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ok so I know sometimes things bend me out of shape when they shouldn't and I say stupid shit sometimes because of that. Further I'm not actually good with people, this surprises people I know because I've learned how to fake it when I'm not in a small group where I don't have to care what I say. Everyday when I come home I have to decompress after dealing with people all day. The way I've learned to fake it is formula, on the sales floor dealing with people I have a fairly reasonable expectations of what is going to be said on both ends of the conversation, when something throws me off I can stall out for a minute sometimes. Now I've learned through enough practice what kind of works and what doesn't for selling stuff and I follow a fairly standard formula. I hit a fairly decent average, in fact recently they put up year to date stats of everyone's numbers I was third, the two people ahead of me were the one guy who works full time and has been at the store for years and handles a lot of big clients and the other guy has been at the store twice as long as I have. Basically the stats were about where you'd expect them to be. (stats are percentage based so it's not straight units sold so someone who joined a month ago and does well could be at the top). Now these stats are based on what we personally write down in the sales tracking books so if someone didn't write down bad sales it could inflate their numbers, not saying anyone does this though. I am fairly diligent and do my best to write down my sales so my numbers should be fairly accurate.
So there is this training called inspired selling, and for some it's good advice but not so much for others. The issue is there seems to be an attitude on it needing to be followed right away period, I finally got a couple managers to realize that it aint gonna work for me. The issue is that the program is about changing your formula and breaking it up and trying new things. Well I did, and I tanked hard because I would not know what to do next, my train of thought got derailed every couple minutes in the conversation and I just couldn't do a shift like that. After a couple weeks I was not doing as well as I usually did and it lead to my manager trying an interesting tactic, outlined here http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=89371
That basically made me realize I need to just stop caring what they say and do it my way, and try to integrate some of the advice gradually. Well that combined with a conversation with that manager clearing the air a bit (read me accepting that he doesn't get why what he did was wrong and it's not a battle I'll win) lead to me improving my performance and getting back to being second or third depending on things went that week.
Now the issue is to help improve sales there are things that show up every couple weeks that are little things we're supposed to do to try and sell more stuff. My problems with these are twofold, first these are usually in marketing speak and honestly I find marketing speak to be really condescending and also it means changing the pattern and adding an extra step. For example a few weeks ago when I was in there was a thing going on called Flyer Criar, where we pick an item in the flyer and try to sell that to every customer in the store that we talk to. Then we tell the manager what it is and at the end of the day we report how many we sold. So I pick a couple items and do my best to shoehorn into the conversation selling them. Now I only outright sold a couple of the items but unrelated I had three great computer sales that weren't impacted by the stupid thing anyways. I will give credit that my manager definitely gives positive feedback. Here's the thing he never followed up on the flyer criar thing later at all after making a big deal out of it that morning. Which I understand why they did it but it felt to me like it didn't matter.
Another thing is even on a good sale I'll get criticized, which yes they're trying to help but they aren't on the floor as often as me and don't see the actual physical reaction to things. So when I offer the extended warranty on something and then offer the accidental on top after they've agreed to it rather than one solid price I know what I'm doing. They don't see the change in expression on teh customer's face from even mentioning it so I have to ease into it. So when even though I still sold it I get spoken to about my approach these feel like sometimes they are getting in my way. I'm not perfect but sometimes it feels like it would be better if they just let me do it my way, I know they can't always do that but it really frustrates me.
Why all this long backstory?
So this morning during the morning meeting the manager was bragging about the sales he made yesterday, and he was pointing out that in the sales stats he is now top of the list. Then he turns to me and points out in front of the group that I am now fourth (I think there's probably about 8 or 9 of us in the department) and I'm able to guess exactly who is between us (the two mentioned before). So basically he's kind of, in a joking manor, tore me down a little publicly. He didn't do it intentionally but he has a juvenile streak to him and honestly I tend to overread into things he says. Also a couple things if I looked at number of units sold I bet I've sold significantly more than him (I don't know for sure) because he is not doing nothing but selling, he hops out when we need help on a busy day basically. So a good sale will inflate the numbers more than one me.
