Why are the vehicles locked at all? Why not just have some open demos? You could still have salespeople or a security person watching discretely for damage or theft.
Or how about putting some kind of viewing platforms next to the windows so people can step up and peer in?
If I couldn’t browse a lot without having to get somebody to keep opening every vehicle I’d probably leave. I just don’twant to be accompanied while I’m looking.
Chefguy I am happy to be a idiot elsewhere. I sure don’t want to be an idiot in front of an asshole. Guess what with a little education I could overcome my idiocy, while you will still be an asshole.
Please go back and re-read the entire thread. You’re creating a circular argument. Your final sentence is something I would never say to a customer. Not answer questions? Salesman suicide.
I have no idea what the commission is on a $100K RV. Neither does the sales manager or the general manager or the owner until the month-end invoices are reconciled. Seriously. MY commission is 25% of the commissionable gross (after the dealership backs out the overhead costs and other expenses). So if the profit is, say, $6,000 and the pack (overhead) is 7%, then the commissionable gross is $5,580. I would get 25% of that, unless someone helped me with the sale, in which case I would get 12.5%.
Are these “just looking” people pulling you away from a serious pricing negotiation/closing or making you hang up the phone while you are proactively cold-calling customers to earn your mortgage payment? Or are you just standing around?
The lot is very large and we are located in an iffy part of town. We’ve had TVs, DVD players, CD players, etc. stolen out of vehicles that were inadvertantly left unlocked. In broad daylight, no less. Not being accompanied = no problem for me. Please re-read the thread.
askeptic: I’m truly sorry your mother didn’t breast feed you, and that incident where you were dropped on your head probably didn’t help. Please go fuck yourself.
Jeebus.
Remind me to never open a thread where I bitch about the people whom I serve in my job.
That would be all of you-I’m a nurse.
Cut the OP some slack-it sounds to me like he wanted to vent about the daily irritants at work. Don’t we all?
Sheesh.
(I cannot stand RV’s, so I’ll never be a customer, Chefguy --but I also won’t waste your time! 
).
I’m guessing that a lot of people don’t have a clue where to start when it comes to RVs. Maybe they think they might like one, but don’t really know. They fear a salesperson might pressure them into a purchase that they’re not ready to make (whether this fear is rational is a separate issue).
To me, the best response a salesperson can give at this point is: “Well, I’m Chefguy, here’s my card. I’d be glad to show you around or answer any questions if you have them. Until then I’ll just let you take a look.”
Something along this line sends them the message that they’re not going to get a hard sell from you. If you can point them to sources of information so that they can educate themselves, all the better. If a salesperson is courteous and helpful when I’m in presales mode then I’ll go out of my way to seek him or her out when I am ready (which could be minutes, days, weeks, etc). You might even ask them a few clarifying questions that will give you an idea of where they are in the purchase cycle: “Do you have an idea of what you’re looking for?” “What will you be looking to do with an RV?” etc. Again, light on the pressure. But it might help you to steer them in the right direction. Then give them some more space so that they don’t feel pressured.
Come to think of it, it is a bit like fishing…
OK, I guess I didn’t read the OP quite closely enough. I agree that in your line of business the customer probably requires assistance; whether they know it or not. Still, if I were going to buy an RV (I’m not), I’d educate myself before setting foot on a lot. I’d know (roughly) the price ranges and what to expect in each. If I need help right now – if I’m not still trying to figure out what price range a certain RV is in, and what external characteristics I’m getting for tht price (the price is marked on the outside, right?) – I’ll damn well ask (for RVs, I suppose the most likely things like size and spaciousness – these are notoriously hard to determine for cars when looking at ads or at the Internet, so I expect the same is true for RVs – but I’m not buying so I haven’t educated myself, so I don’t know). If I’m not asking then I’m still forming an impression. Among other things, I’m trying to get an impression of the place and the people involved – not necessarily only the merchandise itself! So refusing to take an “I’m looking” response from me is probably going to be counter-productive for you. Maybe not so for other customers. I repeat – know thy customer. Don’t assume they’re all the same.
And anyway, I’m confused. If time is not at a premium for you, then it is the one resource you should be more than willing to spend even if the return rate on it isn’t all that high. What, would you rather read a book for the next half hour if you think the guy looking around isn’t more than, say, 3% liekly to buy? I don’t get it.
Also, while this is the pit, I really hope you don’t come off as impatient with any kind of criticism IRL, as you appear to be coming off toward some of the (possibly more snarky) posters to this thread.
Dani
Yeah, I’m a little surprised by the reaction to a workplace frustration, but salesmen have a deserved bad name. For many years, everyone followed a sales method invented around the turn of the century. People became more sophisticated, but the techniques remained the same 80 years later. What’s being taught now is a complete reversal of the old “what’ll it take to put you behind the wheel today?” ploy. Our dealership uses the Sobel system of sales training, which is completely customer oriented. Communicating that to the public is word-of-mouth, and suspicion still abounds (as witnessed in this thread). We’re only now figuring out what the Japanese have known for centuries: it’s what you cultivate for the future that will pay dividends.
Chefguy, I have as much respect for good salespersons and I have contempt for bad ones, and it sounds like you’re one of the former.
