What kind of pre-judments do you have about sales people when you go to make a major purchase?

that they are a necessary evil….. don’t answer his questions flutherers, he is only going ot use this knowledge to sell you computers you don’t want with protection plans you don’t need!

haha disregard kyle

I always ask if they work on commission…just so I know.
If they work on commission, they’re going to be more motivated to get me to spend money. That’s not their fault, it’s just true.

I prepare for more sales pitching than there are people in the world.

@leftleh It is true, I work on commission, and it makes a lot of sense more me to sell more, and particular items…but I will say this, I will not sell someone something they can’t put to good use.

They hardly suprise me and make the buying experience enjoyable. Customer service has unfortunately gone a bit down the drain. At least it seems as though it does as soon as I walk into the store. I’m always a bit apprehensive when going anywhere, even it if is to make a small purchase.
Also, it doesn’t help when the sales person is more excited for me to buy something than I am. It isn’t genuine, they are just waiting on the commission from my purchase.

They’re all sharks to me.

@ hotpockets and petethepothead Anything sales people can do to help change the way you feel?

I personally feel rather genuine when I sell anything, and try my best to personalize a whole sale for someone….though when someone comes in with a huge negative pre-assessment of me, it makes my job really hard, and they get irritated pretty quick when I might ask a few questions.

I always like salespeople who are entirely up front with me better. An example would be telling me that for my needs, I don’t need the $200 printer even if the salesperson gets more commission. Also, being personal helps. I want the salesperson to be a PERSON, not a salesrobot. Tell me your wife used to have this camera and hated it or that your dog just loves to play with the cord on this scanner. I’ll appreciate it.

I assume they are poorly paid. That means they are usually not the top-notch personnel. he good people left and got other jobs.

I hate that nowadays stores are so poorly staffed I have to hunt for someone to help me.

Salespersons rarely exceed my expectations.

I think the answer to this question depends largely on what I’m buying. For instance, buying a car? I’m prepared to not like the salesperson, and go in ready for battle (though I have been incorrect on this point, and pleasantly surprised – once.) Buying a gift for a friend, I’d be much more likely to view the salesperson as a valuable knowledge base to help me choose just the right thing. Like Lefteh, I appreciate honesty, and a genuine desire to match me up to the product that best suits my needs, and will reward such behavior with more purchases in the future.

@ Marina I know that a sales person that doesn’t work on commission probably isn’t well paid…but a good sales person who is consistent will make decent money…I am only 23 years old, and not out of college yet, and working part time I make about 40k a year. I consider myself fortunate to have the position I have though.

Best Buy, and Circuit City are full of kids who are lazy, and don’t have the motivation to really help people all day long (retail is stressful). I’ll say not all of the Best Buy and Circuit City guys are like that…but I’d say the vast majority of them are.

@RMd Good point.

I am immediately leery of car salespeople, Realtors, and mortgage brokers. Car salespeople tend to surprise me because they usually back off once they realize I have purchased cars before and they aren’t going to squeeze me. Realtors and mortgage brokers never ever surprise me, they always seem to want to sneak in fees and pad their income. I just always assume they don’t have my best interest at heart and I go over every single fee and all the documents before I sign anything.

As for retail salespeople such as those fellas at Best Buy and Circuit City, I just assume they don’t really care one way or another, so I go in having done my research and expecting to make the choice on my own. That is usually the way it turns out, I am very rarely surprised by exceptional service.

I’m not entirely sure that there IS anything a salesperson can do about lowering my apprehension. I come into the store with that feeling and even if my salesperson is nice and energetic I still leave with that feeling. The only thing any salesperson can do is just follow the customer service guidelines and keep up a positive attitude no matter the customer’s attitude.
It’s sad really, that we live in a world where we can’t be nice anymore without having an underlying feeling of “Why are they being nice? What do they want from me??” Even if it IS genuine, people will still have that in the back of their heads. A lot of us (not all) have become little cynics at an early age and just can’t shake it as we get older.

These days, since I’m a salesperson myself, I try to be as nice as possible to the salesperson when I’m a customer. I understand that they probably get crappy shifts, not enough money and all kinds of stupid jobs in between reaching an impossible sales target or something of the like because that is what is expected of me, and really, it gets to me. I can understand that it does get hard and sometimes you feel like you can’t be bothered, and sometimes through no fault of your own you can’t help the customer. Some of the customers I’ve dealt with… grr. It works both ways people :P When I am the customer and it is a major purchase, however, I do make sure I’m talking to some one who is genuine and knows their stuff, because everyone deserves that. If a customer asks me something that I cannot genuinely help them with without bluffing my way through the sale, I go and get one of my colleagues who can. I would expect that from a salesperson I approach as a customer too. To summarise, all I expect is a helpful nature, genuineness and honesty, because that is what I strive to provide to my customers.

@shrub Good point about the customers. It can sometimes be a thankless job to be a salesperson.

My usual expectation of salespeople is that they won’t know what I’m looking for as well as I do, and if they’re working on commission, they’ll push the most expensive option as hard as they can.

I have yet to be surprised to the contrary. In a best-case scenario, the salesperson doesn’t argue with me about what I want to buy and doesn’t spend 15 minutes trying to sell me the next model up and an extended warranty before ringing up my purchase.

And I have walked out of stores before when they tried the hard sell. See, if I say that what I’m looking for is a CD jukebox in the $200—$300 range, and every model you show me costs more than $500, you aren’t listening to me. And that makes you worse than useless, because you’re just in my way.

(I bought the CD jukebox elsewhere. The store has long since gone out of business.)

depends on what type of sales.

Car sale people talk down to women, esp if you come in alone. They act like you should be there with a man. I’ve also left a dealership after they started bashing the other car models I was looking at. I ended up buying a car from a female sales person… at a dealership on the other side of town.

I don’t like pushy sales people. I will walk away, no matter what it is.

If I don’t like the person (if i get a vibe about them, like they think I’m an idiot or something), I’ll walk away. Have even gone to another store in a chain because I didn’t like the sales person.

I just changed banks because I hated this particular teller and got her every freaking time. Even when I went in the drive thru. She was an old German bitch and always looked at me like she thought I was the scum of the earth. I’m a pretty friendly person, but she was always a crab-ass.