Working in a bicycle store
 

Hey y'all :D. So I'm about to do be tested as a bicycle salesman for my first bicycle job. The store sells only commuter, gravel, touring, compact, folding and city E-bikes. The goal is to find the right bike for the person by asking the right questions. Now I have the basic questions in mind like "Is the bike for riding to work or recreational?" or "Will you be doing more road or offraod riding?. But I'm trying to think of more special questions like "Do you have a garage to store the bike?" or "If you live in an apartment on a higher floor then is there an elevator?" to better understand their situation to provide them the best bike. Does anyone here have any ideas on what other questions I should ask or some advice? Thanks :thumb:

The customer usually has the questions....
You provide the answers.
And believe me, there will be some interesting questions aimed your way.

I suspect one of the most important things to establish right up front is their target price range.

Two or three conventional questions will suffice. The test will be face to face, I would guess. Thus, after the first few questions have been answered and a dialogue has elicited the basic details of intended use, you should already be starting to zero in on one or two of the shop's bike models to recommend.

At that point, in my bike store days, I used to say, "let me see what we have in stock that should work for you" and find what was available in the customer's size, there and then. Since bike stores have been very low in bike inventory for many months now, checking stock would e important to increase the likelihood of a sale.

Different shops have different approaches to ascertaining bike fit, so, before the test begins, I suggest asking how and when in the sales presentation they prefer to make that determination.

These days, I thought bike sales basically started with "Hey, can I interest you in this one remaining bike we have left in stock?"

Do you plan on peddling this bike or just riding it?

"You'll grow into it" - XL frame for a 5'8" rider...or you can wait for more bikes from the distributor, TBT date, TBT models, TBT sizes.

I thought the key to being a good sales person was to figure out what the customer wanted/needed and then explaining why Bike A was better than Bike B for that particular job. Sometimes that meant that you might talk the buyer up on price and sometimes down. If the buyer thinks he/she is being listened to and getting great advice, you likely make the sale and likely end up with a satisfied customer. Bike stores depend on word of mouth for future customers.

Depending on local, and locals, the Spicoli approach may be appropriate. "Welcome to (such and such) Bike shop. Feel free to look around, relax, sample some of our edibles and I'll catch up with you later. By the way those are some righteous kicks you got on, where did you get those?"
​​

you don't get those e bikes in stores mostly.

"But I'm 60 years old!"

I worked with a bike shop for just short of two years. Most of your customers are going to be super easy to deal with and talk to. The ones to watch for are those have have truly studied what they are researching and know more about the product you are selling than you do. I think the hardest single question I can think of being asked was "Why Specialized over (insert brand)".

IMO, if your store offers the training materials and such that ours did...I can't recall the name it was like Specialized tech school or some such....take advantage of it. Study it hard. In down times go through your sales brochures, take them home and look over them for each of the bikes offered for the active year and a model or two back can be helpful as well.

My single favorite thing about working there was being on hand, working, before all the group rides. I participated in all of them I could keep up with. Got me in arguably the best shape of my life.

I’ve not worked in a bike shop. But I’ve wondered if the sales people have the opportunity to ride/demo the different bikes? I don’t mean around the parking lot, but long enough to get acclimated, maybe 4-5 miles.

I realize that might be tough for mountain bikes.

John

Isn't the salesperson peddling the bike?

There's three basic questions you should always start off with. Then you can check what's available in their favorite:

but that’s an easy and boring question, it’s $200

The last rather large, well appointed bike shop that I no longer visit involved the owner helping me with a service issue. That went well. After we got to talking he asked what I did for a living..I told him I retired. He said..you're kinda young..what did you do. I told him. At that point he ramped up a hard-ish sales spiel on how I only live once and I needed the latest wonder bike with electronic shifting. I told him I've never found shifting all that difficult..downtube or STI.

I returned to the shop a few more times for various things, but he continued with a soft-hard sell on the wonder bikes. Don't do that..I no longer visit his shop.

I'd wager that 95% of customers have no idea what the word "geometry" even means when talking about bicycles, let alone what they'd prefer.

