Make a "timeline." Artificial timelines are a mainstay of the hard sell. The sales person or the campaign creates a sense of urgency (ex: This is the Last Item in Stock! Call Today!) to try to get immediate sales. Like other hard sell techniques, this one has fallen on hard times as the Internet and other media show a customer that "great deals" come along all the time.

Introduce a "limited offer." Creating limitations other than time help make a consumer think they are getting a "special opportunity", but that is not always the case. Instead, limited offers are often opportunities for a company to put their own conditions or contingencies on a sale.

Appeal to the target audience. This is not strictly a hard-sell technique, but a sound marketing practice. But, when taken to extremes (ex: This is the ONLY deal for you!) it can be an annoying hard-sell type of practice. Another example is the glut of fake-prize initiatives. The tired slogan "You've Won!" is now commonly recognized as a sales pitch entrance.

Ask leading questions. Skilled sales people have found that almost any line of inquiry can lead to nearly any result if the questions are right. Questions like "Tired of (x)? Don't you need (x) product?" are examples of leading a customer toward a desired outcome. But often, resilient human nature proves a variation of the old adage, you can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Get inside the customer's head. Sales people are adept at this. Finding out information about a customer through casual small talk nets valuable ways to entice or even hard-sell a person. Beware of casual conversation that seems innocent: even questions of family status (pregnant? married or single? kids?) can be an introduction to a slippery slope. Because of this, consumers are now wary of revealing anything about themselves to a stranger offering gifts, no matter how charming he/she may seem.