A few years ago, I was buying a house. The estate agent was very helpful, and very pushy. He not only wanted to sell us the house; he wanted to sell us an endowment mortgage, for which he would receive a big commission. He went out of his way to be helpful to us, creating a sense of obligation. This is a common sales tactic used by less scrupulous salesmen. They find a way of making you feel that you owe them a favour. Once they have achieved this, most customers will repay them by buying whatever they are selling.
He was a very skilful salesman. I did not like his endowment product, but when I tried to get out of buying it, he always found some way of keeping me on track to buy it.
Then, salvation! I learned about the assertion message.
When someone is trying to get you to do something you’d rather not do, you give them the assertion message. You do this by responding to them, as often as you need to, with the same words. Do not vary from your chosen message. The telephone conversation I had with the salesman went something like this:
Me: I don’t want an endowment mortgage.
Salesman: But you said you did. You said it looked good.
Me (refusing to discuss what had or had not been said before): I don’t want an endowment mortgage.
Salesman: I can get it cheaper for you.
Me (sorely tempted to ask how – but I’m determined to do what the book said): I don’t want an endowment mortgage.
Salesman: I’ve got my target to reach this month and if you don’t take the mortgage, I’ll miss it. I’ll get you a really good deal – the best.
Me: I don’t want an endowment mortgage.
Salesman: Okay.
I did what I had steeled myself to do, and it worked! I was not swayed by the salesman’s attempts to entice me with a cheaper offer or by his attempt to make me feel I should help him achieve his sales target. These I realised, with hindsight, were just sales tricks. He was a very good salesman and he knew that my soft spot was saving money. In the end, I saved a lot of money by getting a normal repayment mortgage from a building society rather than the high-commission endowment product the estate agent wanted to sell me.
Money Saving Tip:
Get rid of persistent salesmen with an assertion message. Whatever they say, simply respond, calmly: “I don’t want a <insert name of product here>,” as often as you need to.