Unfortunately, most shop owners aren't inclined to pay their employees to take the inventory out for five-mile rides. At most they get a quick test-ride after they're built.

Always. :lol:

Wife and I took over operations of her Dad's bike shop that he inherited from his dad and did not want. Different industry some 50+ years ago. A cordial greeting, then asked if they were looking for themselves and something specific (a person who has an idea) and if not then asked what kind of biking they were planning on doing or the individual they were looking for was going to be doing AND the preferred $$$$$ amount.

Keep in mind you aren't selling whatever you are selling, you are selling yourself. If people like you and think you are honest and truthful and pleasing to be around they will want to buy. If you are disinterested then probably not. You don't need to know every single product but you need to know a little of everything so you can effectively talk about a product. People come at me with "What about this bike?" talking about bikes we don't sell but as long as I can look at components and see what they are doing I can give a semi informed opinion and that is what they want.

Also on the honesty front, it is important but you don't need to be nasty about it at least in person on the internet do whatever it's the internet but in public be nice about it! Don't just say it's a good bike to make a sale, be honest about what it is and isn't. Also don't be afraid to say "Hey I am not not but let me check with a more knowledgeable co-worker or check the manufacturers website or a manual". You aren't showing defeat or stupidity you are showing them you are an upright person and not just B.S.ing them. We get enough B.S. we don't need it when buying a bike.

I don't talk money or cost, budget is used to shut the conversation down if you ask them what they are doing and where they are riding and things like that you can help find them a bike. Once you determine the bike that works best for their riding then you can start to narrow down costs but a lot of people I have seen go "what kind of bike, what's your budget, ok here is a bike" and the conversation is kind of done at that point. Same thing with reading the entire spec list for each bike give them the highlights talk about the features and benefits and have a conversation with them with them talking quite a bit and you listening well.

With E-bike clients keep in mind they already know way more than you do in many cases and there isn't much you can do to combat that aside from studying up and learning what you can but if you can get them out riding they will be in better shape because all of that data means nothing without actually experiencing it in person. However keep in mind they can be quite needy and some can lose you money over time if you aren't careful. Client care at the beginning is important but also crucial after the fact. If they have a good experience and love their bike they will tell people and those people will tell people and you will have loads of customers. I get a lot of "oh yeah ______ sent me" but if they have a bad experience they will tell way more people way more often and sometimes get quite nasty and sometimes you did no wrong or something minor but sometimes it can be justified.

I can also recommend finding G.E.A.R. training and doing that it is still quite relevant in todays bicycle marketplace. There is probably other training as well that maybe your company uses but G.E.A.R. is a good one. You can also think of yourself as the customer and see how you would want to be treated and how you would want to see the store. Shimano offers S-Tec and SRAM has STU and others have various learn and earn platforms which can be handy to learn gear and sometimes other handy stuff.

In terms of your fellow employees always ask your mechanics first don't just assume of them. So often a salesperson will just say yeah we can do that and we can't or not in the time frame given. Under promise and over deliver. However don't do anything illegal or unsafe. You don't ever have to work on a bike that you cannot make safe nor should you.

One final piece of advice talk accessories when selling the bike not when you get to the register it is usually pretty late by then. If you are having a conversation about the bike don't just make it the bike if they say yeah I will be commuting then talk racks and lights and locks, if they are going on long rides bottle cages and cycle computers/GPS...make it a holistic conversation. Also don't discount mechanic labor you generally make more margins on that then you do on a part but if you have done your job as a salesperson they aren't needing discounts and probably won't mention it.

"Tell me about yourself and your bike experiences to date." "How do you envision you'll be using this bike?" "What would make your riding most/more enjoyable?"

Then apply whatever experience and insights you've accumulated to the perspective of living in their world. The rest should be natural.

Know your own products well. Very well. When a customer comes in to complain about something, listen very carefully to learn.

Ask the customers what they like in their latte.

Asking them about their price range is easy.

Developing the self-control to keep a straight face when they tell you may take some practice.

This. First two questions out of your mouth should be "What's your budget?" and "What will you be using this for?"