Door to Door sellers

I always just put on a really sad and worried face and say "now is not a good time, sorry", that usually gets them apologising and back-peddling as quick as they arrived.

Make up your own notice like I did.


It works a treat.

Make sure to laminate it to if your sticking it to the door.

Millions of people buy at the door every day. Its the number one most effective way to peddle a product. I spent 12 years knocking on domestic doors selling energy, I would look forward to the people who put signs up about no cold calling etc, I enjoyed the challenge. I especially enjoyed irritating the clowns that had signs up and opened their door and pointed at said sign with their hands on their hips. I would totally ignore their gestures to look at the sign or reply to their "Cant you read?" remarks. Its I who knocked at the door and I'm in control, not the householder.

I would then in the most polite way possible apologise for disturbing them, but that I was looking for (insert whatever their house name or number was, but then add a variant like 23B) and of course they would then look puzzled and inform me that there was no such variant at that address. They would then elaborate saying the neighbour on the right was number 21 and that side was number 25, that they are 23 but not 23B. I would then look really confused and be consulting my electronic tablet as if to check something and ask "Whats your surname?" and when they told me I would confirm thats what name I had been given. I would then bring out my meter key and say "I will just check the meter serial number as I need to make sure Im talking with the right person due to Data Protection regulations" and they would either show me to the meter or invite me in if it was inside the house. If I was outside checking it I would then say, hmmmm this is odd, it appears to be the right meter, its just the address mismatch thats confusing me, I guess the only way to check this is to check the MPRN, I dont suppose you know your MPRN off the top of your head do you?" and of course they didnt. I would then glance at my watch, the watch I only ever wore to work so that I could do this. I normally use my phone for telling the time. I would then screw up my face and then exacerbate "Do me a favour will you, the networks print the MPRN on the corner of the bill, Im really pushed for time here as Ive got a long list of tariffs to correct today, so if you can be as quick as you can." and they would say "ooh whats this all about???" and I would say "Look Id rather not say anything until Ive confirmed Im speaking to the right person" at which point I would look up and down the street and check behind me and then say "Listen its a personal matter to do with your account, Id rather not talk about your private business in the street, as long as youre quick, give me two minutes and I will pop in and explain it to you ok". I would then start to wipe my feet on the door mat and they would literally just step aside and invite me in. Most times they would even look past me and see if anybody could have overheard and they were glad to have you in the house talking in private.

That general members of the public, is how I dealt with people at the door that tried to object for no reason at all. Most people have no real idea what theyre saying no to, so the "If we wanted it we would get it ourselves" doesnt wash with me. I personally would have preferred not to have had to employ such tactics, but in reality it was this that made me the number 1 energy sales person in the UK and latterly in Ireland for all of those 12 years. You might think I would have got lots of complaints, quite the opposite in fact. I had the lowest complaints percentage to sales wise and I also had many customers call or email thanking me for spending my time to explain something in such a manner that they had finally understood the market and had been able to make an informed decision to switch.

Not everyone could get away with such techniques of course, you have to be confident in your delivery and not feel a hint of remorse.

I found those with signs etc actually normally provided the best laugh, often they had a front of a bad attitude, but more often than not I would be sitting in their kitchen drinking a cup of tea laughing about the sign outside.

I generally enjoy the interruption. The last caller I answered the door to was from Energia. He asked me who our electricity provider was, which I declined to answer. However, I did find out that his provider was Energia, that he still lived at home with his parents, and that while they don't currently have a TV provider, they have Saorview, buy he doesn't really watch much TV. I bid him good evening, he looked confused, but was pleasant enough.

meeeeh wrote: »

Big dog and electric gate. Only Jehovah's Witnesses and an odd charity rep believe in their cause enough to ring the bell.

You would be my prime target precisely because people are unlikely to ring the bell and you will probably be less battle hardened from constant pitching and most likely not in a contract as youre more likely to not have switched within the previous 12 months. Plus most people with Electric gates have no issues with paying by direct debit!

