The art of persuasion

12th January, Monday, 2.15 PM

On one of those previously rare, but now very regular, boring days, I came across this film of Morgan Freeman called '10 Items or less'.. a praise-worthy film. It is one of those films which you either think as a beautiful depiction of how to live life or you dismiss it as mindless.

Maybe because of the state of mind I was in, I found this film very clever. It simplifies those gloried talks of loving and living life and converys the message mildly and beautifully. There is a retired actor (Freeman) who finally decides to take up a script and in order to study his role of a convenience store manager, he goes to this remote store, and there he comes across a check out counter girl. She is a girl who had had many dreams but had given it all up because of circumstances. Now she wants to pursue them again but is scared she will fail. The movie is the journey of Freeman making the girl believe in herself and she, in turn, making Freeman believe in the spirit of good-will and happiness. It is up to you as to how much you want to gain from that film. It does not push its message down your throat.

But what makes me write this post is not the film itself but one aspect of it which I saw a live demonstration of in our very own local train. At the convenience store, there is this sales lady who has to convince the patrons to buy a mop even if they dont need it; something like a real life tele shopping network! But she has to be so good that the patrons think they are getting the best deal possible. So when Freeman asks her to teach him how she does it, she shows him some tricks: 1) The nodding of the head continuously which makes the buyers also nod involuntarily

2) The perfect places to lift your hand and hold the product in full view

3) To maintain eye contact

4) To make it look as if you completely believe in the product

5) To smile and keep saying to random people 'So yes there we have one buyer' and ultimately they end up buying it.

So when I was on my way to classes, there was this salesman on the train selling a hand juicer. It was a small steel structure with which u can squuze out orange or lime juice by inserting it in the fruit. What was interesting about this whole observation was that he was following the sales girl's pointers to the T. It was as if he has just seen the movie and is implementing every instruction. The style of handling his product, the eye contact, the nodding and the belief in this product! He made every housewife in my compartment buy one of his strange looking steel structures. 

No idea whether the 'juicer' works or not... but his selling strategy definitely did and I was mighty impressed!