One Bad Salesperson Can Lose You a Lot More Than One $500 Sale

It doesn’t happen very often.  But I’m ticked off.  

It was time for me to get a new laptop, and I’d been looking
forward to it for awhile. It’s exciting, even though I wasn’t buying high end. I
had $500 to spend, or maybe a bit more if I fell in love.

Right after the store opened on a Monday morning I trotted
into a well recommended store. I’d studied their helpful website for a couple
weeks, and done my other research. I was ready to shop, make a decision and get
out the door.  I figured I wasn’t going
to spend a lot, but I wasn’t going to take much of anybody’s time, either.  (Marketing if anything, teaches empathy for
salespeople.) 

My 30+ year career in advertising and marketing has revolved
around luring people out of the house and into specific stores with messages of
good values and experiences.  Driving
store traffic is difficult and expensive. 
Need we mention today’s economy? Didn’t think so.

So I was kind of
thinking this store would be glad to see me and my humble $500.  I was thinking that this might actually be,
dare I say – fun!  Not this time. The
Sales Dude who approached me in the laptop corner clearly didn’t care.  I wanted one of the laptops displayed, but it
was out of stock. He wasn’t sure when or if it would be restocked. He informed
me they didn’t have a laptop in the screen size I wanted in my budget, which
was in conflict with the impression I had from the website. He oozed boredom
while I wondered if he’d spent too much time watching Sunday football with his
friends Captain Morgan and Jack.  

I’m a hasty sort, and I wanted to get the buying ordeal over
with. I agreed on a model with a smaller screen. Needing a mouse, I was pointed
to that aisle. While looking at mice, I realized I didn’t want that laptop and
I didn’t want to negotiate for anything with Sales Dude.  I went to tell him, couldn’t find him and walked
out.

It took less than fifteen minutes.

This isn’t a new story. But it reminds me how tough it is to
get new customers and how easy it is to ruin the chance to build a relationship
with one. 

Fresh in my mind? I wanted this relationship to occur. I
wanted to have fun at the store. I wanted the Sales Dude to help me feel good
about my modest laptop. I wanted to start a relationship. I wanted to fall in
love, so to speak.

But we broke up before we even got started. I wonder what
that cost corporate?  Today the consumer
has a lot of choices and does her research before she comes in. You need to
make sure your corporate story is the same at every customer touch point. A bad
sales experience doesn’t just reflect poorly on that individual, it reflects
poorly on you – and chances are, more than a few people are going to hear about
it.

Personally, I can’t wait to tell my friends.  And name names. 

Sandra Matthews, looking for love in all the wrong places – or at least one wrong place.