8-year-old sales geniuses

I was walking down the street in Istanbul the other day. 

It was blazing hot out. I was thirsty.

"I should buy a bottle of water," I think.

A block later, I saw an 8 year old kid selling bottles of ice cold water.

What did I do? I shuddered. "Oh God, he's selling me something!" 

My fight-or-flight response kicked in and I brushed past him, walking as fast as I could and trying desperately not to make eye contact.

As I walk away, I start kicking myself. It's 90 degrees outside. I'm thirsty. I'm an idiot if I don't buy a bottle of water from this kid.

"Should I go back?"

I think for a second.

"Nahhhhhh...", I say. "That would make me look stupid."

A block later, I see another kid selling bottles of ice cold water. A chance to correct my mistake!

But first: I look over my shoulder, to make sure the first kid couldn't see us.

God forbid he sees me buying from this other kid after I passed him up!

But the first kid couldn't see me. I was in the clear. 

(If the first kid had been watching, I might have died of thirst out there.)

Then I asked the second kid, "how much for a bottle of water?"

"Ten lira," he says. (That's about 25 cents.)

I bought a bottle of water.

~

There are 3 important sales and marketing lessons hidden in this story. Do you see them?

Lesson #1: People feel uncomfortable around salespeople and say "no" to them automatically

For some reason, we're conditioned to say "no" to salespeople.

Maybe they're afraid of having uncomfortable conversations where they have to say "no". Or maybe they're afraid of getting "got".

Either way, when someone's selling you something, it's psychologically easier to just dehumanize them than to engage with them. 

(That goes even if that someone selling you something is an 8 year old kid!)

This is something that anyone selling anything has to overcome.

How do you do this? One way is to seem like you're "not normal".

When I was a door-to-door salesman, the people training me all told me, "you cannot seem like a normal door-to-door salesman. If they think you're a regular door-to-door salesman, they'll say no to you on instinct. You have to make people feel like you're different."

Lesson #2: People don't want to look stupid.

After I turned the first kid down, I thought about turning around for a minute.

I decided not to... because I didn't want to look stupid.

I literally turned down a bottle of ice cold water on a blazing hot day, because I didn't want to look stupid.

Then when I saw the second kid, what was the first thing I did? I looked over my shoulder to make sure the other kid couldn't see me.

People don't want to look stupid. If they said no to your face once, they'll usually want to keep saying no, because changing their minds makes them look inconsistent (and therefore stupid, in their head).

At that point, saying "no" to you becomes a matter of pride.

How do you deal with this? You need to make sure they know they have permission to change their minds.

3. Every time you make an offer, you get people closer to buying.

I didn't buy from the first kid... but seeing him selling water put the idea in my mind to buy water.

Then I bought from the second kid.

The lesson here is, even if you're rejected at first, just keep making your pitch.

Even if people don't buy right away, you make them THINK about buying.

They start weighing the pros and cons in their heads.

Then when a good time to buy rolls around, they're more likely to buy.

-Theo

P.S. Here's the funny part of the story: these kids looked similar and they were set up a block apart. I think they were brothers and this was their scheme. 

They knew that a bunch of passing idiots like me would politely decline the first kid, then think, "actually, I could use a bottle of water", then buy a water bottle from the second kid.

Well done!