Door-To-Door Salesmen: If You’re Selling, I Ain’t Buying |
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I live in the nexus of salesmen - or so it seems. At least once a week, we get a visitor looking sell something. Two young ladies knocked on my door the other night. When I answered, they introduced themselves as Beth and Jenn. They had me guess why there at my door. I guessed that they were selling magazines - 92% of the time it's magazines. Jenn, who did 95% of the talking, informed that it was not magazines, but "periodicals."
One thing I've from these solicitors is that they are brilliant. Whatever trick or line you have, they have a counter-line waiting. The first thing these ladies did is ask if they can come inside since it was cold out. When I'm home alone, I don't particularly enjoy letting total strangers in my home. However, it was hard to say no them with their chattering teeth. Against my better judgment, I let them in.
Once inside, they looked around to see what they could use against me. First they saw a picture of me and my wife. They started to ask about her and if she's into fashion (because they have fashion magazines). Our Red Sox drink coasters caught their eye and they asked if I was interested in sports (the ESPN magazine was worth over 3000 points). Score a couple of points for them, they've got me engaged in conversation.
For the next 5 minutes, it's a great game of tennis. They keep on serving pitches for magazines, I keep giving excuses for not buying them. Jenn goes as far as writing up a slip for ESPN The Magazine. It's only $60 for 52 issues - plus $15 in shipping and handling. As Jenn said, "the mailman needs to get paid too." She then gives me the slip (with two smiley faces) and her hot pink pen to sign away my $75 for a magazine that I don't want. When I explain that I don't want the magazine, they get disappointed, "You don't want to us to go to Europe?" At that price, no I did not. I finally convinced Jenn and Beth that I wasn't going to buy. I promptly looked up the price on ESPN. It didn't take me long to find that I could buy 26 issues for $26 - and get a free fleece.
I despise the companies behind these promotions, but I have to admit that they have a great business plan. They get aggressive salespeople, offer them the chance at big prizes, in an effort to sell overpriced products. Their "innovation" or "product" is quite often marketing - and trying to trick or guilt people in bad deals. I have to remind myself this every time the come to my door.
How do you deal with door-to-door salespeople when you don't want the product?
Image Credit: The Hotspot Online
This post deals with: ... and focuses on:Dumb Purchases
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Tipd33 Responses to “Door-To-Door Salesmen: If You’re Selling, I Ain’t Buying”
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The last time it was pretty easy. An ADT authorized dealer came to my home to try to sell me, an ADT employee, a system. If they could have given me $10 a month in monitoring, I would have considered it since they were offering free installation/activation. Of course, this was a very rare case in which the salesperson was actually selling a product I was in the market to buy. In any case…
Most of the time I listen for a little bit, but eventually politely decline. I’ve read some books on NLP (NeuroLinguistics Programming) which provides A LOT of the techniques those guys use. If you’ve never read about it, I highly recommend learning more about it and maybe even checking out a book or two on it. Even if you’re not a salesperson there is a lot of good that can come from learning NLP, including self-improvement. If anything, it will educate you on the techniques they use, make you aware of what they are saying, how they are saying it, and the responses they are SOLICITING from you (pun intended).
I live in NYC. Perhaps people think it’s too dangerous here for door-to-door salesmen here since I’ve hardly ever seen any. What we get are phone solicitations. On the one hand these people are working hard for their money and you gotta respect that. On the other hand a no is a no and they sometimes don’t’ understand that (again I speak from phone experience here). One thing you could do is act a little nuts around them. Just start talking all sorts of crazy stuff. Then you get to have a little fun at least.
Is there any sort of registry similar to the do not call registry for door-to-door salesmen? It seems there should be.
Simply don’t let them in. It’s your property. You have the right to not allow trespass.
This is what I cannot STAND… I’m sorry, you’re freezing outside trying to sell me something. It’s your choice to be standing there, trying to sell me something. You have 30 seconds to get off my property…
Maybe I’m a little disgruntled ;)
Here in Germany, consumers have the right to revoke any contract or sale that was made at their doorstep for 14 days.
Since that law passed, sales activities at the door nearly ceased.
In my opinion that shows if you take away the psychological aspect and give consumers time to think, they would usually have second thoughts.
(BTW same law applies to anything sold via mail order catalogue or internet)
Never had an issue when I lived in a suburb of San Francisco, but now that I’m back in the city, there’s a few people dropping by. I’ve heard horror stories of so-called carpet cleaning services who offer you a “free” cleaning and basically they rob you. When I notice salespeople, I don’t even bother to acknowledge them. They don’t even get a chance to sell me overpriced items.
