since most of the time higher priced goods are of better quality than their lower priced competitors, and then high price is almost definitely a stand-in for quality.
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There’s a Commodity Theory that focuses on the psychological effects of scarcity. This theory is of the opinion that; scarcity heightens the value of that commodity which; a person wants to possess, and the possessor considers useful, even though it may still be transferred from one possessor to another (Bidard, 2004). I believe that successful marketers should incorporate human psychology when appealing to potential customers. This strategy should be applied in the backdrop of the following moral principles; honesty, ethics, integrity and a legal framework. Firstly, I should be offering a great commodity, in this case audio system, whose quality should not be questioned by the customer after the purchase. I am of the opinion that any morally upright sales person should ask themselves if they would purchase the same product at the price being quoted (Brenkert, 2008). This takes care of the honesty, ethics and integrity backdrop. Secondly, the legal standpoint suggests that there can be no legal issues that arise from the sale. For example, the salesman should not be selling stolen goods. (Ferrell & Buchanan, 2006)
While observing these moral principles, I understand that urgency is a major aspect of human psychology. Urgent situations push the average human to forget intentional thought and react quickly to the situation at hand. The reason why urgency is important to make any sale is that, if people have enough time to think hard and twice, wait too long before making a purchase or simply have the chance to ignore the product; then the rate of conversion (for more than one product) becomes low and the time of conversion becomes long. There is only one product here and the time is bound by the trip I want to take. The delay in time is easily cut off when I raise the urgency level in the buyer’s mind. I am simply hastening his decision making process.
I therefore tap into this aspect of human psychology by creating the illusion of scarcity. The illusion of scarcity triggers urgent behavior in the buyer. The buyer is of the illusion that if they do not purchase the audio system fast enough and at a higher price than the other potential buyer, then they’ll lose out on it (Bidard, 2004) . To justify the pricing strategy, one of the ways of pricing a product is through market research. A one-on-one interview is research and considering the time bound nature of this sale, advice from an audiophile friend is somewhat professional and a good measure of the starting point for negotiation. I simply use a strategy that pushes the human psychology to make a purchase.
A thing to note is that this is not a blind sale. By this I mean, the buyer has got the real feel of the commodity. The buyer knows what they are looking for and their purchase is influenced by how they feel about the commodity. By taking the initiative to physically assess the commodity before making a purchase, the buyer is getting a feel of the functional and psychological value of the product. The buyer makes this evaluation based on; how the commodity works, does it fulfill their needs the way they envisioned it to; and how the commodity makes them feel. The illusion of scarcity is only created after the buyer is convinced that the commodity is the right fit and just need a ‘nudge’ to make decisions faster.
The big question that may arise is what is the effect of this strategy on the buyer? This all comes down and back to the moral principles that should be used as the backdrop for using the human psychology while making a sale (Ferrell & Buchanan, 2006) . Does the product meet the expectations of the value as perceived by the buyer? I believe it does because I am selling a product that serves its purpose. The buyer’s needs were met and that’s the main reason of understanding consumer behavior. The mention of a second offer was simply a strategy to help a buyer make decisions faster.
References
Bidard, C. (2004). Prices, reproduction, scarcity (1st ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Brenkert, G. G. (2008). Marketing ethics (pp. 178-193). Blackwell Publishers Inc..
Ferrell, L. & Buchanan, M. (2006). Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics: Providing Students “Hands ON” Experience with Marketing Ethics. Marketing Education Review , 16 (1), 47-51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2006.11488937
