Ridiculous Sales Tactics

I spend at least one afternoon a week shopping typical finished furniture stores, as a customer, in a variety of towns I travel through. It always amazes me what type of sales people I run into and the "pitch" they present. Every time I have an episode with a "typical" salesperson I think of our Wood You customers and what they have to endure in this industry's maze of confusion and downright comical interactions. I often use these scenarios as personal motivation in maintaining our company's ideology and as teaching points with our employees as how we do not want to be perceived.

"I Can Sell Ice To An Eskimo!"

used-car-salesman

So I thought I'd turn it over to you the reader and see if you have had a recent shopping experience with a salesperson (furniture or any other retail store) that would either make us all chuckle or shake our head in dismay. So let us hear from you! I personally will be turning my employees onto this post as a reminder as to why we work so hard to treat our customers the way we do!

No wonder first time customers come into our stores, a bit timid, waiting to be pounced with over used cliches and weak sales tactics . . . then over the next few minutes they recognize the difference in Wood You Furniture's focus and intention with you the customer. I have been blessed to get to know the majority of individuals within our company. Although not perfect, I sure am proud to be associated with this company and it's ideology of education over sales and sincere customer assistance over high pressure sales.

So if you have ever run into this gentleman in the blog above let us hear about it. I look forward to hearing your story as well as sharing a few I have run into over time!

**I will not be posting the actual company's name from your post.

Comments (7)

Back in the 90's I finished a lot of new furnture and loved your ckear finishes. Are they still available and have you changed them? I use a scroll saw in my hobbies and would love to egt some of your easy to use atains and finishes. I live close to Hickory Nc and don't see any stores close enough to drive to. Can you help me out?

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Response to Ron O:

Ron O,

That company is no longer in business. The owners retired and closed down their plant . . . they had serviced our industry for decades and were a great resource for Wood You Furniture specifically and retailers across the country in general. Today we offer a product from General Finishes and they have both a gel topcoat and a liquid topcoat that is very similar in application and results.

Feel free to do a search of general finishes and you will find there should be a store near you that carries this brand. If you are having no luck feel free to email me at bbwoodyou@bellsouth.com and I will be glad to assist you further!

Regards,
Breet B.

As we work with our customers we hear "horror" stories about the way they are treated in other stores and how welcoming it is to come to our, Wood You store in New Port Richey. That makes us feel like we are responding to our customers as people, not "profit persons". It is the way we were taught when we first joined Wood You and it is the only real way to treat people. All the effort we put into learning the Wood You Way translates into happy, repeat customers. If you want to be treated with kind, friendly, knowlegable people who are interested in helping educate you about unfinished furniture visit one of our stores. We would love to meet you.

I know some customers love the idea of browsing a stores website and finding individual products, however, with the diversity within individual Wood You store inventories that doesn’t always work. There is nothing more difficult than having to explain to a customer the piece of furniture they just printed off the woodyou.com site are not available at their local store, not because anything is wrong with it that store just doesn’t carry that particular manufacture. I agree with your blog something needs to change.

The interactivity of the blog, I feel, truly bring a needed cohesiveness to the Wood You experience. Also, a prime component to the Wood You experience is the diversity of products in individual stores. In theory all Wood You stores could carry the same items and become the cookie cutter store of most major chains today, but we’re not. Each store although with the same exemplary customer service, is very much diverse in items and configuration. Some carry and sell more of one manufacturer than others. That local diversity allows for a customer on vacation to experience a fresh Wood You no matter which locations they visit.

My idea is play up the fact that Wood You stores in different locations, while they have the same standards in quality and customer service they are different. Woodyou.com should focus on sending customers to the individual sites to experience the local as well as the far away store. Imagine a customer from Opelika going to a game in Gainesville and making time to stop in a Wood You. Woodyou.com as the home site should encourage this by pointing out the diversity but sending customers to individual store sites to see the products that particular store carries.

The way to do this is take the list of manufacturers and create a page of popular items and new or featured items from each one and link those to the respective store sites that carry that manufacturer. Also, on each page, of course, a link to that manufacturer’s website is needed. Therefore each individual store will have pictures of products from the manufacturers they carry. Also companies like Lawko and Thoratex can have visual representation on the website instead of just in store.

Finally the thing that makes all this work is with the point of contact at woodyou.com. The central point of contact at woodyou.com is what brings the individual stores together as one cohesive family of quality and high standards of customer services. While it’s great to be able to contact a local store with questions, it’s even more vital this day and age to have a central place for customers to basically praise on even vent about their experience at individual Wood You stores, and the blog is it. This is the best way to easily find a reliable review of Wood You stores, and a quick central poll of how customers felt about there experience in their local Wood You.

I've been with Wood You for 4 years.

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Response to Ronald:

Ronald,
Well said sir. I think you will find that the website changes we are in the process of making will directly deal with many of the observations you have made. Nice to hear from you . . . don't be a stranger to the blog!

Regards,
Brett Blankenship

It's entertaining to go shopping with my husband. We of course welcome a friendly introduction and an offer of help. When we feel the eyes of the person on us, following just behind us, or inappropriately trying to insert themselves in our conversation, however,I love to see the variety of ways that salespeople handle themselves upon my husband politely but pointedly turning to them and saying "If you expect me to buy ANYTHING from you, you'd do best to move along. I know your name, and will call you if I need further help, but if you continue this nonsense I will walk out the door." Thankfully, we have never had to do this at Wood You. We have been so appreciative of the polite professional help and great products they offer. That's a big reason why we keep coming back!

The salesperson my wife and I just dealt with today spent all his time talking with my daughter, who by the way is not paying for the purchase.

I actually had to remind this guy of that and after that comment he all but disappeared, unbelievable!!

Well my most recent run in was not a person as you have pictured on here but more of the young slick guy with the silver tongue. We literally did not get four steps in the door and he was marching towards us. The scene never improved and he never did quite down enough about himself and his life to help us find what we really wanted. He literally followed us the whole time yet was really never involved in our conversation - strange.
I thought the funniest moment was as we finally decided to get out, he handed each of us his card. He told us to make sure and let them (the other salespeople) know that we were now in his family and to back off when we come back. Just the way he said it made me feel creepy. He really believed he had done a great job with us, very sad!

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Response to Shannon:

Shannon,
Great job in explaining that, I had a good visual and have experienced moments very similar! I am guessing you did not buy from him or the company? I call it "noise". There are those who obviously think that by making "noise" you can make sales. Focused conversations do not have to be constant chatter. Thanks for sharing about your experience . . .

Brett Blankenship
Wood You Distributors

A furniture salesman my daughter almost bought a bed from -
She couldn't decide if a king size would fit in her little apartment bedroom or not-
He told her it would because ALL apartment bedrooms are the same size!!

*story initally posted on busymom.net