Surprisingly, one of my company’s policies was to NEVER enter the house, even if we’re invited in for dinner. However, they did train us with the “pull out the collected sign up forms and show the customer that all of their neighbors are saving on their bills (mention specific names and housenumbers), so why not you?”
Nobody would do door-to-door cold call sales work unless they absolutely had to, so I do respect them.
Still, big fat no to everything from me.
I’d rather someone sell door to door than be on unemployement. If you don’t want to talk to someone, just don’t open the door. There is no need to degrade yourself by being rude to a sales person.
One of the many reasons I love living in the country: very few people motivated enough to try door to door sales out here. It’s very rare someone comes to my door that I do not know, and faced with a suspicious housewife hanging onto the collar of a snarling pitbull, they usually exit quickly.
My grandmother used to sell door to door for Avon for a while about 50 years ago. She said it was the hardest job she ever had, and this is coming from a woman who used to pick cotton.
We actually got a I-just-need-one-more-magazine-sale-for-a-college-scholarship guy at our door last week. I didn’t know they still did that. My sweet wife couldn’t understand why I was so short with the guy, and I had to explain about the semi-scam nature of the whole thing.
But that doesn’t mean anything. As far as I know you just jump down turn around and you have picked a bale of cotton. Or have I been misinformed?
Our home is not conducive to door to door sales (second floor entry on the back of the house) but I get people coming to my business frequently. More than anything else I see people from credit card processing companies. They walk in without an appointment and rattle off that they’d love to save me money, they just need to look at my past three statements. Same with energy companies. If I didn’t request your services I’m not handing you any of my papers. They almost never have business cards, I’ve noticed.
I try always to be polite. It cannot be an easy job. One thing that strikes me is that they always seem to be out in full force in the very worst weather. Is it bad luck, or is it calculated to generate more sympathy?
The dog is giving me such a puzzled look, wondering why I’m giggling.
I almost got pulled into a knife-selling thing when I was fresh out of school. It was a group interview, then the guy took two of us at a time into the next room to let us know if we ‘made it’ or not. Brilliant – I was too young and polite to just leave with a room full of strangers around me, and surprise surprise, everyone who came back in the main room had been hired, wow! I don’t know how I managed, but I didn’t end up either selling for them or ending up with a set of ‘samples’ that I would have had to pay for.
Door to door salesmen often lose money. The only places I know that are still employing this method are the multilevel marketing companies, and those people usually have to front all their own costs. The main money to be had is in recruiting other sellers, but, not only do few people join in, it would a pyramid scheme if they did.
These people are going to need even more financial help than the guy just sitting on his butt all day. I know the requirements for welfare, and barely breaking even is well under the maximum you can make.
That’s my take on it. I used to advertise solar heating over the phone, and the number of people who didn’t seem to realise that they could just hang up on me was staggering. It was like they thought that if I gave up first, they’d won and I wouldn’t call again (which was something I had no authority over as the system was automated).
My advice is to tell people that you have no say in the matter. We never had a button for Is annoyed at telemarketing, but we did have one for Tenant. I got a mobile phone call from a telemarketer once, and I told them that I couldn’t subscribe to a new phone plan as it was a company phone - they never called again.
Obviously it doesn’t work for vacuum cleaners.
Many years ago, right after bringing our newborn home from the hospital, I opened the door to an encyclopedia salesman. Normally I’m polite, but I found it invasive that he knew about our newborn, and he hinted that only an inferior parent would fail to buy his product. The rest of the conversation went like this:
Me: Did you have these encyclopedias in your house while growing up?
Him: Yes and they were a godsend [continues about helping him in school, etc.]
Me: We didn’t have them. And yet I’m an aerospace engineer working at Boeing, and you’re selling door to door.
Door: slam.
I’m a day sleeper. People who ring my doorbell, or call me on the phone, are interrupting my sleep. When my daughter was teething, and had FINALLY gotten back to sleep, then I’d get a door to door caller, or some telemarketer.
Unsolicited calls ARE going to interrupt people’s lives. Now, some people are just hanging out by the phone or near the front door, but many of us are either sleeping or doing something that shouldn’t be interrupted for the convenience of some asshole who’s trying to sell something. I’m more than willing to wake up, or quit stuffing the chicken, or whatever, if a friend or relative is on the phone. I’m NOT so willing to have a sleeping infant awakened simply to answer the door to find that some kid is trying to “win” a scholarship by selling magazines. By being polite to these salescritters, I was encouraging them to continue in their jobs.
If a salesperson is making cold calls, s/he is not doing it for MY benefit, nor have I signed up for such a thing. The chances that I’m in the market for Acme Widgets is very low, and the salesperson surely knows that for every sale s/he gets, she’ll be intruding on 500 people, or more. The benefit only goes one way. When I walk into a store, when I shop online, it’s because I do happen to be in the market for Acme Widgets.