The situation where you spend time with someone, and they end up buying somewhere else, has been mentioned a couple of times in this thread. What is your opinion on this situation:
Guy comes into your place. He’s clearly interested in buying an RV, and you spend an hour with him answering every question he has. You’ve pretty much got him sold on a 75k vehicle, but he wants to go home and discuss the purchase one last time with his wife.
That night, his wife goes online and finds the exact same model somewhere for 68k. Is he a jerk if he buys the cheaper one? Was your time worth $7k per hour from his point of view? What if he comes back to give you the opportunity of lowering your price, but you can’t? Do you resent him, or just shrug your shoulders?
I’ve always been curious about that sort of thing. I personally try to buy from salespeople who help me the most (and are the most friendly about it), all things being more-or-less equal. But sometimes the price difference is too much to ignore.
-P
You’re almost there.
I’ll never refuse to accept a ‘just looking’ response. If you don’t want to talk to me, that’s your right. However, if you don’t want to talk to me, but you want me to spend two hours opening vehicles so you can bitch about the price, it just ain’t happenin’.
However, if you are willing to talk with me only to the extent of identifying the product that will best suit what you intend to do with it, I’ll spend whatever time is necessary showing you that line of vehicles.
We don’t do resistance selling. We do what is called ‘downstream’ selling. You tell me what you want; I try to point you in that direction. If you don’t tell me squat, I don’t know how to help you, and opening 20 doors is not going to make things any better or assist you in a significant manner.
My only point in this feeble rant was to vent about the few customers who are a source of frustration to someone who is helpful by nature.
I always prefer establishments where the sales staff greet me with a casual ‘Hi, I’m Soandso. Take a look around, and let me know if you’ve got any questions or need any assistance.’ – and then make themselves visible and available when I go looking for them.
The one way to make sure I never spent my money on your product is to do just what other people in the thread have outlined - push yourself on me and make me feel like prey. That was a good way to describe it.
A guy who buys from someone else because they’re cheaper is not a jerk, he’s a smart consumer who has done his homework. While he didn’t buy from me, he may refer a friend to me because he liked the way he was treated. For what it’s worth, a $7K difference in price is usually irrelevant to someone who is financing the purchase. $7,000 means a monthly increase in payments of about $100 (if the term of the loan stays the same). An RV that costs $68,000 is going to mean a monthly nut of roughly $700, so another hundred isn’t always seen as a deal breaker, since the term of the loan can be extended to keep the payments down. Different story for a cash buyer.
Well, then, you are ranting at the impression of a bad customer-base. Based on your experience with the few truly lousy customers who create that impression of everyone.
Most of the reaction to your OP was caused by potential (or maybe not) customers who have a bad impression of all salespeople. Based on their experience with the few truly lousy salespeople who create that impression of all of them.
I think we’re even 
Agreed.
I react very badly to being sold to. Contact with some grubby salesdrone is precisely the best way to get me to NOT purchase your product. I will gather information. I will make up my own mind. I will not deal with some person to whom I’m just a walking commission who is trying to badger me or sell me up to something I don’t want. That’s one major reason I’m still driving my old car: I want all car salesmen to just drop dead, with their fake sincerity and false smiles, their constant lies and aggressive pushing. I hate being sold to, it’s fucking demeaning.
The only thing I want when I’m shopping is to be left the fuck alone until I’m ready to ask questions or buy something I’ve chosen for myself without the non-help of a salesman.
Did you read the thread? At Chefguys’ place, you can’t shop alone. The RVs are locked. You just want to wander around and look at the pretty colors?
You’re obviously in a niche where regrettable interaction with the salesforce is required (for security reasons, not for informational reasons). I suppose it’s good that I don’t have any interest in mobile homes or RVs – I’d never be able to buy anything if you had to hover around to unlock the doors. I’d never feel comfortable. Even having salespeople around me makes me nervous and unhappy.
I most often say “just looking” at places where I’ve gone for some specific item but I’m taking my own sweet time browsing the rest of the store, to see what else is about (the other day I went for a PC game for my bro and found a nice deal on photo paper).
When I need to do a Big Buy (home, car), I begin by doing a “just look” in several places to get a feel for the market, then pick a few and move into “hi, I’d like to see this one and this other one”. I’ve even been known to move from “just looking” to “hi, I want to buy that car” with no salesman intervention (the model was far superior to anything else in its size and this particular one was priced ultracheap because it had been used in a show).
When I say “just looking” and they take it well, they get extra points for it: I’m more likely to come back to that store. If they insist they lose points. One Peugeot salesman grabbed me by the arm (not in a violent way, but also not in a way I could disengage without violence) and made me listen to The Twenty Reasons Why Their Second Most Expensive Model was perfect for me… did I mention I have a Toyota?
Sometimes a person who is trying to be helpful can come across as pushy, I know it’s happened to me. Best wishes and may you sell lots of stuff to people who think they got a good deal… a month later
OK, they’re locked. Don’t they have any kind of paper listing info? I like looking at the numbers first and the pretty colors second.
Given the nature of the thing you are selling, I think you just need to suck it up. At some point the customer is not going to know much at all. Further research is the next step. Further research in my case involves getting a good look and feel of what is out there, something that cannot be done on the internet.
This involves, as you say, a guided tour. It’s your perogative to say no. In my case, this will involve me buying the item somewhere else. You need to weigh up the costs and benefits of each approach. But please quit whining about what is a completely rational strategy on the customer’s side. Don’t like spending half the day opening or closing RV doors? Sell speedboats!