Sucker For Door To Door Sales

Door to door sales “students” get me every time. I know they all have the same basic sales pitch, but I still fall for it. These days I normally have students knocking on my door asking me to buy something from their catalog or a magazine subscription to help their school or so they can go on a class trip, or even support them through college.

It always starts out something like this, “I got your neighbors to buy this from me and I only need a few more sales to put me over the top. The problem is, this is the last day I have to make any new sales and the contest is over. So do you think you can just get a magazine subscription from me?” Needless to say, I have a ton of magazines I never have time to read, getting delivered and filling up my mailbox. At least it’s not a total waste, I found friends that enjoy most of the magazines, so now I drop them off when I get the new issues.

When I was in middle school, I use to do door to door sales with a classmate. The days would be long with the sun beating on our backs and it was so disappointing when people slammed their doors in our faces. All I ever wanted to do was earn enough points to win a bike.

So I guess that’s why I’m a sucker for students at my door. I think back to all of those doors being slammed in my face and I can’t disappoint any of those kids. As an adult it is a lot easier to be rejected and I don’t have any problems turning away adults who come to my door selling their goods. But kids take rejection more personally. I feel that even something as insignificant as purchasing a magazine subscription may help boost these kids confidence in themselves. But there is one thing that I really wish would happen soon, please start selling something other than magazines, I don’t need anymore!