The iPhone 4S day is here! It’s estimated that Apple will sell over 4 million iPhone 4S before the weekend is over. The devices have sold out online and now customers have turned to local Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and now Sprint retail stores for hopes of being able to get their hands on the last announced iPhone before Steve Job’s passing.
Every year a new iPhone is released and for many individuals, it’s more important than Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Lines form days and even weeks before the product is available and thousands of people around the world camp out in front of retails stores that will have the new iPhone.
For all the local retail locations that sell Apple’s devices, release days are filled with lots of work, little to no time off, and a ton of sales. From a Retail Sales perspective, this day is called quota relief!
What It’s Like to Sell an iPhone on Release Day!
It has been over a year since I left my job as a retail sales consultant with AT&T to start a new and exciting career. I had worked for AT&T for 7 years and had the opportunity to sell Apple’s first four iPhone models in one of the busiest AT&T iPhone selling locations in the Western United States. Selling the iPhone on release day has always been an adventure.
I remember when Motorola launched their RAZR model that retailed for $500+. The phone was viewed by many as the greatest phone invented to date and the hype around it seemed extraordinary. At the time, everyone thought no other phone would generate the type of hype that the ultra thin flip phone created. That was of course because they did not know what Steve Jobs and Apple were working on. When the first iPhone launch came, the excitement, lines, and hype blew anything we’d seen from the Motorola RAZR.
For the first model, the iPhone 2G, we had a local company pay a gentleman to camp out for the phone for a week! He set up a tent on the sidewalk outside of our mall location! Five other people followed, and they stayed there 24 hours each day! Not one left, meaning those camping out did not shower for a week and they ordered take out for every meal!
Another gentleman came into the store dressed as the Apple logo. It was defiantly a site to see and took the term “Fanboy” to an entirely new level for me.
One of my favorite experiences of selling the iPhone has to be during the 3G, and 3GS launch. Our retail location is near the corporate headquarters of Blendtec. For those that don’t know, Blendtec builds some of the best blenders around and have created a number of promotional videos showing everything that their blender can blend.
For the iPhone 3G and 3GS launches Blendtec came down, purchased an iPhone and then quickly created promotional videos like the one below (Notice the back of my head as he comes up to purchase his phone!)
This video has been viewed by over 6 million people (Yep, 6 million people have seen the back of my head!). The overall excitement of the creating the promotional video only added to the experience of selling the iPhone.
Through every launch there has been consistency, because Apple makes a great product. The same customers that purchased the 2G iPhones have been the first in line for the next iPhone.
There have been record sales every year with each model and like I said before, this is a day the participating retail phone industry looks forward to every year. Why is that? Because it is easy money! The price of the phone does not scare customers away, and neither do any prices of the accessories.
While working for AT&T I had the chance to carry whatever phone I wanted, and I always chose an iPhone. They are the best all-in-one phone on the market!
Image provided by: Kaysha
