Broken Record

Have you ever received a phone call or mail saying, "You have won money or Gift?" If so, how did you feel? Happy, that you were really lucky. Or, suspicion, that you were so gullible. A similar thing happened to me two weeks back. I am a kind of person who spends half the time researching how I earned and the remaining half in planning to spend. So, it was no wonder I felt both.

The gift was worth 3000$. But there is no free money. Money is given at the cost of getting more money. All I need to get the gift was to attend a presentation for 90 minutes. Never, I move by 'Easy money'. But still there was a bit of hesitation to reject the offer. I decide to take the offer based on one significant vouch. The Rep who called me to inform about the offer spelled by my last name perfectly. It has '18' characters. In US, irrespective of person I meet, the icebreaker is my last name. It is so difficult for people to pronounce and systems to accept. Even it is not perfect in my SSN,bank account,cerdit card etc. So, I decided that it is not completely bogus and wanted to study the management strategy behind it.

I was not aware that presentation was about a sale till I reached there. Believe me, they believe in what they do. I didn’t go just to collect the gifts. I did listen to it. The person who took the presentation did an awesome job. And, the concept presented was also good. It was definitely a money saver in long term. The idea was based on the simple fact of rewarding customer for loyalty with vendor. Now days, this is a key marketing strategy. It had real value, but not for everyone. And, not definitely for me.

After the presentation, two Reps tried convincing me to invest in vain. I used the technique called 'Broken Record'. As you may know the record gets stuck where it was broken and plays the same verse again and again. Every time they explained the features about the investment I replied following "The proposal was really a money saver but, my reasons..." "I would love to take the offer however, my reasons..." "It is a fantastic idea still, my reasons..." The Rep was completely disappointed and let me go. Finally, I left the place with just my freebie.