Buying Event

On Monday, January 16th, our professor Steve Bang had some discourses on topics such as Relationship strategy, customer values, win-win philosophy and communication styles. I could relate to these terms keeping the example of Amarpreet in mind, salesperson at Mobilicity store located at Woodbine mall, as he was more or less the right person in that context.

My Name is kanwal preet and I am a student of Marketing Management at the Business school in Humber College, Lakeshore Campus. As I am new to Canada, the first thing which I wanted to have as quickly as possible was a mobile phone + a good connection to stay in touch with my family back home and also to be in touch with my friends and batch mates here at Humber. Therefore, according to the need I had, I visited a Mobilicity store at Woodbine mall on 13th January, around 3o' clock in the afternoon. As I did not want to spend too much on the set, I had a budget of around $130 for the phone plus the connection. When you visit woodbine, as many people would know, you are welcomed with a lot of options as it is filled with other service provider stores like Rogers, Wind etc.

Anyways, so when I reached the Mobilicity store, there were 3 persons in the outlet, one was at the counter, and the other two to assist people or would rather say, they were a part of the sales team. So after addressing my need and budget to one of them, I was told to look at the options for the phones kept on the window of the showcase. One was the Nokia E-73 and the other one being Samsung Gravity. Both were smart phones and in the same range. As I was looking through, one of them approached me whose name was Mike, as I could see on his batch. He was a Caribbean which I came to know later after talking to him, about 25years of age wearing a dress which appeared to be their dress code, but working part -time at the store to support his expenses here in Canada. One thing that I liked about him was the way he was carrying himself.

So as I inquired about the Nokia E-73, being a user of their phones for so many years back in India, I was told that they are out of stock on that and they are not expecting any deliveries of the model in the future from the company as well. So I thought and waited for a little bit, and as I was discussing what to do, a friend accompanying me suggested to go for the Samsung Gravity. So I asked Mike again, and he said that that is available. But suddenly, one thing occurred to me, and being in sales team for an Ayurveda Company back home for a year, I was expecting Mike to give the option of going in for Samsung as I am his customer, and what on earth he would be good for if he does not involve a customer, or understand his needs. To me that was the biggest blunder a salesperson can make, not understanding the customer at all and at last, losing him and business.

I had decided by now that I am not going to buy a phone at that moment, at least not from this store. So, I myself asked him about other options, and then came a reply which I was expecting earlier. But, since by that