I did see that; I guess I’m just not understanding how “I’m just looking” means “Please unlock all the vehicles for me”. Perhaps it is a waste of time not to, but then it’s the customers time to waste. I was just reacting to the phrase “I’m just looking”, because when I say that to a salesman, it literally means that I’d like him to leave me alone. Sometimes we’re just trying to get a feel for what’s out there, and maybe just want to peer in some windows without having to get the whole high-pressure spiel from the salesman. Those guys can be just utterly relentless.
I’m confused. Which is it? Do you have time to spend with somebody who may just be “browsing” to get an idea of what they want before allowing you to show them what works best with their life and budget, or can you only afford to spend time with someone who is definitely ready to buy right then and there, and not with someone who may need several visits and even to evaluate several salespeople to find one he is comfortable with?
Maybe your approach is a little too forceful If a salesperson approaches me and asks questions like “where will you be travelling”, or “how many people do you need to sleep” it turns me off. I never said I was travelling anywhere and I am just looking. Even if I know I’m buying I have to look by myself first. I might have tons of questions but I won’t ask that person. I hate being questioned but eventually I’ll ask what i need to know of a low pressure salesperson.
I’m more inclined to listen to a salesperson who doesn’t ask me questions but volunteers to show me about the product. Show me something that I couldn’t figure out by myself. Quickly point out how I can tell which ones have a cetain convenience feature and which don’t. Don’t act like you’re even selling, you’re informing.
Maybe approach the customer with “The motorhomes outside are locked I would be happy to show you any of them.” Or " There’s one over there just like the one you’re looking at but I think it’s nicer for a family because of xxxxxxx feature." Or “we don’t have samples of all the models inside, I could show you which ones outside are different”.
Pick some features that past actual customers were impressed with and say “It’s hard to see xxxx feature from out here, let me just show you a couple of things then I’ll leave you alone to look.” Then really leave them alone. You gave them something to think about, showed that you’re knowledgable and gave them some space. Once they’ve seen some of the different models and they start asking you questions then you can get some information from them.
Be excited about the product and act like you don’t care if they buy. Real enthusiasm sells, fake anything doesn’t. Pretend the motorhome is yours and you’re showing it to your neighbor instead of a customer.
Way to cherrypick what you want and leave the rest alone. I’m not going to synopsize all the posts in this thread for you.
I don’t care about your cat: Okay, since you don’t want to go back and read - ‘I’m just looking’ is usually accompanied by ‘can you open some of these for me?’ ‘Some of these’ usually ends up in a tour of the lot unless I put a stop to it. I only put a stop to it if the person resolutely refuses to respond to my questions. I’ve even had people refuse to give me their names, which to me is just rude after I’ve spent time with them. But the real puzzlement to me is the people who know the vehicles are locked (I tell them this immediately), but still want to wander aimlessly.
You can gather limited information about these vehicles from the outside, particularly if you don’t know where to look. Even if someone just wanted to know something like whether or not we have trailers under 7,000 pounds, wouldn’t you think he’d be ahead of the game asking if we even have such a thing? Or at least where that information can be found? Instead, they wander aimlessly around the lot. I just don’t get it, but I guess that’s their business.
LooneyLagomorph, I think his beef is about folks who ust want to see the inside of an RV for the “kewel” factor–kind of like if I passed by a used airplane lot and just had to see the cockpits of averything from a the 2 seaters up through the 747s.
A legitemate bitch if you ask me. But still, how can you tell the curious from the potential buyers? I argue since you can’t, all you can do is assume everyone’s a buyer, give the tours, hope someone feels the chemistry and makes a purchase. It’s all part of earning the paycheck.
If people aren’t talking about what they want in an RV, I think Chef should open up the vehicles, jump in the driver’s seat and make “vroom vroom” noises and pretend to take the lookers on a trip. Start activating all the gizmos and whotsits and just play, play, play. His interest is bound to be contagious, and his performance memorable.
You do understand that things like trailers come in sizes from 18 feet to about 34 feet, sleeping anywhere from 2 to 12 people, right?
