What comes to your mind when you think about “sales representative”? Worst case scenario, manipulation and phoniness are the first words to pop out, based on stereotypes or on bad personal experiences. If not, then most probably you think about extrovert people briming with confidence that can talk to anybody.
Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to buy something, but after the interaction you had with the salesperson, you felt more confused than before? I believe that most of us have been involved in circumstances like this, especially when we buy something “technical”, mainly due to the complex terminology used by the seller.
About a month ago, a decision was made to replace the house vacuum cleaner that has been around for more than 12 years and get a new one. After browsing the internet and seeing what the possible options were based on the budget, I visited a known electric appliances retail chain, in order to buy our new electric broom.
The most probable phrase that is likely to come out from a customer’s lips – apart of course from, “You are expensive!” – is “You are all the same!”. History has shown that commoditisation is almost certain for every organisation at a given point in time, for several reasons such as new technologies or oversupply. Apart from these cases though, there are numerous companies that their field of business is actually selling commodities, such as agricultural products like wheat, fruits and cattle, or energy products, namely oil and gas.
In general, people create stereotypes based on a person’s gender, age, nationality, or profession. These are generalised beliefs reflecting the expectation that one might have about the characteristics and the exhibited behaviours of nearly every person of a particular group. As far as salespeople are concerned, among others, they are mostly considered to be extroverted, outgoing and overconfident.