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WotD: Smooth talker
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Watch out for smooth talkers.
They can persuade anyone to do anything, and you won’t even realize what’s happened until later when the smooth talker has gone.
They are especially dangerous when they work as a salesperson.
In North America, the stereotypical smooth talker is a car salesman or a con man.
To be a successful car salesperson (man or woman), it’s pretty much a requirement that you are a smooth talker.
A top salesperson can take a prospective customer who wants to buy a small subcompact and sell them a high-trim level full-sized SUV.
You see, people often don’t know what they want.
They think they know, but they do not know until you tell them.
A customer may require a little persuading, but that’s not difficult for a smooth talker.
Besides, an excellent smooth talker enjoys a challenge.
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I know this because I used to be one.
For five years, while studying at university, I worked full-time in a fast-food restaurant owned by a Lebanese man.
He taught me how to upsell customers.
If a customer only wanted a donair, we tried to sell them a salad on the side.
Yes, it was only an extra three bucks, but it adds up quickly if you do that fifty times a day.
Both he and I were very good at it.
Of course, he was the master smooth talker, and I was the apprentice, but together we made a very formidable team.
Now that I think about it, perhaps that’s one of the reasons I enjoy Kansai so much.
There are many smooth talkers here, and I can see right through them.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 72.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.