One Man's Trash

I recently started a new "big-girl-job" *cue the applause* working in sales. So far, I have enjoyed my new role and have started getting used to my commission pay structure. Now I know, commission is a lot of peoples' worst nightmare, and believe me, I was a little unsure at first too. What if I worked with a bunch of sales sharks? What if no one wanted to shop with me? Were my coworkers going to get competitive and tie me up in the back room throughout the entire duration of my shift with nothing to do but listen to their success from a distance?!

But...

That was nowhere near the reality of it. My store and my department are full of thoughtful and supportive coworkers who all have one another's best interest at heart. Being the new kid on the block, I followed suit. I have been learning the etiquette and how to become a better coworker each day. One of the sales "rules" I picked up on was always passing a customer back to another salesperson if they had already spent time working with that customer. People aren't always ready to buy right away, so when they do return to make a purchase that they had been scouting out with someone else, it only seems fair to let that salesperson write it up, correct?

So, over Black Friday weekend, I approached a couple shopping for a fireplace and offered to help them out. They already had a very detailed idea of what they wanted, but they couldn't remember the exact model they had recently looked at. I was doing my best to help, but I could see I wasn't getting far. I was becoming more and more discouraged when the wife pointed across the room at my coworker and said "I think that was the guy that helped us last time." She was referring to my coworker (we will call him Jim) who was practically an expert on every item within our store. This man has read up on all the details -cleansing techniques, warranty, technology, you name it- of every product within our department, and he also has a knack for remembering all of his customers, even when they can't completely remember him. Knowing that I wasn't very helpful to these people anyway, I ran over to get Jim to help this couple out. Besides, with my salesperson etiquette in mind, it was the right thing for me to go get him to help. After reintroducing them, I went on my way and made my rounds to find someone else to serve.

About an hour later, Jim approached me and started thanking me for bringing him over to that couple. I started to laugh, thinking he was being sarcastic and something might've gone wrong with the sale. He told me he was serious and that it meant a lot to him that I would make sure he was able to get the sale. I guess he had previously spent over an hour with these customers on another day, and they hadn't bought anything at the time. He was hoping they would return to find him. I realized then why it was so meaningful to him, but from my perspective, I was just glad I didn't have to go on any longer blindly searching for a product I knew nothing about. It's like that saying "one man's trash is another man's treasure." Not at all to say those customers were trash, but in this situation, I was not well-equipped to help them, so neither myself nor those customers were benefitting from me attempting to find this fireplace they had fallen in love with. So, while passing them over to Jim just felt like an easy out for me, it was a lot more than that to him, and probably his customers too. A small action that I didn't give a second thought was, in this case, Jim's treasure.

If you find yourself in the position to do the right thing, even if it's a small thing, take advantage of that opportunity. Just because it's nothing to you doesn't mean that it won't be everything and more to someone else.