Anyone that has read my resume will know that I spend many years in retail sales. Many of those years was in training new sales people and as a Sales Manager for a big box retail store. What I am going to tell you now is some secrets in the retail industry that are used to train the sales people how to play the psychological game of selling with you the consumer when you come in to the store. I trained and developed some top sales people in the company and managed top performing sales departments in two different stores. Here are some of the tools that I trained my team to use.
General Sales Process
The entire sales process from beginning to end is a game if you don’t agree with this try it out sometime. There is a winner and a loser in this game. The winner is the one who gets what they are working for in the end, the sales person get his/her sale or the customer leaves without purchasing the product that was trying to be forced on them. Sometimes the customer is going into the store to get something specific the game begins when the salesperson gets involved and tries to add the up sell products or extended warranties.
The best defense against these tactics and the up sell is not to get into a debate with the sales person or to demand a discount but simply ask tough questions designed to stump the knowledge of the sales person. Only the best of the best will be able to answer them all and if they can’t they will find out the answer for you right away. A sales person that in confident enough to say I don’t know but I will find out for you is someone that is worth dealing with and is generally going to be honest with you about your concerns.
Avoid like the plague that sales person who preys on the human need to get a “deal”. As I trained my sales people with a simple statement “A deal is only a deal when you get a quality product at a fair price”. Getting some no name 90day warranty brand for $200 less than the quality product is not a deal it’s a waste of money. You’ve seen them they litter the boxing day flyers and weekly sale flyers trying to get you into the stores to talk to a smooth sales person that will up sell you into something else. Its not bait and switch but really who wants the crappiest product just because it is cheap.
If you want to keep the sales people away tell them that you are not buying anything today you are just shopping around for some gift ideas and generally all but the eager newbies will go away and leave you alone.
That’s enough for an introduction more specifics in price and negotiating tactics etc will be coming soon…If you are interested in more information or have a specific question please feel free to leave a comment and I will reply with an answer.
