Confessions of a Serial Interviewer by Steven Ra Ga

Vancouver June 2015 – In this time period I went one a few furniture sales interviews. One in particular stood out to me. It was in Kitsalano, a rather posh area of town. The store owner was East Indian but grew up in Canada so no accent. I recall sitting either on their sofas while the floor manager interviewed me. While there I mentioned to them I didn’t want to do pressure sales, because it just doesn’t work, no a days people can return items, google your bull shit and strive for authentic interactions. They way of the 80s is long dead.

The store owner immediately got upset with me, he told me it was the only way to sell, I disagreed with him. He then decided to prove it to me, this is where things got fun.

“Wait here and watch” he said, a mother and her young son had just walked into the store. The owner jumped up and introduced him self. From the body language of the customers I could tell they weren’t going to buy or it was going to be a hard sale. The owner then started asking loads of questions and trying to push them into buying a sofa.

After watching him squirm for a few minutes, the customer eventually walked out of the store empty handed.

It must have been awkward having the floor manager and myself watch him and the customers move about the store. I am pretty sure the customer could sense his desperation to prove to me his method of selling was the best.

After the customers left the store he turned to me and said “can’t win them all” as a cop-out for his failure. Yes, true, you can’t sell to people who don’t want to buy, that’s impossible, and how do we know this, because of everything that went on during the 80s and 90s. There were enough wolfs of Wall Street types out there to prove my point. Also it’s never a good idea to sell a garbage product that takes advantage of customers. Sure you will get some quick cash in your pocket but eventually karma will come back to haunt you.

I didn’t get that job in the end.

Last week I had an interview with another furniture store, it was a nice interview but I put my foot in my mouth at that one. The lady told me she had been with the company 20yrs and then I silly made a reference to moving around in sales and how having lots of experience in multiple fields is sometimes better than just many years in one thing. My message and my words kinda got mixed and I am sure I came off as insulting, so much I apologized mid interview. I don’t think that won me brownie points. I didn’t get the job.

Today I had an interview with a decor store, they sell furniture, paintings and accents. It was actually very pleasant, no red flags other than the pay scale but it’s a department store so that’s just normal with these places. They even broke down the pay structure in an email.

The position pays $15.75 per hour.

2.6% commission on what you ship – (ie the customer has the product)

.6% for the month if the store makes budget

I have team members that accomplished the following last year – I am going to show the highest and then the lowest:

$1 Million in sales 

-$26,000 commission

– $6,000 for the year based on making budget

-$1,500 for selling $500k

-$1,500 for selling $750k

$2,000 for selling a million

= $37k above her wage for the year

(This doesn’t include the gift cards on top of this.)

– this scale of selling would put you over $60 k per year

– if you advance to salary ie as an Assistant Manager, then your base is higher.

Lowest – part/time seller last year

– Sold $350K for the year

– $9,100  in commission

– she only works 2 – 3 days per week

Truly the potential is all based on a person’s ability to make connections and add on to the order for the customer.

$15.75 x 35 hours x 52 week = $28,665 wage

Let’s look at $500k in sales = $13,000 = $41,665 year – plus $1,500 for selling $500k ($500 k a year is $9,620 in sales per week)

Let’s look at $700k in sales = $18,200 = $46,865, plus $1,500 for selling over $500. This would not include the budget bonus which has a potential of addicting another $3,000 for the year.

Sounds pretty reasonable but I don’t have anything to compare it to. The other furniture company was 100% commission.

I guess we shall see if I get another interview.