Tokyo and tech through the eyes of a split pea

Weekends are always the best

Check out my sales! Weekends are definitely the best, and today was definitely amusing. I’ve already lost track of the concept of a “week”, as I’ll be working full shifts on weekends. My cycle will be work two days, rest, work three days, rest, wash, rinse, repeat. I have already begun to pickup on the nuances that will help move actual sales along. For example, those who walk into the store with a list of product specifications will be purchasing by the end of the day. However, those who arrive and start writing prices on the back of a brochure, will most likely be a risky investment of your time. To put it more succinctly,

Another amusing observation is the role of the couple. A few customers today were quite attractive — mostly tall, slender blondes. I realize this is a subjective matter, but bare with me. The males, on the other hand, were less than average (well, except for one French dude). But, and we were actually warned about this during orientation, the males in these couples know their campanions are attractive, and walk around the store acting as such. But as a salesperson, one has to be careful to say “all the right things”, i.e. let the customer (i.e. purchaser = male) feel as if he runs the show and figured out all the differences between two competing models, thus helping towards the final decision.

There is actually an unexpected (at least to me) extra level of stress that goes along with being a neophyte on the sales floor. Unless you explicitly wear a badge stating your FOB status, the customer expects you to know all the ropes, which is to be expected I guess. Wearing the “Hi, I’m new” patch seems like a copout to me, and yet the old-timers expect everyone to learn many procedures on the job. So it’s an interesting juggle between figuring out what you’ll need to know before the customer asks some arcane question (such as getting a price-quote, which actually requires a manager’s seal), and controlling the impulse to freakout (at least in front of the customer) when you have no idea how to do something. Self control…mwahahaha

Actually, an amusing anecdote — I went out to lunch today at 1, and after finishing, checked my watch to see that it was only 1:30. I have a 1-hour lunch break (technically 45 minutes, but the mgr said nobody would ask if it was 60min), so i took a stroll around “the town”. I checked my watch a few more times, and on the 3rd check, realized it had stopped. I almost pissed in my pants; I whipped out my mobile-phone to check the time, and I was already 15 minutes late. Luckily nobody noticed :)