The Breitling Watch Source Forums

well i saw this on the argument post i mean the etiquette post lol. wanted to know how many other people have had a new salesman's stomach drop.

"I remember 10 years ago going into Mallorys in Bath to buy a new strap. I was doing up one of my houses so 3 days growth, torn jeans and covered in paint. I asked the (older) salesman for a Breitling strap and he asked me if I really wanted a 'OEM' @ £50 then.

Just then the Big Store Manager passed by and said 'How goes Alan?' (I'd bought several stones from him over the years) said salesman died"

Mine was after I retired from the Marines i had about a 4 month beard that to most would equal about 3 years worth of growth and had not been in the shop since i was clean cut, well this time i was there on a whim in jeans beat up old hooded sweatshirt ( my favorite Guinness shirt that's about 15 years old) i went in there to look at a new purchase, but saw no one that i knew most of the time i worked with one of the managers, and the watchmaker but neither was there, so i started to brows. i have to give it to the sales guy who was a younger man mid 20s ( i am only in my 30s) so wasn't hard to communicate, but he was polity pushing the tags, victonox and some unknown to me named used watches, until the owners daughter ( who always seams to be the one there when i want a new pen) came out and asked it i was there to final pick out my Patek ( at the time I wanted a dive watch so i was sizing the Omega PO and the SO abyss.) well after that comet from the owners daughter i could see his emotion switch a bit and cases started opening and his VAST ( he was very well versed in both brands ) knowledge started rolling out. I do have to give it to them that even as a bum i received good service. So if anyone has any similar stories please share.
one other funny comment is it seams that every time i have a watch out of the case a PP Aquanaut seams to end up on the pad i wonder if they really know what i want and just keep reminding me that its there.

Not watch related, but:

A few years back I was at the BMW dealership looking at cars. The salesman was being a douche, brushing me off and not really caring what I was there for. So I went and asked for somebody different to help me, as I no longer wanted to deal with that guy. We ended up buying a car. The new salesman was telling me that the other guy was pissed off and complaining to the manager that his client was stolen from him. It felt good, but my salesman admitted to me that he would most likely have to split the commission with that jerk-off. I felt like going back to the manager and making a point that I would only buy the car if the first guy got nothing out of it, but figured that might be a little bit over the top.

Fortunately, car dealerships have always been helpful to me since then. Ive never had a problem like that with watches though.

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-RJ

I have bought all my Breitling's from the local store but the main store, about a half hour away, has a much greater selection of models and brands. I wanted to look at some IWC as I had never given them much of a thought so one day, as I had finished up a early, I decided to stop in and take a look. I own a residential plumbing shop and, as expected, do not wear a suit to work. I was clean in jeans and a sweat shirt but you would think I had a disease. I had to wait about fifteen minutes for some one to come over to me. He was young, never made eye contact and acted as if I was just in there to get warm. I had on my Steelfish but he never looked at me long enough to even notice. I was upset enough to let it get to me so I lowered myself to about the level of a twelve year old and stayed there to bother him. I wrote a letter to the owner, this was the only time I ever did this. The manager of that branch called me as did the owner. It came in very handy when I went in my local AD to buy my wife's 2kt. Honestly, they were very nice about it and I want to add that I have never been treated anything but respectfully from my regular AD. From what I understand from my conversation with the owner the sales person has done this before and is now working for someone else. I felt bad that I contributed to the guy getting fired but I went out of my way to not describe the guy or the time I was in the store so they could not check the tapes. I thought as a business owner myself that the owner might want to know what was going on in his store. He was very thankful and we are friends to this day. Of course the six Breitlings and all my wife's jewelery might have something to do with it. Kidding!!!
Best health, Frank.

Good stories from the three of yous. I don't have any stories of my own to share but I am in sales nevertheless and I can tell you that I've always and will always continue to value people's hard earned money; $1 or $1,000,000. I share this fundamental belief with my guys everyday now and try to help them realize this. I don't care about age, clothes, religion, race, or any of that stuff. Business is business and those of us who get it, get it. That is what separates the wannabes from the ones who make it. I am pretty young and green and I know I have lots more to learn, but my piece of advice thus far, treat people how they would like to be treated and you'll succeed.

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Alex
Breitling - Navitimer
Breitling - SuperOcean
Breitling - Chrono SuperOcean

I fail to understand why people who dress like they just came out of the swamp are shocked when the saleperson in the expensive watch store brushes them off or isn't overly courteous.

Contrary to popular opinion, sales people are humans. Yes, they aren't robotic servants programmed not to be jaded or sick of dealing with the general public.


For every one of the shoppers who are "swampish" or young or whatever...that actually has the money or interest to actually buy one of those expensive watches, there are 10 people like that who are tire kickers, disbelievers (that costs HOW MUCH?) etc....

Is it bad business to be a snot to those customers? Sure. But it's like 'GroundHog' day to them. Same crap every day. Some salespeople don't get jaded, but most hate the timewasters so much that they think all casually dressed customers are about to embark on the same tired conversation they've had a thousand times before..

So, let's stop with the "surprised" reaction or the hurt feelings when you go into a fancy watch store not looking spiffy and getting judged because of it. Just human nature folks.

