Death of a Salesman

Today was Daddy-Daughter Day Part 2: Return of the Shopping Spree. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? I took Chani to one of the largest malls in the metro-DC area because she had a gift card left over from Christmas for abercrombie kids.

With the local economy and retail sales both on downward trends, I expected to find store associates and managers eager to make a sale. Instead, I found that salesmanship is dead.

I would consider myself a former expert in retail and restaurant sales. I was a sales leader throughout my career as a District Manager for Starbucks, and there were several ways I directed and taught my people to drive sales and enhance the customer experience.

First, the manager's presence must be felt whether she was in the store or not. I expected managers to be visible to the customers and associates, and I directed them to be on the sales floor interacting with customers the majority of the time. If the manager was not in the store, then the shift leader was to act in a similar manner. Today, I couldn't tell you who was in charge of any of the stores we visited.

Second, customers were to be greeted as soon as they walked through the door. I also expected an associate to personally greet every customer face-to-face within 60 seconds. I trained employees to ask 'open-ended' questions, so that they could determine exactly what the customer needed. Then, they were to make appropriate recommendations. I did not expect them to be pushy, and if a customer wanted to be left alone, then the associate could move on to someone else. Today, we were often greeted by employees working from behind the cash register; however, even if they didn't have a customer, no one came out to talk to us or ask any specific questions about what we were there to buy.

*Note: Anytime an employee asks me, "Can I help you find anything today?" I habitually say, "No, I'm just looking." Most customers say this at first, then proceed to give you tons of buying signals that are never addressed. If an employee picks up on this with me, I always reward them with a purchase, assuming they don't recommend something crazy that I don't need.

Third, I trained people to recognize buying signals, like picking things off the shelf, holding several other shopping bags, telling you who or what they were shopping for, or asking you for help or a recommendation. Today, there wasn't a single sales person who recognized our buying signals and took advantage of those opportunities to increase sales by providing other good recommendations. Apparently, it is more important to fold clothes, stock shelves or talk on the phone than help customers.

Fourth, the people who worked for me knew how to ask for the sale. They didn't beat around the bush or leave customers hanging in the wind. If someone was ready to buy, my people understood that the final step was to ask the customer to meet them at the register. Today, three different stores didn't even have the registers manned when we were ready to check out. How insane is that? No manager; no greeting; no assistance on the sales floor; no recommendations; and now, no one to ring us up.

I wonder if the future of retail shopping will eliminate the need for employees altogether? Malls will become self-service shopping centers, and the only people you will see working are those cleaning the bathrooms. Is it any wonder why so many people have turned to shopping online?

My wife Lori says that I'm overly critical of negative shopping experiences, and she's a retail district manager of a shoe company (the majority of her stores are very good though).

The fact is that salesmanship is dead. Nobody works on commission anymore, and nobody cares about outstanding customer service. Even the Starbucks we went to today sucked! Most Dads hate to go shopping because we don't have the patience to deal with poor customer service, and we experience it all of the time.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Please tell me that I'm not crazy (or anal) about this topic.

Related Posts:

Daddy Daughter Day - Shopping and a Movie
Shopping with Dad is a Different Experience