I’ve taken to telling magazine salesman in general about http://www.parentwatch.org/
Other than that, I call on my hard and fast rule of not responding to any door-to-door or telephone solicitations, whether or not I’ve done prior business with the organization.
My own mother couldn’t solicit me.
Lol, I love the “You don’t want us to go to Europe?”
Well I’m certainly not going to pay your way. If you get a job with a business I like, I’ll patronize it and thus pay your way, but I don’t sponsor random people from the goodness of my heart. Wait until I’m a millionaire…and then I’d at least have to know you. ;)
As it is, I love my locked apartment building. No way they’d get in anyway.
If people are selling home or yard improvements, I always say that I don’t want it. If they pressure, I say that if i HAD wanted it, I would do an exhaustive search and get a good deal.
For anything else, I just say “If I want one of these, I will get it on the internet cheaper.” They know you can so this shuts them down more easily.
Kids are a different story. I was in Boy scouts, so if any boy scout/cub scout comes to my door, I will pretty much buy whatever they are selling. But when kids are selling candy bars or stupid cheese and gift wrap products, I lie and say of have no money.
Consecutive “No”s delivered in a deadpanning fashion usually does the trick here.
I won’t let anyone in my home, period. I feel bad, especially if it’s cold or poor weather outside, but I’m firm. For me it’s more of a paranoia though. Sure, they say they are salesmen, but how do I know that it’s not a serial killer standing on my porch? No thanks, I’ll feel bad and live another day.
I had one guy call me up and as soon as I realized it was a marketer I was like “Could you please take me off your list?”
Him: “But sir…”
Me: “Just take me off.”
Him: “Well first—”
Me: “Take me off.”
Him: “Will you let me talk!”
It was hilarious! Yeah it’s a sucky job but you chose it man so tough luck for you.
How do I deal with sales people? I say “No”, and close the door. I don’t even let them tell me what they are selling. Often I don’t answer the door at all.
If they’re children, and I know them, I might buy a fundraising candy bar. Or I might just donate some money. But that’s what it is. It’s a donation, and I don’t put up with a sales pitch. I say: “Gimme your brochure! I’ll take the sugar snaps. Bye.”
I will also, after a heavy snowfall, sometimes hire one of the homeless guys who go door to door looking for work shoveling. However, I make up my mind before I answer the door. There is no conversation.
I get lots of the “I’m a recovering crackhead and need to sell magazines to stay out of the joint” types in my neighborhood. They clearly are trained to try to walk in your house, to try to shake your hand, and to not let you have the last word unless they sell you something. I permit none of the above: I say “No thanks!” and shut the door in their face.
I suppose it isn’t terribly neighborly, but if I wanted magazines, I’d buy them myself.
OMG I get those stupid magazine salesmen or Kirby salesmen at least 4 times a week. I DONT WANT ANY MAGAZINESS! I’M NOT DUMB ENOUGH TO PAY $1200 FOR A VACUUM!!!!
lol so maddening!
A fun situation, at least for some. I actually enjoy when people come to me door, regardless of their reason (unless to kill me ;). I always invite them in and make them coffee…
Yeah im a odd ball, but i dont buy anything - i just like being kind to them, because lets face it, they probably dont get that to much. Also i imagine they are not working their dream job.
That said, i can also understand why people hate spam arriving at their door in human form.
Great blog keep it up :D
In Texas, when the door knocks the first thing I do is grab my shotgun+bandoleer and open the door ever so slowly. Most sales people don’t ever come back.
Sometimes I wish I got some of these people just to see how I would mess with them or if I would even be able to react the way I think I should.
Tex: That shotgun approach is a novel one - I might have to try it! Of course, I’d be using a Nerf gun because I don’t own a real one… but it might still work.
I had a pushy salesman duo come to my door last weekend. I opened the door (first mistake) and before I knew it he was putting a bottle of fabreze in my hand saying “we’re giving out free bottles of fabreze as a promotion”. I take it and say, “ok, thanks” and then before I know it he is standing in the doorway telling me about their great vacuum cleaner they’re selling. I feel like i can’t close the door because he’s just given me this “free bottle of fabreze” and I also can’t get a word in edgewise.
Then his partner appears there with a vacuum cleaner ready to demonstrate it for me. They give me a sob story about how this kid is trying to sell vacuums to get a free trip to the wisconsin dells, and how it will only take 10 minutes to do his demonstration.
I say, ok go ahead, 10 minutes is ok, its a saturday and I’m don’t need to be anywhere.
45 minutes later I finally ask them to leave after many attempts, and finding out their vacuum cleaner costs almost $2000. My cheapo $100 vacuum will do just fine thank you.
Next time I’m not even going to open the door.
