Have you looked around in tech sales – including computers, mobiles phones, gadgets, audio etc?
There seems to be a hell of a lot more marketing going on and less selling, sales people in the shops are not doing the selling – but the marketing department and the hype is. There is more emphasis on the marketing and the looks, more hype, more stuff, more launching of a new product and I must own the latest and shiniest.
This is not a good thing, in my humble opinion, and here is why.
Take the iPhone 6 for example (or if you in the other group Samsung Galaxy S4) – this is not a rant against any of the phones – it is to have an example for what I want to say. By the time the consumer walks into a shop they have made up their mind – they need the iPhone6.
Do they really need an iPhone6? Even if the salesman in the shop can see that the buyer does not need all the features (you can sms, call and facebook on many other phones) and would be better of with another phone spending the saved dollars on another gadget that would be more useful – he’s got no fitting chance against all the hype, whatsoever.
Marketing pressure and peer pressure will make the consumer buy something he may not need, with features he never uses.
On top of all this the salesperson’s management will be target focussed; panicking over the next quarter’s figures and setting them and their staff some unrealistic targets – meaning the salesperson has to take what is offered – at the same time not being able to help the consumer.
But what does it do to the salesperson? Even with all the knowledge he has the consumer has made up his mind – making it a lot harder to justify the existence of the shiny suit.
So who is loosing out? Both.
The sales person becomes someone to pick up something from the shelves and hand it over and the consumer walks around with something he does not need.