Last Blogger

I was in Moncton enjoying some Sunday Shopping a couple of days ago. For those who aren’t familiar with Nova Scotia, certain stores like malls, grocery stores, big box stores, etc… aren’t allowed to open on Sunday. This means that those of us who need to pick things up on Sunday sometimes will take a quick hop over to New Brunswick to get what we need. While there, we had to stop in to Walmart to try and find a specific colour of ribbon we needed for the wedding.

As we began our ribbon hunt an announcement came over the PA system. They were offering free paring knives for those people who went to the red, covered box in the men’s department. I like paring knives so I decided to go and see what I had to do for a free paring knife since we weren’t in a big rush.

When I arrived I found almost ten people waiting around this pedestal with a red cloth fabric over it. A lady came by and dove right into a sales pitch for some knives like the Miracle Blade, but not the actual Miracle Blade. I knew exactly what I was listening to as she ran through the demonstration and was patiently waiting for it to end so that I could get my free knife and go. But then something magical happened.

She went through the usual “We’ll not only give you this great knife and the free paring knife for $28.97, but we’ll throw in another on of each for free!” line. A strange thing happened though… I felt actual, genuine interest. I found myself thinking about buying these knives. Then, the salesperson offered a third knife and a filleting knife for an extra $2. I smiled as I found myself wanting to buy this stuff. It was fantastic. This obviously scripted, memorized presentation was actually selling to me. Then came the moment of truth, she asked who wanted to take her up on the offer. I saw a couple of hands go up and then after the first wave of hands went up, a bunch of others went up. I was really surprised and impressed by it all.

I didn’t buy the knives, but I left with a head full of ideas as to what seems to work when selling things. I’m always impressed by good marketing and here was some good old fashion traveling saleperson style marketing. It’s been working for years and it still works.