I am pressured to attach high margin items by management. I am presented with numerical figures that support this strategy as ligitimently necessary for the long term survival of the company. It is difficult for me to attach these services, but i do make sure each customer is aware of their existence and i do try to tie it in to the points i am instructed to listen for in order to present the service's value. There is a second part that i usually skip.
Management calls this "Overcoming Objections" and they are very vage as to what it really means. I have seen my co-workers do astonishing bits of social entering for a near mystical increase in attach rate of these value added services while mine just barely eek by the company average on a good day. However, i have never seen one of my co-workers flat out lie, as has been alleged several times in the comments i have read. However, management very, very strongly makes sure that we know to never misrepresent a product, because if it doesn't do exactly what we say the customer will return it and we will be out that margin, plus the open box discount if we even manage to sell it again.
I give my customers a lot of data, and i get a lot of repeat business. However, this is usually from customers who have questions rather then those who are looking to buy. I have access every day and week if i request it to a detailed break down of the sales figures BestBuy's system has for me. Every day i go in with a bit of pride because of one of those numbers: returns.
Out of every customer i've ever personally helped, 0.3% of them ever return anything. (i fully expect to be fired though, i'm honestly a horrible salesman)
I think that BestBuy needs to reinvent itself to stay afloat. A few days ago I asked management about the state of the company. There is a firm air of denial in the retail outlets. I got a careful explanation about the losses posted as normal business expenses. Namely that the company had acquired some sell phone retailer overseas for something like 4 billion USD and that the retail side of things had been nothing but profitable.
However, today i see the CEO has retired. This doesn't hold up to the story i was told.
I wonder how much longer i'm going to be able to hold this position, it's been an interesting look either way. A year ago i'd probably be yelling about lying sales people too, but seriously, we're just... people. We don't enjoy what we have to do, even those of us who are particularly good at it. The top seller in my department hates how people react to him. Most of the time, the moment we go into services, even if we have been nothing but helpful and informative, people sour to us. I can understand this feeling, especially if someone is acting pushy, but honestly he rarely does. There is this huge stigma associated with salespeople, and even if we are just presenting a service as a viable choice (my managers probably hate me for this, they tell me i should stop asking my customers how they 'feel' about things. I just present the thing as truthfully and as relevantly as i can, then give them all the time they need to decide) we still get a measure of scorn for having the audacity to offer Accidental Damage from Handling or Technical Support, because the programs are clearly a scam (... geek squad's tech support is debatable depending on the guy you get, i'll admit that.).
But seriously guys... we're not trying to screw you. Not even management really wants to screw you. We'd just prefer to make money... on every single opportunity we can... because we're a product of capitalism as an entity. But we're usually polite about it, and at least for the store i work at, i know nearly all of my co-workers are intelligent, truthful people
I hope i'll do better as whatever i finally end up deciding on when i finally graduate. I hate having varied interests sometimes. .... also, entirely off topic, please remind people who rip open iPad/Tablet/Ereader/Handheld game console cases and just leave them on the floor to at least put them back together and somewhat _near_ the peg. I mean, i can understand sometimes with the android tablets because we almost never have a case made exactly for the less popular tablets, and i know 98% of sales people don't think twice about opening the things up for you to try out as long as it won't permanently destroy the box. ... but the iPad rack and the Ereader racks... i just don't understand. There are like, three models of iPad, that's it. It lists on the box the ones it fits on, why is it necessary to open up half the inventory and try it on you device? And e-readers.... i bet there are some obscure ones, but... /retail gripes.
