A Time I Hated Talking Customers Into Buying

How much should this be?

Retailers need to make money!  As stated before, the technology item itself has a low mark-up.  To secure a profit a salesperson must sell add-ons or attachments with these items.  Retailers watch about 12 categories so each morning every store knows their percentage standings within their District, Region and so on.

Let's look at a printer.  There are four tag-a-long products that a salesperson must persuade their customer to buy.  The four items include a cable, paper, ink and an extended warranty plan.  The worst experience I had in retail was when I had to talk customers into buying a cable.  Why?  Because I knew how much they cost!

Because there was so much pressure to sell attachments we had to be creative.  If a customer said he or she already had one we would state that their cable may be out-of-date and the printer would run slow.  If that didn't work we told them most people replace a cable every two years.  Finally, we recommended they take a new one home to compare their old one with the new one.  If there was no difference in printer performance then they could just return it.  For a wireless printer customer we had to make them think they needed a backup plan in case the wireless system went down.

All we wanted was to get that cable through the register with the printer to make our percentage look good!

But here's the problem!  The cable I had to talk each customer into buying with their printer was expensive.  At the time, a six-foot cable sold for  $24.99.  The cost was $4.50.  That's right, $4.50.  That's over five times the cost!  Unconscionable to me!

Hey, if that was the going rate everywhere, so be it.  But it wasn't.  A customer could drive a short distance and buy them for $6.99.  I hated to talk the customer into buying these overpriced cables but it was my job.  Think about that the next time a salesperson hands you 'anything.'  If you didn't do your homework make sure you keep your receipt.  You may be taking it back!

More about 'attachments' tomorrow

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The definition of a chump:

a gullible person, a sucker; someone easily taken advantage of, the target of a scam.

Learn from a former salesperson and trainer how salespeople drive sales. Learn how to keep more money in your pocket where it belongs! There are two ends of every sales stick!  One end cries 'chump.'  The other end boasts 'champ.'  I know which end of the stick I want to be.  How about you?