Part 2: Haggling & Negotiation Skills

Woo Hoo... As I would know, negotiations are not my best skills. But as people say, an Experienced salesperson is Experienced because he has been through enough Experiences.

Today, one week after having made a transaction on impulse for a lifestyle package, with my homework and research done on other Lifestyle Aesthetic Provider Enterprises in the past one week, the time came to meet with with my consultant Kelly (KC for short), who manages my lifestyle aesthetic treatments, and is the Manager of the outlet where where I am based at.

The general rule is, to always do your research before making a purchase. However I did the opposite.. hence the rational for the Buyer's Remorse in my situation!!!

I was blessed. God was on my side even when I didn't ask him to. My research led me to find out that the deal I was given was much cheaper than the initial package quoted being,

• (N.P= Normal Price). Now that I reflect on it, one knows that we should never take the N.P unless some haggling is done.

• Then there is the (P.P= Promotion Price)- which is what I bought for my initial package.

• Finally there is the lowest price that I went to, which was much lower than the N.P and P.P, and after much haggling. I should have asked more, but better try next round. :-P

In Malaysia, is of ultimate importance that one MUST haggle & negotiate for a better price. Cultural Practice states it is MANDATORY.

Today in the midst of my treatment, KC proposed another package to me. This time, with my eyes and ears on the alert, I listened to her as she gave her sales pitch of the benefits of this next treatment.

Experience makes us wiser.
And I was.

This time I told her that I'd give it a think over and get back to her.

I believe that KC did not procure the position as the Outlet Manager without having to prove the skills. The Outlet Manager has the responsibility to meet the sales quota, reporting all sales and marketing movements to The Management.

They have to find various ways to persuade customers to sign up for the different packages in hand or to use existing customers to generate leads. Among the practices that could generate leads are

• Offering benefits and incentives for current customers
  
• Ensuring that the packages or merchandise purchased works well in order to generate good word-of-mouth
• Giving good after-sales service to ensure that the client returns.
• Offering a fairly priced package to ensure that the client does not feel that they have been over-charged, or at least giving the impression to the client that they have made a wise decision on their part.

Marketing Strategy: An Unexpected Sales Lead

Okay, I know its been a while since I wrote.

The office has been really busy with the post-event business, and now opening for new bookings for the next fair.
Today I had an interesting experience in the midst of looking for new leads. Since I was in charge of working on lifestyle related leads, there I was flipping through this magazine which featured ads of different kinds. My eye fell on this one particular ad which was advertising a certain lifestyle product. The product featured had about 60 outlets in total, detailing the mobile number of each outlet.

So dialing the mobile number as provided, the phone rang and someone answered. I asked for the H/Q number of the company for the product featured, and then this person (who I could guess was the manager for the outlet) said that they were only re-sellers of the product. Then she even prodded for more information and said that perhaps she could help me instead.

So I relayed to her the news about the expo that my company was intending to hold, the venue, the benefits and who were our partners as well as our A&P activities. Surprise. Surprise!

I ended up forwarding information to her.... what a surprising way of getting a lead when one is not even looking for it.

Related Links:
Wikipedia- Lead Generation , Sales Lead

Maybank: Visa Debit Payment reinstated.

Previous to this, I was writing about someone having swiped my card.

Here's a piece of good news to all who haven't had any. Some time last week, I received a call from an agent of Maybank who told me that the amount that was swiped from my account will be absorbed by them!

The best part was that I didn't have to prove anything.. apart from writing a letter in..

The lesson learnt is that .. if you are in Malaysia, and intend to start a Maybank Visa Debit account (or at any other banks), think twice about putting too much into it. For even though the card may have many safety features, it is useless unless the human factors are vigilant in enforcing the protocol and procedure in checking that signatures on cards are matching.

Otherwise, just stick to the pin-based type of ATM card/EFTPOS. It may be a hassle, or look "uncool", but at least no one can simply swipe your card and use up all your money!

Maybank: Unauthorized Visa Debit Visa Transactions

On 7th March, I found out that my Maybank Debit Visa card was missing from my purse when I wanted to go to their branch in Uptown PJ to withdraw cash out. My mother told me to go home and check first...

Horrors beyond horrors, when I arrived home and checked online that my card has been swiped & used in unauthorized transactions by someone on a shopping spree across town on an amount of up to RM500!!

MY GOODNESS!!!

What was so distressing was that the transactions at the hypermarkets are manned by humans, and require a person's signature. It is understandable that the transactions at service stations were not manned, so no prior signature was required, but it seems that the transactions at TESCO and MYDIN were allowed to pass through.

The question I am asking here is, shouldn’t the staff at these terminals have checked that the signature on the transaction slip were to match the signature on the card?

Maybank switched their yellow ATM card to the Cherry Debit Visa card promoting the benefits of their "ease of shopping" and safety features of embedded chip.

However, but what I have realised from this incident is that although the bankcards in Australia have yet to be chip embedded, it was generally still very safe to use. EFTPOS is a commonplace practice, using normal bankcard for everyday transaction with the added security of pin-access to prevent fraud and unauthorized transactions from taking place.

In allowing the bank to switch from just an ATM to a Visa Debit card, customers would hope that Maybank will ensure that the security of its cards would not be compromised as it is too with the normal ATM card, as Maybank states on their website for the Visa Debit page info, listing among its benefits to provide “peace of mind with smart chip security”.

It can be seen here that the former Maybank Yellow ATM card seems to be even more safer as should these cards fall into the wrong hands, it still requires a pin keyed for any transactions to pass through, but the VISA Debit does not seem to provide the same kind of security. Further, even with an embedded pin card for supposed higher security is not very useful at the terminals if the personnel managing the terminals do not even bother to check whether the signatures of the cards are matching.

Perhaps Maybank should think twice about promoting the conversion from the ATM to the Visa Debit if that is the case as this will really shake the confidence of their customers in allowing merchants who have personnel who are not discerning, or do not care about the security concerns of their customers.

So today, attaching the printout of the police report I made yesterday, and my complaint letter, I sent in to the Maybank Mega Mandung. All I can do now is wait and see what the staff at Maybank will do.

Cultural Differences: Australian vs Malaysian Perspective to Appointment Keeping.

Today I had my first taste of "Malaysian Time" = meaning, being late.... It is generally a known practice here to be late an hour for Chinese Wedding Dinners.. however, today I realised that it translated itself to even work appointments as well!

When I was in Australia, every minute that I worked was calculated into my paycheck, so every minute counts! I had to wake up by six am every morning to get a call from my agent, and then catch the early public transport to go to work.

If I was late for work, it was ESSENTIAL that I informed the child care centre that I was going to be late due to legal work regulations in the childcare industry. If I was late to meet a friend by more than ten minutes, it was also a general practice to inform by way of a text message that we were going to be late!

So today, our appointment was set for 10.00am in the morning. I strolled in around 9.20ish. My colleague, Sheela, asked me why was I late?" when I entered the office. Then told me we were going to leave SOON.... However, *ding-dong-ding-dong* 15 minutes, 20 minutes later she still was fiddling with something in the office.... we only left with with about less than 15 mins to the time of our work appointment to see a client!

We arrived at the place of our appointment at the very late time of 10.25am... we thought we were late! However,

*SURPRISE * SURPRISE *

the person that we were going to meet was even LATER than us! Instead, we were redirected to another person who was the staff's senior to negotiate with!

It was then I realised that I was still in my "Australian mode of time" which was a bit irrelevent in Malaysia where almost most people are always late and never arrive at the pre-arranged time..... My colleague was complaining coz she had another appointment to go to later in the day as well....

Really, Malaysia Boleh. Everything also can.