I had a door-to-door young sales rep come knocking on a night when it was pretty cold outside. I wasn't in the immediate need for a product, but had long considered a side door upgrade. As a courtesy to his hard work, I agreed to a sales visit. Like others, I thought the commitment of an hour of time was excessive; along with the requirement of my spouse being present; but I agreed to a 7:30 appointment on a week night.
When the very friendly and cordial sales rep arrived, (at 8:10pm) we advised him that we were only looking for a quote at this time, and that due to uncertain job futures, could not make a commitment in the foreseeable future. I additionally advised him that I was a repeat Thomas customer, and didn't need the ""re-sell"" on the company as my last experience was very positive. He indicated the process would therefore go quickly, which was quite welcomed.
We were only interested in replacing the side door of our home with the potential of a storm door. We were expecting the quote to be in the range of $1500-$2000. What we weren't expecting was being forced to go through a lesson on sales. We tried very politely to have him abandon the approach without success. About the time the sales lesson concluded, the lesson on why people do and do not make decisions began. The sales approach is one I would expect if I were buying a time share, it just wasn't a lecture I was willing to intellectually invest for a single door.
The meeting, unfortunately, ended abruptly when we realized it was 9:20 and there was no apparent end in sight for the sales attack. Combined with the bid amount of 3x our expectations, the takeaway from the experience left us feeling violated.
I'm sure there are applicable opportunities, and successful opportunities for using this business approach. You wouldn't be in business if it wasn't successful. However, as construction workers, you should well know that you can't build everything with just a hammer. Mature customers do not want to be forced to listen to that kind of aggressive and insulting sales language - ESPECIALLY in their own home.
Had the quote even been reasonable - the experience left us so upset, there's no way we'll even return a phone call. The real downside to that is - Thomas does incredible work. I can't help believing that if you believed more in your company, you wouldn't need such a ridiculous sales approach.
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