Are you impervious to sales people?

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I got kicked out of a timeshare seminar
because I was giggling, drawing on the tables
and throwing cookys/biscuits back and
forth from my frends, then a cooky/biscuit
hit one of the speakers, thats when they
tossed us out of the room so we just went
on with our holiday/vacation un-hindered.

hehehehe

Sometimes. Most of the time when i'm looking at something in a store i'd rather just look by myself, at my own pace, without someone telling me all about everything. So, when they ask me if i need help i usually just say no thanks. There are some times when i feel like chatting with the employees(particularly when i'm at a pet shop), but then it's usually either about a specific question or just me trying to strike up a conversation about something there i find interesting. Usually when they try to convince me to buy something, i kind of ignore it.. In fact, i think a lot of the time i might not actually realize that they are trying to pressure me to buy something. With a lot of things like that, i often don't realize it until i think about the situation later. At the time it usually just seems like they are giving me information. But then other times if they tell me about something, and i actually think it sounds good, i'll be really quick to buy it, because i can be a little impulsive with buying things sometimes. But, again, in the moment i usually just feel like they're giving me information.. Unless they're being super pushy, i'm not usually thinking about the fact that they're trying to persuade me and may be bending the truth.. I just go by what information they give me, and think about whether or not what they are describing is what i want. So, i guess i'm impervious to the tricks they use to manipulate peoples' feelings into buying things, but if i was lied to then i could get taken easily.
What makes it funny is that i'm also on the other side... I'm a salesperson who is basically clueless about what the customers around me are feeling and incapable of manipulating them. It seems like it wouldn't work out well, but i think that's why some of the customers like me. There are a few customers who always come to me over and over again for things and tell me that i'm helpful. A couple weeks ago a customer even gave management a nice note saying that every time they go there that i'm really nice and help them I usually try to get them to buy things that i like or that i think are good deals... I've been known to tell people the failure rates for whatever video game system they're buying.. Whenever we don't have a specific game, i tell people to go across the street and get it at gamestop.... If i play a game i really like, then i'll most likely recommend it to everyone while ignoring whatever the hot new thing we just got in is... And if someone wants something, and i don't have any opinion on it, then i just get it for them and that's that. All i know is that if someone is looking at something and reading the packages, then i should probably ask if they have questions about that thing.. and if someone is just walking slowly around then i should probably ask if they need help finding anything. A couple times lately when i've asked people if they need help finding anything , they have said "yeah. i must look like i'm really lost"... and i'm thinking "i have no idea, i don't even think i looked at your face... but you were just standing in the middle of the aisle...." lol. Although, the holidays have stressed me out a lot lately, so there have been a few points where i've probably not been very helpful at all because of all the people coming at me at once. Then i start stuttering, talk as little as possible, stim like crazy, and the customers probably think i'm going out of my mind.

Generally impervious to salespeople. Although I've made some good buying decisions and some absolutely terrible ones, without needing any assistance from a manipulative salesperson. I can do it all by myself.

Yes, that's exactly what I do - most of the time. I am wary of 'reading the specs' though, as for most products, they do not really describe what the product feels like to use. Or it's reliability. That's where the 'user reviews comes in. Although one has to be *very* wary of these, too. I've noticed many reviews on Amazon, for example, that are clearly fake and done by the author or a colleague. The language just isn't what a regular person would use. And those that have done only 1 review - and it's a glowing 5 star review using a name that is an anagram of the authors name - very suspicious.

Having said that, I recently bought the worst printer in the world, because I neglected to look at user reviews and on spec, it was OK. It's an Epson printer that uses a cartridge about every 12 sheets!! I thought it had a fault, but went to Amazon and found maybe a hundred 1 star reviews from people all saying the same thing and this printer should be withdrawn as it is so rubbish. I wish I'd bothered to read them before buying.

When salespeople call my phone, I often use it as 'assertiveness' practice, to play games with them and see how abusive, cruel or weird I can be before they give up. Examples include: Repeating the phrase "I like cheese" over and over. Passing the phone to my young son and giving him permission to call the person any rude names he can think of. Saying "I just need to switch the cooker off"...and leaving the phone without ever coming back. Or (taken from Bill Hicks) telling them that the only way somebody who works in phone sales can reclaim their lost soul is to kill themself and would they please do the world a favour and go kill themself right now.

