[buffalolee]

Rant:
I went to the Apple store around my area and this is what I heard.

"Apple Safari has the same engine as Mozilla. Mozilla and Safari has the Google toolbar...."

When I told another employee about the mistake in the sales pitch, he says trying to defend his colleague: "KHTML was based on the Mozilla engine a long while back. KHTML which has its root from the Mozilla engine."

Sigh, I casually agreed wanting to end the argument because I needed to buy a birthday present. There was no point in talking with somebody who does not know what they are talking about. I have never trusted the Apple store employee and their knowledge of technology, but I hate it when they talk about something they don't know anything about. They are nice and friendly, but I just don't trust their words.

Sigh...

[Tesseract]

Those with the kind of technical expertise a good computer salesperson ought to have generally can find a better job than selling computers.

[production_coordinator]

When I was in sales, I would simplify things to move the sale along. Many novice users would have sticking points that were obviously marketing driven.

[OldManMac]

Originally Posted by Tesseract

Those with the kind of technical expertise a good computer salesperson ought to have generally can find a better job than selling computers.

That depends on how you define "technical." A good computer salesman should know the basics of the specifications of the machine, and how to operate the programs. He needn't know the technical underpinnings of the programs, and how they're coded, unless he's selling in a high tech business environment. Where this Apple guy screwed up is by trying to impress his customer as to the depth of his "knowledge," which he obviously had very little of. There was no need for him to mention what engine Safari is based on; he should have demonstrated the features and benefits of the program. The customer wants to know what Safari can do for him, not how it's coded. This guy didn't have a clue as to how to sell.

As to your implication that there is little money in selling computers, that is true for the most part, the exception being that some of us have made well above average wages selling computers, even at retail. It's all about listening to your customer and solving his problems. And yes, many of the Apple store employees are lacking in sales skills and technical knowledge, because they're paid very little, and the don't get commissions.

[Tesseract]

True, it shouldn't be necessary for the salesperson to say what rendering engine Safari uses. But if I ask the salesperson, "Is Safari based on the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine?" I expect him to be able to answer correctly. (Or find out quickly and efficiently, if he doesn't know.)

I expect computer salespeople to know the difference between USB 1.0, USB 1.1, and USB 2.0. I expect them to know what NAT and DHCP are and to be able to tell me whether a given device can provide them, even if the specs on the box consist only of "Easily create or expand your wired network!". I expect them to know that a laser printer might have a parallel, USB, Ethernet, and/or LocalTalk connection and be able to tell me which ones are on a given model. I expect them to know the difference between a self-powered and bus-powered USB hub. I expect them to know the differences between DVD-R and DVD+R and the advantages/disadvantages of each. I expect this because the information is important when I'm trying to decide what to purchase. Knowing that Safari is based on KHTML, or at least knowing when to admit you're unsure, seems to be on about this same level of expertise, especially considering that Apple made a pretty big deal about KHTML (at least when Safari was originally announced).

[OldManMac]

I sold computers for ten years, and I've never had anyone ask what rendering engine a browser is based on. The rest of the items you mentioned should be basic knowledge for computer salespeople. Unfortunately, they're usually not, and that is why, at Apple stores, or retail computer stores, or electronics chains, or most other places that sell retail boxes, they don't get good people. Besides, the home computer today is a commodity item, and most are being sold as replacements or as additional units, which usually means the customer has almost as much knowledge as most of the salespeople. The other factors in this are that computers are cheap, and there is almost no profit in them, so the chains aren't looking for experts, because they know they're not going to find them for $10/hour.

[Cubeoid]

Avoid "regular" employees and only deal with "geniuses" .

[OldManMac]

As I understand it, "geniuses" are there for technical advice to existing customers, not to sell computers, and I've heard of more than a few that aren't "geniuses."

[_Ender_]

Try asking some guy at a Best Buy what Mozilla is and he'll look at you funny. Apple Store employees are generally far more knowledgeable than most electronics retail employees. So you tried to stump one on an unusually technical question and he answered incorrectly...one point for you.

[Ghoser777]

Actually, it sounds like the Apple Store Employee offered up that little piece of mis-information.

[Tesseract]

Originally Posted by Ghoser777

Actually, it sounds like the Apple Store Employee offered up that little piece of mis-information.

Yes, that's the stupid part.

[Salty]

We have a guy at Best Buy who knows... how to sell things well. That said his Bull is so thick it makes me cry some days. Apparently in the south Dell is like Ferrari, however up north it's not as big of a deal. And Dell isn't actually that big of a company, apparently HP sells far more computers, mainly cause they're with Best Buy, because Dell only sells over the phone and online apparently they sell way less.
But yah he actually argued with me about how big Dell was he was like they're no where near the level HP is and blah blah blah. And I'm like, right that's why I regularly read how Dell is the biggest with HP being a close second. But whatever. It was really funny when I heard him pitching a PowerBook to someone I wanted to jump in and take the customer who didn't end up buying probably I bet because he was sick of being lied to.

I love when the guys say that Macs are good for graphics, because after all they are just magically just good at that and those benefits don't transfer over to any areas other than print and web design. It's not like the reason more artists use it is because it's a more creative mind set friendly OS or anything.

[OldManMac]

Originally Posted by _Ender_

Try asking some guy at a Best Buy what Mozilla is and he'll look at you funny. Apple Store employees are generally far more knowledgeable than most electronics retail employees. So you tried to stump one on an unusually technical question and he answered incorrectly...one point for you.

Apple store employees are marginally more knowledgeable, and even that's debatable. I've had to correct more than one incident where my customers were given incorrect information from them, out of different stores, which was sometimes unnecessarily costly to my customer. A lot of people think they know more about computers than they really do, and at the wages retail pays, including Apple, you don't get far more knowledgeable employees, no matter what you think. Apple isn't deceiving itself into thinking that it's going to get very knowledgeable people at retail wages in any event. They want enthusiastic people; as long as the very basic knowledge is okay, that's fine.

[Railroader]

The simple solution would have been to direct the employees over to one of the Macs on display that is connected to the internet and show them a few websites that would correct them.

But do NOT do this infront of another customer. No one likes to be proven wrong in their field of work and certainly not by a customer in front of another customer.