Which product? The 34-foot Legacy at $74,000 or the 18-foot Jayfeather at $17,000? The $70,000 Sightseer Class A, or the $250,000 Northern Star diesel pusher? The used 1995 22-foot Cobra Class C for $15,000 or the 34-foot Minnie Winnie at $100,000? How am I supposed to know which product? Oh, you mean read your mind and try to figure it out? No? Oh, I see…you want me to show you a bunch of crap that isn’t right for you so you can accuse me of trying to put you in something you don’t want and gouge your checking account. See what I mean? Backtracking for this information is pointless. It’s not like I’m asking for your kid’s names and what size bra your wife wears. It’s basic information and it’s relevant to what we’re talking about.
And how am I supposed to divine the information about what he’s looking for?
This works fine for the person who sticks around long enough to hear it. I do it all the time and usually the customer will open up after a little chitchat and realizes that I’m not some sort of ogre. As mentioned above, it’s the aimless wanderers who won’t talk at all that I can’t fathom.
Inigo Montoya: That’s some of it. You get the sense of it pretty quickly in that case and can make an excuse of some sort to shake them loose. Typically, a ‘looky-loo’ is going to jump from one type vehicle to another and do the ‘coool’ thing. Then you find out they’re just waiting for the wife and kids to get done at the Wendy’s next door so he can leave.
Yeah, but THIS is the opportunity for you to put the RV disease into the daddy! Infect him, and he will come back. 
I’m with** Priceguy**. I say “I’m just looking” because I’m told it’s more polite than telling the salesperson to “get the fuck away from me, you lying sack of excrement*!”
When I’m ready to begin negotiating, I will ask someone for assistance.
*[sub]You wouldn’r belive the liars I had to deal with when I was last car shopping[/sub]
Okay, have we beat this to death? Cuz now that I know that most people think I’m lying scum before I even open my mouth, I’m really depressed about what I’m doing to make ends meet. I think this thread has run its course.
Now, now. We don’t think you are lying scum.
You know what I would like? If the salesperson came up and said “My name is ___, if you need any help, just ask.”
It would make a positive first impression and when I was ready to deal, I would ask for that person.
Chefguy,
With car salesman my standard line is “if you want to sell a car today tell me your name and leave me alone, I will find you if/when I need you” and the salesmen that say “I’m Fred and I’ll be around” GET MY MONEY!!.
Judging from the attitude dripping off of your posts I wouldn’t buy an Apple from you.
We have a furniture store in Houston (mattress Mac’s place) where for years the salesman were trained to not leave customers alone, you HAD (company policy) to be with a salesman so if you got rid of one another one popped up immediately (kinda like nails in hardwood), that policy is gone now.
I sold motorcycles for a while and when people told me “just looking around” I responed with “if you have any questions just ask, I’m full of it” and customers regularly sought me out over the other salesmen because they “liked my attitude”, think about it.
Unclviny
Is it really impossible to tell anything important without unlocking it?
No sticker/sign with price, rundown of amenities, square footage, etc?
If you’re really in a neighbourhood where leaving them open’s that dangerous, you might want to talk to your employer about adding such signs.
So you feel that no salesmen lie, give incorrect information, or present things in a manner to suit their own best interests rather than my own?
I’m not talking about you personally, but salesmen in general. (I wish the bad salesmen could all wear identifying badges, but there you go.)
Not with that attitude I’m not.
What’s your problem? I can’t look at things in a store without being badgered to buy something? I can’t come to my own decision if I choose to? Fine, let me know the name of your establishment and I’ll never shop there. Thanks for the heads up.
But Chefguy, if most of the people in this thread are telling you you’re wrong, that as a customer (not as a looky-loo), your style would turn them off, perhaps you need to turn off your defensive shields for a bit and think about that.
I like to read the threads - I really do. But the amount of time required to wade through a thread that is over 80 posts now, and in which the OP doesn’t even get around to clarifying what’s he’s talking about until the 30th post, is prohibitive. Even if it took only a minute to read each post, it would take more than an hour and twenty minutes to read every post in this thread. So I really wish you’d stop browbeating me about that. It’s really just not possible to read every post. That’s why it would behoove you to be more clear as to what you’re talking about from the get-go, including formulating a better thread title, such as “You say you’re just looking, but then you ask me to unlock all the RVs” or something like that. Or if that doesn’t fit in the title, AT LEAST put it in the OP, not 30 posts later.
