not the same, but it reminds me of when I was probably 11 or 12 and following my divorced bio dad around on some weekend visitation, and we went to his work: a car dealership. it was pretty dead and nobody gives a shit, so I wandered around down in the offices… not where the sales rooms are, but like their internal meeting rooms and shit like that. burnt coffee machines, naked pinups and comic panels with cuss words taped to the walls.
I saw a whiteboard with huge block letter writing across the top “NO WALKS!!” I asked my bio dad (a real asshole) what it meant, and he said nobody is allowed to come to the dealership without buying a car that day. “what if they just came to look around?” “doesn’t matter. they have to be sold or the salesman is in trouble and can get fired.”
it was very instructive to my young brain, the knowledge that I would be sold something I didn’t want by someone trying to keep their job, just because I might be curious.
watching those vultures work made me high irritated by aggressive sales people, so much so that if they approach me more than once I just leave and go somewhere else or find a way to shop online.
I’ve recently begun taking it as a challenge to get the sales person to hang up before me. Like I’ll start getting unsociably angry - trying to work up whines and cries or infantilize them (e.g. “nononono, I’m talking. I’m talking. Are you done? You’ll speak when spoken to.”). I treat it like a sumo match. I’ve been working through a routine where I am “willing to critique their silly little sales pitch after they pay for a retainer and sign an NDA like the rest of my clients.” I’ve stopped making eye contact and responding to people outside of grocery stores and putting no tip if I’m not sitting down at a restaurant.
It’s made me excited for sales calls. Once I saw how the sausage is made, I’ve only gotten more militant in the ways I handle these people.
not the same, but it reminds me of when I was probably 11 or 12 and following my divorced bio dad around on some weekend visitation, and we went to his work: a car dealership. it was pretty dead and nobody gives a shit, so I wandered around down in the offices… not where the sales rooms are, but like their internal meeting rooms and shit like that. burnt coffee machines, naked pinups and comic panels with cuss words taped to the walls.
I saw a whiteboard with huge block letter writing across the top “NO WALKS!!” I asked my bio dad (a real asshole) what it meant, and he said nobody is allowed to come to the dealership without buying a car that day. “what if they just came to look around?” “doesn’t matter. they have to be sold or the salesman is in trouble and can get fired.”
it was very instructive to my young brain, the knowledge that I would be sold something I didn’t want by someone trying to keep their job, just because I might be curious.
watching those vultures work made me high irritated by aggressive sales people, so much so that if they approach me more than once I just leave and go somewhere else or find a way to shop online.
I’ve recently begun taking it as a challenge to get the sales person to hang up before me. Like I’ll start getting unsociably angry - trying to work up whines and cries or infantilize them (e.g. “nononono, I’m talking. I’m talking. Are you done? You’ll speak when spoken to.”). I treat it like a sumo match. I’ve been working through a routine where I am “willing to critique their silly little sales pitch after they pay for a retainer and sign an NDA like the rest of my clients.” I’ve stopped making eye contact and responding to people outside of grocery stores and putting no tip if I’m not sitting down at a restaurant.
It’s made me excited for sales calls. Once I saw how the sausage is made, I’ve only gotten more militant in the ways I handle these people.