Monday, April 13, 2009

An Open Letter to Salesmen

Dear Sales Guy,

I asked you into my home because I need something that you have to offer.  Or at the very least, something you have to offer intrigued me enough to find out more. It takes a special kind of person to do your job.  I can appreciate what you do but I have a few things to get off my chest.

First, if you set an appointment with me for a day and time that was your idea, you should have a really good reason for canceling on me.  Not one time, but twice (and almost 3 times).  Better yet, if you are the Sales "Manager/Trainer" who is sitting at my kitchen table, you should knows that this happened to me before you tell me how you purposely overbook appointments on the hope that somebody cancels or backs-out.

Secondly, I think it is a small world that you know someone that I work with.  I even find it slightly amusing that you figured out where I worked based on the description of what I do (although I work in a very specialized industry without much local competition, so it wasn't hard).  But I'm sorry, some of the stories you relayed to me were very personal and quite frankly, a little uncomfortable to hear. You have no idea what my working relationship is with "one of your 5 best buds". I might have a big mouth and my colleague may not want this type of information shared about their past. You obviously aren't very good at reading body language either. Not once did you pick up on my obvious discomfort - I really didn't want to know these types of things and thought it was inappropriate to share that kind of information with a stranger.  Oh, and your future relative that was recently "fired for no apparent reason"?  Not understanding why might be a big part of the overall problem of continuing employment- 'nuf said.

Finally, I appreciate the fact that it is more cost effective for you to close the sale on your first visit.  I can even appreciate that you are trying to make some money on the job or service that you are trying to sell me.  But don't insult the customer.  If you p!ss me off, I most assuredly won't buy from you.  I would like the time to think about what you are offering me.  Consider the fact that I walked in the door after you did tonight, I never had a chance to sit down and relax for a minute - or eat dinner.  I even showed you what I wanted done before I even took off my coat!  You talked almost non-stop for 3 solid hours without taking a breath and then asked me to make a decision in 3 minutes.  When I requested some more time, what did you do?  You basically told me I was an idiot, that I would never call you back and then you pouted and took your toys and went home.  Never mind the fact that I just told you that my husband may go on strike any day now. Never mind the fact that the economy really sucks right now and making any type of big investment is risky.  Never mind, I'm obviously stupid and have no idea what I am doing nor will I ever be a "professional" buyer - at least that is what I got out of your parting comments.

It's too bad, you seemed to have something that I need and for a price that I'm willing to pay.  I can even overlook the cancelled appointments and the inappropriate stories about an old friend, but when you insult my intelligence - you are D-O-N-E.

Sincerely,
Mr. and Mrs. Monkeygirl

3 comments:

NV said...

Wow! You go girl!

I think you were a lot more polite than I would have been. And I'd make damn sure that they saw this letter.

Talk about unprofessional ... Based on your experience outside buying the product, I frankly would be a little concerned about their ability and professionalism WITH the product.

MonkeyGirl said...

I have thought about sending this to the owner. He only mentioned his name 379 times in the conversation lat night!

And you are right, I do have concerns about what happens "after the sale" based on my experiences so far!

Mama Martha said...

I think you should send it. They should care enough to understand why they lost this sale. They probably don't, but they should.