If you were in sales and got "spiff" for a product would you push it?

[Locut0s]

That's how I felt every time lol. But that was before monoprice too so there weren't options quite that cheap. Made it feel a little less evil.

Well our prices here are basically the same as monoprice so I just sell those

 

[SparkyJJO]

Maybe this is part of the reason that Circuit City doesn't exist anymore. Bad ethics catches up to you eventually.

Maybe I should use this thread for purposes of updating my "do not trade" list to help avoid the risk of getting ripped off :hmm:

 

[Nebor]

Anyone that walks into a retail store and doesn't understand that the salesman gets PAID to push a certain product, doesn't understand how retail works.

call it a "spiff" .. or a "sales incentive" .. every company does it.
Hell, when i worked for a cable company, we got some nice "sales incentives" for upselling HBO, or STARZ or whatever the premium flavor was.

"ok.. i've got you set up for tomorrow for a tech to come out and find out why your cable modem doesn't work. would you like to add STARZ to your service since you can't browse the web?"

"We're sorry that our service isn't working, someone's coming to work on that... Could I interest you in purchasing more of our services?"

 

[Nebor]

Sometimes there are issues of trust. For example, in theory a real estate agent is supposed to 'work for you' and get you the best deal they can. In theory the system is set up to reward them to do so - if they sell your house for more, they make more. But if they can sell it for $250,000 easily, or with a lot or effort and more time and risk of losing buyers sell it for $275,000, they're really incented to sell it for less easily - and to sell you on the fact they got all they could.

Wow I never thought about that! What lead you to that observation? Because that's a really great observation of mismatched incentives. You should write a book or something. You could call it Craigonomics.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm lawful good, so I can't ever be in sales.

(It's an acceptable class for all other alignments including lawful evil, but LG isn't allowed to choose it.)

 

[Wanescotting]

No, I would not.

 

[eits]

Yeah I know. I'm not comfortable with doing that though.

i'm not either. i don't feel comfortable selling something i don't believe in. however, if that was something they wanted and asked for, then i'd sell it... but i wouldn't go out of my way to persuade someone to buy something if it sucked.

 

[Wordplay]

Not every company does it. Some, like best buy, just punish those who don't but don't reward those who do.

Which I think it is stupid. I remember my ex-manager from Circuit City saying they did better when the sales people made commission. Their people tried to make a sale no matter what, trying to sell what they can. Then they switched to non-commission and started to hire high school kids.