A Wren Says

On multiple occasions, when I have been looking at a particular product at a higher price point, I have had salespeople try and push me to the lower price alternative. That always seemed weird to me. Aren’t you supposed to upsell me? At the end, it made me think about their perceptions about me and my purchasing power.

Maybe they looked at me as a kid who was trying to spend too much and save nothing. Maybe they assumed it was fiscally irresponsible for me to try and get what I was there for. Did they see it as their duty of care?

There are also the scenes in Pretty Woman and Selena where the salesperson assumed (wrongly) that the women couldn’t afford the items. They looked at them and ascribed a social class to them based on their dress and features.  Did I look like I couldn’t afford it?

But perhaps, maybe the salesperson is just pushing me towards they products they personally prefer. They wouldn’t buy the higher priced item. Why would they encourage me to do so? As I looked up reasons for why a sales associate would encourage/discourage in this way, the closest I found were essentially reasons why that “you might be losing sales.”

As much as I originally did take this personally, this isn’t about me. This is about assumptions. When salespeople assume they know what I want rather than listening to me, they miss the bigger picture and often miss out on making a sale. In these examples, they assume I (or Vivian or Selena in the movie examples) want a lower priced alternative or had no business being there at all.  

Assuming you know what your customer wants is a good way to miss out on satisfying her needs and wants, i.e. encouraging her to buy. It is a good way to hurt your bottom line. So regardless of what your initial reaction might be, no matter what you think you already know, remember to ask your customers directly what they are looking for and why.