Excellent Salesman
My nephew, Bob, had a job selling cell phones at store in a mall. The store was owned by a licensed distributor of one of the big name brands. He was very good at convincing customers to buy calling plans, extended warranties, and accessories that were obscenely profitable. Pretty soon he was the #1 salesman in the store.
The owners asked him to transfer to their other store in a different mall, replacing the assistant manager who they had just fired. In addition to an increase in his base pay, he’d get a cut of every sale made while he was in charge.
It took him about 2 days to figure out why sales were down. Clueless sales reps and lousy management. The manager would disappear for hours at a time leaving the sales reps to sit around ignoring customers. Most of them would show up late, leave early or not bother coming in at all. And when they did speak to a customer they had no idea how to make a sale. On his first day he outsold them all. After making sure the guys on his shift were actually doing their jobs, especially when it came to selling the high profit add-ons, the store’s sales improved. The store manager saw what was happening and wasn’t too happy. He knew it was matter of time before he was kicked out and Bob took his job.
One day they received a shipment of new phones. As usual Bob signed for them and locked them in a storage closet.
The next day was his day off. The manager called and insisted he come in immediately because there was problem. Overnight someone had broken into the store and stolen about a hundred of these brand new phones. The mall security camera showed two people driving up to the back door, opening it with a key, shutting of the alarm and walking out with the phones. The police were called.
He was grilled by the police for a couple of hours but they had no evidence against him and he had an alibi. But the manager convinced the owners that Bob was probably involved since he had signed for the phones, had keys to the door and storage closet and knew the alarm code.
Bob argued that they hadn’t changed the locks or code after they fired the previous assistant manager and anyone could know about the shipment. But he was fired – actually they allowed him to resign. And they stiffed him on his last commission check.
At the other end of the mall was a store that sold phones for one of the competing cell companies. They knew that since he had joined that other store their sales were suffering. They hired him on the spot.
Sales improved overnight. One of his favorite tricks was to stand in front of the store and wait for a customer to walk by carrying a shopping bag from that other store. He’d chat them up about their brand new phone, calling plan, warranty etc, (It’s amazing how much the average mall shopper is willing to share with a stranger)
Then he’d tell them that they probably didn’t need the extended warranty and those accessories could be purchased at Wal~Mart for about half the price. And he could sell them the exact phone with better plan for less money. If they agreed he would walk them back to that other store and tell the clueless sales rep how to void that sale he just made, then bring the customer back to his store to pick up their new phone.
It took about 3 months before that other store closed its doors.
Story credit: Reddit / CountMountjoy