With telephone sales, if I'm lucky enough to get a word in edgewise, I say " Excuse me, but I don't want to waste your time. That seems to work somehow. Usually I don't answer the phone. Thank goodness for caller ID.

I absolutely hate sales people, particularly those in the street who stop you. I get very overwhelmed by them as it is a conversation I wasn't prepared for or asked for with a complete stranger who, at some point, wishes to fleece me. It seems no matter what I do to avoid them, they always approach me, some have even chased me and grabbed me!! !! One time, I was approached by one and I told them I was busy and to leave me alone. His response was 'what, busy telling crap lies in the street?!' At this I immediately pointed out to him that HE was the salesman i.e. he gets paid a ridiculous amount of money to lie to others every day of his working life, so to call me a liar was a bit rich coming from him. Hypocritical sod.

Generally, yes.

A sales person has the upper hand if I'm already interested in something or if he/she finds an emotional button I do actually respond to. Otherwise, their charms are useless compared to other people.

i am not influenced by sales people. i never approach a sales person for help. they seem to turn up out of nowhere.
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1 "in store" sales people:

when i am in a store and browsing, i like to do it at my own rate. i may scratch my head and wander from one exhibit to another, and i cogitate on what i require compared to what i am seeing. invariably a sales person will throw a spanner in my works by startling me with a "can i help you sir?".

i mostly say "no thankyou. i am just looking", and they will ask things like "looking for what?". i most often become defiant and ask them if they would prefer i exit their shop and decide what i want, and when i come back, make an instant order. they tend to back away for a while then, but they always hover nearby like vultures that are craving a carcass that is not dead yet.

a case in point was when i recently was shopping for a 52" screen. i went to "harvey norman" and i was comparing LCD's to plasma's, and also comparing plasma's with other plasma screens. a fellow came up and said "can i help you sir" and i wanted some specific information from him. i said "yes you can. are all the signal sources for all these screens the same? or are the screens being fed by variable resolution sources?"

he then said "well mate i think you'll find this unit here is a very good unit..." and i cut him off and said "are all the screens that are showing the same images being fed by identical source data?"

he said "well mate, that's hard to say..." and i cut him off again and said "thanks anyway" to try to shrug him off. he did not understand what i was trying to say. i can not communicate things well i guess so it is partly my fault.
he hung around and i asked if i could just look at the various screens by myself, and he went away and i chose a samsung 52" plasma.
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2. street sales people:
i am rarely approached by street peddlers. i was told by a friend that i always seem as if i am in a hurry. even on sunday afternoon bush walks, i seem as if i am rushing to a meeting. street sales people usually do not bother me.

however, in rare instances where they are very brash, sales people in the street are usually shocked by my response if they corner me to ask me questions, and they let me go rapidly.
example:

girl advertising magazine (gam): excuse me sir.....oh.... excuse me sir?!?!?
me: err yes?
gam: can i just ask you a few questions?
me: ok....quickly..
gam: what makes you smile?
me: an electric shock to the back of my neck.
gam: uh ok. thanks sir! you've been a great help.

it is easy to get rid of people in the street.
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3. home sales people (that ring you up at your home with descriptions of their wares).

i used to play games with them. i used to ask them every question i could think of about the technical specifications of what they were selling, and they used to say (similar to) "sorry sir, can you just hold on while i get that information?".
they ran hither and dither around their workplace to get the information i required because i indicated that i may need 200 units of what they were offering (huge industrial order).

after about 10 minutes of fact gathering, i used to say "well that was all very informative and i thank you very much for your efforts. good afternoon" and i then hung up.
i only played that game if i was not otherwise busy.

i used to laugh very severely at the expression i imagined on the face of the disgruntled sales person after i "pleasantly" hung up.

but i do not do that any more as i have been educated that they are trying to make money to survive.