You certainly have a right to your opinion.
Best health, Frank.

I have to disagree with the last post from Fleetlord. Every customer in the store has to be treated like an important customer. You can never tell, it the man in the blue overall is not the boss of a company, who just wants to spend 20k. Sure, You have to be a little bit cautious, as You can scare away someone with a smaller allowance, if You immediately bring out the massive gold pieces. I know, it is really tough to teach salespeople, but I hate it, when they are so arrogant. I have also once fired a guy for that.
On the other hand I had a story from an older man, bad looking old suite, a plastic bag from a well known austrian supermarket chain in his hand, came into a store (not mine, but a nice competitior) and talked to a young watchmaker. He was interested in watches, and after some time, the young watchmaker pulled out a Vacheron perpetual calender. The owner was already thinking of calling the young man away, not to waste his time, but it was a slow day and so she decided to let him go on, at least its some training. After an hour, the man reached in his plasticbag, took out the equivalent of about 50000 USDollars in cash and bought the watch. In fact they found out afterwards, that he was the former owner of the supermarket chain, that he had sold only a year ago. He is now one of the richest realestate owners in Austria. Also, when talking tho the owner afterwards, he really appreciated the young mans emphasis and told her, that he has been to her direct competitor first, where they have just treated him like scum.

You never know, who comes to Your shop.

BG
Thomas

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http://www.ellert.at

Before becoming a Firefighter I had a variety of jobs . I once sold new Toyota Commercial Vehicles . One day I had just returned to the Dealership , having gone to buy lunch , when an elderly gent bailed me up to ask a few questions about a new Landcruiser which was sitting in the yard . I was hungry and he looked like he would probably struggle to buy a newspaper , but I stopped to answer all his questions . Ten minutes later he pulled out a chequebook and said "OK , I'll take it , how long for delivery?" Didn't even ask for a discount . The old bugger was loaded , filthy rich . Made a great commission on that one .

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Breitling Superocean Steelfish
Breitling Evolution Chronomat
Breitling Montbrillant Datora
Rolex GMT Master 11 BLNR
Rolex Submariner

I was at a Rolex AD last year on vacation at the Mall of America with my wife and my daughter. We were casually dressed, I wore a polo shirt and some shorts and my wife was in something similar. I was also wearing my Panerai. As I was browsing the cases, an older sales woman came up to me and asked if I was dreaming and if I'd like to take a look at the preowned watches they had in stock. I don't think I've ever been more offended at an AD.

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Justin
Please contact me via PM for the contact details for Govberg Jewelers
Govberg is an AD for over 50 fine Swiss and German watch brands.
Visit them on the web at http://www.govbergwatches.com or call 800-528-8463

You mean like this....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atGibiLhAE4

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Past: BlackBird, Navi World, SA, Rolex DJII, IWC Yacht Club
Present: CE, DSSD
Future: Changes daily

I understand it's wrong to "judge a book by its cover", I'm just saying why it happens...

For every miracle purchase from those who look like deadbeats, there are countless encounters with actual deadbeats. It beats one down after awhile.

While a salesperson should never insult or act snobbish to a potential customer, just don't act surprised when you don't get the red carpet rolled out if you don't "look" the part...

Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and think about what goes on in that place everyday. You have to stand on your feet every day for at least 8hrs. You're paid on commission so you run the roller coaster of getting your hopes up and down all day long with people maybe buying and maybe not buying. Pressure from the owners and management to perform, often without the ability to discount. Dealing with the real wealthy who are generally awful to sell to... Blah blah blah. The job kinda sucks. So when you bounce in there looking like the last ten dudes who were just strolling through (wasting their "up), you're going to get some blowback from how crummy the job experience is..

I think most people on here get what you're saying, but having some salesman treat you like shit because he doesn't thinking you can afford a watch, or a car or anything, is unacceptable. If he doesn't like his job because more people look than buy then he should think of a career change and not be a dick.

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"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

If you can't treat every customer like the most important person in the world then you are in the wrong business.

I dress up for work during the week because my customers expect it, I have no intention of dressing up so that I send the right message about what type of consumer I am. If people want to judge me based on that then it could be an expensive mistake.

Wow. That's mind-blowing. It's also ironic - she's talking down to a customer when she can't even recognize the Panerai he's got on.

Exactly. If youre in retail sales, you need to be prepared to deal with all of these types of people. Im not in sales, but I have people calling me all the time for questions about certain things. I know that 99% of them are never going to call me back for anything, but I answer all of their questions just as I would the guy that I know ill make money on. Yes, its almost always a waste of time, but thats just the way it is.

I have a client who is a contractor. He built a brand new house in Burbank (pretty good area for those that have never heard of it) about 5-6 years ago. House was worth about $750,000 at the time. An older hispanic guy who didnt look anything like somebody who would be living in that neighborhood came by to look at it. After a while he goes to my client as tells him he'll take it. The guy pulls out his checkbook and gets ready to write him a check for the full purchase price. He had to explain to him that that wasnt the way it worked and that he had to go through escrow etc.

You never know who youre dealing with.

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-RJ