Drew McLellan brought up an interesting topic in his recent “Marketing Minute” blog: Can the ethusiasm of sales people actually undermine their attempts to increase sales?
Speaking from personal experience, I am terrified of sales people. This all starts with the minute you walk into a retail store. You always sense right away if they are working on commission when sales attendants hover over you like a hawk. The over-the-top enthusiasm and attentiveness creates an unbearing stress bubble. I often flee right away if I feel the anticipation for a sale in the store is too high, and there have been countless times when the sales attendents, whose jobs are to lure customers into buying, have actually been the force to drive me away.
While I understand that a considerable amount of people rely on sales attendents to provide them with information and demostrations that lead to a sale, in the words of Drew, “you have to find a way to know who your real audience is, capture their attention, market consistently and have something of value to share/teach often enough that you stay on their radar screen until they’re ready to buy.”
It takes time for a consumer to be ready to make the purchase decision, and the consumer behaviour theory states that an individual goes through psychological, social, and purchasing situation influences before they open their wallets. Continuing to push them in attempt to accelerate this process will only drive them away.
Futhermore, I’ve experienced an abundant of occurences when sales people emit negative attitudes such as disappointment and humiliation to customers. This is often the case when you try on a couple of items and either it doesn’t correspond with your self-concept, or may not be approved by your social reference group, and you decide to pass. Sales people tend to take this personally and punish you for wasting their time and efforts by acting drastically different from the kindness you experienced initially. What they fail to realize is that although the customer did not purchase THIS time, it doesn’t mean the store is not in his/her evoked set: they just jeoporadized future profit for short-term loss.