I Am Hopeless At Selling Stuff..How About You?
By Janey1966
@Janey1966 (24170)
Carlisle, England
June 20, 2010 6:29pm CST
Dear oh dear. Selling things..I am absolutely the world's worsed, believe me. Recently, we had a shower head that we wanted to sell as it couldn't be taken back to the shop due to the packaging being disposed of by accident. I took a photograph of it (exciting, eh) and went through all the rigmorole on eBay..and nothing happened, the photograph didn't even register on the site. In the end, it went for recycling.
I had the same problem with a jacket I wanted to sell ages ago. It was a three-in-one jobby but was a bit bulky for me so I decided to put it on eBay. Needless to say, it didn't sell. That went to Charity.
My in-laws - on the other hand, will sell their Grandmother if she was still alive. Not long ago they managed to sell a leather three-piece-suite to a Polish couple for £80 I think it was. I'd have donated it to a Housing Association and end up paying out a fiver or so for it to be collected. Much rather do that than fleece someone like they did, it's embarrassing.
I have a really good Dawes bike in the shed that I also want to sell but it needs a new chain. The bike is nearly 12 years old but the paintwork is perfect. A lovely burnt orange colour. Blackpool FC fans would love it as it's as near to tangerine as it's possible to be lol. However, I am in Carlisle (and they play in blue) so I won't have any takers, especially when it would have to be ME that gets the chain replaced. I know for a fact that I wouldn't get the £100 I wanted for it either so I'm afraid it remains in the shed...for now.
Are you good at selling stuff? Are you good at BUYING stuff from sellers? Are you good at haggling for example?
I'm bl**dy useless!
I have a really good Dawes bike in the shed that I also want to sell but it needs a new chain. The bike is nearly 12 years old but the paintwork is perfect. A lovely burnt orange colour. Blackpool FC fans would love it as it's as near to tangerine as it's possible to be lol. However, I am in Carlisle (and they play in blue) so I won't have any takers, especially when it would have to be ME that gets the chain replaced. I know for a fact that I wouldn't get the £100 I wanted for it either so I'm afraid it remains in the shed...for now.
Are you good at selling stuff? Are you good at BUYING stuff from sellers? Are you good at haggling for example?
I'm bl**dy useless!2 people like this
10 responses
@sudiptacallingu (10879)
• India
21 Jun 10
‘I'm bl**dy useless!’...and you are not alone LOL…my tongue turns to jelly the moment I’m required to sell something…believe me I’ve given up so many good job offers only coz it required me to meet people and convince them to buy either the products or some policy or some registration….its the same as far as I’m concerned. I see so many women working from home…you know building their own network and selling niche products in their own convenient time…while I’ve admired them and been jealous of their flexible working hours (could do with some myself, hate having to go to office everyday)… I do know its not my cup of tea. I just cant sweet talk people into buying things from me…I feel its so embarrassing even if I’m not fleecing anybody … AND I’m so sure that nobody will take my stuttering seriously …
BTW I have a huge door just lying like that…the bottom edge has wasted away but the entire door is OK…if I could just sell it so somebody who’d need to just replace a thin strip of wood at the bottom *sigh*
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
Awww, I do sympathise with you my friend. Even if I went round with Avon catalogues and posted them to people I bet I wouldn't get any sales, that's how bad I am lol.
@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
21 Jun 10
No, no, and no.
When it comes to selling used stuff I tend to find faults with the item being sold. Usually I end up offering a low price. For example before I returned to my country I sold my 3 year old Honda CB125RS for GBP100 (it cost me GBP600), with a full face helmet. The buyer then sold his 10 year old motorcycle to another Malaysian student for GBP125.
When I buy things from other people I tend to believe what the seller says about the item. In the end I become the owner of stuff which do not work as claimed by the previous owner.
