[bombcar]

There's a subtle difference there - the first is asking "past the close" but also is asking a pertinent question about it - people who want it will have a color they want, or need to pick one.

Nobody wants to discuss pricing. It's orthogonal to getting the desired end. You have to discuss pricing, but it is not on the list of things people want to do (if you give it to them free, they won't protest). The second is way too easy to say no to.

[hermitcrab]

Some of this may also be cultural. Something that works fine in the US, might be seen as pushy in the UK, for example.

[vundercind]

It’s pushy here, too.

I think the difference is willingness to be pushy if that pushiness results in more total sales. Which I take as a symtom of general lower consideration for others, objectifying them as a system you just need to press the right buttons on to get what you want.

[edit] Another way of looking at it is what a culture considers acceptable freely-given consent. If someone wouldn’t have said yes if you hadn’t pulled out every trick in the book, is that an OK way to get a “yes”? In US business culture, it is.