Salespeople Target Korean Character

by Ch'a Ko-un

When you go through the shops in Korea to buy something you can sense that every shop seems familiar to you. This is not only because every shop sells identical products. It's the salespeople that make you feel this way. They all use very similar sales pitches asking similar questions. But these sales pitches may not be familiar in the western culture. This is because they are based on the somewhat unique Korean character. The salespeople of Korea have been adapting this character into two different sales pitches, the product driven orientation and the "limit" sales pitch to get hold of the Korean customers.

One sales pitch that has resulted from the Korean character is the product driven orientation. While the best western salespeople use the needs orientation sales approach nowadays, Korean salespeople still stick to focusing on the product. This is influenced by the exclusion Koreans have toward strangers. In the western culture, strangers get to know each other very easily. They start calling people by their names and this allows the salesperson and the customer to get close enough to talk about casual topics on life other than the product. However in Korea, a certain length of time is needed for strangers to get acquainted with each other. The ice doesn't break that easily between two strangers; the salesperson and the customer. If a salesperson starts off by talking about topics other than the product, the Korean customer would back off feeling he's acting too friendly for a person he saw for the first time. Another factor that leads the salesperson to jump right into the product discussion is the speedy national character of Koreans. The "quick-quick" character of Koreans does not tolerate beating around the bush. Koreans feel that each and every minute is precious and don't like the feeling of wasting time, not even a second. They tend to get bored if the salesperson doesn't get right to the point; information on the product. In no time they will be off to some other shop even before the salesperson starts making any remark on the product. Therefore, for the salesperson to grab the customer, he needs to get right into the topic on the product.

Another sales pitch other than the product driven orientation that was influenced by the Korean character is the "limit" sales pitch. The salesperson using the "limit" sales pitch tells the customer that there aren't many products left or that it is the last chance to buy the product. It urges the customer to buy the product at the moment before it's too late. This sales pitch aims on Koreans' competitive character. Koreans don't want to be taken away of something. This kind of character is somewhat due to historical influence. Korea was dominated by another country in the past, and studies show that these kind of countries generally do not like to be deprived of something, probably because of their memory that they had lost so much in the past. Koreans don't like the feeling of losing something and regretting because they have been too late to do something about it. Therefore if the salespeople tell them it's the last product left, they don't hesitate and buy it at the spot before somebody else snatches it away from them. Another character that helps this sales pitch is the mass psychology of Koreans. The notions of an individual is rather weak in Korea. Being a part of a group, and showing that you belong in the group is considered important in the Korean society. Therefore this character is actively adapted in sales pitches. The reason why salespeople emphasize that there aren't many products left is because it means in turn, that many people have already bought the product. When the customer hears this, he feels that he should also buy the product since it seems like the popular style of the mass. Koreans feel that they should follow the mass or else they wouldn't be able to adapt to the changing society. This "limit" sales pitch proved to be so effective that sometimes salespeople use it even when there are a lot of products at stock.

The product driven orientation and the "limit" sales pitch have effectively applied the Korean character and the Korean salespeople make full use of these two techniques. Although many various techniques to get hold of the customers are emerging, Korean salespeople probably won't stop sing these strategies for a long time. That is, as long as the Korean character doesn't change.