This Saturday, a close friend of mine adopted a dog from the local animal shelter. This idea hadn’t come into her head until that morning, but within hours she was signing adoption papers for a new pup. How did this come about so fast? The helpful workers of the animal shelter dealing with her with expert sales techniques.
The animal shelter is an independent shelter, therefore does not get attraction from ASPCA national ads or Humane Society posting, so they use Facebook as a means of local support to bring potential owners into their location with the draw of cute pictures of their homeless dogs and cats. The shelter advertised all animals having their initial shots already done and showed a great expertise in all things dogs and cats, which would comfort any pet-searcher on the Facebook. Adding to this, the announcement of a new puppy to the shelter was treated as a huge event that anyone should hop onto, creating the urgency that you need to adopt, and my friend applied instantly for a meet & greet.
In the afternoon meet & greet, we were held up by others also looking to adopt, so we waited with one of the workers for the puppy to be walked out to us. The worker told us the harrowing tale of the puppy’s past life. The pup had been sold in a Tractor Supply parking lot for $500 to an old woman who abused it for being too jumpy and playful and kept a harmful collar on. The worker appealed to our emotion with this background, and I knew my friend’s heart strings were getting tugged at. Then, they walked the pup out and let it jump into her arms with joy. This showing sold my friend instantly with adopting the puppy.
Animal shelters like this desperately need sales tactics to give their overflowing kennels of dogs and cats away to owners. The tactic of appealing to our emotion with the story, and then letting the puppy product jump into the buyer’s arms and show just how loving and kind it was showed importantly how sales tactics of animal shelter workers can solve shelter overpopulation and find more pets homes.
francesallen 
Jonnojr 
lodicosg23
Nice story! Your friend’s quick adoption shows how shelters nail it with urgency, a solid backstory, and a happy meet-and-greet. Smart moves that get pets into homes fast.
You highlight how effective sales techniques, like emotional appeals and urgency, play a crucial role in helping animal shelters find homes for pets. By using social media marketing and storytelling the shelter successfully created a connection between potential adopters and the animals.
I love how your friend chose a shelter to adopt from, because those animals certainly do need a comforting home. It can be hard sometimes to sell someone an animal, because they can be lots of work, but this worker seems to know what she’s doing. I’m glad it worked out in everyone’s favor!
Great Post! I like how you noted that animal shelters and animal related organizations use emotional appeals in getting customers. While some may view this as bad, I do not think that it necessarily is bad.
It’s interesting how the shelter used emotional appeal and urgency to motivate your friend’s decision. The personal story of the puppy and the hands-on experience of holding the dog definately helped build a connection. It’s a great example of how well-executed sales tactics can truly impact the adoption process.