THE MENACE OF ROGUE SALESMEN
Mike Walsh
Salesmen do not normally get a good press, especially the foot in the door types who will not take no for an answer. As with other lines of business, many are attracted to the art of persuasion for the wrong reasons. I have known a few for whom selling was a form of psycho-op with one aim, to get the better of the victim. Unscrupulous salesmen target the timid, the vulnerable, the trusting.
The UK’s Dolphin Bathrooms was part of a large financial house conglomerate. Its only real purpose was to vacuum finance house money through various home improvement companies. Principally these were fitted kitchens, double-glazed windows, fitted bathrooms and bedrooms. The Daily Mail and other Sunday supplements were awash with their expensive full-page advertisements.
These home improvement companies were fronts for finance houses. They harvested profits from providing financial credit to clients. Unsurprisingly, many who needed credit were the same poor devils whose naivety and tough circumstances made them unsuitable for credit agreements.
I went on a Dolphin Bathrooms three-day sales course. It was not an experience I would wish to repeat. On the last day, I told the shocked sales manager who had run the course it wasn’t for me. I needed the money but not at the expense of my conscience. The sales job entailed selling bathroom fittings that would be fitted by freelance sub-contractors.
Of the dozen ‘salesmen’ on the sales course I recall only one had any experience of bathrooms. Like me, most would find wiring an electric plug challenging. Of course, they would when selling appear to be fully conversant with all aspects of the trade. One sales trick was the suggestion that salesmen would be more successful if they were to dress down, to give the impression that they had been supervising on-site work.
The earnings were on a two-tier commission system. If the sale was a cash deal the commission earned was very small. If on the other hand the new bathroom was financed by a finance house the commission was high. For this reason the salesman was programmed to steer buying clients away from cash and towards finance. Repayments over 60 months (sounds better than 5-years) could easily amount to £10,000. This for a bathroom that could be bought and fitted by a local tradesmen for - at the time - about £700.
During the sales course the brainwashing was intense. If the word ‘cash’ was mentioned the class was instructed to leap on their chairs calling out, ‘cash is trash’. If the word ‘finance’ was mentioned then they would be obliged to leap on their seats and to cry out ‘finance is fun.‘
The selling profession has a bad name. In most cases it is undeserved but sadly the commission based system will always attract the unscrupulous.
Mike Walsh : Russian Language Translations : Main Advertising Agents for Moscow and St. Petersburg International Property Portfolios.
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