There have been other side benefits to the other salesman quitting. For one thing, he created stress for too many of the people there--including both me and the sales manager (my boss). He was less stressed and grumpy yesterday. I was less stressed and less interrupted, and got more done than usual.
There were five people just yesterday that either called or came in saying that they'd seen us at the Outdoors Show over the weekend. Shows are sort of odd things. Some dealers go to shows expecting to sell at the show. They get frustrated if they don't.
Apparently the big RV show in Rosemont (starting Feb 23rd) is one case where people do buy at the show. For one thing, prices are reduced too low.
But most other shows don't necessarily generate a lot of at-the-show sales. The point to most of the shows isn't about having a big sale and selling next to your competitor. It's advertising. It's showing what you have and what you are. If it's done right, people come to the store to follow up on what they saw at the show.
Selling at a show is about high-pressure, buy-it-now sales. Advertising at the show is about getting people excited about coming to the store to see the rest of what you have so they can find the unit that's perfect for them.
Now, I'm likely to get paid better for selling at the store than at a show. The customer benefits from having more time to make a decision, more time to compare units, less pressure, and gets a better experience out of the whole thing. Everybody wins.
The attitude towards shows is changing at the dealership. They used to see shows as just about selling. They're more and more seeing it as about advertising. I like that direction, and it looks like it's working.
Posted by fictionman at January 24, 2006 07:41 AM | TrackBack (0)