11:46 a.m. - 2005-04-11
I hate having to prove I'm not stupid
OK, so I'm in sales, sort of. Like, just barely. But I'm in it enough to know when someone is selling me something.
This dude came to visit me today to tell me about how he would like to provide my members with a benefit.
See, my chamber members, with their membership dues get access to all sorts of benefits, like discounts from certain companies and free advertising and networking and free publications, etc. So this dude from a *credit card processing company* comes to see me to tell me how he can provide me these great benfits for my members.
There are three things to keep in mind here : One, I am cynical and suspicious of anyone selling anything, especially if they are a man who wears gold jewelry and uses my name every time they start a sentence. Two, I protect my members from sales people like mad...if they end up getting annoying phone calls, because I gave someone access to our contact info, it is ME they will hate and be mean to. Three, ifd you recall, I got totally SCAMMED a few months back by responding to a job announcement regarding which I was under the impression that if I were selected for the position, I would be developing marketing strategies for an office supply company, when in reality what they wanted me to do was go door to door and sell credit card processors.
You know how they say everything happens for a reason....well, that's because IT DOES.
Let's all think back to the blog entry a few months back, where I told you in great detail about my horrible, cold, rainy day when I was practically kidnapped and taken to Uniontown to go door to door selling a credit card processing service. Yeah, that sucked. A lot. Upon the end of that day, I was convinced that the only redeeming aspect of that 10 hours spent in hell was the fact that I got a kick-ass story out of it. Oh no.....there is more, indeed.
So the salesman comes in today and wants to meet with me. He tells me all about this product and their service and how he really believes in Chambers of Commerce and he wants to provide this benefit only to our members, etc. What he doesn't realize (of course) is that I spent an entire day walking around in the rain with a girl who was trying to do exactly what he was trying to do to me: convince business people that they are not getting a good deal on their credit card procesing and get them to hire this company to give them a better deal. It's not a total scam, in the sense that you probably at the end of the day end up getting like a .0001% better deal than you had before. But the way they talk, they act like they are giving you the deal of a lifetime. And they're not. They are just stealing business from their competitors.
At first I just asked questions that were slightly beyond what the average person might ask, based on what he explained to me. Then I started name dropping. His eyes widened as I threw down terms like "current banking relationships" and "Pay gateways" and "rates on fraudulent transactions." Hee hee. That was so, so fun.
He was basically trying to sell me something and convince me, in the process that he was practically GIVING me something. And not only something, but something awesome.
How long will it be before we are all totally savvy to the concept that people who try to sell us stuff aren't doing it because they give two shits about us but rather because this is how they make their money and send their children to college. I mean, seriously.
It's not that we shouldn't ever buy anything. Obviously. But we should pretty much never ever ever get scammed. Because we "know what they're tyring to do," And yet, it happens every day.
Surely it's only a matter of time before the concept of sales kind of phases out. I mean, everyone KNOWS that this is what's going on, right: these people are convinced to make you believe you need what they are selling. It seems to me that eventually, what will happen is that everyone will become aware of this the current method of "sales" will become obsolete. Then, instead of having these mega sales forces, companies will be (gasp!) forced to simply IMPROVE their products and REDUCE their prices. We will do all of our own research on the internet and make our decisions like that. We will live in a society where the way of life is more truth-based and less spin-based . Less flashy, more informationy. Less Wal Mart and more Trader Joes. Less Paris Hilton and more Noam Chomsky. That's hot.
So much to his chagrin, I sent Mr. Gold Necklace and Ring and Bracelet home without a new account, to his wife whose name was a double one, like Tina-Lynnette or something.
