20-year-old electronics salesman gets commission for $15,000 sale and then quits on the spot after helping a customer that nobody else would: 'I said only 4 words. "Thank you. I Quit"'

A salesman's earnest empathy at a turn-of-the-century electronics store leads to a windfall of commission and a satisfying resignation. 

Don't judge a book by its cover. An idiom that is taught to us from such a young age, almost as if to combat our natural desire to categorize and compartmentalize things and people, to save ourselves the energy of evaluating every person and situation with fresh, unclouded eyes.

Arguably, though, not judging a book by its cover, while being a good moral philosophy, can also just be a good sales strategy. 

Having worked in sales in one of my past lives, I know that you should never make assumptions about a potential client or come in with preconceived notions. At any rate, you can employ as many snazzy strategies and come up with as many buzzwords as you want to. However, I always found that genuine empathy and a desire to provide the best solutions to customers' needs, meeting them where they are, was actually a better strategy than using sleazy "grindset" tactics that involve saying whatever possible to get the sale and "close the deal."

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Author image for Brad Dickson Brad Dickson
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  • 01
    two men one wearing a suit shake hands in agreement of a deal
    via Tahir osman For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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  • Yes, that means sometimes letting a potential sale walk if you know it's not going to be a right fit. Outside of being the right thing to do, you're actually saving yourself time and money in the long run in backend problem-solving by trying to make a square peg fit in a round hole. Managing any business where the art of the sale meets the reality of following through, you'll quickly learn this lesson or watch the business slide out on the back end.

    Also, more to the point, don't be too quick to make assumptions about how much someone is looking to purchase simply based on appearances.

    This story is an instant classic that has a feel reminiscent of those old tales of coming across the old wizened stranger on the road who ends up being some sort of sorcerer, or deity, or otherwise has boundless magical powers. In this case, it's a sweaty jogger somewhere in the mid-90s who has sweated out his Walkman and needs a new one, but also has a boatload of cash waiting in the wings and a need for plenty of new computers.

  • 02

    "Turns out, he runs multiple private schools and was looking to purchase "a few" computers for them, without all the extended frills that were unnecessary."

    The following is an old story from years ago, but I thought it would be worthy of sharing here. I (now 53m, then around 20m) used to work for a now defunct electronics retailer called Circuit City in Southern California.
    via Durwyn
  • 03
    The staff was paid on a commision basis and were pressed daily to sell our extended warranty packages as a way to increase revenue. To explain how the "Extended Warranties" work is to explain how the company made most of its income by scamming not only the customers, but also its suppliers. How it worked is thus.
    via Durwyn
  • 04
    When a customer comes in and wishes to purchase a product, they are offered an "Extended Warranty" so if anything happens to the product, they simply bring it back and it would get "repaired" by an onsite department. If it could not be "repaired", it would be replaced.
    via Durwyn
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  • 05
    The room for the repair department was a 5x5 foot closet with a shelf and customer service was instructed to carry the product into that room, put it on the shelf and return 15 minutes later to pick it up, bringing it back to the customer with the unfortunate information that it could not be repaired, but would have to be replaced.
    via Durwyn
  • 06
    The customer would then leave the store with a new product and the store would send the product back to the manufacturer as defective, never having inspected it in the first place while at the same time taking a full credit on the product and receiving full credit for it.
    via Durwyn
  • 07
    So the company was able to minimize the cost of labor, while simultaneously receiving income from both sides, the supplier and the manufacturer. Now, here's where the story begins.
    via Durwyn
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  • 08
    I worked as a salesman on the floor in the department that sold the items that could not be clumped together neatly, such as sections for televisions, stereo equipment, kitchen appliences, laundry machines, refrigerators, etc.
    via Durwyn
  • 09
    At the time this included Walkmen (the precursor to the IPod, which utilized cassette tapes), Minidisc players, CD Walkman, and Desktop computers and accessories such as monitors, printers, and various other items that attached to computers.
    via Durwyn
  • 10
    This was prior to laptops being ubiquitous, so all these items were bulky and heavy. One day a guy came in in ratty clothing, sweating from head to toe and stinking like he hadn't showered in a week.
    via Durwyn
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  • 11
    The other salesmen, and women, decided he was not worth their time, and I got instructed to "help him" while security was called to escort him off the premise. I found out, he was in the shop to get a replacement walkman, as while out for a run, the one he had had failed.
    via Durwyn
  • 12
    I walked him over to the shelf that had all the portable music devices, and, after listening to what he was looking for, did not direct him to the most expensive product we sold, attempting to upsell him, but providing him with the most affordable option for what he was looking to purchase.
    via Durwyn
  • 13
    He even asked about the "Extended Warranty" and I told him to not bother with it. He paid for the Walkman and left before security could arrive, and I made maybe $2 on the sale.
    via Durwyn
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  • 14
    For the next 2 weeks, I got hounded by the other salespeople and managers that I was not pushing the warranties enough, depriving myself of the sales income that comes with it, thus losing money in the process. About 2 weeks later, when I arrived at work I was told there was a customer who had come in, asked about me, and left, telling them he'd return when I did.
    via Durwyn
  • 15
    After a few minutes of being on the floor, a man, the same one that had been sweaty, arrived in a full suit, expensive at that, flanked by two others in business suits, asking for me. Turns out, he runs multiple private schools and was looking to purchase "a few" computers for them, without all the extended frills that were unnecessary.
    via Durwyn
  • 16
    Now, the computer sales, at the time, were the crown jewels on the sales floor, and if a salesman sold one, they were king of the hill of the salesforce that week. This guy wanted 10 of them, for his students to use, and I was personally requested by him to be the one to make those sales.
    via Durwyn
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  • 17
    I walked him through what we had and the final bill was over $15k! Blowing away the next biggest sale that year by $10k! When it came time to pay me, and hand me the biggest check that store had written that year, the staff decided to hold a ceremony in my honor and asked me to speak to encourage others that there was money to be made.
    via Durwyn
  • 18
    I said only 4 words. "Thank you. I Quit," and walked out of the ceremony got into my car, and drove home, never to go back to that store again.
    via Durwyn
  • 19
    Leumas_ That's beautiful. In the same era I worked for Blockbuster. They wanted us to be "sales" so bad. It was company policy to try and upsell something, ANYTHING to each person that checked out. Soda, candy, the rewards program, and eventually directv.
    via Durwyn
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  • 20
    I would do none of it. We would have lines around the store on the weekends. By ignoring their sales bullshit I would handle two to three customers in the time it took everybody else to do one. A typical Friday pull on my register would be $3-4k, it was rare that anybody else ever ran over $2k.
    via Durwyn
  • 21
    I got chewed out by our regional manager quarterly for not selling. Frankly, I just didn't give a shit and was fine with being fired. Except I never was.
    via Durwyn
  • 22
    Two men one seated wearing a suit reach an agreement on a sale
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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  • 23
    Burnsidhe Thanks for making me feel old. Also, yeah. Sales is like never prejudge a customer.
    via Durwyn
  • 24
    bobbaphet I find it hilarious that you actually do need to describe what a Walkman is, or was, lol
    via Durwyn

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