I don’t know if it’s the standard sales period or people just spending the last of their money on “luxury items” before the doom and despondency of the cuts and vat and price increases start to really bite deep, but some of our colleagues are reporting it really is business as usual.
We have been hearing of some quite remarkable stories in terms of showrooms being as packed as some of the busy electrical stores when the doors were flung open at the start of the winter sales.
Believe it or not we have heard of buyers fighting over cars with massive discounts and beleaguered sales staff having to call for re-enforcements to cope with the demand. But as any sales exec will tell you this can often be a double edged sword. As grateful as they are to have lots of sales opportunities if they do not have the time or the personnel to deal with this volume of customers they will often lose the chance of a sale if the buyer needs to go elsewhere because they cannot wait.
For now though let’s just view it as making hay whilst the sun shines and as one sales manager told me whilst wishing me a happy new year on the 31st having just completed his 15th sale of the day; ‘we’ve had worse days!’
Let’s hope the rest of the year brings some similar cheer!
