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My Local GW; Just a laugh
Topic Started: 1st March 2012 - 11:16 AM (2,054 Views)
izmerul
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i've sold golf clubs and done real estate.

lost my job twice for not beeing aggressive enough (golf clubs) and loosing my temper with a landlord (real estate)

There's too much pressure on making money ... what happened to just "making a living" today it's all about Hoarding ... if you dont make truckloads you're nothing *GRRRRRR*
Edited by izmerul, 2nd March 2012 - 02:28 AM.
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Warlord Marsqueek
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izmerul
2nd March 2012 - 02:27 AM
i've sold golf clubs and done real estate.

lost my job twice for not beeing aggressive enough (golf clubs) and loosing my temper with a landlord (real estate)

There's too much pressure on making money ... what happened to just "making a living" today it's all about Hoarding ... if you dont make truckloads you're nothing *GRRRRRR*
Your life sounds like straight from the play "Death of a Salesman" such a pessimistic play... ugh I hate knowing I'm going to college and praying my future job wont just be about only making money :(

Oh and sorry I hope your current and future job will be better!
Edited by Warlord Marsqueek, 2nd March 2012 - 02:40 AM.
"Mellow, man. We got ourselves a nice mellow war today." - Ted Lavender
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izmerul
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Warlord Marksqueek
2nd March 2012 - 02:39 AM


Oh and sorry I hope your current and future job will be better!
No worries, it's not as bad as it sounds!

I lack independance and professionally not so good, but i'm not going to be under a bridge either ^^
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hannanibal
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The bread that satisfies all hunger... the peanut that reverses time...
@Math. I'm sure there must be some commission incentive somewhere but what makes me wonder is only certain GW shops which do the hard sell. I sometimes go to a store a bit further afield and they are great. They never once did the hard sell, and as a result I dump a lot of my money there. They are really friendly, chat about their day and what's going on and only ever give you advice if you ask. Also the guys who work there, manager and staffers are all quite old (my age anyway) and experienced so I dunno if that's something to do with it.
This other store though (naming no names...) has been aggressively selling for years. Changes of staff and managers have not changed it's selling strategy and I'm talking nearly 20 years here. I never really knew why my Dad hated it so much when I was a kid but I can see it now.


Like you said though "more customers return to find me because I get them what they need not what pays me".... Bringing customers back is paramount to a company. Sure you can bully them into a single £250 purchase but why when you can get them hooked and milk their cash for a lifetime. Due to the other store's laid back attitude I'll spend the extra money on fuel and buy my models there rather than have the hassle of the hard-sell store. ;)
scratchydoom
1st March 2012 - 09:11 PM
Its really weird because there are about two stores equal distance from me, i use to go to a different one.
The staff where so friendly and never tried to convince you to buy every new product, and would only talk to you about
it if you actually showed interest.
I dont think i'll go to the city one anymore, i went in to ask what skaven warlord option they had and it took about 3 minutes
before they where trying to convince me to buy a battleboard, terrain and dont forget the holy grail (white dwarf). Everyone
has had their rant about that book, but my biggest things is why the hell should i pay $12 a month to see advertisement.
This is exactly the same situation where I live. GW Store of darkness and GW store of light and I'm in the middle. Maybe it's an obscure marketing strategy?
Edited by hannanibal, 2nd March 2012 - 08:00 AM.
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Grey Seer Kwokka
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Working as a salesman for IT for nearly 5 years taught me that an approach similar to Mathusala's, where you focus on engaging the customer subtly and in due time (rather than jumping on their face as soon as they walk in) tends to build incredible rapport and yields repeat business. Some aggressive tactics can assist, but it really depends on the customer.

The problem is that as a salesman, you're often in an environment where you're competing for the customers. It's all very well to engage the customer with a patient manner, but sadly it's ultimately down who gets to him or her first, which reinforces the unfortunate scenario you're seeing.

Today I always make a point, being the customer much more than the salesman now, (I graduated to corporate support for a major ISP) to reward the salesman who has been the most respectful of my personal space whom also knows what he or she is doing. After all, I only go into a shop now when I can actually be bothered buying something, so they should be working to appease me for my money. :P
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snowblizz
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For interesting takes on selling in GW stores. Here's an example posted by a guy on the Herdstone about the rise and (well mostly) fall of the GW store.
This was 2010 and the area was running some sort of campaign/tournament thingy or whatever.
Quote:
 

Basically you need a 3000 pt list to enter and the rules are as follows.

The 3000pt list will be checked to make sure you actually have the models. I have no idea how he expects to police this as most 3000pt armies can be really large.

Once a character has died or a unit takes casualties you cannot use the same models again.

You can get reinforcements to bring your army back to the 3000 pts strength but here comes the snag. You can only do this by BUYING new miniatures from the store which will be policed by him seeing the recpt etc. It doesn't matter if you already have the minis at home the reinforcements must be new. This is just another sales ploy that is as subtle as a brick.

Needless to say half of the vets have already pulled out and the remaining few will play until they have merely a warband each to play with.

I am just wondering if you guys have heard anything like this before to sell figures?

