Do You Have Sales Resistance? (I Don’t Apparently)


About a month ago I discovered that I have no sales resistance.

Youd think that after watching the I Love Lucy episode, Sales Resistance, where Lucy gets taken advantage of by salesmen and totally learns her lesson the hard way that Id be invulnerable to salespeople.

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In my defense, though, I was taken completely off guard.

See, I dont do well when put on the spot, told to make an instant decision. Thats why door-to-door salespeople have a pretty good chance of getting me to buy something if they stop at my door.

I really should put up a No Solicitors sign.

So what happened? Well, it was early one morning at about 8 a.m. I actually had showered and done my hair by then, which NEVER happens. If I hadnt, I wouldnt have opened the door. Curse my strange energy that morning!

At the time Im writing this, its 9 a.m. and I still havent showered due to busybody children.

So, someone knocked and I answered.

Mistake #1: I answered the door.

There stood a college-age guy with a smile and a backpack. He introduced himself, saying that my neighbors had recommended me to him because I had children.

Curse those neighbors, I dont even know them! They must be getting even with me for having a loud 3-year-old.

I had a bit of a hard time understanding him thanks to his European accent. He told me that he was selling educational childrens books.

I was immediately interested.

Mistake #2: I let myself look interested.

He asked if he could come inside and show me a sample of what he was carrying. The alarms in my head went off I dont let just any guy off the streets into my house. He picked up his backpack and made to come inside. I kept the door closed behind me and asked if he could just show me on the porch. He did, reluctantly. Apparently its a sales tactic to get inside the house. He showed me a catalog and a sample book, and I really DID love the books. They were fact books for kids with lots of pictures. There were about 12 in the series including a book with removable stickers. I asked how much? He immediately went into his speal.

$160 BUT this is a wonderful deal considering how many books youre getting AND the stickers are removable (isnt that amazing?) AND if you consider how much you spend on video games this is a worthy purchase AND do you have a place that we can sit down and talk about this?

Um. I really didnt want to spend almost $200 on books. Even if I did think they were awesome. But he was so nice and smiling that I didnt want to hurt his feelings.

And he told me Americans are SOOO nice here, letting him talk to them and come inside

Still, I told him I was busy and couldnt buy anything. I asked him if he had a card. No, of course not this is something that can only be bought now or never. I hesitated.

Mistake #3: I hesitated.

He knew he had me. The rest is a blur. I started thinking that maybe $200 wasnt so much AND it wasnt anything I could buy online. Plus, my neighbors had made orders and had written recommendations on a paper he showed me.

AND I could make payments. My neighbor had given him half up front.

He picked up his backpack again. I told him Id go find my checkbook, and he followed me inside. I felt defeated. I couldnt be a mean American and make him stay outside, plus it was raining. And he was doing all this on a bike.

Mistake #4: I let him inside.

I just really really hoped he wasnt an axe murderer. Or maybe a hatchet murderer. He could probably fit a hatchet in that backpack.

But he had that nice accent and kept smiling and making small talk all the time, telling me where he was from and showing me his homeland on a map he carried with him (I dont remember where it was now but Id never heard of it).

So, with a sinking feeling, I found my checkbook. I asked him what would I do if I changed my mind? Oh theres a number to call. But that would be a lot of paperwork, so it would be better not to order if Im going to change my mind later

But I felt like I was in too deep then. Even though I was having buyers remorse already. I mean, he didnt even have the books with him at the time he was going to deliver them at the end of the summer. Okay He took my check, said farewell, and was gone.

Mistake #5: When I felt like I was in too deep, I didnt follow my gut feeling and tell him Id changed my mind.

He was gone. I was out $90 (apparently there was a delivery fee, too), holding a receipt and wondering what had happened. I mean, how did I know hed bring the books back by? What was I thinking, spending that much on a set of books? Im a deal-finder! I could probably find something comparable on ebay!

I considered chasing him down on his bike, but I couldnt do that of course.

I tried to build the books up in my mind for awhile, thinking that there wasnt anything like that at the store or online. But I knew that I could find something like that if I really tried.

I had fallen for the old, You cant buy it online and theres nothing comparable on the market line. Oh me.

The next day I emailed the company and canceled the order. I felt bad, but I would have felt worse later when my daughter and son abused those books. Either that or I would have had to keep them up high where they could never touch them, the $200 set of educational books. And whats the point of that?

I DID eventually get my money back, so it wasnt a scam, thankfully. But I learned my lesson.

Well, sort of.

A couple of weeks later, a meat saleslady came by and tried to sell me really cheap high quality meat. It wasnt cheap. She was SO pushy, I kept telling her no, we didnt have room in our freezer or need meat. She actually asked to come in and look at my freezer so she could prove that she could fit them inside. But I wasnt real firm and so had to sit through her whole sales pitch. She showed me the meat. She asked me why I couldnt buy any. I cant let these people waste my time!

I know that salespeople HAVE to be pushy. They wouldnt sell anything if they werent. But wow. I could never do that! I just hope that I can remember the educational books episode later on when someone tries to sell me something. That was a pain.

And you know what? I went to a used book sale a few weeks ago and found some really nice fact books about animals for 25 cents each.

Lesson learned.

(I hope)

So what are your experiences with salespeople?

P.S. You HAVE to watch this episode of I Love Lucy, Sales Resistance. Its sooo funny and my favorite. 🙂 Theres a little advertisement at the beginning but then you can watch the whole episode.