Hey everyone, I’m a maple syrup and honey vendor at multiple farmers markets and one of my younger employees was caught reading at one of my booths. Like another vendor took a photo of her reading and I was livid. I just talked with her about how she needs to stop this and that she’s making me look bad. She said that reading on the job us apart of her “sales strategy,” and that if she focuses too much on “hustling and pushing” products on every customer that passes by that will scare them and demotivate her. She also says that she only reads during the slow times of the market and that reading helps her take a “mental break” when she feels discouraged by customers rejecting her sales pitches. I’m not there with her so I can’t know for sure if she’s telling the truth and I guess it’s bad if other vendors are taking pictures of her. The market is not for everyone but her numbers are okay and rarely better than mine. What do you guys think should I call her back and let her read and trust that her strategy is a valid one?
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Maybe an appropriate question for r/AITAH
Standing down and letting people engage with your space/wares and then fully but casually engaging is indeed a sales strategy that can be appropriate for this environment and can create significant sales and customer goodwill.
It’s probably not a great strategy for every personality type, but sales people with external feeling (Meyers Briggs) can sometimes pull it off with significant results creating not just immediate sales, but also initiating a long term customer relationship.
You’re selling honey at a farmer’s market, this isn’t a Mercedes dealership. All your clerk (she’s not a saleperson) needs to do is know enough about the product to answer customers’ questions and handle the transactions.
Your job as the business owner is to be directing people who want to buy from you to the stall via your marketing. If you’re only doing marketing at the market, you have a huge marketing problem and this employee is not at fault for that.
Do you have social media presence? Do you advertise online or anywhere else? How do you engage with your customers and get them thinking about the product before they even get to the market?
If she’s reading during quiet periods and doing her job when people want to buy your wares, then she’s doing fine. She’s on minimum wage, its not her job to define and execute a sales and marketing strategy that will funnel customers to your store front. That’s your job.
An employee that respected you would comply with you telling them to stop, her saying she’s not going to and justifying her actions (regardless of her opinion) is disrespectful. As a customer, I wouldn’t want to interrupt someone reading a book to interact with the business rep. This not the vibe you want for your customers experience. Expecting to get paid while reading is the wrong mindset. I would quietly start to look for someone more engaged with the role and has some sales experience.
Reading a book during a market when customers are waking by is not a sales strategy, it’s a weak excuse to do what they want and undermine you telling them that’s not ok. Makes customers feel like they are uninterested in the product and totally defers them from engaging in a conversation
I highly doubt the people saying on here let them read are in similar shoes to you
No. At the booth she can smile and say hi and offer samples and appear ready and available. There is a wiiiiide gap between aggressive offputting sales and her dumbass strategy. She looks unavailable and is absolutely costing you business.
I am from old-school sales. As long as the numbers are coming in, I don’t care about much else.