Is it just my imagination or are Harvey Norman salespeople far more likely to offer you a good deal toward the end of each calendar month?
I find the % off say a 55" TV goes from <5% to >15% between the the first 20 days of a month and the last couple of days.
I am guessing they are on monthly sales commissions??
Does the same apply for Myer, JB etc?
Ok thanks for this info. Is this on a per week or per calendar month or what basis?
Most salespeople have monthly targets.
% of the profit on the sale goes to the Salesperson. Also would have a general monthly target which may or may not affect commissions. So when you are asking for a discount, you are generally asking for the Salesperson to take money (food) out of the mouths of his family to pay you to take the item…..
But, your observation of getting a bigger discount towards the end of a month would depend on how the sales month/week etc is budgeted at a particular shop and how close the sales person is to his/her target, if not already over. Then you might be worse off because they don't care anymore and are just hunting for profit/comms.
I find that you are more likely to get things included in the price these days than much of a pure $$$ discount. Allows the sales person to get some bonus and you to get a perceived discount. Or just buy online and leave the poor sales guy alone. lol
"So when you are asking for a discount, you are generally asking for the Salesperson to take money (food) out of the mouths of his family to pay you to take the item….."
Not really. If they offer you a good deal and you buy the item, they'll no doubt make more than if they kept the price high and you left the store.
As much as a dollar???
LOL
I agree with arctic - if I get to know the salesperson and they are willing to negotiate I bring plenty of sales their way
If not, I don't buy and I don't bring friends to buy…
Tough crowd, musta hit a sore spot. lol
don't do stand-up comedy, my friend
Is that you Gerry?
"Does the same apply for Myer, JB etc?"
I work at Myer in the electrical department, just as a casual. We don't get commissions for selling TVs, Laptops, Bluray players etc.
We do get some money for selling product cover along with any electrical appliances though. For every $50 worth or product cover, we get about $5.
lol, I've worked at Myers Electrical too. Yes they do get commission of sales of a monthly target. The sales commission targets dont apply to casual staff and the service counters, only part time and permanent staff.
But To be honest, they can sell you any price they want as long as its above the cost price. But the lower the price, the less goes towards their target.
In the end it all depends on timing. If some non ozbargainer was in before you and bought at full retail, then the sales person gets closer to their target and is less motivated to make the sale, than if they weren't so close.
Over achieving sales targets means less incentive to negotiate.
As well like car sales people skilled sales people have better negotiating skills.So GreatWhiteHunter is on the mark, assuming that the sales person needs the sale.
Depending on the size of the store, coming back later to find a new sales person might be another ploy.
And the more we share about tactics the better informed we are. Even if we are stealing food from the mouths of the "dealers" the sales person uses, keep the sharing coming. LOL
When I was in electrical retail, commission was paid on Gross profit. If you sold $100 000 in a month, let's say you made 15000 profit, you then got bout 4% of that. Old stock, or items that were on da floor for 90 days of more would also get cash bonuses of up to $50 on big ticket items. Maily cause they were marked down to clear and not much gp in those lines. The Xtra warranties were great add ons. Huge gp, as they cost like 50% less than they sell for and were worth $5 each ontop. Good week I would get 20. Budgets were set, of course, but the real commission was in gp margin. As sales people you were better of leaning people to items that had huge margins, and not best value for money. I still shop for large items on the last day of the month if I can, and go in and shop them out with Internet prices. These day Internet usually wins, just enjoy seeing their face when you tell them what you are able to get item for…. Retail is dead…
I don't know about electronics but many salespeople are on sliding sale commissions eg, 5% for <10k, then 7.5% for 10-15K, then 10% for >15K.
And sometimes there are sales drives or internal promotions eg, make xxx sales in 3 months and receive a trip for 2.
If you are a customer and they only need a few more sales to qualify for something…..
The same thing can happen across the branch.