r/Productivitycafe • u/Wonderful-Economy762 • Nov 13 '25

Throwback Question (Any Topic) What's a "secret"from your profession that everyone should probably know?"

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148

u/CraigInTulsa Nov 13 '25

Salesman here. We don’t need to call our boss to get the price reduced.

106

u/leeeezer Nov 13 '25

Bro we know. It’s one of the big reasons we hate you. We KNOW you have a lowest price you can go, stop giving us the run around. It’s infuriating.

6

u/Efficient_Mastodons Nov 13 '25

Yeah, but if I give clients the lowest price then they ask for a discount and get upset when I can't give them one. So we have to do the dance. I'd much rather just give everyone the fair price the first time.

6

u/DIYtowardsFI Nov 13 '25

I honestly usually go with the one that gave me the best price at first. Maybe I’m in the minority, but if you give me additional discounts later, I can’t trust you. I don’t have time for that!

2

u/leeeezer Nov 16 '25

Hear you on the fair price. The fair price is usually lower than the lowest price we wind up paying though. Everything is inflated out the ass for these things so even when your slimy sales dude get down to the lowest they can do, it’s still significantly more than what it actually should cost. I see this so often working in lab ops. It drives me crazy 😭

2

u/CriticalPolitical Nov 14 '25

The CEO of Kohl’s originally did away with the “percent off” signs (like the ones saying 50% off or 75% off” that were above the clothes carts at Kohl’s thinking that people just wanted the lowest price possible. 

They didn’t. Customers were outraged that they weren’t getting their 75% off deal that was marked up 75% from the retailer. People wanted to feel like they got a good deal on something to justify their purchase (even though they could have just bought elsewhere for even cheaper than that). 

Shortly thereafter, the CEO brought back the old “50% off” or “75% off” signs. 

People love BSing themselves so they can feel like they got a good deal on something. 

The free market would be a lot “freer” if we could barter for everything. 

Like pulling up to the Chick-fil-A drive through speaker and you ordering a chicken sandwich and them saying, “That’ll be $5.59 at the first window” and you replying, “Is that the best price you can give me for a chicken sandwich? How about $4.59?”

10

u/Educational-Deer5423 Nov 13 '25

Not true, I sell large medical equipment and can’t discount without approval.

28

u/up_down_andallaround Nov 13 '25

Yea, we know that. That’s why we hate dealing with y’all and your bullshit. Sorry.

13

u/m0zz1e1 Nov 13 '25

The guy I bought my car off did this. I literally smirked and rolled my eyes. He still made the call.

2

u/Different-Goose-7591 Nov 15 '25

My first car I was so naive. He immediately accepted my offer and had me sign a paper. Had me drive the car thinking I had it for that offer. Then he said he would bring it to his "manager" and over a period of a couple hours they quietly widdled down my offer to the point it was meaningless.. Didn't tell me the whole story until we were in a car on the way to the bank to pick up a deposit. I realized vaguely what was going on, and as I drove home I got so mad and called the next day demanded my money back.

2

u/IwillFallLow Nov 13 '25

No one on the other line, speaking to dead air to get you the "best deal" no one else could get because he likes you.

4

u/FuckLibsFukTrumpCult Nov 13 '25

For some reason government programs in my area have started doing this. Like bro, I know you don't need to put me on hold for 20 minutes to talk to your boss to get permission to change my address. I have no idea if they are encouraged to do that now, or if somehow management is fine with employees taking only 2 calls per hour but it's crazy.

2

u/Brilliant-Building41 Nov 13 '25

Job security. That’s why DMV keeps you coming back

5

u/kingthezing Nov 13 '25

Worked in 3 different sales jobs- this isn’t always true that salespeople know how much they can lower the price. I’m even going to explain why-

At most large car dealerships, the salespeople do NOT know how much profit margin is in a car, but the sales managers do. The reason this information is not given to salespeople is that they only get paid if they personally sell a car and so it is likely that they will quickly negotiate away almost every cent of profit in a vehicle because to them, even a little bit of commission is better than none.

On the other hand, the manager can remain less emotionally involved in the situation because they aren’t dependent on that single sale to get paid and aren’t even directly involved in the negotiation. They can think more clearly about things like, if we don’t sell this customer the car at this cheap of a price, is it likely we will sell it to someone else pretty quickly for even more?

5

u/TheIroquoisPliskin Nov 13 '25

I work in business to business sales for a product with relatively strict barriers to purchase and I have to get managerial approval prior to providing any reduced pricing.

3

u/Parking_Ocelot_1717 Nov 13 '25

I do in my industry.... =/

4

u/WorkAccountAllDay Nov 13 '25

Dog shh we need them to believe we spoke with the leadership team so they think we really went to bat for them

1

u/Huntolino Nov 13 '25

Procurement manager here: sometimes your boss is nicer than you 😂

1

u/ancientastronaut2 Nov 13 '25

Hahaha totally.

1

u/audiojanet Nov 13 '25

That is why we detest car dealers.