The haughty sales clerk who barely deigns to notice the customer eyeing that Louis Vuitton hand bag is probably well on the way to making a sale, according to research by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.
Customers who desire luxury brands only want them more if they are treated rudely, the study found. The best advice, in such cases, is to leave the store and come back later, or just buy online.
The study, “Should the Devil Sell Prada?” will be published in October in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Researchers at the Sauder School of Business presented potential buyers with scenarios – real and imagined – in which sales clerks were either snobby or not. They were then asked to rate their feelings about the experiences and their desire to own specific brands.
In many instances, the snobbier the sales clerk the more the buyer wanted the expensive brand. There were caveats, however. The sales clerk’s attitude had to feel real, not fake. And, the desire to own the socially elite brands faded after two weeks.
When it came to less expensive, mass-market brands, rudeness didn’t seem to increase sales.
“It appears that snobbiness might actually be a qualification worth considering for luxury brands like Louis Vuitton or Gucci,” says co-author and Sauder Marketing Professor Darren Dahl. “Our research indicates they can end up having a similar effect to an ‘in-group’ in high school that others aspire to join.”
There are other examples, however, where nicer behavior seems to bring equally good sales results. Blogger and sales strategist Steve W. Martin has administered 1,000 personality tests to high tech and business services salespeople at workshops over the past decade.
Martin teaches sales strategy at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He also blogs on HBR Blog Network and is author of a book based on his testing results, “Heavy Hitter I.T. Sales Strategy.”
He has found that natural personality traits are the reason why some people are top performers racking up impressive sales numbers. In contrast to the stereotypes of sales people as pushy and egotistical, Martin says modesty and conscientiousness are among the qualities that enhance a person’s sales ability.
On personality tests, 91 percent of top performers scored medium to high in modesty and humility. These successful salespeople tended to work as team players who involve everyone at the company in winning an account. The results, Martin says, suggest that sales people full of bravado turn off more customers than they win over.
And, 85 percent of salespeople were conscientious and could be described as having a strong sense of duty and responsibility. They also were reliable, took their jobs seriously and felt responsible for the results.
In making sales, they preferred to be in control of the sales process and thus their own destiny in reaching sales goals.
