Burned out hi fi salesman

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

Cwlondon,
I was only describing events--you've missed the point entirely.
The man was decked, I saw it and acted.
I can also recant the time when the leader of the band Nickel Creek came in in a tattered tee shirt and wanted a system. Not having heard of Nickel Creek,(before their success) I happily sold him a system that was terrific for a reasonable price. We together loaded it into an older Nissan, which was loaded with paper and cans, etc. Very non pretentious--this was an example not a message to sell those who seem wealthy, just being aware of situational moments.
Please understand, selling is selling, not judging---ever!!
If you read that, I apologize as it's not that message.

Larry

Lrsky

Again, I appreciate what I interpret to be your good intentions and sincerity here.

But 25 years later, I still cringe at my memories of fellow audio salesmen peering through the glass door to check out a customers car before deciding if they should pounce or continue reading the paper, and/or cheesey leading questions like "Is that a DAYTONA?! (watch)" or salespeople whose most valuable asset was their own watch, trying to project that they were somehow on the same level as what they assumed to be a rich customer.

And to me, this type of superficial analysis contributes to all of the worst stereotypes about high end salesmen with patronizing, chippy attitudes.

While we are on the subject, here is an anecdote for you:

A few years ago, I had a similar conversation with a guy who specialised in selling rare, low mileage air cooled Porsche 911s and Turbos.

He explained to me that one of his best customers was an African American man who drove up to his showroom in a rusty old van wearing a ripped T-shirt and dirty jeans.

The moral of the story is that after he treated this customer with SERVICE and RESPECT, he bought his first car the very same day on the spot.

As he began to trust the salesman, he confided that he ran a cable television company in NYC (made $ millions) but was so sick of being stereotyped either negatively because of his race or positively because of his job that he went shopping IN DISGUISE with the old van and T-Shirt routine, just to see which salesmen would treat him well, regardless of appearances.

To me, this simple lesson in business could cure the majority of problems in high end audio stores and has nothing to do with noticing whether or not someone's shirts are monogrammed.

Cheers

Cwlondon

The reason that all the components HE has heard sound within 5% of each other is based on the principle that 95% of ALL stereo equipment is absolute JUNK to begin with.