Are all sales people arseholes?

[sdrawkcab]

In the last 20 years I've only met 2 sales people that can;

1 Do their own demonstrations
2 Know the product they are selling
3 Help out on Installations
4 Do the Key Operater training

The rest, well i wondered why so many salesmen wear slipon shoes, and then I realised

They can't tie their own shoe laces.

[slybot]

In the last 20 years I've only met 2 sales people that can;

1 Do their own demonstrations
2 Know the product they are selling
3 Help out on Installations
4 Do the Key Operater training

The rest, well i wondered why so many salesmen wear slipon shoes, and then I realised

They can't tie their own shoe laces.

LOL amen to that. makes you wonder why we bother

[fixthecopier]

If I sell, I get 10% less commission than a salesman. I sold a copier to an office that had one of ours and needed another. The owners brother sold the first one and claimed them as his customer, so the owner gave him half of my commission. I got 10% and he got 20%. He then fucked up the build and had a fax kit put on that I had to go into the field and remove in front of the customer. So yes, they are all a bunch of asswipes. I had a short job trying to sell manufactured housing and the stories about scum for salespeople are a lot worse than copier salespeople.

[pjdbm]

Sales people are greedy and cut throat so the question should be:

Is a Greedy cut throat human an asshole?


why yes IMHO

[KenB]

I think that 90% of them are pretty much useless.

The key is to find the 10% who actually are worthwhile.

[smostyn]

The characteristics that make a good salesman, would make a terrible technician and vice versa. This is not the case 100% of the time, but it certainly is the case for around 95% of the time.
For the most part, the salesmen will do what they consider the most effective way to get the sale (which is their job). For the most part, they live for the "now" not for the ongoing life of the gear (like what makes a good tech).
I have met some absolute tools as salesmen, but also some halfwitted technicians as well.
The sales vs service culture that exists in this industry will always be there I believe. It used to really get to me as a service manager. The best way IMHO is to best educate yourself on human "'tells" like body language. I now befriend EVERY salesman I work with and learn their tells when they lie. I don't make a big deal of it with them, but I do what I can to make sure the customer either doesnt get poor service from my company because of a lie, or doesnt become the discoverer of the lie. I will sometimes tell the salesman some thing like "mate you know you screwed the customer on this, they are now asking me xxxxx... you had better go and deal with that.
I believe the salesmen will much rather deal with these types of things themselves, rather than have a tech throw them in it.

There will unfortunately be the salesmen who dont give a hoot and wont care if they get caught out, dont care if they are ripping off a customer or technician or dont care what people think of them. In my experience, I have found that these salesmen dont hang around too long at a reasonably ethical company, which is where I would like to work.

[blackcat4866]

Personally I think salespeople are all of what you said:
1) I end up doing most product demonstrations, because most of our salespeople will not bother to learn the equipment. I guess the equipment is not enough incentive.
2) Like #1, they don't learn the equipment, mainly because I do it when they don't/won't.
3) Most of the time our salespeople provide better obstacles than assistance. "Couldn't we just do this extra work for nothing ... ". The only useful purpose I observed is running interference when an installation is going wrong.
4) Same as #1 & #2.

I don't think this makes them assh0les. It just makes them lazy. And I'm enabling them by doing their job when they don't. On the other hand, I don't hesitate to point out that I'll be expecting the commission, if I'm handling the sale. This quiets them down pretty quickly. =^..^=

[Gibraltar's Ghost]

many of the sales reps from all the companies out there I have met certainly are assholes, they can't shut up and leave me alone when I say I already have what I need to do the job and I am happy with what I have. What part of "there's the fucking door" do they not understand?

Don't call me anymore, if I want something, I'll rattle the chain in the toilet.

[Dark Helmet]

Most of them are yes.

I can handle the not know the product all that well and shitty demos and then the customer always asking me for the help. I accept that. Fact is we know the machine at a different level than they ever will. At the end of the day when you crunch the numbers and a sales man is being productive he's probably making the company 200+ a hour where we charge out what 80 per hour on non contract stuff? So im ok with that IF they are doing their job making good for the company.

What i don't find acceptable is the end of the month rush. I got 6 machines to install, all the customers need them really really badly when in reality he just wants his commission. Then when you do pull through for him on the big rush the customers site is not ready. Things like no network jack, proper power or the fucking computers are locked out and the IT guy is no where to be seen. Your 1 hour install has turned into a 3 hour ordeal. The best is when they ask you in front of the customer to make a cable and try to make you look like the bad guy if you say no even when they know (in our province) that it is not legal to string cable through a customers roof or wall with out the proper license.

