Bye Bye Blockbuster!!

[Damien Oujia]

I think sales goals are a part of most retail jobs these days. Bank tellers are required to sell a number of products to customers every month and Best Buy employees have goals. Borders, Barnes and Noble...just about any company that will offer some kind of loyalty card will have sales goals for their retail clerks.

One recent one I found out about that kind of surprised me was my cable company. I was thinking of going to work for them but the last time I talked to the sales guy that helped me get a good deal they had laid off all the office employees locally and all the work was transferred to another city. All that was left was techs and sales people. He told me he could no longer give promos to existing customers and he could no longer count those as part of his sales. So now he can only solicit new customers, and to top it off they upped his sales goals each month.

Candy bundles or trying to sell cable to more people but with less of a target to shoot for? Ummmm, candy bundles please.

It's a crappy economy and employers seem to get a way with treating employees like crap more and more.

[FZappa]

Originally Posted by Damien Oujia

I think sales goals are a part of most retail jobs these days. Bank tellers are required to sell a number of products to customers every month and Best Buy employees have goals. Borders, Barnes and Noble...just about any company that will offer some kind of loyalty card will have sales goals for their retail clerks.

One recent one I found out about that kind of surprised me was my cable company. I was thinking of going to work for them but the last time I talked to the sales guy that helped me get a good deal they had laid off all the office employees locally and all the work was transferred to another city. All that was left was techs and sales people. He told me he could no longer give promos to existing customers and he could no longer count those as part of his sales. So now he can only solicit new customers, and to top it off they upped his sales goals each month.

Candy bundles or trying to sell cable to more people but with less of a target to shoot for? Ummmm, candy bundles please.

It's a crappy economy and employers seem to get a way with treating employees like crap more and more.

I dunno, I started working for my local cable company not long ago, and the sales goals aren't so bad. Possibly because the goal is to just suggest at least one product. And really, that isn't so bad. It's very low pressure. And really, it's a great job and the money is right.

[BUYMECAR]

where i currently work, all you're required to do is suggest the sale. but guess what: what we're expected to suggest SELLS ITSELF. it's almost a necessity for those that qualify.

and if we happen to get more than 2 of them for every 100 customer encounters, we have far exceeded our goal. i already have 3 in 40 encounters.

guess i can thank blockbuster for something, huh?...

[djsdojo]

Originally Posted by Damien Oujia

It's a crappy economy and employers seem to get a way with treating employees like crap more and more.

Back in the 90s everything was cheep and people were making a good amount of money to afford everything. Spending was a lot different back then and the cost of living was low witch means that people were able to buy the wants in life.

Fast forward to the current times and gas prices are outrageous causing anything that has to be delivered price to go up. People are not making too much money and the cost of living is really high. With a high cost of living this means that people are being more careful about what they do with their money.

A LOT of businesses are hurting right now and they need to find ways to make profits. So the best way to make profits is to put sales pressure on your employees to keep them on their toes and make sure that they are just not goofing off at work or make them think that they are going to have an easy time.

[Damien Oujia]

Originally Posted by djsdojo

Back in the 90s everything was cheep and people were making a good amount of money to afford everything. Spending was a lot different back then and the cost of living was low witch means that people were able to buy the wants in life.

Fast forward to the current times and gas prices are outrageous causing anything that has to be delivered price to go up. People are not making too much money and the cost of living is really high. With a high cost of living this means that people are being more careful about what they do with their money.

A LOT of businesses are hurting right now and they need to find ways to make profits. So the best way to make profits is to put sales pressure on your employees to keep them on their toes and make sure that they are just not goofing off at work or make them think that they are going to have an easy time.

Isn't that what I just said without all the blah blah blah?

[AdjectiveZord]

But doesn't anyone see the failure in the logic here? The economy is down so people are pickier about where and how they spend their money so the response to that is to make the people on the lowest part of the totem pole responsible for making sales? Sales that they don't have any control over because, well, like we just mentioned, the economy is down and people aren't spending money.

Making sales goals are useless when people aren't coming into the store to buy your product or are only interested in a good price, not your sales pitch.

The major problem is that things aren't the way they used to be. A good salesperson isn't as important to consumers as a good deal. Setting sales goals is an antiquated practice that is choking the life out of brick and mortar stores.

People expect every interaction with you to be part of a sales pitch and consumers are smart enough to know whatever your peddling is solely to make more money for the company and to keep your job, and if it benefits the customer too that's just a bonus. And like I said before, people are smarter and smarter with their shopping and aren't going to be fooled by a sales pitch or customer service when they can get the product for cheaper somewhere else.

So it becomes this terrible infinite loop where the people at the bottom are expected to make individual sales goals to help boost the profits at the top, where people are no longer expected to be creative and innovative and where the majority of failings in a company come from. Places don't go out of business because the employees at the bottom didn't tack on an extra $100 in add-ons by the end of their shift, it's because the people at the top lost MILLIONS in poor management and marketing decisions.

So yeah, it's irksome that they think certain goals need to be met by the people at the bottom when the same isn't held true for the people at the top. You can have a lousy week, not make a few extra bucks in sales and be fired outright, despite usually being a model employee. Meanwhile you can be the head of a company that loses millions of dollars in one year and GET A BONUS.

The systems is fucked up and backwards and that's why places are hurting for business.

[wheresmikey]

why can't the guys on the top, who make more than enough to live more than comfortably, pay themselves a little less?

or they can pay themselves based on how successful their business is, like based on the stock or something?

[HelloItsMeMOM]

Because, Mikey, they would have to be writing checks to the company instead of getting paychecks.

[wheresmikey]

Then I suppose we'll just have to stick with good ol' minimally controlled capitalism. I suppose if a control is made it can be to create loopholes to further take advantage of whatever rules the big business wants to overwrite.

[djsdojo]

My lucky day just hit!! Screw the gas station and screw BBV!!

I had a customer, he is a regular, and he offered me a job at this repair shop doing phone work and hes providing a company truck I'm calling him tomorrow to go to his shop.