Half-Off Sales, Salespeople

Occasionally we create an event known as “the Half-Off Sale” in order to move inventory that has not otherwise sold.

We’ve established some rules to avoid upsets and confusion as far as what salespeople or non-salespeople can do before, during, and after the sales event.

1. No Pre-Selling

   Selling to customers at half-off prior to the day of the sale is prohibited. It’s unfair to the customers that come in during the event and to other salespeople who are not pre-selling.

   You are welcome to tell customers who meet the invitation requirements what may be available at the sale; however, also make it clear that everything is subject to prior sale at regular prices and may not still be available at the half-off sale.

2. No Phone Sales

   It’s unfortunate that not all customers will be able to attend every sale. However, if a salesperson is off the floor and on the phone trying to sell half-off items to these customers, it puts the burden on the other salespeople to handle the customers who did come in person, who then don’t get as good of service.

   Customers coming into the store to shop the sale help to create the “feeding frenzy” that causes people to want to buy more than they might otherwise buy. A customer in the store is worth two on the phone!

   After the sale is over, the COO may approve phone sales of certain items at half-off, so after the sale is over, a salesperson can CSW on behalf of her customers for items they may be interested to buy.

3. Invitation Requirements

   Being invited to this sale is a reward to those VIP customers who have spent a lot of money with us, won’t just wait for a half-off sale to come and shop, and will continue to buy throughout the year. Friends and family are not invited, unless those individuals happen to also be VIP customers.

4. Holding Merchandise

   Secretly holding merchandise aside for your customers is unfair to other customers and other salespeople. As tempting as it is to hold merchandise aside for our best customers, hopefully they will understand that it isn’t fair to everyone else and we can’t do it.

5. Commission Schedule

   The standard commission during half-off sales for the 1/2 off items or discounted items will be:

   1. 1% of the GI if the sale has a negative or zero profit.
   2. 3% of the GP if the sale has a positive profit.
6. No Spiffs

   No spiff commissions will be paid during the stat week starting before and the stat week ending after the sale, and during the sale, since those would conflict with the half-off commission schedule.