Door-to-Door Salesmen in the USA: Unfair Advanage!

And so, I hang my head in shame, admitting that I bought a bottle of Advanage 20x Citrus Cleaner from a salesman that came knocking on my door today - a bottle that cost about five times what I would normally have paid for regular cleaner in Walmart.

I didn't stand a chance, really. Unlike in Malaysia, where the salesmen aren't trained in NLP (Natural Language Processing), US salesmen are it seems, highly trained in using NLP persuasion and influence techniques.

Apparently 'If you don't have the skills and knowledge (NLP), your interaction with the sales person is like the interaction between a primary school student and a special forces soldier intent on stealing the student's candy. You don't stand a chance' (comment by Anonymous on Jess Riley's account of her Advanage experience)

I didn't stand a chance. 

The young black gentlemen that came to my door was definitely a master at NLP persuasion. A guru, probably. He had a duffel bag full of bottles of wonder-cleaning product that he claimed could clean anything and yet was biodegradable and non-toxic. He marked up a white rag with a permanent marker and made me witness to the ink magically disappearing upon application of the Advanage wonder-cleaner dilution.

He even drank some of that stuff to show me how safe it was!

He had jokes, high-fives, and a feel-good story about how my purchase would help fund his final year in St Augustine College.

"You're helping a young fella like me, selling soap, not dope"

Those of you who know me, well, you know I'm a softie. I just am. At that point I was basically just trying to find a way to help the chap. I scrutinized the label on the bottle and the words 'non-toxic' and 'biodegradable' and 'no phosphates' meant I could actually use it.

I asked him how many he had sold today. He said 'Two', and told me that his goal for today is 20, and if he made 20, he would be on track to having his final year of college paid for.

"You're investing in me, in my future"

I asked him how many doors he had knocked on today. "23", he said. And he had only sold two? Yes, but the two were those who were home and who had opened the door. Oh. That's like, a 100% conversion rate. See, I told you he was some highly-trained NLP guru. (Watch Kenny Brook's sales pitch to get an idea of what I was up against).

I digress
My years in Malaysia have made me adept in avoiding salesmen.  I pretend I'm not home (if it's a door-to-door salesman). All houses have fences and gates to keep salesmen and other undesirables at bay. I pretend I didn't see the salesperson, or look away disinterestedly - I've had ample practice doing this, thanks to the crippled beggars found scraping along the roads in every pasar malam.

Here in the US, there are it seems, no fences or gates. The odd fence is usually just for decoration. Unfortunately, the lack of fences means I am defenseless against door-to-door salesmen.

This typical rural home has no fences. The three little picket fences are decorative and add to curb appeal.

Back to the story

I balked when he told me the cheapest thing he had was $39 for a bottle of that cleaner. He gets 8%, and 15% goes to St Augustine for his school tuition (employee matching of sorts I guess) and the rest goes to the company. I told him I would rather just give him a $10!

Well, I don't need to tell you what the ending was.

$40. It works great. 

David Anderton, your friendly travelling Advanage salesman

xo Gracie

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