Selling as Seen in Frozen

Oaken, from the Disney movie Frozen, provides examples of poor sales techniques. Everyone knows Oaken for his signature “yoo hoo” upon entering his trading post, so he has the friendly part down, but beyond that his sales techniques are lacking.

This is first seen when Anna enters the store as a customer in clear need of winter gear in very extreme, unusual circumstances. Instead of trying to meet his customer’s need, Oaken tried to push unnecessary summer gear on her at a discount price. As we discussed in class, “People like to buy. They do not like to be sold.” Oaken did not try to identify his customer’s needs or help her. Anna would be glad to buy winter gear, not to mention, especially at a discount price. However, instead of focusing on Anna’s needs, he tried to sell her unnecessary items for his own benefit. Oaken made the poor choice of serving his own needs over that his customers in order to make a sale. In all fairness, Oaken did point out his winter stock when asked to, however, he was clearly more interested in pushing his summer stock, while cranking up the prices on the items customers actually needed.

Oaken clearly has a mentality of filling his own needs over those of his customers. This is evident once again when Christoff enters the trading post. Christoff is also in need of winter gear, but Oaken is not in the mood to make any deals with his customers in need. Oaken continued to enforce unreasonable prices on the goods his customers actually needed. Though Oaken does have a very legitimate supply and demand problem, as he mentions, as a salesman, he should be seeking to meet his customers needs. Christoff is in clear need of supplies, but only has $10. It is implied that $10 typically would have covered the cost based on his shock at the price being $40. Christoff asks Oaken to work with him on the price, but Oaken refused. Christoff clearly views this as a poor sales experience, and even goes so far as to refer to Oaken as a crook, which gets him promptly thrown out of the trading post. If Oaken had worked with Christoff on the price and helped him in his time of need, that could have helped him build a customer relationship. Christoff may then have had a positive sales experience, allowing him to return and recommend Oaken’s Trading Post to others.

Though Oaken does make his sales, and his customer’s ultimately get what they needed. This is clearly an example of a bad sales experience. Anna and Christoff both walked away with what they needed, but without the positive selling experience that could have been afforded.