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

[Locut0s]

"Spiff" are set monetary rewards given out for each unit of a product you sell. Often companies will want to really push their product for a given month so they will offer any salesman who sells their product a monetary incentive for selling each unit of said product. For example you get $10 for every fleshlight you sell This type of marketing of course leads to basically lying to the customer a lot of the time. More often than not the product with the best spiff is not the best product. In fact it could very much be a crappy one that isn't selling well, so they want to boost its sales. Or often it's just a new product they want to get quick recognition for.

Question for you is. If you were in sales and got such a monetary reward for said product would you push it. ASSUMING that it's NOT what you know you should be selling?

 

[amdhunter]

Hell yes. When I worked in CompUSA in 99, I made a ton off selling spiffs. That and cables. I remember selling people bi-directional gold-plated parallel printer cable for $80 on many occasions. Spiff on those sales were amazing.

My paycheck was fat as hell for a lowly ass retail salesman.

 

[OCGuy]

Of course, that is what sales is about.

 

[Locut0s]

Hell yes. When I worked in CompUSA in 99, I made a ton off selling spiffs. That and cables. I remember selling people bi-directional gold-plated parallel printer cable for $80 on many occasions.

My paycheck was fat as hell for a lowly ass retail salesman.

Yeah. I just don't feel comfortable ripping off customers. One of the reasons I'm quiting sales, that and I'm a little burned out.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Why not promote the product and make a little extra!

Good sales people are persuasive they are not liars.

 

[Locut0s]

Of course, that is what sales is about.

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

 

[malbojah]

When I worked @ Staples back in 98-99, my managers were constantly pushing the us to push the extended warranties on customers. I told them I would and then proceeded to skip asking the customers. IMO, the company behind the warranty was not worth dealing with (Warrentech). All the time I was there, I sold 3 plans. The best seller of the plans would sell 5-6 a day.

 

[amdhunter]

Yeah. I just don't feel comfortable ripping off customers. One of the reasons I'm quiting sales, that and I'm a little burned out.

Well customers don't really care about you either. Look at all the anti-Best Buy salesmen rants. If you know they hate you from the moment they walk into your door, do you really care if they fatten your paycheck?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Yeah. I just don't feel comfortable ripping off customers. One of the reasons I'm quiting sales, that and I'm a little burned out.

I wish my parents would take care of me.

 

[Dulanic]

Um if it is your job yes. No salesman has the customers best interest at heart.

I made shitloads in the mid 90's working at circuit city. Most good sales people made more than managers. I made more than I knew what to do with back then. Too bad I was a kid and blew it all on shit.

 

[Locut0s]

Why not promote the product and make a little extra!

Good sales people are persuasive they are not liars.

Well when it comes to "I know Headphone X is what you really need and is cheaper" and "I know Headphone Y is more expensive and doesn't do any more at all for you but I make more off it" I usually offer X not Y. I never even paid any attention to the spiffs they offer here. We don't offer spiff on very much so it's not an issue here. But I know spiffs are the bread and butter of a lot of larger brick and mortar stores.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

If I thought the customer would buy it, then yes. If it's clear that the customer needs something different, I'd sell them that. The extent of my sales experience was hawking scientific instruments, however, so in almost all cases the needs of the customer were very specifically and narrowly defined. We were offered spiffs on certain package deals, but in the real world the customer generally knew what he wanted already, and that's what I sold him.

 

[deadlyapp]

When I was in sales I would definitely direct customers to specific items that had spiffs available, but I never pushed customers into something they did not want or didn't like, as that would just open the possibility of a return, which ultimately would hurt me/the store more.

An example, the Sharp LED TV's that came out a year or so ago had a $50-100 spiff depending on the size. I always showed customers those TV's and I had a number that liked them over similar Samsung or Sony models. I also would sell extended warranties, but I personally find the warranties valuable and if I can convey the value and the customer is interested, then I'm all for it, but I would never lie like some salespeople.

 

[guyver01]

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?"

 

[Locut0s]

I wish my parents would take care of me.

