Camera Store - The Hell of Retail

Why I'd Hate To Be Manager

A bit more on the role of the manager, as I see it. (Of course, there is more to it than what I see, but what I see is interesting enough for now).

As I see it, the manager is in a really awkward position, if they want to be a good, effective manager. To be effective, they have to get us to WANT to do the right things, not just to do the right things because the company (aka "corporate", the faceless office on the other side of the continent) wants us to. So she has to get us motivated. To really do that, she has to be one of us, she has to seem to empathise with us, to know how we think and what we want, so that we in turn share her concerns about our performance.

What makes this awkward is that it's hard to correlate what we are required/desired to do better, with the results corporate expects. For example, corporate wants us to sell more damage-protection warranties and more add-ons with the cameras we sell. Corporate says our photo-finishing numbers are down. Corporate says one of the reasons we are doing just a tad less business than we were on the same month last year is that we are not following dress code that strictly. However, any reasonable person should see that the number of people who come in the door during the month to drop off film is subject to statistical distributions, NOT to whether I have my shirt tucked in or not. So, at the same time that the manager has to be "cool" and sometimes say "Yeah, it's kinda silly that we have to do [blah], but we kinda have to", they also have to sometimes say "No, it's actually really important that we work harder so that our business does better", even if there's not much we can do.

(For example, the layout of our store is PRECISELY determined by little maps, charts, and pictures. This is to create some consistency in the chain. It's not really important in any way except for the fact "corporate" cares about it. THAT, out manager admits. She is on our side in pointing out some of the sillier things they expect us to do. But sometimes she BECOMES "they", and tells us that "You know, it's really important that you try to sell more warranties with the cameras", in a way that somehow makes "I try my best every time, and say all there is to say to every customer" sound like it would not satisfy her. The worst part is that I sold a warranty with almost EVERY camera in my first 2 or 3 weeks at the store, and now I'm down to one in 2, or one in 3. She says "Whatever you were saying before, that was working! Do THAT! What were you saying that was different?", and I answer, honestly but with less confidence than I actually feel on this, "I dunno... I really think I'm saying the same things...")

But really... Our manager can’t say “yeah, you gotta do this, even though it’s stupid”, she has to actually convince us we should do it, put it in a way in which the stupid-ness of it is not obvious, in such a way that the request sounds reasonable. So she ends up explaining the importance of this or that with a kind of logic that sounds very thin, like someone stupid trying to explain what someone much smarter explained to THEM but they forget exactly how the reasoning goes. So all it accomplishes is us thinking “You don’t REALLY believe in that, do you?”. But she HAS to do it, independently of whether or not it sounds reasonable. Maybe it’s the kind of thing that does motivate people with lower IQs, or who take less pride in what it means to be a salesman and an expert (rather than the fingers of a corporation).

Clearly, the less you think about the dynamics of retail, the happier an employee you’ll be… except when you feel bad for not selling enough extras, at which point you could realize that you did what was best for each customer.

Which way is better: Selling for the customers (which requires figuring out what is for them, and being motivated by helping people and giving them a good experience, and not worrying about what corporate says you “should” be selling – high-profit stuff like warranties), or selling for the company (which requires selling as much as possible, especially the stuff highlighted by corporate, and being motivated by making money and hitting those parameters, some of which are half luck anyways)? Are they mutually exclusive? Can you be motivated by the desire to please corporate AND the customer? Aren’t those two different attitudes?

Well, what about our manager, who is loved by customers AND by corporate? Maybe she is nice enough, informative enough, funny enough, etc, so that customers don’t notice when she sells them stuff they don’t need, so THEY’re happy, and corporate is happy. Now THAT’s being a salesman, not the Platonic ideal of a salesman who helps each customer find what they need, but the best, optimal, most effective salesman given the different and often opposing pressures of modern retail. I’d still rather not “sell out”, and help each customer find what he needs. (Says the guy who sold a poor (rich) woman a much nicer camera than she needed). I would probably not be an effective manager, because I would feel I am insulting my sales associates when I say “Our photo-finishing numbers are down when compared to the same month last year, and that’s BAD, but we’ll bring our numbers up! And sell more warranties, you know you can do it!"

posted by Remus