So I've started working at a certain shoe and accessory store lately. A startling majority of the customers and my co-workers are females, ranging from cute to straights 10's. It's also a sales focused job, so we are required to interact and try to sell the products to the customers. This is my first straight sales job in retail, so I'm not too experienced at it. I tend to divide my work and social life, and as a result I have two completely different personalities when I'm on the job and when I'm just chilling with friends. At work I'm usually pretty quiet and focused on doing the job, but this new job is requires that I show more of my personality to help sell the product, and it hasn't been working out at all. I tend to stay strict and professional when talking to customers, but that doesn't seem to help them warm up to me at all. My female co workers seem to have it easier, as they are, well female (can relate to specific shoes and experiences with them) and the male customers that we get are easily 'wooed' by them. (I'm guilty of buying products on mostly the fact that the seller was cute).

I have a friend that works for the same company but somewhere else, and his tactic was to essentially flirt with the customers that come in, and from there selling was easy. This is a problem for me, because I have no idea how one would flirt without risking offending a customer or my coworkers. Again, usually I'm very vibrant and joke around a lot with my good friends (and the jokes are usually pretty raunchy) so 'being myself' on the job seems pretty difficult without potentially causing problems.

Any ideas from people in similar situations would be great.