I wish someone would take care of you too.

 

[lxskllr]

I wouldn't do sales in the first place, unless it was something I believed in. If it was something I believed in, I still wouldn't push an inappropriate fit for a customer to get extra cash.

 

[Locut0s]

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?"

Certainly I wasn't saying people don't understand how the system works. I'm just asking if you were a sales person, would you follow suit. Obviously lots of people would and many wouldn't, most of those who wouldn't would not be in sales for long.

If you see above you will see that the job I'm working in right now hardly offers any spiff, it's straight commission for 95% of products.

 

[Dulanic]

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?"

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

 

[Locut0s]

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

Wow that's shitty.

 

[DayLaPaul]

I have a hard time pushing an inferior product. That's probably why I'm not in sales.

 

[DrPizza]

I really find deceptive sales practices to be very unethical. Outright lies, even more troubling. A huge part of the problem stems from many consumers not being very educated consumers. i.e. some of the muffler/brake/lube type places have been busted time and time again by news stations. What would be ideal is if there were more people willing to "waste" a small amount of their time recording these sales tactics, and posting them online on some consumer type of site. As more and more people know about how some particular chains are ripping them off, those chains will be forced to change to ethical business practices.

 

[Craig234]

There are more ethical and less ethical salespeople. There are more ethical and less ethical companies.

I've had sales people say 'you know, our competitor would be better for you'. They were honest. Then there's a question of ethical customers - do I have some loyalty to them?

Sometimes there are companies who are almost inherently unethical in what they sell. If you have some phony 'herbal product' based on people falling for lies, then just being a salesperson for it is choosing to do something somewhat unethical. It's a tricky issue, because it systemically pushes the unethical as an interest on salespeople, pitting ethics against what they're incented to do.

A lot of good sales people refuse to do something unethical. They often have a 'good product' and 'plenty of sales' so they can just be honest and have 'win-win'.

Some of the even more unethical situations are things like when arms industries - and they are massive - encourage war that profits them, or when private prison companies lobby lawmakers for more things to be crimes, for longer sentences and less parole simply for them to make more money.

I encourage people to have ethics, and if a sales position demands you do something wrong, it's something to think about not doing.

A lot of times, ethics can even help sales as well.

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.

Some agents will be more ethical, some less.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I really find deceptive sales practices to be very unethical. Outright lies, even more troubling. A huge part of the problem stems from many consumers not being very educated consumers. i.e. some of the muffler/brake/lube type places have been busted time and time again by news stations. What would be ideal is if there were more people willing to "waste" a small amount of their time recording these sales tactics, and posting them online on some consumer type of site. As more and more people know about how some particular chains are ripping them off, those chains will be forced to change to ethical business practices.

I wish I had the same faith in consumers being able to change the business practices of a company. For years now, big and small business has viewed any practice that doesn't outright violate the letter of the law as perfectly fine. Look at the number of companies that have customer service departments merely to be able to say they have a customer service department. Look at the number of businesses that view "downsizing," "outsourcing" and, shortened "life cycles" as legitimate business strategies. I truly believe in educating consumers but, business won't change unless they're forced to and then, they'll just move offshore.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'd feel bad about it, but I probably would do it given it's more or less part of the job. Up to people to do their research before buying.

"You really want to buy this $95 6' HDMI cable. It is from a very reputable company Monster Cables. You just finished buying a $1,500 TV, why skimp on the cable?"

But what I'd really be thinking in my head:

"They're pretty much all the same, and you wont see a difference, don't buy this cable, go check Monoprice they're like 5 bucks!"

 

[Dulanic]

I'd feel bad about it, but I probably would do it given it's more or less part of the job. Up to people to do their research before buying.

"You really want to buy this $95 6' HDMI cable. It is from a very reputable company Monster Cables. You just finished buying a $1,500 TV, why skimp on the cable?"

But what I'd really be thinking in my head:

"They're pretty much all the same, and you wont see a difference, don't buy this cable, go check Monoprice they're like 5 bucks!"

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.