RV show sales employees disappoint

I admit, I am one who does not want a sales employee around me until I either have a question that can’t be answered by reading the information on the box or invoice or I am ready to buy. I do, however, expect, even want, a simple greeting followed by an I am here if you have any questions and I don’t mind if they volunteer less obvious information if I do ask questions. I don’t even mind if they approach me again as I leave. And I don’t expect them to immediately be available if they are with another customer.

AND I don’t want them to do their job, which is to sell their product to me – at least in the traditional manners:

– spouting things in a tone that indicates it has all been memorized and said by rote as if they were saying their multiplication tables, in other words: they have no real understanding or love of their product(s)

– talking in circles in an attempt to confuse

– playing off our comments in a manner that is soooo obvious they are trying to suck us in

I know:

– they have a job to do
– many are getting pressure from their bosses
– many are trying very hard to feed their families

But I also know many salespeople have lost so many sales by their actions, by assuming that every customer is stupid and can be conned RATHER THAN that a customer may ACTUALLY be intelligent and only lack a little knowledge of their product.

If they truly believe in their product and know it is a decent product, it will come out in their voice, in their attitude, in the way they present the information but only if they block the bull they are told (or want) to feed us. We will buy if we agree that it is a good product. Yes, there are things we may not know about their product that may make the difference in choosing one over another — that is information worth sharing, but they just need to share it, not attempt to ram it down our throats, not lie (yes, I have seen it done). If they don’t know the answer, they should just say so, not make it up, but. They could either call someone and get the answer or at least tell us how to get the answer.

Today we were at an RV show for 5 hours. We walked past and stopped at quite a few of the kiosks filled by vendors or resort employees. I have to say I was amazed at two things:

– How many times I heard an employee or owner or manager tell someone, “I don’t know.” They didn’t know their products or they didn’t know how the resort worked (or were told not to say ?). It was not good business. (One young woman, however, at least told the customer that if they called her in the office she would look up the information. Yes, it could have been a ploy to get them to call. . . since I did not hear what information she didn’t have.)

– How many times I heard or personally was told things I knew to be untrue because they did not know the answer and floundered around or tried to con me rather than saying, “I will try to find out for you.”

– How many times I saw an employee or owner or manager just sitting there not even attempting to make eye contact with anyone at all. It was not good business. Some may argue the point that if the customer planned on buying they would have approached them, but I know that many of those booths had products I did not even know were there had the person in the booth not spoken and gotten my attention.

There were a couple of pushy sales people there, but overall, the majority of sales people were either not where they could be found or standing in a group of three or four talking among themselves rather than being spread out among that particular dealer’s RVs. No smiled hellos, not even looking up when a customer walked by. (And no, this was not a momentary exchange of information.)

It may have been the last day of the show, but somehow I don’t think that would have made any difference. I can tell you that if our house were already sold, there was only one salesman that I will even consider approaching. That is a pathetic statistic in an RV show of that size. There MUST have been a couple more that showed a genuine interest in their customers that we missed encountering in FIVE hours – I hope so anyway!