I was in Sydney last week with my friend, Irene, and while we were  there we did a little shopping. One of the places we shopped is our favorite  furniture store.

Great stuff, super cool store, and friendly people.

But there is the rub. The friendly people were merely friendly. We got plenty  of smiles and lots of associated sitting at a desk peeked around their computers  to say, “Hello!” in a wonderfully warm way, but nobody ever came up and actually  engaged us in a sales conversation.

And it was not because we were not send signals. I sat in almost every couch in  the store, and it is a big store! But not a single associate made the jump from  friendly to, “Hey, I think I will go sell that guy a couch.“

Selling if done correctly is not pushy or intrusive. It is great customer  service !