Sales and marketing tactics from those common dastards are abound, but yet we continue to fall victim to the same tricks, much more often than we think or care to admit.
We continue to surrender to their various methods of deception, and as a result, the retailers ply their trade in this fashion to rid of their stale inventory, just to make a profit.
There’s always the stereotypical “used car salesman” in the plaid sports coat, who talks from the side of his mouth, and has a deal that you just can’t resist.
What you instantly feel is a bit of discomfort when he declares that the pristine used car was driven by granny on Sunday’s to church, you become a tad suspicious, but what the heck, you buy it anyways.
We are always warned that we should be aware of shysters, the fraudsters among us who attempts to part us from our money. These individuals can be extremely deceptive, slick, and persuasive.
The reason why we fall for and believe them is because these individuals know how to somehow signal our brains that everything’s okay, this once we’re forced to make a snap decision.
What their smooth and silky delivery does is it gives us confidence, which then naturally boosts our serotonin levels in our brain, making us giddy. Serotonin has the ability to turn off our logical senses, making us feel safe and content.
It knocks our logic and beliefs out of whack in a temporary sense of insanity which isn’t subjected to scrutiny. The brain then fails to give us a warning signal that something’s wrong, that we should step back and think about what we’re doing.
Why We Fall For These Tricks And Tactics
It happens to all of us on occasion. It can be the rather convincing carnival huckster convincing us to buy a magical blender that isn’t, or reading an emotion altering sales page on the Internet and buying it.
It’s a perfectly natural act that we’ll fall victim to the confidence tricks which are developed by these scam artists. The reason why we succumb is because our minds aren’t wired to solve these extremely clever schemes, but would rather show trust and give the “benefit of the doubt” instead.
Our brains are able to distinguish the honesty of people from those who are being dishonest. We’re able to detect whether someone’s outright lying to us, or the unruffled situations from the alarming ones.
But what we’re not able to realize is the complete polar out right fraud and dishonesty which is cleverly masked, the brain just can’t comprehend these situations.
How To Stop Getting Fooled
Is there something, anything, that we can do so we can somehow avoid these temporarily moments of insanity, which alters our decision making ability.
If this happens more than once to us, we then become skeptical and defensive, adopting an overly hypercritical attitude before entering into any type of sales deal or pitch. It’s a good idea to just momentarily take a step back and then try to make a logical decision before jumping in on instinct.
• So the next time that a waitress attempts to “bump” you up to a more expensive wine, know that it may be a sales tactic, and ask to look at the wine list again. You might just end up going with the more expensive wine anyways, but it will at least give you an opportunity to think about what you’re doing.
• When your personal fitness instructor advises that you should be adding more spin biking classes because you’ll lose weight quicker, tell them you’ll let them know, giving you an opportunity to make your own decision.
• When you go out to purchase a high ticket electronic item, such as a big screen TV or a new laptop, make sure that you research exactly what you want first, before setting foot in the store. This way, you’ll purchase the exact model that you wanted and also at the price which fits into your budget.
How To Protect Yourself From Deception
What these manipulative deceivers are able to do is hide information, distort pertinent data, or exaggerate facts to control or influence your choice and decisions.
Different types of deceptions are the toolbox of the con artists and the unscrupulous marketers, and on a grander scale, politicians. Count anyone in who attempts to take advantage of a situation, usually to profit at your expense.
You can put faith in your financial broker, for instance, who you think is working for your best interest, but their ultimate end game may not always necessarily be to make money for you. Their main objective is to rather earn money for the company that they represent, or for their own welfare. You’re there as a means to support that end.
The end result of these usually self serving deceptions may be financially costly, stressful, and embarrassing to you.
Increase Your Skepticism
You can protect yourself better from these tricksters by being more skeptical. Skepticism is a method of assessing the truth through revealing the facts by asking more questions.
You’ll be able to gain the exact information by improving your critical thinking skills, learning who you should or can trust, and decide who’s seeking any personal advantage at your expense.
If you’ve been vulnerable to lies as well as deception in the past, especially when you’re not aware of all the facts, or if the situation is a little fuzzy and you’re not wanting to believe that it’s a lie, then avoid these situations altogether. Make sure that you step back and take a skeptical point of view.