But don’t you see? It’s UNBELIEVABLY ANNOYING to customers to have to be grilled by the salesman, like a common criminal, when we just want to look at some stuff. Maybe you’re better than the average salesman, but the utter inanities that come out of some of those guy’s mouths is just mind-boggling. Please listen to me: WE DON’T WANT TO HEAR YOUR SPIEL. Please. That’s the number one thing that drives customers away from a business.
IF I HAVE A QUESTION, I WILL ASK YOU, FOR GOD’S SAKE.
Holy cow! People are not obligated to give you their name if they don’t want to. I’ll tell you rude - rude is the car salesman who insisted on photocopying my driver’s license, claiming that it was necessary to test-drive the car, then used the info on the d.l. to look up my phone number (which I had not given him), and CALLED ME THE NEXT DAY, AT MY HOME, TO TRY TO PRESSURE ME INTO BUYING THE CAR. That’s what you call rude.
Like I said, it’s their time to waste. How is it any skin off YOUR nose?
And, as already pointed out by others, you’re certainly free to prohibit or discourage customers from casual browsing in your establishment, but IMO you do so to the detriment of your own business.
Boy, I am impressed by the number of us who are trying to help someone who really isn’t listening.
One more time, with feeling: You may not like us “just looking” but we don’t like you chatting away with us, resenting us just looking, etc. You say you learned “downstream selling.” Good for you. You sound like you are a little too much in love with it, though. Basically, we don’t give a shit about your style of selling. What we care about is our style of buying. And since we are the ones with the money you want, you need to respect that. If you run into customers who let you use your downstream selling, lucky you. But if not, suck it up, dude. You need to adapt to the customers, or they will find someone who will.
And another helpful tip - don’t take the piss out of customers when a potential customer is in earshot. Not too long ago I bought my first house and was out white goods and stereo shopping in Comets -the big UK retailer.
On my own like a few other male browsers.
Two salesmen stood a few yards away from me blatantly started making remarks about the saddo men out shopping on their own.
Yes, I’m fucking single, and yes, I wish for once it’d work out and yes, the £1500 I was about to spend is now going to Curry’s, two door down from you.
I should have complained to the Management but it was all I could do to walk away and not lay into them with a steam iron.
Chefguy, I wanted to let you know that there’s at least one doper who sees your point. You’re selling something where the customer needs interact with you just to browse the product. Unfortunate, but leaving them unlocked would be like leaving a furnished model home unlocked with nobody around to watch it constantly, correct?(btw, it’s been my experience that most RV lots keep, at most, two or three unlocked near the front) In addition, what you’re selling is usually not an impulse buy. It’s probably unlikely that somebody is going to just show up at your lot without any idea of what they want and if they’re not asking questions on the “guided tours”, it’s unlikely that they’re there to gather information to figure out what they want. Possible, but unlikely.
One of the keys to being a successful salesman is to know your clientele. While there are always exceptions to the “average customer”, a good salesman can usually tell the difference between “just looking=I’m waiting for my wife to get out of Wendy’s” and “just looking=I’m not buying right now and I just want to get a feel for the product/your specific lot/your selection/etc.”
From the sound of it, Chefguy, your rant is directly soley at the former, correct? If so, I’m in 100% agreement with you.
Thank you for actually reading what I have written. I don’t have an attitude with customers. I respect that they don’t want to talk to me. I don’t even care if they want to wander around the lot. I just find it odd. My standard opening line is “Hi, I’m me, and I’m available to answer any questions you might have.” If they respond, fine, if not, fine. As I said before, we don’t use pressure tactics. My feeble rant was just blowing off some steam after a long week (the two days prior to my days off are 12-hour).
fluiddruid: What you said in your first post was tantamount to “All black men have big dicks.” Of course some salesmen lie, but that’s not what you said.
Cat? NEVER EVER let a salesman have your driver’s license until you’re ready to finalize a deal. He will use it to run a credit report on you. Each credit report run on you lowers your credit score. And that’s not even going to ‘would you let a car salesman know where you live’ status.