[jackfrodo]

Those people followed you around because it led to higher sales overall. Or at least that's the idea. Pushy salesmen tend to move more product than laid back cashiers, even if the former tends to be more annoying.

I worked at a Best Buy back in the day and the name of the game was upselling. My most annoying coworkers were quite successful.

[jccooper]

I'm sure it works for conversions of people already there. I do wonder how it affects traffic long-term because the store feels annoying. That's harder to measure.

[dredmorbius]

Customers who leave don't show in either salesperson group's KPIs.

[jackfrodo]

Ha, that's actually no longer the case. Stores like Best Buy do track foot traffic and it's accounted for in KPIs. My manager would have us enter and leave around the security sensors so we wouldn't inflate that number.

[Trasmatta]

It's interesting that this apparently actually works, because I've never once been upsold anytime by one of these employees. Is it a specific type of person that it works on?

[antasvara]

Speaking from experience, you're most likely to be upsold if you don't know what you're looking for. For example, I've been upsold when I was buying a printer. I know nothing about printers, so much of the purpose of going to Best Buy was to see what they had and what the salesperson recommended.

Most HN members are unlikely to be upsold due to high technical knowledge. You are probably more likely to have done research ahead of time and know exactly what you're looking for.

[CathedralBorrow]

Do you do a bit of research on your purchase before heading into a store? If yes, then that might be a big reason.

[eloisant]

it's like online ads, if they manage to upsale to 5% customers it's still a huge win.