Needless to say it did not work out... and I think the manager in question isn't working there no more. And the people who used to frequent this store are now shopping at an independent store started by the GW-manager before this one.
Edited by snowblizz, 2nd March 2012 - 11:10 AM.
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izmerul
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keeps getting better ...

it's like watching the news, and then MTV cribbs ...
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hannanibal
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The bread that satisfies all hunger... the peanut that reverses time...
@ grey seer kwokka. The repeat business thing has worked for me in regards to the easy-going store. I can see where these guys are coming from with the hard sell but that doesn't make me like it. I like to stroll around and look at the mini's in the cabinet etc. and I can't do that in hard-sell store. Too annoying.

@ snowblizz. If that is true then it's the biggest pile of money-making crap I've heard. The manager must have been an idiot to think people are gonna buy duplicates of their own models just to fill his wallet.


BTW. I like this thread
Edited by hannanibal, 2nd March 2012 - 12:14 PM.
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Sketch
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As Math told me; just one circle of hell above lawyers. ;)

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Some of this stuff is just awful, has made me hugely re-evaluate the pushiness of the staff at my local GW. In fairness to them they were never really that pushy to me, but there was one who did repeatedly insist that I could always 'find money' for GW products regardless of how broke I was and then gave me a funny look when I said I'd rather spend it on alcohol and holidays. (It did not buy a lot of alcohol in case any of you were concerned. ;) ) I would see them occasionally pushing Space Marine product after Space Marine product at increasingly bewildered and sceptical looking parents of ten year olds though and that I do not condone.

I don't think they pay them comission here in Ireland. Comission payment isn't that much of a flyer over here as everyone is very lazy and just doesn't like the stress associated with that kind of work. We'd go out of our way to get a different job to one like that. Time rate all the way si vous plait.

I can understand why people would pay comission to car salespeople or the like but the GW employees work in shops. There's supposed to be a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. I don't want to walk into a model shop and have to barter and haggle for my life.
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Krogholt
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I just want to add my voice to the "I hate pushy GW employees, and I do my shopping elsewhere because of them" group.

The staff in the Copenhagen GW store are way, way too pushy.

I used to come in to have a look when new stuff arrived, and do most of my shopping there, but approximately a year ago they started being a lot more pushy and I decided to take my shopping to an independent game store 400 meters further down the street.
That I get a 10 % discount on all miniatures (including GW), and that they have a large stock of the older metal blisters is just an added bonus :)

Part of me wants to buy the figures directly from GW, since they are the ones making the figures and (somewhat) deserves the money, rather than part of the money going to a random middleman (independent store) who is just reselling goods - making money without actually making the figures I like...

But I can't take the pushy GW staff!

No, I do not want to start a new army. I do not want to start playing 40k, and I most certainly, will not, ever, buy a subscription to your glorified White Dwarf, where 2/3 of the articles are irrelevant for me because they deal with a game system I couldn't care a rats ass about, and 50 % of the magazine just being a glorified commercial.

*sigh*
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hannanibal
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The bread that satisfies all hunger... the peanut that reverses time...
Come on guys! Vent your spleens, get it off your chest! release your GW bile! Due to the sheer amount of topics directed negatively at GW lately I vote there should be a new discussion tunnel just for it!
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izmerul
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What will it be games workshop??? CAKE OR DEATH?!

I mention this because we didnt celebrate the 25th aniversary of the 41st millenium ... huzzaa


*runs and hides*
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snowblizz
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hannanibal
2nd March 2012 - 12:13 PM

@ snowblizz. If that is true then it's the biggest pile of money-making crap I've heard. The manager must have been an idiot to think people are gonna buy duplicates of their own models just to fill his wallet.

As far as I can tell it is. I have no reason to doubt the guy who posted it. He's been posting a lot about his local GW store. Here's the thread, feel free to check it out yourself: http://z2.invisionfree.com/herdstone/index.php?showtopic=21390
For the record he's been posting a lot about his local stores and talking with them so liek I said I'm inclined to beleive him If not someone is making an awful lot of effort to discredit GW which could be just as easily accomplished by "posting GW sux!" on random Warhammer forum.


Another favorite is him again on that store where they told off his kid for using non-GW glue in-store. By all means have rules that drive away customers, save a penny lose a dollar type of thing. But talk to the parent and explain the situation, we have corporate rules which I must follow, would you please consider that in the future etc etc. And don't go hassle the 9 year old about not having the right kind of glue.

Can't find that thread right now though.
Now not all GW staff are bad. I went into Helsinki GW to kill an hour before the train left and they were all OK. Of course they were almost half my age and one was a girl so I guess it's different. I doubt they dared hassle me with sales. Considering I was looking forward to putting them in their places I probably radiated an aura of anti-GW around me which gave them all the Unstable rule. ^_^
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hannanibal
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The bread that satisfies all hunger... the peanut that reverses time...
Told a kid off for not using GW glue????? WTF!! What next? Breathing GW approved air? That's seriously going too far.

BTW, for the benefit of the uninitiated---Tap-water bonds better than GW polystyrene cement and most hobby shops sell glue that doesn't require a bank loan to purchase.
GW polystyrene cement nearly runied my hell pit abomination. After a day of drying the parts still weren't bonded but had melted sufficiently to obscure detail and be a pain in the arse to sort out.
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Skulwhisker
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This sort of stuff really makes me glad the closest GW is somewhere in chicago. An 8 hour drive. One of these days i will go to one but until then i just get to laugh at these stories :P
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