A Salesman Problem

 

I faced a peculiar “salesman problem” recently, which was difficult to believe first.

If you are getting a carpentry work done, and select a sun-mica, the carpenter would criticize your selection and would force you to pick another design. If you are getting walls painted and pick a colour, the painted would say that your choice is not good and would ask you to pick another colour, mostly a copy of some other house he had painted. If you are buying a vehicle, again, the salesman would mandatorily criticize your choice of colour and would force you to buy one of the popular colours, e.g. white or black. And then come the curtains.

While buying curtains at a local shop recently, I came across an interesting salesman. After entering the shop, I told the shopkeeper that I did not want the kind of curtain where a plastic ring is used on top to hang the curtain from the rod, and I need the type where the curtain is hung by stripes made of cloth. This way, I would avoid plastic in the curtain and would feel safe washing the curtains in the washing machine. The shopkeeper sent me with a salesman to make my choice from the available options on the first floor.

There was no one else on the first floor where curtains were kept. The salesman first started saying that “no one buys the type of curtain you are buying, and these have gone outdated now. Everyone buys curtains with plastic rings only these days and very soon, production of such clothes-only curtains would be stopped totally by companies”. I said, “Okay. But I like only these curtains.” Then, he stopped for a while and started his tirade again, in totally unsolicited manner.

He said, “the curtain you are buying will run for several years and decades to come”. I thought he was giving a compliment for selecting “clothes only” (no plastic) curtain. So, I said, “Yes”. Then he said, “The problem with middle people (he omitted the word “class” so as not to offend me) is that they do not have money to buy new curtains every year. So, what option they have other than keeping the same curtain for many years to come?”. I was busy selecting a curtain for purchase. But since I heard him, I replied, “The question is, why would one change curtains every year? Curtains do not get old in just one or two years. If curtains start looking old, or if there is a function or a marriage in family, on such occasions one would change all curtains of one’s house. Otherwise, it makes sense to keep the same curtains which are in good condition.” He still repeated his stand that “if one had enough money, one should change curtains every year”. I said, “Okay”. I selected two sets of curtains I liked, took their pictures, and came down to give my order.

Later that day, I happened to recall this incident and then I noticed how the salesman had argued unnecessarily and how any customer could have taken offense with his statements. I did not mind because I did not notice any wrong intention in what he had said. But, his statements could be taken as if he was “harassing” me.

I am not sure about the reason for the “salesmen’s” pattern mentioned above, but most likely it is due to lack of training and professionalism with the particular folks involved. I don’t understand what their problem was if they allowed a customer to buy what he wanted to buy, instead of criticizing their choices and giving unsolicited advices on what to buy and what not. Most likely it seemed they were trying to force their own choices over the customers, due to some kind of “self-validation” psychology. I have read that excessive watching short videos on YouTube changes people’s brain activity and impacts their psychology, is this weird behaviour by salesmen related to that?

Whatever be the reason, I hope the salesmen stop this pattern and they need to get trained better in valuing their customers.

- Rahul