Every summer the same exact thing always happens. You’re sitting in bed relaxing, trying to salvage every moment of summer before fall rolls around, when suddenly there is a knock at the door. Sheepishly you open the door, encounter a far too enthusiastic sales person. You stand at the door and endure a 5 to 10 minute sales pitch about why you should upgrade your current internet plan to this different plan or add on to your existing plan. You politely decline the offer and gently close the door. You go back to your room and get ready to jump back into your bed when, there’s another knock on the door. You go through the same song and dance but now your patience is wearing a little thin. You decline the offer to buy whatever the sales person is selling and go back to what you were originally doing. And then there’s another knock at the door and another one and another one and finally you’re so fed up that you stop opening the door and throw pillows over your head to drown out the ringing of the door bell.
I totally get how you feel. It is super annoying to constantly open the door and listen to a similar regurgitated sales pitch offered repeatedly. It’s also exhausting having to continuously say no and restraint yourself from slamming the door.
I get it, I’ve been there, but I’ve also been on the other side of the door. A few summers ago I had the bright idea to sell products door to door. I was the recipient of many door slams, dirty looks, condescending remarks and the silent treatment. While getting my self esteem lowered, I also had to lug around a suitcase full of products door to door for what seemed like miles across town, in the blazing heat and pouring rain.
Overall, the job was horrible. Long hours, lonely walks, terrible treatment from customers all for commission pay (which basically means the only money I received that summer was from my parents who took pity on me and bought the over priced crap I was selling).
Now, to be fair I didn’t take that job as seriously as I should have. I did not have the motivation to work all that hard because I had the luxury of living at home with my parents. For most salesmen out there, selling things to your door is their livelihood. That is what they do to feed themselves, to shelter themselves, to pay for school and in some cases pay the massive amount of student debt collected. For them, they have a reason to get up every day – sacrificing their summer to go door-to-door, trying to sell you something.
Yes, they know they are disturbing you and they know you are most likely going to say “no” and slam the door in their face. But they still keep pushing through the rejection and keep trying no matter how hard it gets. This summer, when the salesmen comes knocking on your door, you don’t have to buy what they’re selling. It does, however, cost you absolutely nothing to listen to what they have to say and treat them with a little bit of kindness or respect. Don’t lose your cool this summer and try to cut door to door salesmen a little slack. After all, they’re just doing their job.