Thursday Writers Workshop: Worst Salesman Situation Ever

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It was 1976. I was in the Air Force and living in a dormitory on Offutt AFB in Omaha, Nebraska.
I had a room-mate who was engaged and was working on preparing for marriage by accumulating stuff for her future home.
She'd decided she wanted to buy pots and pans and she'd somehow found a salesman, who sold door to door kitchenware, who was going to come to our dormitory room to show her pots and pans.
She'd made an appointment for him to come around 2 pm.
Then abruptly she had to leave. Maybe she got called to duty unexpectedly, but whatever the case, she couldn't be there for the salesman. Since it was the era of landlines and she couldn't call and cancel. 
I happened to be not working that day. The salesman arrived on time and I explained to that my room-mate, who was interested in the kitchenware, wasn't there.
I think he offered to show me his pots and pans, since he'd come all this way and was there anyway.
(I wasn't savvy enough to know he was just trying to salvage a commission out of the situation by trying to sell me something. Though, if he'd thought it through, he'd would've realized a single, 22 year old girl in a military dorm with no kitchen wasn't the right target market. And I had explained clearly it was my soon-to-be-married room-mate's interest.)
 
So, he came in and we sat on the floor and he spread out his assortment of pots and pans between us, telling me all about the product line.
At the end, I just said told him I wasn't interested in buying anything.
He got in a huff, collected his goods and left.

And that was my first negative sales person experience.

Comments

John Holton said…
I feel kind of bad for the guy, but that was no reason for him to get all huffy...
Apr 7, 2024, 7:25:00 PM

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