Wednesday, November 12, 2008

What caused me to quit [2/3]

Another day, another chance to bring my sales numbers back up.

I had few appointments on the books for the next day, but suddenly near the end of my shift I had three walk ins.

The first set was a couple. They were late and showed up right after close, but I shot them quick (adults are easy) and sold them $129.99 worth of products: a good step toward good sales numbers.

Then at 8:15 (after close) as I was still helping the couple, a guy comes in for business shots. I'm not allowed to turn an appointment away, so I took him back while the first couple was looking at their photos and choosing favorites. He only needed an 8x10, but I sold him a single image CD with image rights for $49.99.

The final guy came in around 8:45 (this well after close) but he was looking for quick headshots (and as is typical, needed them that day and could do no other time). He needed a CD so I sold him a 49.99 CD that he added two more images onto for 7.99 each.

Because I was so willing to take appointments and help out customers in need, I brought in an additional $246 dollars in sales that night. Yet my average sale for the day was about $82.00, and therefore I was getting further and further from my sales goal. I had one day left to fix things for the week, and I knew that if I didn't, it could be over for me.

Conclusion Friday.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Managers often move their least favorite associates into the evening slot. It's so much harder to run any kind of average- the kids are cranky and adult couples usually don't spend much. If you were consistently scheduled for evenings even though you could work other times, you probably got on the doo-doo list and they wanted you to quit. So, who'd you piss off?

SPS said...

A valid point, but I don't think it was that I pissed anyone off. I think mostly it was because
1) The manager had kids in school that were in a bunch of activities and didn't want to miss them as much as possible.
2) Manager lived an hour away, so closing would mean she would get home as late as ten if things ran late and this is just not the thing for her.

When you're the one making the schedule, you can put yourself wherever you want.

And as I've already written, I was in a sales slump

Anonymous said...

Corporate expects managers work the majority of day shifts. Usually just one late shift per week.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, managers usually have to work most morning shifts. It usually isnt an option.

I'm an assistant manager at my store and I usually work evenings along with one of our top selling associates. We're busier in the evenings so we usually schedule the fastest/best in the camera room and the best at sales.