once i had a salesman selling backup systems on the phone for about 25 mins. i asked about the seek times and the write times and the granular architecture of the allocation tables etc etc ad infinitum. he ran downstairs to ask the "techs" questions i posed about 25 times and he seemed puffed at the end. (he was under the impression i needed to back up 50 tb of data and so i would need about 50 of his units he was flogging, so he was dancing to every whim i compelled him to dance to).

at the end of the call i said "well considering i am now confident of your product's suitability for my business, i will order 50 iridescent pink units. "

he said "ahhhh sir.....they only come in beige or black" , and i thanked him for his time and hung up.

anyway i could go on forever and my fatal flaw is never seeing an end. that is all.

I don't think it was your inability to communicate that caused the sales guy not to know if the image sources were the same or not..

Yes!

I never even thought about that, but I always feel like I'm throwing my friends to the wolves when I let them approach salespeople without me. For a while I thought I'd make a good salesman, because I was so baffled by my innate resistance to being sold on things.


Ever looked at a cashier who just asked you to sign up for a store credit card like they insulted your mother?

I am impervious to salespeople. When I go into a store, I want what I want and they can't talk me into anything else or anything extra. If they don't have what I want, I leave. I don't settle for their "this will work just as well" spiel. If they call on the phone, I hang up without saying anything. If they are selling things from a cart or off a blanket on the sidewalk, they can't talk me into anything I don't want. There have been a couple of times when Id ecided in advance that I wanted to buy something useless off a blanket on the sidewalk just for fun and then I let the guy talk me into some barely readable paperbacks. He probably thought he had convinced me. But before I even had left the apartment that day I had decided that I would buy something off a sidewalk blanket and I didn't even care what it was, I just wanted the fun of doing that.

But fleecing me. I don't think I have ever been fleeced. I would define fleecing as me getting talked into buying something that:

1)I didn't actually want or intend to buy

2)was an undesirable substitute for what I wanted to buy but was unavailable

3)was what I wanted to buy but turned out to be of inferior quality than it should have been for the money I paid.

Four decades of shopping and they haven't got me yet! (I am starting the shopping ticker from when I first handed over a dime given to me by my mom to buy candy so I could feel like a "big girl".)

As well as sales *people*, what about the absolute rubbish that advertisers are covering the planet with. Both WP and the real planet seem smothered in gross images screaming at us "You can be RICH RICH RICH just dial this number...", "You can have the white teeth you always dreamed of and hence fix your miserable little life, just dial this number" etc etc etc etc etc etc .

Anyway, does anybody actually believe any of that drivel? Rather amazingly, I assume the answer must be 'yes' as otherwise the advertisers wouldn't waste money on it. The adverts are selling dreams. The reality is that next to nothing being advertised actually *works* as the advert would suggest. It will not bring you the happiness/social status/wealth/cure for dandruff that you so desire. Hasn't everybody figured this out yet? Why do we tolerate it? Do people *like* being lied to?

i agree with these guys....if someone presses me, say, on the street or in a shop...im likely to look at the ground and walk away briskly. hopefully ill manage out a quick answer or "no thanks"

I'm rather afraid of salespeople. They start talking, and I almost run away. They overwhem me. If I want a particular tv, for whatever reason, but they start saying that they have a sale on this, that it's better, and start with all that, they may just scare me off, and I won't buy anything at all. If you leave me to myself, I may even end up buying more than just the tv.

yes, exactly.

I had this really annoying salseman practicaly chase me down the other day. I told him I wasn not intrested as poliety as I could but he presisted. I then said in an almost growl, "I said I'm not intrested". He asked me again and preceded to follow me. I pointed my middle finger at him and he got the message. If I say I am not intrested, I mean I am not intrested. Leave me alone, a**hole!

The above describes me perfectly.

I do get overwhelmed by salespeople and probably if I got involved in the pitch I'd be completely gullible.

Luckily I am aware of this, and all their tactics. They stand out like dogs balls (excuse the expression) and I therefore cut them and myself off as a habit, whenever I am near them.

Whatever they're saying, they're always the middle man getting profit. I always believe it better to examine the market myself and spot the best deal... I love doing this.