Is AT&T's sales force prepared to sell the Nokia Lumia 900?

by Marguerite Reardon and Roger Cheng
AT&T is spending a bundle to promote the Nokia Lumia 900, but its own retail sales associates may be the weak link in promoting its flagship Windows Phone.

The Nokia Lumia 900 may be topping the charts at online retailer Amazon, but a quick check of AT&T stores in Manhattan right after the launch shows that AT&T, Nokia, and Microsoft still have a long way to go in educating AT&T's salesforce on how to sell the device.
The newly launched Windows Phone topped the cell phone bestseller list on Amazon on Monday, the day after it went on sale. The sales momentum online is a positive early indicator that the smartphone may be a hit. But the scene at AT&T retail stores in New York City, where Nokia and Microsoft had hosted big promotion events, painted a much different picture, as some sales associates had little knowledge of the product and were reluctant to recommend the device.
When I walked into several AT&T retail stores on Monday posing as a first-time smartphone shopper, the banners and posters promoting the new Lumia 900 were prominently displayed. But when I asked for advice on buying a new smartphone, sales associates in five different stores in Manhattan actually recommended the Apple iPhone and not the carrier's latest "hero" device.
Even when I prompted them to tell me more about the Lumia 900, none was willing to recommend it to me for purchase.

"Windows Phone is alright," said an associate in a store on the Upper West Side. "But it's no iPhone."

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that these sales people are still pushing the iPhone. After all, the iPhone is the single most popular smartphone in the U.S. And AT&T until February last year had been the only carrier in the U.S. selling the device since its launch in 2007. AT&T's long history with the iPhone may be one reason that sales associates are so familiar with the device and comfortable recommending it to customers.

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