Regarding the magazines, it’s interesting to hear that some people are selling those door to door. I’d be interested to know which ones, because there are some titles that cannot legitimately be sold over the internet.
This blog post has been included in the “Carnival of Money Stories #51″ at Life Lessons of a Military Wife. Hope you will drop by and read some of the many other wonderful entries received this week!
To those of you who refuse to answer the door for anybody, keep this in mind: not everyone who comes to your door is trying to sell you something. I work for an organization called Working America. We go door-to-door in the community talking to people about issues like outsourcing, affordable health care, and secure retirement. If they support these issues, which it’s kind of hard not to, we sign them up to join our organization. Of course their information is not sold or given to any other organizations. We just use it when we lobby politicians, so we can show them that people in our communities are concerned about these issues, and force them to make changes.
We’ve had a number of successful campaigns in states throughout the country, pushing to raise the minimum wage and put progressive politicians in office.
So while I realize that it’s incredibly annoying when a person you don’t know comes to your door for any reason, just remember that when someone comes to your door, you might actually want to hear what the person has to say. Of course, if they end up trying to sell you something or change your religion, then by all means respectfully tell them you’re not interested and close the door. But at least give them the chance.
Plus, it makes us feel bad to have doors slammed in our faces, or to be ignored by people who are obviously home. At least be nice about it.
Re-reading my comment, I just realized that it implies that people support outsourcing. Clearly what I meant was that most people support putting a stop to outsourcing.
We just had a salesman come yesterday and he stayed for an hour and a half. I thought I was going to pull my hair out. I wanted him to stop with that lame vacuum. THen at the end he said it costs 3,000 OHHH MY GOD!!! Why in the world woudl anyone pay that much????
You can get a great vacuum for 300 bucks and then in a year throw it away and get antoher one. I mean come on???? How lame!
I have been selling insurance door to door for 5 years and all i have to say is door to door marketing works, and not everything out there is a complete quack.
I have been making six figures since my second year in the company, and I have never had to twist anyone’s arm to buy. We simply offer a superior product that is much different then the competition. People know when they see a good thing. I protect people daily from financial disaster should something like cancer, heart attack, accident or major illness strike. I feel good about what I do because I have seen it change lives.
So don’t just discount someone who comes to your door. In some cases, it might just be the most important 15 mintues of your life!
oh dear god, if THAT is the most important 15 minutes of my life, i need to get a life…. I actually went to a “job interview” yesterday for what I thought was a real marketing job and it turns out it was a door-to-door sales job.
Walked out 3 minutes into it. Couldn’t even stand the job-sales-pitch.
I hate salesman, stop knockin at my fuking door im on my fucking lunch break!
I also made a 6 figure income last year, selling door to door. Most people are good people and show love for their fellow man. I sell them great products that they enjoy. On the first No, I respectfully say “Thank You” for your time and walk away. I am very happy with my job. I love people and getting to know them. I actually have made friendships with some of these people, and I never even sold them anything.
Elliott-
u are a freaking idiot. So are the rest of you who buy anything from solicitors at your door other than scouts. MOST are criminal. Either the salesmen, or their bosses. Often, they are casing your home and looking for a target!!
Outlaw soliciting in Texas!
Do the research. Anyone supporting solicitation in your neighborhood is inviting criminals. DO NOT BUY! Do ONT LET THEM IN YOUR HOME!
Professionalpeddler just slammed these high and mighty door slammers. I also make six figures going door to door offering one of the best home security systems and service that exist. I have no boss, where casual clthes all the time, and work when and if I feel like it. Best of all when I get a call from someone who purchased from me and they are telling me of the breakin gone bad for the burglar, I feel really good. Not all door to door salespeople are slime. Kind of like attorneys, most hate them but everyone uses them.
Just speaking as a consumer of a door to door salesman. Sometimes you do get the better end of the deal. I heard the lady talking about the ADT. Well I got an alarm system from a company called Pinnacle Security which gave me FREE equipment FREE installation FREE activation and all I have to do is monitor the system which isnt even that much. Plus they gave me all the newer equipment from GE. SO DOOR TO DOOR REALLY ISNT THAT BAD!!!!
I live with my family in the suburbs of Philadelphia and have lived in the same house for 13 years.
This year there has been an inundation of high-pressure door-to-door solicitors and religious promoters walking up and down our street. There was a sales rep knocking on our neighbor’s door as late as 8:30PM last night. This same sales rep (no id noted) said that he is from a dealer of GE home security devices called Platinum Protection. He continually pressured my wife to allow him to install a home security unit in our house on the spot. He was asking my wife for all kinds of personal information. As a rule, I think the best way to deal with them is to post a sign asking them to cease and desist and to tell them simply we’re not interested through the closed door or open window and walk away.