Sometimes this involves selling the customer something they had never considered buying and other times this question and answer exercise results in the customer going someplace else to buy what they need because we don't have it.

I don't like lying to customers.

Apparently a whole pile of people in retail do. I have been lambasted, roasted and castigated for talking to a customer for ten minutes and then allowing them to escape without leaving any of their cash behind. I tell my detractors that if the store had a better product mix then we wouldn't be losing sales. "Well, why don't you just sell them on what we do have? Then we can generate the revenue to restock with something else?" Because you won't get the right thing. You will just restock the old thing. And you won't spend anymore time asking me about what we should order than you have in the past. "What makes you such an expert? You are here to sell stuff, not send the customer to somebody else!" Don't you like repeat business? Do you think you can sell them the wrong thing over and over and they will be too stupid to notice? "Nobody else is complaining! If you don't want to do what you're supposed to, then you can go someplace else!"