New/Old Agent Sales Checklist - Door to Door

Back in the early 1980's I did business with a similar guy.

I managed a Honda dealership and this little old man would come in like clockwork every month selling tape of all things. He had scotch tape, duct tape, electrical tape, blank cassette tapes and anything else you can imagine with tape.

He was about 80-years old and all bent up with a bad limp and had one of those R2D2 sounding things he had to hold up to his throat to talk. He always had on a suit and tie though.

Month after month he came in and I didn't buy anything because I didn't need anything and his prices were outragous. But he finally wore me down and we started buying stuff from him.

He finally quit comming in. I don't know what ever happened to him. I've never met anyone else with such a narrowly focused product line either. Maybe the invention of velcro crashed his whole business plan.
 
Back in the early 1980's I did business with a similar guy.

I managed a Honda dealership and this little old man would come in like clockwork every month selling tape of all things. He had scotch tape, duct tape, electrical tape, blank cassette tapes and anything else you can imagine with tape.

He was about 80-years old and all bent up with a bad limp and had one of those R2D2 sounding things he had to hold up to his throat to talk. He always had on a suit and tie though.

Month after month he came in and I didn't buy anything because I didn't need anything and his prices were outragous. But he finally wore me down and we started buying stuff from him.

He finally quit comming in. I don't know what ever happened to him. I've never met anyone else with such a narrowly focused product line either. Maybe the invention of velcro crashed his whole business plan.

Great story, I met a similar gentleman, about 80 or so, spitfire attitude, representing discount dental plans. Suit and tie and traditional perseverance.

He came in to sell it to me and anyone who worked there. Little did he know that we sold insurance nationally. It was Aetna dental access, so we hooked it up and offered it to our clients, instead of 12 potential sales from us, it must have turned into over 100 sales over 6 months.

My main point is, I asked if I can take him to lunch, on me, if I could pick his brain. He agreed. he probably wouldn't do it ever again after that because I really grilled him.

I was blessed with so much information that my next three morning sales training meetings were loaded with his experiences and insights.

Priceless.
 
Back
Top