Is it push selling or mis-selling?

• Follow

Abhinav receives a call from an e-pharmacy app asking about the medicines here ordered. He confirmed the names of the drugs and the details of the patient. He then suggested some herbal medicines to Abhinav. A surprised Abhinave asks the caller why he was suggesting other medicines to him. The caller says they are recommended for diabetes patients. An irritated Abhinav asks the caller is he a doctor? Does he have any data on the benefits? Is there any result or research on herbal medicine? Will he guarantee the safety of the medicine? After a long conversation Abhinav staves off the caller

Abhinav was being sold herbal medicine, but we all get a few such calls every day. Sometimes medicine, sometimes loan, sometimes credit card, sometimes travel package. Some kind of pressure is being put on you to buy a product. This is called push selling. You are being encouraged to shop, whether you need that product or not.

How does Push Selling work?

In push selling, you are not sold what you need but what the company wants to sell. The advantages of the of the product are exaggerated. Then offers like discount, coupon code, cheap loan, added service are added to make the offer attractive. Push selling or push marketing is a promotional strategy for which companies tie up with agents, retailers and e-commerce portals and give them incentives to sell goods. The product is sold without any advertising.

Abhinav refused to buy herbal products. Similarly, you should also think wisely. But it is not necessary that everyone would think as wisely as Abhinav. People get caught in the trap of push selling. They buy things they don’t need. Such products are also pushed on to the customer. Companies have no information regarding the quality of such products.

Push Selling vs Mis-selling

Companies resort to push selling to sell new products to customers. Pressure of shopping becomes a major reason for misselling. In an aggressive sales pitch, the product is often presented so exaggeratedly that the customer is misled into buying the wrong item. There is very little difference left between push selling and misselling.

Most pesky calls and text messages come from Unregistered Telemarketers or UTMs. These unregistered telemarketers call from personal mobile numbers. These numbers are almost impossible to block. According to industry estimates, there are about 2.50 lakh registered telemarketers, while the number of unregistered telemarketers is double than that. According to a survey by LocalCircles last year, 66% of people said they receive three or more pesky or spam calls every day. This is happening despite DND feature i.e. do-not-disturb feature, which is claimed to be handy in blocking pesky callers. 95% of those who used DND feature said their calls did not stop. This survey also revealed that in the country, the most push selling of spam calls is done for financial products (51%) and real estate (29%). Financial products account for 51% of Spam calls. While, real estate accounts for 29% of such calls.

Most pesky calls and text messages come from Unregistered Telemarketers (UTMs). These unregistered telemarketers call from personal mobile numbers, which are almost impossible to block or monitor. According to industry estimates, there are about 250,000 registered telemarketers, while the number of unregistered telemarketers is double that. According to a survey by LocalCircles last year, 66% of people said they receive three or more pesky or spam calls every day. This is happening despite the do-not-disturb (DND) service, which claims to block pesky callers. 95% of those who did DND said their calls did not stop. The survey also found that in India, the most spam calls are for push selling of financial products (51%) and real estate (29%).

Push selling is a well-known sales strategy. There is nothing wrong with it. Many companies use it to sell their goods. But what is wrong is that companies pressure customers to buy goods they don’t need through push selling to make money. If the purchased item does not meet your needs or does not meet the promises, you can’t do much about it. You will complain on the government portal but there is no guarantee of follow-up. It is the job of companies to sell. But your job is not to get carried away by those sales pitches. Don’t shop falling into the trap of telemarketer calls or misleading ads on e-commerce sites. Buying or not buying any item should be your choice, not someone else’s. So stay awake while shopping.