The Southwestern Company Difference Blog
I was reading an opinion piece by CovingtonReporter.com’s Ryan Ryals (who looks a lot like Geoff Kidney,
Southwestern Company’s AV/Webmaster, by the way). Ryals has a humorous slant with several unique suggestions on how to handle what he considers to be door-to-door nuisances.
This opinion made me think about how, being in the industry of direct selling, and specifically door-to-door, we have to just sometimes laugh at ourselves and the interesting people we meet along the way and behind the doors.
Ryals received several visits at his home, which from the sounds of it, may be traveling sales crews (magazines, cleaners…). According to Ryals, with the town of Maple Valley, WA, soon to lift their ban on door-to-door solicitation, he figures the new layers of local bureaucracy (the normal – background checks, application fees, fingerprinting, etc…) may do the job to keep the solicitors out. Perhaps. But it would probably just be some of the legitimate ones who would go through the process, not those that don’t bother anyway for which the onerous process is actually intended to keep out (cough, cough traveling sales crews).
Ryals goes on to list his “Top methods for door-to-door sales defense.” His ideas are creative and entertaining. They include:
- Turn the tables: have a product by the door to sell them.
- Pick an accent you are good at and pretend to not speak English.
- Present an alternative list of things you are looking to buy that border from almost believable to ridiculous.
- Have the solicitor fill out a long and laborious application in order to sell something to you.
I think this is absolutely hysterical. I give Ryals credit for having fun with something that annoys him rather than getting angry. Clearly, not everyone enjoys a visit from a solicitor at their home (although many do as evidenced by Southwestern Company’s student dealer experiences).
Door-to-door sales is not for everyone – and that goes for both sides of the door, the knocker and the knockee. It can even be fun!
