Quote:
| Originally Posted by Martin Burnard What it does require is a salesperson working for you. I do not mean somebody who answers the phone, works the till, puts stuff on the shelf, I MEAN a SALES person!!!!
When was the last time a dive centre... |
Martin, I fully agree with you. The majority of shop staff that I have come across in diveshops in Australia, Singapore, Norway and UK are really bad salespeople. It is my impression that most shop staff are people who really like diving and who works in the store to work close to things they like. Actually selling gear, courses and trips are the last thing on their list of priorities.
I walked into a diveshop in Central London yesterday and told the guy behind the counter that I just moved to UK after living the past 7 years in the tropics. When I asked about UK trips, I was told that UK is pretty lousy compared to where I used to live and it wasn't much recommended. Drysuits were all pretty much sold out. I have a slightly unusual shape (tall but not fat) the guy missed the point and pointed out that few suits would fit me, instead of telling me about the suits that actually would fit me. I asked about what reels were recommended (I don't have one) and was told that it all depends on the type of diving, couldn't really give any recommendations, although they had only one type in the shop.
Being a bit more switched on to
sales, the guy should of course have told me about their intro to UK diving short courses, UK diving trips, tried to find a drysuit that would fit, and told me that the reel they have in stock is suitable for most types of diving here and recommend it to me.
Perhaps introducing commissions would work. I worked part-time as DM in Singapore/Malaysia on 100% commission based myself. It's a bit uncomfortable to call around to people I've got fairly close to and nag at them to come along. We all know that diving is also about the trip itself, and sometimes it feels as if I'm calling the people just to get money from them and not because I want to hang out with them. But this is the way it is when you work with something you actually like to do.
What needs to be communicated to the staff is that although you are working in an industry you like,
your real job is to bring in money for the company - through trips, courses and gear. Get people on trips and courses and they will buy gear.
Perhaps another problem is that most diveshops are run by divers who love diving, and who are not really that hardcore business minded themselves. If the owner isn't focused on selling, the staff won't be either.
A shop to learn from is the Halcyon importer in Singapore. They are keen on taking your contact details on the first visit to their shop. After that, they will stay in touch and updated you very frequently on new product arrivals, new trips and new courses. They employed a pretty girl who actually know how to sell, but is not a hardcore diver herself. She'll not just send out mass emails, but also be on the phone once in a while to stay in touch. This is about the only shop I've been to that actively tries to sell to me.
This got a bit long... hopefully not everyone are asleep by now
Cheers
Ivan