The dog is an added bonus, people with pets are usually warm and even if initially hostile, they soon melt when youve got the dog rolling on his back tickling his belly! The perfect distraction and a great subject to chat about until you like me enough where I feel comfortable to even start talking about why Im there.

I have a note on the porch window that says that I don't buy at the door.

If someone comes selling I ask them which word they don't understand.

Its a shame that the moderator above feels it is justified to use abusive language when describing people doing a job. It certainly can be very annoying for some people to experience cold calling salesman, but to call them what you did is unacceptable in my opinion. I would much rather someone tried to make a living on their own two feet selling legitimately than sitting on their ass claiming welfare.

Luis Vast Weekday wrote: »

Quiet honestly, if what you said is true regarding your tactics in conning people into signing up.
Then your a (fill in the negative adjectives here).

You're the reason I never entertain people on the door and set my rabid kids on them if don't understand the NO word.:)

I never conned them. I employed intelligent marketing techniques to bypass their prejudiced response to someone knocking at the door, just like every ad agency on the planet. Unless there is an actual notice stating they have withdrawn their implied rights of access, then I will knock on it.

Almost every single time I would be thanked, hand shook, offered a cup of tea, offered an apology for their initial response as they opened the door with the householder AFTER providing me with a copy of their bill, their bank details, date of birth, email and being under no illusion that they were changing suppliers.

Its easy for the internet warriors to post up about what would happen if it was their door, but really its just a lot of nonsense. If someone actually treats another human in the way these posters try and portray, I don't think its the guy knocking the door that has the problem. Its not that easy to be overtly nasty to someone who is smiling and is very polite to you even when you're being abusive to them.

The iron curtain in front of a door knocker is usually dropped after they realise the door knocker is polite, courteous and genuinely friendly. I know there are a lot of absolutely useless sales guys out there and they are very rude and its probably not surprising considering the abuse that they receive on a daily basis, but the iron curtain only provides protection against inexperienced door knockers.

Its easy for people to sit there and crucify these agents as if they are the worst scum on earth, yet you don't know about the things we have done for people. I personally have fixed thousands of computer problems for people, installed drivers for printers, scanners, removed viruses, helped people fix their tv boxes, moved heavy objects about their house. I've sat with individual pensioners who have been delighted to see me, I phoned their family to seek permission that switching them over was OK and then stayed for a while afterwards chatting to them about whatever they wanted to. Why? Because I was one of the few people they would speak to each week, if there even was anyone else at all. There are so many lonely people out there existing in the world and it all goes on behind closed doors. Did I get paid for doing this extra stuff? Of course not, it would cost me money because I wasnt out signing up next door, but the personal rewards were immense and it helped me maintain my own personal armour if I did come across someone extremely abusive that i wasnt able to flip to the good side.

Say whatever you want, but when you leave a house and the old person looks you straight in the eyes, smiling, and touches your arm and thanks you for calling and helping them, it makes the rest of my day go by very easily.

send me your address then. You really need informed if you think the current batch of "Online exclusive" deals are the best options financially. Thats another marketing scheme right there for you, but you accept that because it seems logical. You think Bonkers and Switcher dont get paid when you go through their portal?

TireeTerror wrote: »

Its a shame that the moderator above feels it is justified to use abusive language when describing people doing a job.

It is only this job, I would also put chunts in the same category as this job, no other legal job comes close to being so objectionable.

I cannot think of any other job where I have seen people saying they thought it should be illegal -can anybody?

Maybe there are some but are probably along the same lines as this.

TireeTerror wrote: »

I would much rather someone tried to make a living on their own two feet selling legitimately than sitting on their ass claiming welfare.

As I already said, I certainly would prefer to see them claiming welfare. I think it should be illegal and think anyone involved is taking advantage of the lax laws. In several places in the UK it was made illegal. This "I'm only doing a job" pathetic line is a cringeworthy cop out.