The Truth and - Selling Top Quality Merchandise at the right price! Except that both have become a lost art in favor of greed.
For the last few months I’ve been discovering how far out of the “loop” I became having been away from retailing for some time. The “guest” (who made customer a bad word?) has become completely, totally trained to purchase only when the sale is good enough!
Regardless, the “associate” (who made salesperson a bad word?) has become required to maintain a sales per hour quota or risk losing either income or employment (another bad word).
The level of turnover is - what is the correct word? Repugnant! This leads to valued “associates” being asked to go above and beyond the “normal” duties of covering one department occasionally helping out elsewhere. Now they are scheduled in such a manner that they are there when short-handedness is rampant and their good nature won’t allow them to let business go poorly. One minor detail - while covering another area, if sales are made, they don’t receive full credit towards the sales per hour responsibility to maintain their income or employment.
“Checking your numbers” the following day leads to deep discouragement! You’ve been of service, been helpful and yet you’ve been “disciplined” for it! You come up short though you’re told you made the top ten for the previous day. You face a cut in your hourly wage for coming up short. You didn’t cause it. But - you made the top ten!
When was the last time you explained to a “guest” that by purchasing a $700 item of quality that would last the “guest” a lifetime thereby lowering the cost of that item considerably below the other, less expensive item requiring replacement every three years - and the “guest” understood and agreed???
Oooooh… there’s a LOT more!!!
Technorati Tags - Retail Marketing Quality Selling Retail Sales Hourly Wage Earners
