Subtle Assumptive Selling

As a retail manager, I get more than my fair share of pressure to squeeze every dollar that I can from each customer that innocently wanders into my store. This is especially true during hard economic times, such as those we are experiencing right now.

For a store like the one I manage, it is all about showing and suggesting additional items to increase the dollar amount of each transaction. So I am somewhat aware, when I get the chance to be out and about, of various ways salespeople try to sell you more than what you had in mind.

For fast-food restaurants, it can be about suggesting additional items too, like: "You want some fries with that?"

But another up-sale approach is to get you to increase the size of your order, like: "You want to make that combo a large for only 59 cents more?"

So the other day I was in a particular fast-food restaurant, waiting my turn and looking over the menu to see what they were offering for a dollar. Their full-color picture menu had larger-than-life mouth-watering, re-touched photographs of their best product, with big numbers beside the photos to make ordering easy. The prices below each picture explained that you could order the sandwich for a certain amount or you could order it as a small "combo" for few dollars more. The dollar menu I was searching for was down on the bottom right of the menu board in a much smaller sized font with no fancy pictures or numbers.

Finally, there was only one person in line in front of me. As I listened the lady place her order, the exchange between her and the cashier went something like this:

"Hi, I'd like a number one combo, please."

"Will that be medium or large?"

"Uh . . . medium."

Did you catch it? It is very subtle.

The menu board prominently displays the price for the small combo. But the cashier doesn't mention the small combo at all! She cleverly and assumptively gives the patron an "either-or" choice of medium or large!

Now, I'm sure that the cashier would have sold a small combo to the customer, if the lady had said, "No, I just want the small combo," but it would be interesting to know how many people buy the medium combo when faced with the "medium or large" question, when all they really wanted was the small!

Okay, so that's it. And maybe you didn't find it interesting at all. But this is why I have this blog: So I can write some things that I find interesting, "Mostly Just For Fun!"