You might consider having sympathy for those salespeople, because their store and corporate management is requiring them to be assholes. There are 2 tiers to selling: mass-market and elite sales professional. All the mass market cares about is pushing products out the door. It doesn’t care about creating a lifelong customer relationship, believe it or not. That kind of store wants VELOCITY in sales, period. The idea is to keep pressuring and even annoying the prospect till s/he caves in and buys. I’ve had the misfortune to have worked in 2 stores like that, and they are even more hellish for the staff than they are for the customers. Their managers are lucky if they have triple-digit IQs.
The sales professional, who almost always works in luxury sales, shares a philosophy I have: There are no small sales, only small salespeople.
The professional is genuinely on the side of the client, and will tell management to go fuck themselves if they want him/her to pressure a client.
The BEST way in the world to sell is by HELPING. The WORST way is by “SELLING.” Those are 2 totally different kinds of energy, and clients can feel the difference. I once had a client, who’d walked in to buy 3 BMWs, “You’re the kind of salesman everyone wants to have, regardless of what they’re buying.”
You’re right to be ticked off. You should walk out of any place that treats you that way; but you might want to demand to speak with the general manager, first. I guarantee you that the GM is the reason why you were treated as you were.
Not for nothing, but retail sales jobs account for 58 percent of all jobs in the US. Many people are kind of forced to take this shit job. They are not bad people. Shortly most of them will be unemployed, because the retail industry is rapidly automating. Then you’ll be dealing with nonhuman AI that does not give a shit about you.
To summarize: name me ONE OTHER INDUSTRY that depends on a holiday to make it profitable for the entire year!
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jonathan_k80 (6436)
3 years ago
"The idea is to keep pressuring and even annoying the prospect till s/he caves in and buys."
Not a good practice. If anybody pulls this kind of stunt with me, it means an automatic no-sale. Back to the Sam's Club incident: I avoided the obnoxious guy twice. The first time by moving to the opposite side of the aisle, and second by totally ignoring him. Yet he was determined to get in my face one more time with his stupid sales pitch. One thing I do not tolerate is a cocky attitude, which this guy had. How dense can someone be to not recognize three brush-offs? I would bet that if I had gone down that aisle one more time he would have attempted a fourth presentation.
"Their managers are lucky if they have triple-digit IQs."
These so-called managers should be removed immediately. The business needs to re-evaluate their hiring practices.
"They are not bad people."
Some are probably decent. The Sam's Club guy was not. The inflated ego, cocky attitude and pretentious behavior made this obvious. Like I said above, no one is holding a gun to these peoples' heads and forcing them to take such a position. Get a real job!
"...name me ONE OTHER INDUSTRY that depends on a holiday to make it profitable for the entire year!"
I'm not sure what you're asking here. What do you mean by "holiday"? Christmas?
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R_Kane (15828)
3 years ago
Yes, I mean the Christmas/Black Friday season.
I completely agree that bad managers should be booted; in fact, they should not be hired; but once a culture is in place, it cultivates people who believe in the culture and punishes those who do not. Mass-Market retail culture does not know how to teach its members, only how to train them. You TEACH a person, you TRAIN an animal. “Training” is “here’s WHAT to think.” “Teaching” is “here’s HOW to think.” This is why mass-market selling only knows 1 way to (TRY) to sell, and only hires managers at all corporate levels who don’t know the difference between educating and training.
I’m glad you elect to walk out when you are abused. Good for you. More people should.
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jonathan_k80 (6436)
3 years ago
There's no such thing as the "Black Friday season," but that's a whole different discussion.
I'm not sure how Christmas would affect how these people are trained. These sales people are obnoxious regardless of the time of year. The incident I described at Sam's Club did not take place during the Christmas season. I think the guy was just someone with a cocky attitude who liked to hear himself talk and be the center of attention. Having what he perceived as an audience (the shoppers) was another way to stroke his inflated ego. I doubt his personality had changed on account of some training program; it probably enhanced it, though.
You TEACH a person, you TRAIN an animal. “Training” is “here’s WHAT to think.” “Teaching” is “here’s HOW to think.”
That's a great definition. That sort of training is brainwashing, not teaching.
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AndyKing1967 (33815)
3 years ago
May I add that communication is key and educating the prospect is essential too. I suggest to my sales team that they keep things simple and that all they need to do is: -
Tell them what it is.
Tell them what it does.
Tell them how much it costs.
I could go on about sales techniques, but maybe one for another thread.
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Who (5146)
3 years ago
The fireworks industry? 🤷🏻
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R_Kane (15828)
3 years ago
That’s funny, but people use fireworks year-round. I doubt that industry is foolish enough to depend on only 1 time of year to turn a year-long profit. The retail industry, in my opinion, is plain lazy.
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