Don't be this salesman

On Christmas Eve I drove to Best Buy to get myself a Christmas present, a sound bar for our TV.  I had done some research and had two model numbers written on a piece of paper that I was interested in.  Soon after walking into the correct department a young salesman asked if he could help me.  I asked him to show me my first choice of a sound bar which he did.  However, almost as soon as we got to it he began telling me the flaws in that model.  That surprised me a little as it had been one of the highest rated sound bars on the Best Buy website.  He offered to show me a better one in the same price range which turned out to be my second choice.  After spending a couple of minutes telling me about its features I told him I would take it.  He then told me he didn't think they had any in stock!  He spoke with another salesman who came over and told me they had just sold the last one earlier in the day.  Of course, he offered to order one and didn't seem too pleased when I told him I could order one myself.

It being Christmas Eve I wasn't bothered by the fact that they had sold out of that model.  What was so bad was that no one even asked if I would be interested in the first one I had looked at or another one in the same price range.  Why in the world would the salesman try to talk me into buying a different sound bar than the one I asked about knowing that they didn't have any in stock?  I drove one hour to that store with the intention of spending $300.00, and I walked out of the store with that $300.00 still in my pocket because two salespeople do not have a clue how to sell.

Sales is difficult enough without talking yourself out of the sale.  It is one thing to try to talk a customer into an upgrade.  If he or she is not interested you can always return to the item they are interested in purchasing, but to lose a sale trying to make a lateral sale is stupid.  A smart salesperson would have affirmed the positive qualities of the product I asked about and sold it to me.  If there were no positive qualities about that product then, first of all it should not be carried in the store, and secondly he should have pointed me to a product they actually had in stock.

Some might be wondering why I didn't ask about buying my first choice after the one was not available or why I didn't ask about other models that were available.  I considered it, but I don't feel it's my job to train the salespeople at Best Buy on how to do sales.  By the end of the week I will be in a different city near me with many stores like Best Buy and I'll buy my sound bar at one of them.  That store will get my $300.00.

Would your salespeople know how to have handled this potential sale?  Why don't you run this scenario by them and see how they would have responded?  You may need to do some training of your own if they don't respond properly.