So after the meeting he comes over to me and talks to me and wants me to make sure to try something extra today in my sales. Now the advice itself is not really bad advice and honestly it's not a big thing. However I was a little frustrated and I made a comment to a coworker about it and said in regards to it my comment about managers standing in my way. I was frustrated in general and latched on the recent example. The thing is she told the manager what I said. So I had a fun conversation with him then. I'm not really in any trouble over this, but just well first I'm not talking to that coworker again about stuff like this and second now I have to spend the next few days being extremely self concious about something stupid I did.
So there is this training called inspired selling, and for some it's good advice but not so much for others. The issue is there seems to be an attitude on it needing to be followed right away period, I finally got a couple managers to realize that it aint gonna work for me. The issue is that the program is about changing your formula and breaking it up and trying new things. Well I did, and I tanked hard because I would not know what to do next, my train of thought got derailed every couple minutes in the conversation and I just couldn't do a shift like that. After a couple weeks I was not doing as well as I usually did and it lead to my manager trying an interesting tactic, outlined here http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...ad.php?t=89371
That basically made me realize I need to just stop caring what they say and do it my way, and try to integrate some of the advice gradually. Well that combined with a conversation with that manager clearing the air a bit (read me accepting that he doesn't get why what he did was wrong and it's not a battle I'll win) lead to me improving my performance and getting back to being second or third depending on things went that week.
Now the issue is to help improve sales there are things that show up every couple weeks that are little things we're supposed to do to try and sell more stuff. My problems with these are twofold, first these are usually in marketing speak and honestly I find marketing speak to be really condescending and also it means changing the pattern and adding an extra step. For example a few weeks ago when I was in there was a thing going on called Flyer Criar, where we pick an item in the flyer and try to sell that to every customer in the store that we talk to. Then we tell the manager what it is and at the end of the day we report how many we sold. So I pick a couple items and do my best to shoehorn into the conversation selling them. Now I only outright sold a couple of the items but unrelated I had three great computer sales that weren't impacted by the stupid thing anyways. I will give credit that my manager definitely gives positive feedback. Here's the thing he never followed up on the flyer criar thing later at all after making a big deal out of it that morning. Which I understand why they did it but it felt to me like it didn't matter.
Another thing is even on a good sale I'll get criticized, which yes they're trying to help but they aren't on the floor as often as me and don't see the actual physical reaction to things. So when I offer the extended warranty on something and then offer the accidental on top after they've agreed to it rather than one solid price I know what I'm doing. They don't see the change in expression on teh customer's face from even mentioning it so I have to ease into it. So when even though I still sold it I get spoken to about my approach these feel like sometimes they are getting in my way. I'm not perfect but sometimes it feels like it would be better if they just let me do it my way, I know they can't always do that but it really frustrates me.
Why all this long backstory?
So this morning during the morning meeting the manager was bragging about the sales he made yesterday, and he was pointing out that in the sales stats he is now top of the list. Then he turns to me and points out in front of the group that I am now fourth (I think there's probably about 8 or 9 of us in the department) and I'm able to guess exactly who is between us (the two mentioned before). So basically he's kind of, in a joking manor, tore me down a little publicly. He didn't do it intentionally but he has a juvenile streak to him and honestly I tend to overread into things he says. Also a couple things if I looked at number of units sold I bet I've sold significantly more than him (I don't know for sure) because he is not doing nothing but selling, he hops out when we need help on a busy day basically. So a good sale will inflate the numbers more than one me.
So after the meeting he comes over to me and talks to me and wants me to make sure to try something extra today in my sales. Now the advice itself is not really bad advice and honestly it's not a big thing. However I was a little frustrated and I made a comment to a coworker about it and said in regards to it my comment about managers standing in my way. I was frustrated in general and latched on the recent example. The thing is she told the manager what I said. So I had a fun conversation with him then. I'm not really in any trouble over this, but just well first I'm not talking to that coworker again about stuff like this and second now I have to spend the next few days being extremely self concious about something stupid I did.
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