Guitar Center Game (Commission Sales Related)
Gnat
1,183 Posts
So y'all got me fiending for Serato and a TTM 56. Naturally I go to my neighborhood Guitar Center in El Cerrito where the selection of mixers is horribly bootsy. Then I call SF and they can get what I want, and he quotes me a price, but I gotta wait for a special order and plus, I gotta drive across the bridge. Can't do it, not for the price he was quoting. So then I call another GC in Concord and I speak with the manager who quotes me a very fair price for the both and he's got both in stock. I call SF back and say, "Hey, they're gonna do it for me at $$ in Concord...what can you do for me?" Dude starts complaining that I'm "playing his own people against him" and that I'm "stealing his paycheck". I told him that I was [sarcasm]extremely sympathetic to his plight[/sarcasm] but that I had to do what I had to do. I explained to him that I was aware of their commission based sales tactics and had to deal with them accordingly. So dude continues to cop attitude but quotes me a price lower than Concord by $25. I said yeah, that's better, but it still ain't worth it to me to come across the bridge (unspoken: and deal with him). Concord here I come. Thank you SoulStrut for giving me technological advice. Lil Dudes: Play the game. 
Comments
word i saved nearly ??100 on my pioneer djm909. (btw this mixer kills the ttm56 out of the water)
gNAT
Its like this. Ive fucking worked in that same racket at 2 separate jobs and never lasted a month either time. The employee in question is fucking miserable, please take that into consideration. He has a dickhead boss who is grinding his ass about moving product, making him sit through sales training videos, and his job is constantly on the line. Not to mention hes probably not even recieving commisions yet. Anyone that gets that upset about the fucking 4 dollars he would make off the sale is clearly not very experienced. In all likelyhood he's still on a "training period" where everyone else gets your commisions while you "observe and learn on the sales floor." What should be obvious I guess is that every store hires people for a month and then fires them before they have to pay out any commisions. Which means dude probably works over 40 hours for less than 300 dollars a week.
The thing is, pro audio sales is a really shitty buisiness. You have 3 or 4 big companies that provide whats basicly EXACTLY the same product. So you REALLY gotta sucker people into the shit. Every place you go will always "meet or beat any competitors price". best advice is to go to www.froogle.com, type in the name of the product, find the dirt cheapest price, and then demand it in the store.
If they wont beat that price. WALK AWAY. The number of lines motherfuckers will shoot at you is endless, and the whole "Your breaking my balls guy!, I have kids to feed" is like oldest trick in the hat type material.
Anybody that actually survives for a sustainable period of time in a low level sales position has been completely warped by the retail sales mentality. Most of them start as actual "musicians" and gradually become more involved in the sales grind and forget their humanity.
You never know, he could have been instructed by his boss to tell you that shit. You have a bottom line price as an employee that you cannot go under. You have to go through management at some point if you want a deal. Which means that employee is getting yelled at and probably zero'd off the comission ticket anyway cause you had to pull the boss out the office.
Its just all around misery everywhere in that entire industry. People that become top salesman have dope studios at home and they have no time to even use them. ALot of them become so addicted into their own gear lust sales perspective that they spend all their time "upgrading" and researching the various features and benefits of each piece of gear and forget about actually fucking making music!
so ummm...yeah. rant over. sorry.
Get the cheapest price. Fuck all these places.
Additionally, I should add that you should NEVER be talked into a purchase by these bitches. If you want an mpc and you tell dude that and he starts trying to show you some piece of shit roland instead, ask for someone else.
Theres all these vendor sponsored sales incentives called SPIFFS or whatever that makes one product better to sell than the other. 99.9% of the time the sales dude will try to sell you what will make him the most money. Usually its the crappiest thing in the price range cause those are the companies that need to pay out the biggest incentives.
If you have questions, ask a friend. Hell, ask me before you ask these dudes what you should get.
The amount of bullshit dropped by electronics and music chain store salesmen is amazing. I used to correct them when they pushed it on me, now they get the
Know what you want before you go, or go with someone that knows their shit.
Mike
(former home theater salesman)
Don't be afraid to spend like 15-20min at the register, rejecting sales ploys and discount defenses, in order to get yours.
Unless they were in college trying to finish their degree so they wouldn't have to work in crappy retail jobs all their life and keep buying their kids' shoes at Payless.
Of course, I always recognized that I would probably make no money anyway so I would be straight up with customers all the time.
It's funny that people assume you make big money on everything.
"Well, no, on that TV I would make about a dime, but then you factor in the draw..."
It aint the employees fault. Its just sales. Thats the name of the game. and i gotta say, if there was one benefit of working at those piece of shit places, its that you learn what it takes to...................................................................
nah nevermind, theres absolutely no benefit to working those shit fucking jobs.
I was always honest with people. But they never believed me. And you know what? I dont blame them.
Northern Lighting and Sound, the name is something to that effect at least. Their website is lowbudget and makes you wonder, however I know of two other people (including myself) that they came through for.
That you don't want to be the guy/girl who is 45 and making their living at it.
That 90% of the general public are OK (albeit many are borderline retarded).
That 10% of the general public are assholes of the nth degree.
That a lot more people think they're funny than actually are funny.
That people seem to think that you have some sort of control over store policies, when actuality you don't and most likely nobody in the store or even the state could begin to explain them correctly let alone change them.
That people seem to expect you to know a lot when you're getting paid $6 an hour. Then they haggle over 10 cents off on a $100 TV that's going to break in a month anyway. You want people who know everything under the sun? You're not going to get it somewhere that sells 27 inch TVs for $100.
That people expect the same performance from a $5,000 plasma TV as a $500 dollar tube TV. There's a reason it costs more, people.
and you get a free shirt!!!!