Think you have a dead-end career?
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Are you hiding from the office staff down in shipping and receiving? Are you sitting in your car in a wooded park waiting for 5pm? Do you need something to watch sitting there while the wheels go round and round? Burn the day away with this little treat.
SHARE YOUR CANDY
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@tophercrowder holy shit...91 minutes....just what kind of job do you think i have?
(well...at the moment its actually just sitting at home...HR is pissed off at me for testing positive...lol... apparently instead of getting tested when the missus got a positive i should have just ignored that and gone to work as im boosted anyways)
but normally...i do not have that kind of time at work..lol -
@tophercrowder lord, I hate salespeople. The role is the pure incarnation of capitalism: working toward separating you from money in exchange for whatever today's varietal of crap they're trying to offload on you.
2012 R55 LCI N18B16A 6MT
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@flatisflat or, providing value by solving a problem for you. It happens more than you think; if the customer isn't successful you won't be either.
2006 XC70, 2007 Cayman, 2018 Tacoma SR5, 2019 MX-5 RF
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@flatisflat Bad or incomplete ones yes. Good ones hell no. You need to meet a good one. I don't mean good as in they sell a lot I mean masters of their craft because they learn about you and your needs.
The kind of person that when you want to buy a F250 but you walk away with a Ranger because that is what you need. Not the ones that sell you the F550 because they can.
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@flatisflat I don't agree. A good salesperson is an expert in the products they are selling and matches the client with a solution like @MidEngine says. This builds a relationship where the salesperson is a trusted partner.
On the more transactional side? I kinda see where you're coming from, but good salespeople smooth out the transaction and get things done for you. When I bought my Jeep, the only time I walked into the dealer was to pick up my keys. Less than an hour total, great job by the lady who helped me and I later brought her and her manager wine.
Curator
1986 Dodge D100 & 2021 Jeep Wrangler Willys -
@koawaft said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
The kind of person that when you want to buy a F250 but you walk away with a Ranger because that is what you need. Not the ones that sell you the F550 because they can.
I know this is a hypothetical, but to go along with it, I'm not the person shopping for an F250 when what I should be buying is a Ranger. I don't need that salesperson.
I'm not saying that that customer doesn't exist, but the role of that salesperson is moot in my case.
2012 R55 LCI N18B16A 6MT
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@MidEngine said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@flatisflat or, providing value by solving a problem for you. It happens more than you think; if the customer isn't successful you won't be either.
Then give me a 'technician' that has the authority to sell me something. I'm fine with that. But salespeople, typically, are awful. Outliers exist, but what good is stereotyping if I have to also account for outliers?
2012 R55 LCI N18B16A 6MT
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@MidEngine Yes, this is my experience with sales folks that do business-to-business. Enable the customer's success.
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@CarsOfFortLangley said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@flatisflat I don't agree. A good salesperson is an expert in the products they are selling and matches the client with a solution like @MidEngine says. This builds a relationship where the salesperson is a trusted partner.
I'm not buying your insurance plan.
On the more transactional side? I kinda see where you're coming from, but good salespeople smooth out the transaction and get things done for you. When I bought my Jeep, the only time I walked into the dealer was to pick up my keys. Less than an hour total, great job by the lady who helped me and I later brought her and her manager wine.
But then we're saying that the financial transaction was good because it was painless. That seems strange that the highest mark for the salesperson is "without stress or frustration." I bought my MINI online and filled out basic forms to acquire it. This was also without undo stress and frustration. No salesperson required.
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@flatisflat It's pretty easy to vet the person's expertise, take a look at their LinkedIn profile. My title is sales but I don't sell anything, my customers buy what they need via a contract manufacturer somewhere in the world. I work with engineers to solve problems; I've been successful because I take a lot of time understanding the problems and potential solutions before we, as a team (me and the customer), pick the best path forward. Then we work our asses off to build the solution, on time. It's not trivial.
2006 XC70, 2007 Cayman, 2018 Tacoma SR5, 2019 MX-5 RF
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@flatisflat said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@tophercrowder lord, I hate salespeople. The role is the pure incarnation of capitalism: working toward separating you from money in exchange for whatever today's varietal of crap they're trying to offload on you.
That is both hurtful and accurate. Kudos sir. The useless comodity I peddle is housing, so maybe I get a slight exemption?
"What are you gonna do, stab me?"
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@MidEngine said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
My title is sales but I don't sell anything, my customers buy what they need via a contract manufacturer somewhere in the world. I work with engineers to solve problems; I've been successful because I take a lot of time understanding the problems and potential solutions
So, you're a technician with the authority to sell something. I'm good with that.
