Buying Decisions

During a marketing course I was teaching at the Technion, I found myself drifting (probably prompted by a question) into the world of sales. As far as I remember, we were talking about how buying decisions get made, and about the many customers (around 70% of the population) who make emotional, sometimes impulsive, decisions.

Against that backdrop, one of the participants, an engineer from Rafael (the Israeli defense company), said: "I'm a very rational person. You'll never catch me buying anything without first checking it out thoroughly in at least three places. I'm one of those people who build a comparison table in Excel and make only optimal decisions that prove themselves..."

Since this sounded to me (for the millionth time...) like nonsense, I asked him, in front of the whole class, what he was planning to buy in the near future.

"I'm about to buy a built-in oven for the kitchen," he said.

"Then I have a request," I said. "Do whatever kind of research you like, but start it at the Teraklin Hashmal appliance store in the Haifa Mall (today's Azrieli Mall), and ask for the store manager (at the time), Safadi, to take care of you."

"No problem," he said, and we all forgot about it.

About two weeks later, when I came back to the same group, one of the students made a point of bringing it up.

"So, did you buy it?" I asked the guy from Rafael.

"Yes. I bought it," he said.

"Where?" I asked, and he answered in a whisper: "At Teraklin Hashmal..."

"Why there, of all places?" I pressed him.

"I got a great offer!" he said... and the class fell about laughing.

Full disclosure: Safadi from Teraklin Hashmal (who today manages the store at the Grand Canyon mall in Haifa) was one of my best students back then.

He showed great understanding, picked things up fast, executed skillfully and was completely on top of the material throughout the workshop.

In the role-plays he always insisted on taking a turn. Every time I visit his store he makes a point of quoting back to me things he learned. Even when I ran a short training session for all the employees at the Grand Canyon mall, I saw Safadi show up dragging two of his store's staff along with him...

"Safadi!" I said to him. "Why did you come? This is a basic session. You've long since forgotten the fundamentals I'm teaching today. Isn't it a waste of your time?"

"Not at all, Peled," he answered with a smile. "It's not a waste of time. Every time I hear you, I learn something new..."