The art of being a salesman!

I had a rather interesting encounter today whilst shopping for a digital camera. Walking into a shop I proceeded to enquire about a Pentax. The salesman, who looked Turkish or Middle Eastern in origin, upon seeing my old Pentax SLR took it upon himself to try to convince me that it was 'in my best interests sir' to actually want to purchase a lens for that camera.

So he grabs a Sigma lens 70-300mm and proceeds to try to sell it to me 'for the bargain price of $350'. You see the thing is if I wanted it then perhaps, just maybe, I might have bought it then. But I really didn't want it nor did i trust this man who looked like he hadn't washed for a few days, smelt like yesterdays socks and generally looked really dodgy. At he tried to sell it to me his colleagues also took it upon themselves to try to add their weight into the sales pitch telling me how I had 'a good deal'.

So the price tag continued to drop. Starting off at the bargain price of $350 it dropped to $300, then $250 as they tried repeatedly to persuade me I really needed this item. The funniest thing was watching them. You see I have been a salesman myself, and having travelled around the Middle East and India I know the tactics they employ well. So when one person said 'ok sir no more I will give it to you, and I mean give it to you, for $200' telling his "boss" 'its ok I will write this one off price up' I nearly cracked up laughing but managed to contain myself somehow. So the price continued to drop until it hit $150 including taxes! At this point I managed to force myself a channel out of the shop as the Middle Eastern looking salesman proceeded to multiply in number and I feared my very sanity was at stack! Isn't it weird that whereever you go in the world same saleman techniques seem to always be employed!