Monday, June 11, 2007

Not my Best Sales Approach


I am in sales, not used cars, but still I am in sales, which generally means a bit of customer coddling (not cuddling, although one of my more attractive customers has been flirting with me ever since I told her I had given up the idea of dating . . .ugh, women!?!). Last week, one of my favorite customers was "in a mood", and decided to berate my company and my boss (oddly, everyone seems to like yer monkster).

"Your boss is a @$&$#!" he said, about a recent decision my paycheck signer had made.

As , I have said before, I very much like and respect my boss, and me thinks I was also in a bit of a mood as well.
"Actually, what he did may have not been to your liking, but there was no malice behind it" explained I.

"Well, he's still a friggin' $#%&@!" he again commented.

O.K., I am from Baltimore, so I gently explained "Keeping in mind, that you are cursing him even after I explained there was no intention to 'cause you harm, I would hafta to say the definition of &#$%^^@! seems to fit you better in this instance"

He glared at me, than laughed "yeah, I guess your right, sorry"

Sometimes, backing down is good, sometimes it's not (o;
of course this customer was a friend, and didn't spend much $ anyway, so if he woulda gotten peeved, it wouldn't have been a great loss to our corporate pockets.
.

4 comments:

David Nybakke said...

You say "Not my Best Sales Approach" and I say, no I think it was your best approach. Being a 3rd generation salesman and owner of a mom & pop (my grandpa and grandma started business in '32) retail store I would say that the best sales people are those who make friends and are then are honest with them.

(At the beginning of your post, I am glad that you listed used cars sales as a catagory of sales that is usually looked down upon and not the catagory of vacuum cleaner sales.)

D'artagnan said...

The friend part of my sales approach came rather easy, but the blatant honesty took a little time.

What's a vacuum cleaner? How would you even clean a vacuum? or why?

sorry, single guy here, and as Quentin Crisp once said "after the first four years, the dust doesn't get any worse" (O:

Paul Cat said...

Hey Mike,

Tough job. Buying my RAV 4 this week was the most stressful experience in my life. I'm glad I won't have to do that again for 7-10 years. I'm trying to figure what RAV stands for at the moment.

D'artagnan said...

Well CRV, stands for this monksters Christian Rock Vehicle (O: