10.27.08
Earning Trust
Hello Ladies and Gents.
Today we had a somewhat busy day at the shop. Many print orders and several instances where I had to remind younger women that drinking alcohol at night time parties is an instant recipe for terrible red-eye on their photographs. The fact that it is dark, and your eyes dilate naturally to see plus the addition of alcohol which causes your eyes to dilate even more allows the flash from a cheap P&S camera to penetrate the Iris of the eye and reflect the red colour of the Retina. So to make your pictures as best possible, beware of that direct flash to the eyes at night, especially when out drinking!
Also managed to have a few sales today! I finally managed to sell the shops last Nikon S550, a very popular camera, but a somewhat older model now being replaced by the slightly better featured and slightly more stylish S560 which we should have on shelves by the end of this week! Along those lines we are still waiting on the other models of the “new” Nikon P&S cameras, I still have yet to see an S60 personally and I am rather upset by this fact (I was looking forward to playing with it and seeing the touch screen focusing in action).
When I have a customer come into the shop and ask a question, I do my best to give a true answer. Yes, I am a salesman when I’m at the shop, but I don’t sell by deception and misinformation like some. Heh, quite frankly I have been accused many times of giving too much information. But I am of the mind that when I sell a product, I want to sell the product that is the best product for the customer, it doesn’t make sense to sell the customer a product that ultimately they will be unhappy with. I had a customer come in today almost ready to purchase a Canon 50D. He had done a lot of online research, but a lot of what he had read didn’t make sense to him, and he had never held or felt the camera in his hands. I could probably have easily sold it to him today, but experience in sales and as a professional told me that the weight of the camera and the button controls on the camera would not be to his liking. He mentioned that he had also done extensive research into the Nikon D90. Both camera’s are very similar as far as feature set (the D90 having some minor “Entry Level” features that the 50D doesn’t have). This was a slightly older Gentleman, which immediately told me that the weight of the 50D with its Magnesium Alloy Chassis would be too much for him on a daily basis and decided the D90 would be a better option for him. I explained to him the Key differences and pulled out the D90 to let him hold it and get a feel for the button placement and feel for it in his hand. He mentioned he had read that the Canon’s images tended to look somewhat sharper and that it had something to do with the sensor. I briefly explained to him the difference between Nikon and Canon’s AA filters and ultimately convinced him that the Nikon was the camera for him. He wasn’t prepared to purchase today, but he told me that from our conversation that I had earned his trust and that when he was ready he would be back to see me. Now, my methodology isn’t the best at the daily sales level, I full well understand that. And this type of situation happens to me on occasion, I have people tell me that they are convinced but aren’t prepared to purchase today, but they will be back… well I would say only 2-3 in 10 actually come back, but I guess I have too much respect for the camera’s and the Manufacturer’s to sell a person a camera and allow it to be used twice and then put in the closet to collect dust for the next 10 years (sadly I have seen it happen).
Until tomorrow, and as always, I am happy to field any questions you may have! Just leave me a comment or send me an e-mail!
Always,
Douglas
