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Why the attitude regarding commissioned salespeople? No offense intended, but you are displaying a common prejudice regarding salespeople.
The difference between what you experienced, and commissioned salespeople is this: The person you dealt with over the phone has no idea what business he's in. He actually believes that he's in the audio business, a common mistake made, especially by propellerhead techno-freaks.
A professional commissioned salesperson, on the other hand, understands that he/she is in the people business and that his/her success, and very livelihood, depend upon how he/she treats the customer. What the professional salesperson knows is that the first concern is to find out what the customer's needs are, and then to satisfy those needs. And then ask for referrals.
I speak from experience here having spent over 50 years in commissioned sales.
I once worked for an ultra-high-end audio dealer and watched the guy, over time, mastermind his way out of business. You've described his attitude very well in your post. His people skills were nonexistent. He was actually bothered when people would come into the store. He told me once that they bothered him because "they take me away from my paperwork."
There were many times that I had demonstrated equipment for qualified customers and was just about ready to close the sale, only to have this nerd (the owner) come out of his office, proceed to start talking about slew rates, capacitors, resistors, etc. At that point, I would watch the customer's eyes glaze over and then watch them walk out the door without making a purchase. He kept blowing multi-thousand dollar sales until finally, he had to close the doors. All the customer wanted was to get well-reproduced music in his/her home. They were not looking for lessons in electrical engineering.
No matter what I said to the guy, he just never got it. As a result, his investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars went right down the tubes. To this very day, I still don't think he gets it.
In general, your assessment is right on the mark. Why people with no people skills opt to go into a retail business is beyond me.
Frank
- "Step one, no commission sales people."
Why the attitude regarding commissioned salespeople? No offense intended, but you are displaying a common prejudice regarding salespeople.
The difference between what you experienced, and commissioned salespeople is this: The person you dealt with over the phone has no idea what business he's in. He actually believes that he's in the audio business, a common mistake made, especially by propellerhead techno-freaks.
A professional commissioned salesperson, on the other hand, understands that he/she is in the people business and that his/her success, and very livelihood, depend upon how he/she treats the customer. What the professional salesperson knows is that the first concern is to find out what the customer's needs are, and then to satisfy those needs. And then ask for referrals.
I speak from experience here having spent over 50 years in commissioned sales.
I once worked for an ultra-high-end audio dealer and watched the guy, over time, mastermind his way out of business. You've described his attitude very well in your post. His people skills were nonexistent. He was actually bothered when people would come into the store. He told me once that they bothered him because "they take me away from my paperwork."
There were many times that I had demonstrated equipment for qualified customers and was just about ready to close the sale, only to have this nerd (the owner) come out of his office, proceed to start talking about slew rates, capacitors, resistors, etc. At that point, I would watch the customer's eyes glaze over and then watch them walk out the door without making a purchase. He kept blowing multi-thousand dollar sales until finally, he had to close the doors. All the customer wanted was to get well-reproduced music in his/her home. They were not looking for lessons in electrical engineering.
No matter what I said to the guy, he just never got it. As a result, his investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars went right down the tubes. To this very day, I still don't think he gets it.
In general, your assessment is right on the mark. Why people with no people skills opt to go into a retail business is beyond me.
Frank