When i do installs before the sales rep gets his turn i go over the machine for clearing jams, using charger cleaners, changing toner etc that way i know it's done right. After that i take off.

The old line, "The salesman said this will work" is easy to get around. "Talk to your sales rep". Let him fumble with it, come back to you and you can tell him no it is not possible and he can tell the customer that.

[KenB]

...What i don't find acceptable is the end of the month rush. I got 6 machines to install, all the customers need them really really badly when in reality he just wants his commission. Then when you do pull through for him on the big rush the customers site is not ready. Things like no network jack, proper power or the fucking computers are locked out and the IT guy is no where to be seen.

My all time favorite pet peeve, although I do have to say that quite often it's the even more annoying sales managers that are pushing the end of month insanity even harder than the reps are.

[blackcat4866]

... but I do what I can to make sure the customer either doesnt get poor service from my company because of a lie, or doesnt become the discoverer of the lie. I will sometimes tell the salesman some thing like "mate you know you screwed the customer on this, they are now asking me xxxxx... you had better go and deal with that.
I believe the salesmen will much rather deal with these types of things themselves, rather than have a tech throw them in it.

IMHO it's a lot easier to do the demo, and set reasonable expectations, than to go out a week later and try to explain that the salesman was ill informed (or was just making shit up as he went along). =^..^=

[NeoMatrix]

IMHO it's a lot easier to do the demo, and set reasonable expectations, than to go out a week later and try to explain that the salesman was ill informed (or was just making shit up as he went along). =^..^=

::: The Hierachy of Customer Relations. :::

The Manufacture Tries to Keep Customers Happy which helps keep the customers business looking good.
|
|_DealerShip tries to keep the Manufacturer Happy and Looking Good.
|
|_ Bosses try to keep Dealership happy and looking good
|
|_ Salesmen try to keep the bosses happy and looking good
|
|_ Tech's try to keep the Salesmen happy and looking good.
|
|_ Office staff try to keep the Tech's happy and looking Good.

Well!, given the above hierachy chain, it's not hard to see where some one is eventually going to get their nose out of joint.

"Life was meant to be easy", people make it hard....

[ToshibaTech]

1.) I think most of them are idiots, what I will call the "bad salesmen."

The "good salesmen" fall into two other categories:
2.) Those who are full of BS and "yes" answers.
3.) Those who actually know what the heck they are doing and do it well.

I think the numbers of each also follow in order from biggest so smallest 1, 2, 3.

[kingpd@businessprints.net]

I think it all depends on the specific individual. Maybe the nature of the job gets to a lot of them. I definitely don't envy the whole tedious process that is involved in making the sale, especially for copiers, in this day and age. It's not easy.

The best thing I believe is that everyone in the organization realize that every person and function is essentially and connected in this circle. Sales must sell things for service people to have something to fix to keep customers happy and using machines to make money to enable sales people to sell machines again at a future date. Throw into that mix the other jobs as well from the secretaries to the person that has to clean the shitters. In other words, it's a team effort.

[NeoMatrix]

1.) I think most of them are idiots, what I will call the "bad salesmen."

The "good salesmen" fall into two other categories:
2.) Those who are full of BS and "yes" answers.
3.) Those who actually know what the heck they are doing and do it well.

I think the numbers of each also follow in order from biggest so smallest 1, 2, 3.

The true and final MO (modus operandi) of all salesman :

There is not one salesmen on this planet who really sells anything at all.
::: All salesmen only sell good feelings to the customer. :::

If the customer feels "good" about the object they will buy it. If the customer feels "great" about the object they will buy two.

A good salesmen knows how to make any customer believe they can get happy feelings from any material object. The salesmen really only sells the sizzle, He does not sell the steak. Once all salesmen know and understand the above true fact they can sell anything from ice cubes to Eskimos through to Rocketships to martians.

The sizzle is the only thing worth selling, because every single material thing in is on the march to into ground, except the ground itself. The sizzle is really the only thing left.

Ah! but once the sizzle turns to fizz, the customer in turn would like to feel happy again. It's then the job of the salesmen to once again sell them some more sizzle feelings. So you will always notice that a good salesmen will only ever tell the customer exactly what they wanted to hear. Does this make it a lie to the customer ? Some say it does, but every single person foremost is lying to themselves first by believing that material objects can make them happy. The Salesmen is just affirming the lie they already believe about themselves and material object happiness.


BTW, I'm not a salesmen....