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Where to draw the line in selling

Guest post by: Linda Mattacks

Article Overview: Do you want a quick sale or to build long term relationships with profitable customers? The choice is yours.

Where to draw the line in selling

My second Saturday job as a teenager was as a sales girl in a shoe shop.

Big difference from the previous set up in the attitude of the other full-time sales assistants here. While the Woolworth customer could virtually guaranty not to be bothered by a full time sales assistant’s offers to “help”, at this place it was a completely different story as everyone was paid a basic wage plus commission on individual sales.

So now I had to learn the art of tactfully yet firmly standing my ground when another, older assistant tried to cut in on a would-be customer (read: potential sale = commission = more money in someone's pocket).

I also heard some of the most appalling lies about how good such and such a pair of shoes looked on ‘madam’; made her legs appear longer, ankles slimmer, feet smaller/ narrower, etc., and how these shoes/ boots/ sandals will "feel like a pair of slippers before you know it", and "we have just the handbag to go with them for you!"

They absolutely loved the opportunity to sell the RWBs (basically discontinued lines that had flopped) because they got huge commission on those in comparison to the regular ranges of shoes.

Those sales assistants weren’t nasty people by nature; they just seemed to change mentality and click into a different gear the moment a prospective customer walked in the door. They'd 'size them up' and estimate what they thought they could get away with.

I wouldn’t mind betting that at least half of those people never came back...

Which brings me to where to draw the line in selling:

It doesn't matter what your reasons are: This sale will make you sales person of the month; this sale will pay the office rental for the next two months; this sale will pay the salaries for the next three months... Whatever.

Never try to either force a sale onto an uncertain customer or oversell to anyone - it might temporarily get you out of a jam and you might be able to con somebody once but never twice. It isn’t fair, you won't build a good relationship with that customer and it won’t work to your company’s advantage in the long run.

Happy selling!

Linda

PS More tips and pointers athttp://www.sellingforbusiness.com

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Article Tags: commission, sales assistant, sales assistants, shoe shop Big difference, Woolworth customer



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