Rant: Door to Door Sales, Lack of Quality.

What is with the quality of door to door sales (or solicitors). It must be a disappearing art. All they do is plead on your sympathy or charity and come-off as beggars. You know the ones I mean; the kids trying to sell some subscriptions for a "phantom" scholarship; or a kid, and his route manager, trying to sell newspaper subscriptions.

They need to approach every door with this thought in mind; how will I "protect the interests and serve the needs (see the movie Swimming With Sharks)" of the person I am about to talk too when I ring the door bell.

10 minutes ago, a man with the Denver Post and a kid rang my door bell trying to sell me a subscription to the Sunday Denver Post. I appreciate having the kid there, its a nice touch; I asked the question; "where do you live (where does the kid live)?" The kid lives in Arvada which is somewhat far from where I live, so I asked, "isn't that kinda far to drive to deliver here". The kid didn't even respond; at that point, I wasn't even sure he spoke English; the man gave some lame response. In any event, they did not ask me any engaging questions. They were offering $100 in coupons and the subscription was only $19.95 for the first 6 months. If it were me, I would have reviewed the coupons and asked the prospect if they used any of those services. For example, if I had restaurant coupons, I would ask the prospect if they eat out and would they like to save money, (who is going to say no to that) or some other related questions. Then transition into how the newspaper would further that interest. Its about having sales balls; are you taking a chance that your opener may fall flat, sure; but then you keep pressing until you find something that connects.

Bottom line, these guys sucked. Instead, the man that was giving the pitch said 3 times, "don't you want to help him (the kid) out.". P-L-E-A-S-E, I have not given tips to cabby's in Vegas and heard all sorts of profanity in various languages, what chance do you have of pleading on my charity. Where is the "value offer", how are you protecting my interests and serving my needs. The only way to do that is engage me with questions; save money, relax on my porch with coffee and a newspaper, etc etc.

I think the next solicitor that comes to my door and sucks, I will pull them aside and give them a 5-10 minutes sales coaching.