Reflection Paper On Sales And Retail

Sales and retail is perhaps if most interesting profession I’ve ever encountered in my life. Especially when the job calls for constant interaction and always throwing out trained sales pitches to hundreds of people every month, you start to gain experience in talking and interacting with others. And where I’m currently located at, which is this large semi-mall and supermarket, the people that walk by are all extremely different in every way possible, but you start to see what makes them tick, what interests them. It take’s a broad amount of knowledge and experience to take on a salesman position and successfully sell adequately to the masses. Encountering a large amount of individuals every day at my sales positions allowed me to gain this …show more content…
This challenged my literacy eminently, as well as my social skills. I’m not only placed in a community where English is an undesirable language to speak, but i 'm also trapped in behind a makeshift work counter from an old kiosk, unable to improve my social skills. As a matter of fact, I got so comfortable sitting behind a counter for months that the development of my “case of disguises” wasn’t needed any longer. I was not being challenged in my speech, and I was not motivated enough to learn Mandarin, which is what the majority of my customers and co-workers spoke. Everyday at work was utterly depressing and discouraging, with every interaction always starting with “My apologies, I can’t speak Mandarin.” Leaving the person disappointed and leaving the store frustrated. This was a constant cycle for the next five months of working there and barely making quotas. The experience is very similar to being placed into a foreign country, trying to sell to locals who don’t welcome foreigners too kindly. By the end of my term there in T-Mobile, I would’ve lost my ability to use that “disguise”, being completely shunned and shut out from any positive and challenging social interaction. Luckily, I’ve found my silver lining in the same location where I first started sales, and it made me love doing sales in …show more content…
During my absence from the location, more stores opened up and brought along more traffic to the building. More people in my eyes are more opportunities to sell and and gain more experience towards building my social skills. This job was also more challenging with a higher quota to meet, more products to sell other than just phones, and working at a company with a reputation of being the most expensive. This would cause me to not only bring out the sales expert Daniel disguise, but refine it to cater to the masses of many different people that pass by the kiosk. As the months rolled by, I’ve watched and learned to adapt to not only this community but certain individuals who curiously come by to experience this unique marketplace. To the filipino community, which is the majority of traffic that walks by the kiosk, i’ve learned to say proper Tagalog terms in tandem with my english speaking to have customers feel more welcome, increasing chances of sales and giving them a sense of appreciation when the sale is done. When more young, americanized customers come by our store, I switch to a more casual way of speaking so they wouldn’t feel like they’re talking to a robot of sorts, incorporating slang in my language and stepping down to a level where they would be more comfortable with. This led me to rise in sales just in a small kiosk location,