What Is Over-Selling?

Over-selling occurs when a salesperson continues their sales pitch after the customer has already decided to make a purchase. This mistake can sometimes annoy the customer and could potentially cause the customer to change their mind, resulting in the deal falling through. Over-selling also means trying to upsell a cust𒁃omer on more than they need 🤡or want; this may also have the effect of making the customer unconformable.

Understanding Over-Selling

Over-selling may be an effort to coཧnvince a customer that an extra item would enhance what they are looking to buy,𒁃 or that a more expensive version might be a better option.

Over-selling is most common in retail outlets where associates work on a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:commission basis or through 𒊎sales-linked bonuses. The salesperson has an incentive to sell as much as possible, regardless of t𝓡he customers' needs.

Car dealerships are often accused of over-selling. Their sales associates sometimes fail to recognize that they can generate significantly more revenue through return customers and referrals than they can by miꦡsleading customers into paying for extras that they neither need nor want. Some associates at car dealershipꦉs are willing to sacrifice long-term brand equity for short-term sales by selling customers on anything and everything. 

Disadvantages of Over-Selling

Although it may be do🐷ne with good intentions, over-selling usually does more harm than good. Great salespeople kn𒊎ow when the customer is ready to buy and, thus, when they should close the sale.

Over-selling can have a negative impact on a company’s 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:bottom line. This is because it can raise doubts in the mind of a buyer, often atꦍ the precise moment when the customer is looking for a reason to believe that they are maki🍨ng the right choice. Raising this doubt in the customer's mind, because they no longer trust the salesperson, could blow the sale.

Over-selling gives a buyer a reason to pause and ask themselves if they are paying too much, or if the item is more than what they need. Even if the buyer doesn't backpedal in an over-sell situation, the salesperson risks creating false expectations that can never be met, in which case they could be damaging their credibility as a trusted salesperson.

There are reasons to believe that the pitfalls associated with over-selling have become worse over time. This is because buyers are becoming increasingly more informed and better educated; with virtually unlimited access to information and alternatives on the Internet, buyers have likely done their share of research beforehand and🦋 may have even made up their mind before ever speaking with a sales profe༺ssional.

This access to information has changed the sales dynamic; sales representatives are no longer a consumer’s only source of information. Often, salespeople would benefit from a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:soft-sell approach, or through presenting various options to customers. Need-based selling, or 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:adaptive selling, is usually a preferable a🔯lternative to o🌃ver-selling.

Example of Over-Selling

Suppose there is a college studentಞ without a lot of money. They need a used, cheap, and reliable car for getting to and from a part-time job. They only have $1,500 to spend ꦗon the car and they tell the salesperson this upfront.

Immediately the salesperson starts showing them cars priced at $5,000 to $10,000, telling the student they can get "...easy financing to afford these much better cars." The student, who already has a bunch of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:student loans doesn't like the idea of taking on more debt. They rela♈y this information to the salesperson, who continues to talk about how the low the interest rate is, and how filling out the forms will only take a few minutes.

The student, uncomfortable with th꧟e overselling, leaves and goes to another dealership or to another salesperson who will show them what they are asking for.