2012 R55 LCI N18B16A 6MT
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@MidEngine Those are the good sales people. I'm the engineer on the other end asking for a solution, usually it's picking a piece of equipment or instrument. I need it to do this, tell me what I need for this application.
E90 M3
E92 328i
G01 X3 - wife mobile -
@flatisflat Everyone in my industry is, you have to understand electronics cuz shit is complicated. Some are better than others, naturally.
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@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4 said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
The useless comodity I peddle is housing, so maybe I get a slight exemption?
Being a recent purchaser of a house that I have come to absolutely loathe since owning it, no, no you don't.
But my realtor was great in getting us the house keys for viewings.......
2012 R55 LCI N18B16A 6MT
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@e90m3 Power, performance, features, security, budget, time to market, lead times.. all sorts of variables.
Often times OpEx trumps CapEx and has different requirements, e.g. a datacenter will spend millions to reduce the power consumption of their servers. Cooling and electricity is really expensive. -
@flatisflat For that transaction yes. I will admit I don't know you, but I doubt you are an expert on everything, you may know the size of hot water you need but not the right coverage for your homeowners insurance. There is something out there you could use help with.
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@koawaft This is where I refer back to my "technician with the authority to sell things" commentary RE: MidEngine, of which I have no problem with whatsoever. But, strictly "salespeople" are a bane.
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@flatisflat Doea a technician uncover the need the full scope of the project? Do they understand the consequences of implementing this solution and the other options? If so your technician is a salesperson in denial.
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@koawaft Somewhat separately, but are you suggesting that project managers are salespeople? To a degree, I feel we're getting a little pedantic with a pro-sales bend. At which point there's no real end to sorting out the if's and but's.
That said, I've been aware of many project proposals that a customer followed through with only to find out that the proposal overpromised and inadequately accounted for customer requirements. Bad "salesperson"? Perhaps. But if not presented with the opportunity in the first place, the unscrupulous pitch wouldn't even have existed in the first place.
Which then brings me back to the idea that, as an outlier, good salespeople exist (and 'project technicians with the authority to sell' are good too), but the core situation incentivizing a person to make a sale to another, less informed person, is inherently rife with salespeople taking advantage of the potential customer.
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@flatisflat said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@koawaft said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
The kind of person that when you want to buy a F250 but you walk away with a Ranger because that is what you need. Not the ones that sell you the F550 because they can.
I know this is a hypothetical, but to go along with it, I'm not the person shopping for an F250 when what I should be buying is a Ranger. I don't need that salesperson.
I'm not saying that that customer doesn't exist, but the role of that salesperson is moot in my case.
ronswansoniknowmorethanyou.gif
In a retail environment I agree with you. Leave me the hell alone, I know what I'm looking for or I wouldn't be here. But there are plenty of places where the sales staff are an essential part of the equation, usually those big-ticket purchases where the customer isn't sure exactly what they're looking for. Like vehicles. You or I may be the ones walking into a dealership only because we know they have exactly what we want and NO THANK YOU I AM NOT INTERESTED IN ANYTHING ELSE, but that's hardly the norm.
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@WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAthenGTInowA4 said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@flatisflat said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@tophercrowder lord, I hate salespeople. The role is the pure incarnation of capitalism: working toward separating you from money in exchange for whatever today's varietal of crap they're trying to offload on you.
That is both hurtful and accurate. Kudos sir. The useless comodity I peddle is housing, so maybe I get a slight exemption?
NO. SCREW YOU AND YOUR PRICES.
(not your fault I know)
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@CarsOfFortLangley said in Think you have a dead-end career?:
@flatisflat I don't agree. A good salesperson is an expert in the products they are selling and matches the client with a solution like @MidEngine says. This builds a relationship where the salesperson is a trusted partner.
On the more transactional side? I kinda see where you're coming from, but good salespeople smooth out the transaction and get things done for you. When I bought my Jeep, the only time I walked into the dealer was to pick up my keys. Less than an hour total, great job by the lady who helped me and I later brought her and her manager wine.
I remember back when I was into car stereos I went into a shop prepared to spend a bunch of money. The owner listened to what I was after, and then showed me how to achieve what I wanted simply by revising what I had already. I accomplished my goal. I spent zero dollars, and then I went back there every time after that when I did need to buy stuff.
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@MidEngine I didn't fully understand this until I had to deal with it in a work environment. Finding people who can get you what you need to make machinery work saves me so much hassle and time I wonder why I was always doing the leg work myself before.
I have a few reps that I use regularly at work who I can send my specs to and they can put together a package that gets me everything in one shot - without that I'm piecing together parts myself or may be missing out on things that are better suited to the application because I didn't even know to look.
