Obnoxious Sales People

I spent the last 5 days working with my sister at a Holiday Mart sponsored by the Junior League of Denver.  In addition to her Etsy store and wholesale accounts, she often sets up a booth at arts/music festivals and craft shows and invites me along to help her out.  Normally a show weekend is fully of obnoxious laughter and hordes of unhealthy food and we love it!  This weekend we definitely had a lot of that, but nothing about this show was like anything I've ever experienced before. 

Brooke and I have a very personable and somewhat laid back sales style.  She believes strongly after 6 years in business that her jewelry sells itself.  Her pieces are unique and her work is beautiful.  We're very good at reading our customer and knowing if they're interested in hearing more or not.  Sometimes it's helpful to explain that everything is made out of recycled flatware, and sometimes it's better to leave that unmentioned.  Whether they see that part of the jewelry or not, she attracts a wide range of shoppers.  In the end, for Brooke it's not about making a ridiculous amount of money.  Instead it's about making sure that the people who make a purchase LOVE the piece they buy, will wear it, and will  tell their friends they love it.  

Contrast that with the aloe vera lotion booth that was located directly across the aisle from us this weekend.  They were seriously obnoxious!  4 salespeople peddling a 9 oz. jar of handcream.  The four of them stood in a line at the front edge of their booth hollering at every person passing by...

"Try it!"

"Free hand massage"

"Mine's better"

"No grease. No fragrance!"

(This was our favorite as one of the salesman was heavily accented and sounded like he was yelling, "No greasy, no pregnant!")

They were loud and they were persistent.  Once they had a shopper's hand they engaged in a literal tug-of-war until they had the customer moved from the center of the aisle to the rear of their store.  Each passer-by suckered into their space was subjected to the exact same sales pitch while having their hand or arm accosted by the saleperson's hand clenched around them.  

It was terrible for our business.  Traffic that normally would have wandered through our space were either reluctantly pulled over to the other side or running past as fast as possible with eyes pointed towards the floor and not risking the chance of making eye-contact with anyone at our end of the row.  The people who did decide to venture into our store were primarily escaping while their friend had gotten hi-jacked across the way or wanted to bad-mouth the obnoxious-ness to us.  No matter how we looked at it, it was bad for business.

At one point on our slowest day the most well-intentioned of the lotion salesman wandered over to offer us a little "sales advice."  My eyes darted to my sister in the back of the booth and I'm still not sure how she maintained her composure as he tried to tell her that he knew better how to run the business she's created and is as important to her as almost anything else in her life.  

For a lot of reasons, we were more than happy to pack up our booth and get out of the building as quick as possible after closing time.  It was the worst-managed show Brooke or I have ever worked.  But mostly we were eager to get away from our over-achieving neighbors and enjoy some much needed peace and quiet.  I will give the aloe vera lotion team credit for being professional.  They travel 52 weeks a year and do what they need to get a paycheck.  I researched their product today and it seems to have a legitimate following.  If I hadn't watched them making sales by pressuring people all weekend I probably would have been interested in trying it out.  Unfortunately, as it stands, throwing my support behind that company is not likely to ever happen...

I'm curious, what type of sales style do you best respond to?

A-N