Buy, Buy, Buyer... or Bye-bye, Buyer?

"You are now working in a garment store and not in a restaurant, so stop saying 'Today's Special is...' to the customers!"

Bit of confusion there?

A touch of ambiguity?

Look, shops are getting glossier by the minute – designed to attract, seduce, and induce amnesia over previous spending sprees.

Good plan...except, you shop guys really need to up the ante on one very important component.

Salespeople.

Now you can dress them up ‘globally’ all you want, but the proof of this particular pudding is in the... er... selling.

And completely clueless salespeople who have no idea what they’re selling, or even why they’re there, kind of spoil things.

A judicious combination of friendliness, non-condescending expertise, gentle persuasion and, very important, knowing when to back off...and the buyer is hooked.

Indifference, a don’t-know-don’t-care attitude, choosing personal cell phone calls over customers – not on, sellers, not on.

This includes those salespeople who seem to be labouring under some secret sorrow, mumbling monosyllabic answers, making customers feel like heartless beasts, capable of being jolly at a funeral.

And those who walk around as if they’re hiding something horrific... like they’ve just murdered the floor manager, and stashed his body behind the 50%-off shelves.

Sellers, staffing is your responsibility.

Mere glitter, as the man said, doesn’t mean gold.

And you’ll see none of the customer’s either.

It’s a competitive world, sellers.

Wise up.