Recognizing and Dealing with Passive Aggressive, High Pressure, Selling Tactics.

Last Friday the 25^th February 2011, I stopped at a fuel station to get tyre pressure and fuel. A woman who was selling apples approached me and said she had no bus fare as she had not generated any sales the whole day because it was raining and there was continued harassment by the city police. I told her that I already had enough apples at home and therefore was not in the market for more and proceeded to engage with more street vendors who wanted to sell me windscreen wipers.

Hardly a minute later, the woman street vendor had packed six apples in a small plastic bag and through the open window of the drivers’ seat placed them on the dashboard. Louder this time, I told her again that I did not need any apples, but she replied that it was a “gift”. Why would a stranger give a passing motorist a gift, I thought to myself. I took the packet and tried to hand it back to her and she refused saying “to refuse to buy my apples is fine. I understand perfectly. However to also refuse my apples as a gift given in good faith, is an insult.” She further stated that she was not willing to take the apples back home so she would rather have someone take them home as a gift from her.  

We always need apples at home. In fact, I was planning to pass through the Spar in Eastlea to do a few groceries and buy fruit for the weekend.  However, I have never been one for buying food from the street for health reasons. Besides, I did not believe that these particular apples were of great quality.

I soon realized that when someone forces you to receive a gift like that, it is very difficult to refuse. It would have been much easier if I had been able to drive away quickly after placing the packet of apples in her hands, but I was stuck because the car was still being refueled. The back and forth from the dashboard into her hands was becoming awkward so I felt trapped and ended up accepting the unwanted gift.

After she succeeded in gently placing the apples on my dashboard and declared for the tenth time that it was a gift, she then walked away. As it was taking forever to fill up my car, she came back after five minutes and advised me to lock up my car as there were many people loitering around who could easily open the door, grab my bag from the car and run. She moved away from me again and disappeared from my sight.

Meanwhile, I started quizzing myself why I had accepted the apples from a needy person, eeking out a living from the street vending. All sorts of thoughts started going through my head. Why was I not firm enough; why did I not close my window and why did I not tell her that the quality of the apples is shoddy and so on. Why was I feeling guilty, I asked myself.  I had done nothing wrong but to receive apples I did not want from someone who had told me a sob story about not having sold anything that day because of the rain harassment from the city police was unacceptable.

I recognized this transaction for what it was, passive aggressive, high pressure selling tactic. However, as the guilt feeling was becoming unbearable and I had no desire to get re-engage with her in the noisy business of attempting to return the “gift”, I requested the fuel attendant to call her back. I asked her how much the apples were and paid her the USD 3 she wanted for the six apples. She accepted the money and walked away.

In essence, I had paid for a low quality product I did not want so that I could ease the guilt I was feeling. At the same time I found myself admiring this woman thinking how very smart she was. Here is a woman who in a non - threatening but firm manner had used a sympathetic story and chance to make a sale. Passive aggression, high pressure selling tactics and coercion to make a sale are all allowable and above board selling methods in business. I thought to myself that, with time on my side and under different circumstances, this street vendor is a woman I would have wanted to know and try to understand the logic she deploys to use this method of selling, how she identifies her buyers and so on.

It is very easy to make the assumption that she is needy or poor because she is a pedestrian and street vending a profession that has been criminalized by the city fathers. Annual market sales of street vendors in Harare alone is valued at over USD 150 million. The street vendor knew exactly what she was doing and she achieved her objective of making the sale. Passive aggressive, high pressure selling tactics which I have since termed “hassling marketing” is rife amongst street vendors throughout the world. They know you do not have the time, so they put pressure on you and you quickly and easily give up negotiating and buy.

Here is a five-point plan for recognizing and dealing with hassle marketers:

Trait One : They always tell you a sad and sob story – in this case, no sales for the day, no cash for transportation back home and harassment by the city police.

Solution One : Do not engage street vendors if you have no intention of transacting with them. They are sales focused and will play any trick to get you to part with your cash, no matter how you perceive it to be insignificant. This is their core business. They have sharpened their competencies over the years. They live this existence everyday and therefore your ability to outsmart them is lower that their ability to outsmart you.

Trait Two : They will not accept a “no” for an answer - in this case, after I refused her offer to sell to me, she then offered the apples as a “gift”.

Solution Two : When you engage them verbally, you are most likely to lose. Engaging you in conversation is a way of building a rapport, of bonding. You bond with a street vendor at the peril of your pocket. In most cultures on the African continent, it is impolite to refuse a “gift.” Whoever coined the phrase “there is no free lunch” knew that those who freely offer “gifts” to you always end up collecting far much more from you than the gift you received. In this case, I ended up with shoddy apples for more than better supermarket quality which I would have bought at a lesser price.

Trait Three : Do not feel sorry for street vendors or make assumptions that they are needy and poor – in this case, the mere fact that I was driving and they were a pedestrian does not make them needy and poor. Street vending is a legitimate business and any street vendor is a business person.

Solution Three : There is no basis for believing all their sad stories. These are marketing gimmicks, marketing postures to make a sale. Recognize that the whole bonding exercise, the chit chatting about nothing is meant for you to sometimes make you feel sorry for them. It’s a selling posture practiced and a competency sharpened over time.

Trait Four : Sometimes they play on your ego. They create the perception that you are better than them and therefore in a better position to help, by buying. In essence they are using passive aggression and high pressure selling tactics to bulldoze you into making the purchase. Their own egos are minimized and they maximize your own ego. They are determined and therefore will not let you leave before making the purchase.

Solution Four : The deeper you engage in conversation, the deeper you are falling and the likelihood that you will end up making the purchase. Manage your own ego and walk away. Recognize that this is not a popularity contest.

 Trait Five : Hassle marketers can be extremely nice and good natured. Remember how she came back to tell me that I needed to lock my car because of too many people loitering around, when in fact she was a loiterer herself. Demonstrating kindness and caring is part of the bigger agenda of making the sale. Hassle marketers are master psychologists.

Solution Five : Just do not fall for the kindness and niceness. Walk or drive away and refrain from further conversation. Do not worry that you are being rude. It is okay to be firm and assertive after all it is your hard earned money you are going to part with no matter how little it might seem. Engage with street vendors if you have the intention of buying.