Burned out hi fi salesman

As a hi fi saleman of close to thirty years here's my take:
Don't go into a stereo store and waste a saleman's time if, regardless of what you hear, you are not going to buy from him or her and then rationalize your guilt and your ethical obligation away expose facto by saying that you weren't treated right. Tell the salesperson up front that you're not there to buy but to gather information and listen. If he's worth his salt and he has the time he'll spend it with you and enjoy the experience. But woe be tide unto you if you take the salesman away from his floor while he can be making money.

Our perceptions of value outside of nature are nothing more than an illusion and on a very real level buying something from anyone is nothing less than an act of kindness and humanity. The idea that you can quantify, by percentages, the quality of sound or the accuracy of sound or the joy derived from the sound is the silliest thing I have ever heard of. Stereo sales people burn out because they don't get traffic, they can't sell, or they don't love the hobby.

Burnout is a problem in all walks of professional life.
I traveled the country doing seminars, called 11 Hard Earned Lessons--annecdotal recitations of actual experiences I had had over the years of selling audio.
What separates the good from the great, the great from the spectacular, is passion, and self awareness, and frankly, pride.
When a salesman goes home each night, (audio or otherwise) he or she must, in the quiet moments, ask the question, "What did I do right today?", then "What did I do Wrong".
Oftentimes sales people do everything wrong during a sale, but the customer buys anyway, creating a false impression for the seller--he/she makes incorrect assumptions about the efficacy of his/her work.
Conversely the same sales people do everything right, and even if the customer has the proper ingredients, "money, motivation", (book exerpts) and he/she's established 'value perception' (another exerpt) they STILL may not buy. HOW CONFUSING!
So, the sales person has to be self aware enough to know the difference between, "hey I did it right, he or she just wasn't ready, and hey I did it wrong and, they bought anyway".
Self analysis, with some very astute counseling with a professional sales manager goes a long way toward knowing what happens.
Anacrusis, is the post above, points out that people shouldn't go into a store if 'regardless of what you hear, you're not going to purchase'. That is a good point but it misses the mark slightly.
All sales people dislike having the 'tire kickers' or the customer with the 'friend/expert advisor' who knows more about audio than any 'salesman' could possibly know... but these people ironically make up a great portion of buyers if handled in the right way. (This is hard to do, because time is money, is time, is money...)

Quick story, and absolutely true.
One day a man came into an Audio Store I happend to be in--he wanted the rubber surrounds on his 20 year old woofers redone, as they had rotted, and fallen apart--a $75. item or thereabouts, they were so old as to need rework as they were no longer available. I watched as the service guy took the obligatory information for this virtually unprofitable transaction.
I looked outside and saw the white Mercedez he had driven up in, then at the man's monographed cuffs on his shirt, along with the perfect 'break' in his tailor made pants.
I walked over and said, "Hey, I'm Larry, I'm with THIEL Audio, here to do a seminar, would you like to hear something cool while he's finishing the ticket?" The man said "Sure."
Half an hour later he owned a pair of CS6's and then within two weeks, a Krell Amp and CD player, altogether more than $15/$20K, I can't remember the exact amount.
Sounds simple when I state it this way, but it's not. It's just that, 'burned out' sales people hurt everyone, especially themselves, as they run customers off, sell short of the customers buying potential, and generally wreak havoc on the sales floor. It's hard work selling--being 'up' all the time, but its no harder in a curious way, than repeating the phrase thousands of nights, (if you're playing the lead in a Broadway rendition of the play Camelot), "The rain may never fall till after sundown. By eight the morning fog must disappear. In short, there's simply notA more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot." Telling the same story thousands of different ways, and remaining excited about it is hard work!
Selling is repitition, patience, truth, establishing value, and remembering that each, 'real' customer has a desire to purchase if you do your job correctly.
Sorry this was so long, but it is something that hard working sales people can hopefully identify with.

Larry

Larry, would your action be the same if the guy was wearing shorts, racing tee shirt, athletic shoes, vintage Elgin watch, and driving a vintage BMW? Such a guy might be able to afford the same products. I see lots of guys that fit your description that are dollar maxed out on maintaining an image. They can't afford to put brakes on their car when they are needed. Salesman always try to qualify a potential customer but appearance can be deceiving.

I started working in an audio store when I was 16 years old. At about $3.75 an hour as I recall, my only motivation was a love for music and audio.

This cynical assessment of customers ability to spend never entered my mind - perhaps because I was a kid who had previously delivered newspapers and saved up in order to afford my first Hafler amps and Magneplanar MG-1s.

I had never heard of a "Rolex" or "Breitling" and I barely knew the difference between a BMW and a Porsche.

But I tried to treat everyone with an equal degree of service and respect and I became pretty successful at selling.

With hindsight, the biggest and highest margin sales I ever made weren't to customers driving either a new Mercedes or a vintage BMW, but just straightforward, hard working people who came to the shop with a love of music and an interest in learning more about good audio.

The other salespeople, who more typically trained their eyes on the next customers' watch or car, usually missed these opportunities and were always stunned when I ended up writing the biggest tickets of the day.

So Lrsky although I appreciate your points about burned out salespeople not improving the world, and I think it is great that you gave seminars on more successful selling, frankly I think both and Rhljazz are equally clueless - albeit with different politics - about your ability to predict buying habits based on a superficial analysis of your customers car and clothes.

Now if you happened to know not only about the break in someone's trousers but also how to differentiate between a pair of Lobb bespoke shoes and a pair of Lobb off the rack shoes or a pair of Berluti shoes, or you knew a Paul Newman Rolex Daytona from a Chinese fake Daytona, or you knew the difference between a real 73 Porsche 911 RS and the myriad copies on the road, or beyond the break in the trousers you could really spot a Savile row suit or a pair of Turnbull and Asser cashmere socks, well then maybe maybe MAYBE you MIGHT be able to draw some conclusions about his ability to buy, say, a Rockport turntable without the bank calling to interrupt your glorious sale once he hands you his credit card.

But if I were betting in Vegas, I would say that neither of you can discern these differences and you therefore are simply fantasizing that a guy with monogrammed cuffs is a better bet than a heating and air conditioning contracter who just finished his job.

To further complicate matters, I no longer sell audio but advise some of the richest people in the world on their investments.

And I can tell you that despite their genuinely bespoke suits and collections of Patek Phillippes, they can be some of the cheapest penny pinchers I have ever met in my life, and even if they weren't they typically have no interest in audio and are more likely to own Bose speakers than buy a pair of Thiels, after even a good demo.

So in summary, I agree that burned out salespeople should get another job.

But successfully selling audio - or anything else for that matter - has less to do with clumsily ballparking your customers bank account than it does with listening to their needs, understanding their interests and concerns, helping to educate them about the benefits of your products and services, and helping them to enjoy something and improve the quality of their life.

cheers

cwlondon

Rhljazz,
MOST ASSUREDLY!!! That is axiomatic for any good salesman.
Very good point though for someone who thinks that dress dictates treatment.
I don't wany anyone to think I responded only because he was dressed well--only that I noted we 'seemed' to be letting someone who 'appeared' APPEARED, to be underpurchasing, that is just reconing speakers when in fact, he was probably ready for a better system.
I made it a point to treat everyone the same, yet be careful to note when someone of obvious 'means' or at least spending habits seemingly apparent.
NEVER judge a customer, by the look, that is totally foreign from this message, just a factor in what happened.
Thanks for the question.
Best,
Larry