Trusting the seller completely means I have less ground to haggle, whether the item is new or used.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
I once bought a roboroller (an aid to lose weight) from a private seller on eBay. Granted, it was very cheap but was told it was new so I expected the display, showing how many rolls one is doing, calorific counter, etc to work. It didn't..so I contacted the seller and he told me (in no uncertain words) that it was working when it left him. Well, he would say that wouldn't he? I couldn't be bothered sending it back so when I roboroll I have to count the rolls in my head, which isn't a great hardship. Haha!
I give eBay a wide berth, I don't actually believe what people say on there although I realise that other people swear it's absolutely brilliant and have never had any problems.
I don't think you're on about eBay are you? That sounds like a "proper" sale to me.
I give eBay a wide berth, I don't actually believe what people say on there although I realise that other people swear it's absolutely brilliant and have never had any problems.
I don't think you're on about eBay are you? That sounds like a "proper" sale to me.@rosdimy (3926)
• Malaysia
21 Jun 10
I am on eBay but I have not bought or sold anything there. Too many bad stories. A friend of a friend tried to cheat a customer by sending a slightly different item. He thought he could get away with it because the buyer was in a different country. He got a rude shock when two policemen showed up on his doorstep. But how many are prepared to report and wait for he result?
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
25 Jun 10
I'm pretty useless at that too, though we do periodically have yard sales for things that we don't have a use for any more. I'm tempted to put up a sign I once saw:
Please let us know
If you are going to
Insist upon haggling
So that we can
Raise our prices
Accordingly
@billzehua (573)
• China
21 Jun 10
I m not a good sales I guess, at least that's what I think abt myself so far.but it feels extremely good to win a client's trust from the point where he is a stranger at first.To me, it's more than selling stuff to earn money,but more it's a process to sell yourself, your personality,your capacity and so forth.That also builds up my faith, polish yourself before selling the you.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
My discussion isn't about selling as a job, more like selling things that you own yourself to others. Any good at that?
@trisha27 (3494)
• United States
21 Jun 10
I am the worst person to get to sell stuff. I can't sell even a strand of hair to someone. Lol. I worked at a place where I had to sell stuff daily and meet a daily quota. I never met the daily quota. I'm the type of person that if someone says no after I inform them of the product that I am selling, then I'm like okay, by have a nice day. I don't like to push things on people. I guess that's why I wouldn't even be a good car sales woman or anything like that.
My friend even tried to get me to sell some products with her and I always tell her that I am the worst person to try and sell things.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
Oh dear! I do sympathise. My idea of hell would be to get a job "selling" stuff. I always admire people in shops that remember lots of information about things that they're probably not that interested in themselves.
If I worked in an electrical shop full of tellys I would only try selling those that I like...and if a customer wanted a cheaper one I'd put them off immediately by saying, "that has a horrible picture, don't buy that" then waving them out of the store.
Haha!
@shoburn (8)
• Philippines
21 Jun 10
Hi... well actually it's funny. There is one thing that I wanted to remind you and that is everything happened for a reason. Try to figure out the word "time delay", for you, what do you think does it mean. Some times every human kind is so blessed because of time delay. Think how many times you've been late at the meeting, or delayed in your travel, or woke up late and etc ... all of these are time delays but it doesn't mean that the effect of all these things will come out negative.
Try to look positive in everything you do. Be happy and feel happy now and a good surprise will come to you.
@derek_a (10874)
•
21 Jun 10
I have had many jobs in sales when I was a pro-musician and once or twice won awards for best salesman of the year.
They were just jobs to me and I never tried to sell what I was supposed to be selling strangely enough. But I did like to talk to people (and still do), and often would end up talking to a customer about something othere than what I was supposed to be selling!
I worked out that people bought from somebody they liked and trusted, but the moment you try and push something on to them, that trust goes. Most people don't like being sold to, but they do love to have interesting conversations. So I guess it's the old adage of "sell yourself", then you can sell ice to the eskimos, but don't push it, or they won't buy! _Derek
_Derek@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
I can tell by the way you communicate on here that you like chatting to people, that's good.
