Salesman's blues... or how many buttons off to sell a dictionary?

The doorbell did its annoying thing,.um.. screeched. 

 As soon as the door opened, he began speaking, “Good morning sir, can you please tell me what appliances you have?” It was midday.The man looked  jaded, faded, thirsty, and harried nevertheless, he tried to answer the blunt questions thrown at him as politely as possible. “No, sir, it is not a government survey. I just need two minutes of your time sir. Tell me, sir do you have a washing machine, a fridge that you want to replace?”

Rajkumar -that's his name- is one of those ‘sales promotion executives’ for Godrej that has come up with an interesting way of pushing their products. They send these sweaty, underpaid people to your homes  to influence you to exchange your time-tested older appliances for their new, plasticky, but more 'efficient', power-saving devices, and while they are about it, they try to add on a few new wants on to your bucket list.

Rajkumar is about thirty years old, has two kids, and all for the princely sum of 5,600 rupees a month, he legs it from Patna City to his designated ‘area’- currently Patliputra (some 14 kilometres apart). 

Here he rings doorbells on a hot summer afternoon and attempts to get irate house owners, some just woken up from their siestas to  look at brochures and place an order, . So far he had rung 26 doorbells and had not made a sale. “But by the end of the day, I should have interested at least two customers. The best day for me was earlier this month when I made seven customers, and that resulted in the actual sale of two air-conditioners and one fridge. For me this means that I will get some extra money as sales commission.”

 He knows that this job might not last for more than six months, but that’s how it is. One has to keep body and soul together, he says.

 Eureka introduced door to door salesmen to the country back in 1982, starting off with vacuum cleaners following with other products. Today Eureka Forbes has captured about 75% of domestic water purifier appliance market. 

Door-to-door marketing is usually conducted in the afternoon hours, when the majority of people are at home. Many of these sales people are under 30 yrs old and come from humble backgrounds. They pocket a commission based salary, and they tirelessly comb the city, street-by-street and home by home demonstrating and selling products. 

Other commercial establishments are getting into the home selling scene. A ‘Rashmi Gupta’ turned up at my doorstep wanting to know how many times a month I eat out and what cuisine the family prefers, and she left after handing out a couple of discount cards for a new restaurant in Boring Canal Road. Rashmi, a second year in one of the local hotel management institutes described herself as an intern ‘service manager’ for her establishment.

“Unfortunately, personal selling is widely misunderstood,” says Navnita Meghnani, a lecturer in commerce, “For instance, many customers think salespeople possess traits that include being manipulative, arrogant, aggressive and greedy. While many marketers believe salespeople can build strong brands. The interactive nature of personal selling also makes it the most effective promotional method for building relationships with customers, particularly in the B to B market.”

How to have Fun with pushy sales boys.....

Ashish and Rizwan, two not bad -looking twenty-somethings, turned up on different dates selling encyclopaedias and Oxford dictionaries at the doorstep, they said they were interns doing a marketing course.

They actually pushed through the door, ignoring my polite statement that one  might not be interested. "Just Look SIR," said the bolder one.

So that's what one  decided to do, took the bolder one at his word and began to check out the goods, but not necessarily those on offer!

 The two provided a spot of entertainment, especially when one decided to flirt openly with the more vocal but scruffily shod  Ashish, much to the embarrassment and possibly horror of  the cuter petite Rizwan, who very obviously pink in the next few minutes .

 Now how far would they go to sell a 500 rupee dictionary?

Ashish undid 3 buttons to display his deliciously sweaty torso. Then removed his shirt and flapped it about. Too bad one didn't think of taking a few snaps for one's blog... or perhaps one did? Anyway, taking pity on the poor lads, one gave them a glass of chilled water for their efforts, but unfortunately, no sale.

You see, I already had the Oxford Dictionary that they were hocking. look carefully at the right hand corner of the shelf in the picture! Tsk! tsk! They've probably left older and wiser and will [intelligently] tell their colleagues to steer clear off my building. heh heh heh!

In conclusion

Personal selling plays an important role in our lives, contributing to, our business and economic system. The door to door salesman also helps us to improve our standard of living, enhance the quality of life. As the state grows and becomes a player in the new ‘market economy’, home owners can expect more ‘afternoon knocks’ from the sales brigade, so why get irritated if you can have some fun?