I never, ever give to charities that solicit by phone or door to door. The chances are pretty high that these charities are scams. Even when I’ve made a donation to them before, it’s the surest way to get me to quit donating. I give them ONE chance to take me off their calling list, then I terminate the donations.
The internet killed the door to door salesman years ago
Ok guys, I’m posting this as a current door to door alarm salesman. I don’t find it insulting when someone slams the door in my face, or comes out with some “clever” remark that chances are if we’ve done it for any time we’ve heard before. It’s their property, they have that right, I don’t know what I just walked up on either. Let me tell you what I DO find insulting, and that’s people feeling sorry for me. Everybody works in sales, at least we’re outright about it, right =)? I sell a good product at a good price that does help people, I believe in it. Am I pushy sometimes? Yes. Let me tell you all why. Often times customers turn me away because they have assumptions about the product that are wrong. Basically, what’s important to me is that I find out whether they’re saying no to me, or saying no to the product. If they hear me out they may very well want it. I do that by asking them questions. “Have you ever gotten a quote on an alarm system? Well how much would you think it’d cost?” etc… when someone tells me not interested, that’s impossible, because I haven’t even made them an offer yet. They don’t know if they’re interested, maybe maybe not. Now those points you guys could argue with me all day, but it’s a good sales attitude to have, and it’s an attitude that works. Anywho… as far as feeling sorry for me, sure some of us suck at it, but don’t make assumptions. I make quite good money selling door to door, if I didn’t I wouldn’t still be doing it. At first I didn’t, but I stuck around. I could easily get another job. Most people that “feel sorry” I could very well make more money than they do. I also enjoy my job. I talk to tons of different, interesting people and it gives me tons of stories to tell. I also feel like I’m providing a service that helps people. I understand many of these comments are made out of ignorance, and hey, I get annoyed by people coming to MY door… but don’t make assumptions about the job. It’s not for everyone but I make enough to pretty much get what I want from it. Somebody feeling bad for me gets on my nerves more than someone being rude because I interrupted them, don’t make assumptions. What I do is not a scam. I’m not out to screw people over, but I am out to make myself some money. I say to myself, I’ll never lie about the product, what it does, how much it costs. I also knock on no solicitation signs, and here’s why: sometimes they buy systems too. If they tell me to “gtfo”, I leave, nothing personal. As far as criminals who can’t get real jobs, I had to pass a background check. Now, to stop ranting and help some people out. If the salesman does not have photo ID, or some sort of uniform, he may not be legitimate. Thank you, and you all have a nice day =).
Furthermore, I’ll even say I go into neighborhoods where I know a crime has just been committed. I look the junk up and go there on purpose to sell people systems. Yes indeed. Opportunistic? Yes. Would an alarm really help those people? Yeah. Welcome to capitalism, people, good God.
I find it interesting that people will complain that they are paying too much for a service or product and along come a legitimate person from a company that is trying to help and the homeowner does not give the time of the day to even listen to what is available to them. Then after they listen they can intelligently say yes or no to the service. Don’t complain then that you are paying to much. We have also gotten away from the days of humans talking to each other. Imagine that. I guess that is to foreign for people to remember. Lastly, just because you can get the information on the internet does not mean that you can get the best price, but more importantly that person knocking on your door can be your best friend when you are in need of help.
I don’t get a lot of door to door salesmen but I get phone calls out the wazoo despite being on the Do Not Call list.
I don’t understand why I often get snarky salespeople when I ask, politely, to be taken off their list. Yesterday, as a matter of fact, I got a call from a duct-cleaning company and when I said, “No I’m not interested, but could you please take me off your list?” the girl went “Well! Hmph!” and slammed the phone down. 
I guessing you don’t sell carriage returns.
This is complete and utter bullshit. The company is not “trying to help”, it’s trying to make money, and it’s going about this by using an incredibly inefficient sales technique. Most people are not going to want a particular product at a particular time, or they might want it, but can’t afford it. If I want a product, I can do research online, and then either order online or go to a brick and mortar store, and I can do it when it’s convenient for ME. I don’t need for the A&P Tea salesman to ring my doorbell and offer me tea, coffee, and other dry staples. I will toddle down to the local supermarket or even Super Target and I’ll be able to find a much wider variety of goods, for a better price than any door-to-door salesperson can offer.
Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining, sonny. I know better.
It seems like, of the occasional door-to-door salespeople who ring my doorbell, most of them are hawking some kind of off-off-off-brand cleaning solution. I am never tempted to buy; usually I’m torn between wondering if the colorful liquid in the squirty bottle would be actively harmful or merely ineffective. And then there are the rarer appearances of people selling meat or seafood or such. I have to admit, were I in a higher tax bracket, I might consider a purchase.