It comes as no surprise to me that MFI has gone belly-up. We had a store not far from where I live and it suddenly went "up-market" so the prices went up too. No-one could afford anything in the store. I made some comment about the kitchens in there and the manager (who walked past trying to impress staff around him) came out with something really untoward. I can't remember what he said but I'm actually glad that bloke is probably unemployed now as he was so off-hand with me...and other customers heard what he said too and looked a bit surprised to say the least.
We ended up getting our kitchen from Homebase and it was a joy being dealt with by someone who knew their stuff!
It comes as no surprise to me that MFI has gone belly-up. We had a store not far from where I live and it suddenly went "up-market" so the prices went up too. No-one could afford anything in the store. I made some comment about the kitchens in there and the manager (who walked past trying to impress staff around him) came out with something really untoward. I can't remember what he said but I'm actually glad that bloke is probably unemployed now as he was so off-hand with me...and other customers heard what he said too and looked a bit surprised to say the least.
We ended up getting our kitchen from Homebase and it was a joy being dealt with by someone who knew their stuff!
@Kashmeresmycat (6369)
• United States
21 Jun 10
Awww, don't be so hard on yourself! People today are really watching their money in comparison to a few years ago.
Sometimes it takes a while to sell an item but that doesn't mean you are a bad seller. The right person has to come along at the right time.
I sell on Ebay and sometimes I won't sell anything for a week, zero, nothing. The same items the following week will sell. It's really a waiting game.
I had an old Halloween postcard on Ebay for two weeks, with two 7 day auctions, starting at $9.99, which is a good starting price for these postcards. Nothing, no sales, and these postcards are highly sought after. I tried one more time and the card ended up selling for $28.00. It all in the timing and you have to be willing to be patient, haha, which is a pain in the neck.
So see, it's not you, it's everyone else!
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
Mmm, I'd never thought of it that way before. Yes, you are right, people don't know a good thing when they see it!
@sulsisels (1685)
• United States
21 Jun 10
Hi Janey..I'm not good at it either. I would rather give things away because I just stink at asking people for money. Once, while in school, I took a part time job working for Ramada Vacations. I was supposed to sell weekend cruises to the Bahamas. Everything would go fine until it came to the money part. They wanted you to hammer these peope for their money and to not let them off the phone till you closed the sale..I failed terribly. Once, I got this lady who started crying the blues to me about money and how hard it was to raise kids without a husband and how she hadn't had a vacation in years and so on and so on..I felt so bad that i almost had MY credit card out to pay for her trip..My boss was iistening and came over and took the call over from me. Here I am, broke, in school, working trying to make some money to live on and I'm about to pay for some stranger to go on a cruise for the weekend..My boss at that point said to me "Joyce,maybe this isn't for you"...YA THINK?????
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
That's so funny! Awww, I do feel for you. I'm always a sucker for a sob story too as I tend to believe what people tell me. WRONG! The customer is NOT always right but I just couldn't do that cold calling, I'd be useless at it. Having to meet targets each week or month would give me a major headache and I don't like people cold calling ME so I'm no likely to do it as a job.
I suppose it was worse for you because your boss was watching you on the telephone...which is just as well! I don't like that feeling of someone watching me though, it does put me off!
@tonynrovina (5)
• United States
21 Jun 10
I'm a bit worried about myself as well. I want to start selling things soon but i have alot to learn and i have seen from others how it isn't always as easy as pie. Dont beat yourself up because i'm sure you'll have better luck than me.
@Janey1966 (24170)
• Carlisle, England
21 Jun 10
I'm not beating myself up lol. I'm just letting everyone know I'm rubbish at selling things. Either you're good at it or you're not and I'm...er not..but I do accept it...it's just that some people can actually make a profit out of selling things that I wouldn't even contemplate selling.
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