I was watching The Little Mermaid with friends recently and my inner salesperson kicked in. In summary, Ariel, the mermaid, falls in love with a human and sells her voice to Ursula, the sea witch, in return for human legs. In the scene where Ariel signs the contract, selling away her soul, Ursula demonstrates sales moves that very clearly coerced Ariel into the sale; however, there were also skills that were not necessarily coercion, that can be learned from.
In the attached clip, Ursula presents her offer, and when Ariel seems to be indecisive about the sale, she quickly starts to walk away. This causes Ariel to call her back and ask for more details. This is a good sales technique, because it causes the customer to consider what they are giving up, if they walk away from the sale. Earlier in the movie, Ursula’s sales partners, the eels, use the same technique in convincing Ariel to see the sea witch in the first place.
However, Ursula goes on to explain all the great benefits of participating in the sale with her, quickly brushing over the “small” con which would be giving up her soul and her voice. She tries to convince Ariel that it will be easy to get the prince to fall in love with her, even without her voice, which was clear deceit. Ursula then says, “I’m a very busy woman and I haven’t got all day,” then shoves a contract in Ariel’s face, pressuring her into the sale. This is a “pushy” sales technique that should not be modeled by a moral salesperson. This unfortunately is behavior that causes many people to have negative beliefs about sales.
Overall, Ursula’s technique was effective in the short term but not in the long term. Ariel instantly regrets her contract and will definitely not be recommending her friends to Ursula’s service. This is something called buyer’s remorse, that good salespeople try to avoid.
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This is a great illustration of what not to do in sales. The fault in the situation is Ursula’s ulterior motive to steal King Triton’s crown. Due to this, she does not approach the “sale” in a way that is looking out for Ariel’s best interests. We can learn from this by making sure we do the exact opposite of what Ursula does. Although Ursula closed the sale, it did not truly benefit Ariel in the long run. This deception and pushy technique is not something to emulate because our first priority should only be to establish trust and genuine care with the potential buyer then find out what their needs are.
This is a very creative way on analyzing the movie The Little Mermaid! I think that this is a very good sales tactic but it has to be used on the right type of person because I know if a salesman started to walk away from me because I did not seem interested I would let the salesman walk away. For the right type of person, I think this could work great because they would see that the salesman takes his work seriously and does not want to waste his time on someone that does not want to listen to what they have to say.
As a kid, I never would have thought this way. Though you pointed this out very well. Ursula only does one moral thing in this sale which is catering to her needs in a way… though the sleezy salesperson comes out in the form of a sketchy, fine print type of scam.
I absolutly love this! Way to make a connection that I certainly never would have! While I think Ursula is certainly not a role model from a moral standpoint, she certainly isn’t one from a sales or business stand point. The biggest point I think you main is the longevity of a customer. Using pushy sales techniques can work in the now, but in the long term, you will have no customers coming back to you after you’ve pushed them around and squeezed cash out of them. Not only that, but Ariel probably (if she could talk) would have told all her friends not to go to Ursula for ANYTHING. This can lead to a net negative effect, if you make one sleazy sale in the now you could lose 15 down the road.
I agree, too often there are salespeople who use this tactic when they are selling to customers. A good salesperson would come by their sales more honestly and in a more considerate way as well. Ursula is just demonstrating why sales often gets such a bad rap in the business world because of their willingness to very easily be pushy and very deceptive to their customers. This leaves them wanting more even though it may be a disadvantage or a bad deal for the customer. I greatly suggest not using this tactic in the real world for selling or anything in general. The Little Mermaid is a well thought out Disney movie and it also applies to real-world scenarios as well.