---
id: "quote-incompetent-salesperson"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ What This Means for Retail Leaders", "¶4"]
source_title: "The Comeback of the Physical Store—and What It Means for Your Business"
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/the-comeback-of-the-physical-store-and-what-it-means-for-your-business"
tags: ["workforce", "customer-service"]
related: ["concept-agentic-personal-shoppers", "entity-frank-cespedes", "entity-pietro-satriano"]
speaker: "Frank V. Cespedes and Pietro Satriano"
speakers: ["Frank V. Cespedes", "Pietro Satriano"]
sources: ["tail1"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail1"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-tail-114-comeback-physical-store"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/the-comeback-of-the-physical-store-and-what-it-means-for-your-business"
sourceTitle: "The Comeback of the Physical Store—and What It Means for Your Business"
---
# The danger of untrained staff

> "An incompetent salesperson is worse than no one."

— **[[entity-frank-v-cespedes|Frank V. Cespedes]] and [[entity-pietro-satriano|Pietro Satriano]]** (authors)

The justification for [[concept-agentic-personal-shoppers]]: because roughly one-third of associates historically received no formal training, upskilling them with AI 'cheat sheets' is not optional polish — an untrained associate actively destroys value in high-consideration selling.