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I don't really hate salesmen. People choose to become salesmen to earn a living in a legal and right way (except those liars pretending to be salesmen), and sometimes they really introduce great things to you. However, some salesmen can be annoying sometimes. You see, some salesmen lie about their products; some salesmen are just too persistent; and many salesmen just know how to talk and don't know how to listen. The last point is interesting. Many motivation courses or talks tell you that listening is better than talking, and many salesmen attended many such courses and talks. Yet you still see many salesmen just keep talking and don't listen.

Over years, I have evolved through a few stages with different ways to tackle salesmen. Tackle? Ya, I mean, to tell the salesmen that you are not interested in their products after you have found them useless to you. This could be a tough job.

Disclaimer: I'm not rejecting sales to slow down the global economy (just a bit). I am only doing my own proper financial planning to control my cash flow. Please don't blame me!

Stage 1: Entertain All Salesmen

When I was in the university, and not long after graduation, I responded to almost all salesmen. When somebody tried to sell something to me, I would listen and tried to be polite. I didn't want to reject them rudely and I didn't like to embarrass people. (See, I'm such a good man... haha...) However, I soon learnt a few lessons from this tackling method:

They sell basically the same things. Take insurance agents as examples. The first few times I 'entertained' some insurance agents, not bad, I indeed learn a lot of things about insurance from them. However, after listening to the policies provided from 2 or 3 companies, I found nothing quite new from the subsequent ones. They simply tweak the policies a bit and hardly innovate new things. Bad experience came in then: The next insurance agent I met would always tell me that her policies were much better and different. "How different?" "We have to sit down so that I can explain it to you in detail!" I was fooled a few times, and told the next one, "I always don't find any significant difference..." "But mine is indeed very special, guaranteed!" And I was lied again...
Time wasting. Obviously. Many salesmen don't have the simplest sense that, when you don't feel interested, then better stop and don't waste our time. A good salesman will tell you that, after persuading a customer for some time, e.g., about 15 minutes for selling insurance, don't waste your time further with this customer since he or she won't be a potential buyer. However, many salesmen just can't "let go" after 15 minutes, so they just continue to talk to hope that you would buy from them. Come on! Many customers don't expel salesmen because they feel that it's not polite, and they eventually buy something from you after a few hours of talking because they want to stop wasting time and don't want to disappoint you! But this could also be the last business with this customer.

So I gradually felt that there was no use to be polite to salesmen... I'm sorry. Good people would be bullied in this cruel world. In an ultimate case, my friend and I entertained a salesman and were 'fooled' by her for about 5 hours of non-stop talking! (It happened, I swear!) We even didn't have time to tell her that we would like to go to the washrooms! After learning some hard lessons, and my tackling technique evolved to the next stage...

Stage 2: Reject All Salesmen

Rejected all salesmen! I hated every salesman! They just think about money and commission, that's all! The best way is to reject them! Say "No!" to them!

I once received a phone call from an insurance agent. "Do you have any insurance plan?" "No!" "Maybe we can set a time so that..." "No!" "Probably you should..." "No!" He was a bit shocked, but finally he said, "Nevermind then, thank you for ..." "Bye!" and I banged and hung up the phone! I was indeed very rude (sorry!) during this stage. I often felt very angry and bad after rejecting a salesman. How did she or he get my number? And why did she or he had the right to bother me?

However, but why make myself angry if I've done nothing wrong? Being angry is very harmful to health. There are also a few problems with this method. I had made my name bad. When I encountered some rude and persistent salesmen sometimes, they would argued back with me, said something like I was so stupid to miss out good products. This method is a lose-lose method: Everybody involved got angry.

I gradually realized that I better learn to say "No!" in a more polite way. There are some very good articles from the internet that teach you how to say no in a better and more reasonable way. I have learnt a lot from them... and that brought me to the next stage...

Stage 3: Exhaust All Salesmen

Relax! Salesmen may actually bring you good products. If I don't listen to them, they feel bad as they think that they haven't conveyed the message to me. So, I let them to talk first, and after some time, unless the product is really interesting, I tell them "No!" in a polite way.

I receive phone calls from salesmen occasionally. Some get my phone number from a legal way, and some probably get my numbers in an illegal or even an unethical way.

When I receive such a call from my mobile phone, relax! I put on my handfree set, listen to them for a few seconds, and made decision. For example, a salesman may tell you that she sells some products, and then talks non-stop (sometimes obviously by reading from some standard scripts) for a few minutes elaborating her products. If I'm interested, I will listen and talk with her. If I'm not, I will say that I'm not interested. But sometimes, they won't give up. So I just continue to do my own work while not really listening to her... I just notice when she pauses again. Then I repeat that I'm still not interested or the product is useless for me, probably in different ways. (There are some good techniques here. For example, if you pretend to think for a few seconds, and decline in a reluctant but very firm way, the effect is normally better... Keep learning!) I repeat this for a few times until she feels that she has really conveyed her message, feels exhausted, and can "let go" of her stubborn customer.

Surprisingly, the whole session normally lasts for no more than ten minute before she gives up. And the conversation normally ends happily, although she may feel disappointed. But I guess that such a method is not harmful to our health. For a really very persistent salesman, I will say that I have a meeting now, or if I meet the salesman face to face, I may pretend that there's a mobile phone call coming in for me and sneak away!

I only do such a thing to those salesmen who approach me and are very persistent. I won't look at any salesman promoting credit card at the moment unless I need to apply a new one. In short, I don't invite salesmen if I don't need them, and will only 'listen' to those kamikaze salesmen. I'm sorry, but I'm not so rich to buy every product!

What's my next stage? What's yours?