In-Store Sales Pitch Proliferates
Ben Woo is the high-tech equivalent of the guy who hands out sausage samples at the grocery store. But rather than offering snacks designed to spark impulse buys, Woo is encouraging shoppers to buy Canon copiers and scanners.
The 33-year-old Fullerton resident is part of a growing army of manufacturer’s representatives being stationed in retail stores to make one last marketing push. Already fairly common in store cosmetics departments, these reps are increasingly likely to be found working the computer and electronics store aisles.
“If you’re buying a box of cereal, you don’t need expert advice,” said Peter Breen, editor of Stamford, Conn.-based Promo magazine. “But if you’re buying a computer, you feel more at ease if someone can tell you how to hook it up and plug it in.”
In the best of worlds, manufacturers’ reps would answer shoppers’ questions without disparaging competing products and provide the kind of expert assistance that many store salespeople cannot offer. But, some retail industry observers say, overzealous marketers could easily mislead some consumers.
“Given the quality of help in many computer stores, having someone there who’s a specialist in a given brand is an asset,” said Peter Schaeffer, a New York-based retail and consumer products partner with Ernst & Young. “But there is an obvious caveat: The information they’re giving you comes with a specific brand orientation. Their point of view is obviously skewed to the vendor who’s paying their salary.”
Retailers who have had trouble finding qualified sales help are extending a cautious welcome to these manufacturers’ reps. Store managers are not interested in simply switching customers from, say, a Canon printer to a Hewlett-Packard model. But they do welcome in-store marketing that increases overall sales. And one way to get the cash registers humming is to put better-educated people on the sales floor.
Mark Dean, president and chief operating officer of Irvine-based BDS Marketing, which provides about 1,000 representatives for Canon and other manufacturers, acknowledges that in-store sales reps must walk a straight line.
“Particularly during the holiday season, the challenge is to have enough people in the store to make the sale,” Dean said. “But we know it has to be done in a positive fashion. . . . We’re guests in these stores and, if we don’t do it right, the retailers will kick us out.”
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On a recent Sunday, drivers were cruising the crowded Metro Pointe shopping center in Costa Mesa in a frustrating search for parking spots. Inside the mall’s Best Buy store, customers were lined up at the store’s 14 cash registers.
In the printer and scanner aisle, nearly 20 shoppers were poking and prodding the dizzying array of products, ranging from $99 to $799. Two Best Buy salesmen worked the crowded aisle, but many customers were being attended to by Woo or a blue-shirted sales rep from Hewlett-Packard or another rep wearing a Lexmark name tag.
Woo greeted shoppers with a polite smile and an offer to answer any Canon-related questions. He helped one couple choose the right ink cartridge for a copier, provided information to a woman who was researching several copier brands, and occasionally directed customers with a different brand preference to the right place.
“I don’t jump in when the Lexmark guy is giving his pitch,” Woo said. “And if a customer has a keen interest in HP, they have their minds made up, I’m not going to try and undo that. We’re guests in the store, so we try to work as professionally as possible.”
Woo, who works part time as a Canon representative to augment income from a full-time job in the health-care industry, is paid by BDS Marketing. BDS also provides sales staff for such manufacturers as WebTV and Xerox.
Dean, BDS president, learned the in-store trade while working at another company that provided the people who prepare and serve food samples to shoppers at grocery and warehouse stores.
“We realized we could use the same tactics from packaged goods in the electronics sector,” Dean said. “ . . . The category has been very good for us.”
Privately held BDS reported $26.6 million in 1999 revenue and was ranked 20th on Promo magazine’s annual list of promotions companies.
Canon, now a BDS customer, moved to strengthen its in-store presence in 1995 when printers underwent a technological revolution.
“Small offices and families all of a sudden saw color copiers available at prices they could afford,” said Michael Duffett, national field sales support manager for Irvine-based Canon Computer Systems Inc. “But there are so many things you can’t explain with a simple brochure or a tag.”
In-store promotions are a growing business. Manufacturers’ spending on promotions rose by 8.7% last year to $870 million, according to Promo magazine.
Promotions are on the rise “because retailers are increasingly telling manufacturers that they’re only going to carry the top three brands, and manufacturers are being forced to struggle to get more visibility with consumers,” said Laura Miller, a vice president with Maritz Performance Improvement Co., a St. Louis-based sales consultant.
Manufacturers have long relied on bonuses paid to store employees to influence sales. But retailers often refuse to participate in such programs because their salespeople often end up moving products that are not especially profitable for the store.
Some stores remain “very much against incentive programs,” Miller said. “They want the consumer to know that any guidance provided by the store clerk is totally reliable and without bias.”
Best Buy views manufacturers’ reps as a helpful addition for customers. The chain does not pay its salespeople by commission, and in-store manufacturers’ reps must follow strict guidelines.
“We’re trying to make sure that customers pick what’s right for them the first time,” said Best Buy spokeswoman Laurie Bauer. “But we’re not trying to sell them something that they don’t want.”
Canon’s Duffett says in-store programs benefit retailers and consumers. “We’re not simply sticking someone in the stores to move boxes out. . . . We want them to know they’ve got the right paper, the right cartridge, the right cable. We don’t want them going home, opening up the box and saying, ‘Oh, my God! What have I gotten involved in?’ ”
