According to the salesman at Dicks Sporting Goods.. the Tern is replacing the Teebird

[techn9cian4life]

A little story you guys may find as entertaining as I did: I was at Dicks Sporting Goods the other afternoon looking at camping equipment with my parents, and I just stopped by the little section they have dedicated to disc golf. I noticed they had a Tern so I just picked it up and started feeling/looking at it. A salesman came over to me and said, have you thrown one of those yet?!? I replied, no I don't have a need for any thing this fast in my bag cause I don't have the arm for it. He then says, what's your highest speed in your bag? I told em a speed 9. He then asks me what disc I use the most. I told him, Teebirds. He then proceeds to tell me that he has heard a lot of people are replacing their Teebirds with the Tern so I should definitely look in to getting one. I didn't even look at him and just said, I doubt that. There was an obvious offended tone in his voice when he asked me why I felt that way. So I told him, simply put the Teebird and the Tern are nothing a like and there is no way any one that actually knows about disc characteristics is going to replace their Teebird with a Tern. He then says to me, what do you mean by disc characteristics? Every disc I've ever thrown flies exactly the same............. :doh: I then tried telling him about the speed, glide, turn, and fade.. but every time I said the word "turn" he thought I was referring to the disc. So I said, as kindly as possible, you should learn a little more about disc golf before you try selling the sport to others. He says well thanks for the heads up, and walked away. Was I too much of a d*ck??? Lol

 

[DangeRuss]

Yes. I'd say he was highly educated for a Dick's employee.

 

[Kenny53691]

For some sad reason, I can definitely see this happening. It's sad, but some people just don't get it. You should invite him to play a round with you some time so that way he can understand what he is selling.

 

[disc qualified]

sounds like a typical salesman

 

[truk]

I at least give him partial credit for trying. The first/only time I ventured to find the 'Innova rack at the local Dick's, it took two employees to figure out that there even was one in the store.

 

[BangChaians]

I think the guy was just trying to help. I am not sure, but I doubt he gets much from the sale of a champ tern at dicks sporting goods. Maybe he has only played a couple times and one of his newbie buddies told him tern are the best.

 

[JC17393]

Gotta figure he was taking the ball golf sales route on that one. Any sporting goods salesperson can pull the "it's the latest and greatest, everyone's buying one" routine with the latest Big Bertha driver, even if they know zilch about golf, since normally you only carry one driver in your bag.

Obviously with his clearly limited experience throwing golf discs, in his mind, it works the same way and whatever the "latest and greatest" driver from Innova happens to be is going to be what everyone wants in their bag this season.

I bet if you explained to him that the Tern would be like a Big Bertha and the Teebird is more like a 3 or 4-iron, he might have grasped onto the concept quicker. Sounds like you were polite with him, though.

 

[kingjames1014]

He then proceeds to tell me that he has heard a lot of people are replacing their Groove with the Tern so I should definitely look in to getting one.

FTFY

 

[HeavyCritters]

I at least give him partial credit for trying. The first/only time I ventured to find the 'Innova rack at the local Dick's, it took two employees to figure out that there even was one in the store.

^^ Dicks' in the East Towne Mall in Madison has a pretty big Innova rack stocked with discs and it took me three people just to get to the right FLOOR that it was located on...

 

[DG_Before_Breakfast]

Moral: Sales people say whatever sells stuff.

Maybe his logic was that a "Tern" is a sea bird that starts with the letter T, so its kind of like they finally named the Teebird properly - the "tee" bird is just the "Tern". The irony is the Teebird is loved for being Straight, not having very much "Turn".

 

[DiscChainBasket18]

Sales with a side of sales!

Sales is all about selling . He can make a bigger commission selling new discs to people who dont know any better. Probably has worked out OK for him so far (people who shop for discs at Dick's are newbies?). Who knew that this salesman would come up against a real disc golfer (who knew what the heck he was talking about).
It sounds like the conversation took a negative turn (get it? sorry)

 

[mashnut]

I'm fairly certain that the clerks at Dick's don't work on commission, he was probably honestly trying to be helpful and just knew nothing about the sport.

 

[zenbot]

The clerk knows what the Innova rep tells the purchasing manager or some bastardized version of it.

 

[prerube]

The sell grooves and wolves...what do you expect?

 

[Toro71]

Sounds like the guy's been to a sales seminar or two. Got you talking, found out what you (drive, eat, wear, throw, etc.) then said people who (drive, eat, wear, throw) that are (driving, eating, wearing, throwing) this new thing.

Sounds like both of you were fairly nice about it. Maybe he even listened to you, and will incorporate some knowlege into his pitch.

At least he didn't say, "hey, you know that's the longer Tbird."

 

[disc qualified]

i've had people try to tell me that the tern was like a more consistent destroyer

real world "experts" aren't much different from dgcr "experts"

 

[techn9cian4life]

I'm fairly certain that the clerks at Dick's don't work on commission, he was probably honestly trying to be helpful and just knew nothing about the sport.

I don't think you can "honestly" tell any one that Terns are replacing Teebirds in peoples bags. He was trying to sell me a product with out having the proper knowledge on said product, assuming I wasn't going to know what I was talking about. He was a young guy, possibly younger than me (I'm only 22).. but it was kind of obvious he was just using the "fill in the blank" sales tactic. Where you use the same exact pitch for every product in the store, just filling the blanks where need be to make it relevant to the situation.

 

[doctor professor]

Op, It sounds to me like you were about as nice as possible there. I know I probably wouldn't have been as kind, too many opportunities for sarcasm.

 

[Jukeshoe]

^^ Dicks' in the East Towne Mall in Madison has a pretty big Innova rack stocked with discs and it took me three people just to get to the right FLOOR that it was located on...

*throws Madcity gang sign*

Eastsiiiiide! :gangsignsmiley:

 

[ejvogie]

He then proceeds to tell me that he has heard a lot of people are replacing their Grooves with the Tern so I should definitely look in to getting one.

FTFY

There's no way in hell that someone who buys their plastic at Dick's is giving up their fly-dye Groove for a Tern. The name isn't cool enough sounding.