CELPIP Reading Part 4 Practice Test: Manitoba Sales Training

How much explaining does a shopper actually want? Sales trainers have a shorthand for the exhaustive answer: FAB, for features, advantages and benefits, a sequence codified in retail manuals a generation ago. The competing method compresses the encounter into three movements, which are to diagnose the requirement, recommend a remedy and solicit the sale. Retailers across Manitoba are quietly selecting sides, and I have been sold to, ineptly, by graduates of both persuasions.

Renata Ashby, who has reconstructed sales floors for three national electronics chains, considers the unabridged explanation money thoroughly well spent. "A shopper who genuinely comprehends the difference between two spin cycles does not haul the appliance back inside a fortnight," Ashby said. Returned merchandise, she argues, is inventory sold twice and paid for once, and the chains she advises register returns at 22% on major appliances.

Desmond Poirier, who operates an independent appliance showroom in Brandon, has watched that theory disintegrate on his own floor. "Accumulate enough comparisons and you paralyze somebody," Poirier said, "and they thank you warmly, promise to consider it overnight, and evaporate permanently," a departure he now anticipates. His employees establish a requirement within the opening minute and steer politely toward a decision, reserving granular comparisons for anybody who solicits them explicitly.

Ingrid Villeneuve, a consultant who advises electronics retailers and convenience chains alike, believes both camps are arguing past the variable that governs everything. "Nobody agonizes over a bag of coffee," Villeneuve said, "but sell somebody a $1,600 refrigerator and a thorough walkthrough is inexpensive insurance against a ruinous mistake," which is her thesis. She concedes that an elaborate presentation can indeed stall a straightforward transaction, though abbreviating an expensive one strikes her as the costlier habit.

Granted, Poirier is describing a showroom where the same few products are explained daily, and repetition breeds impatience. But the evidence he offers is a memory of shoppers who departed, which is the least reliable witness in retail. Ashby at least counts her returns, and I would rather be bored by a salesperson than billed by one. The trade has spent decades arguing about length when the argument was always about price.

I sold appliances for a living before I had children, so this argument is old furniture to me. What settles it for me is Ashby's habit of 6. Choose…countingtimingquotingshortening, because a machine that comes back is a cost you can add up. Poirier is not wrong that talk can freeze somebody, and his floor still offers, because a machine that comes back is a cost you can add up. Poirier is not wrong that talk can freeze somebody, and his floor still offers 7. Choose…full pitcheswarranty termsgranular comparisonswritten quotes to anybody who asks. Villeneuve's line about coffee is the one I would pin above the till, because it makes the length depend on to anybody who asks. Villeneuve's line about coffee is the one I would pin above the till, because it makes the length depend on 8. Choose…floor traffic levelswho the customer ishow long training tookwhat the item costs rather than on a house style. What the author adds, and I agree with, is that rather than on a house style. What the author adds, and I agree with, is that 9. Choose…Poirier's evidence is memoryAshby ignores returnsVilleneuve avoids questionstraining costs money, which is exactly what I used to tell my own manager. Given the choice the author sets out, I would rather be, which is exactly what I used to tell my own manager. Given the choice the author sets out, I would rather be 10. Choose…billed than boredbored than billedquick than thoroughsold than served, and after 20 years on a sales floor I think that is the right instinct.