The answer was “I can’t see you now; I’ve just had my stairs painted” — the very same stairs that I had just walked up to ring the bell.

Marijane Demski

Promises, smiles and convincing rhetoric — the characteristics of a politician? Well, perhaps, but the neat person canvassing your street is more likely to be a solicitor or peddler. San Diego is victimized, or served, whatever your conclusion is, by an unusual amount of surveyors, religious fanatics, salesmen, charities and perhaps even some politicians. While most of these visitors represent sincere and legitimate enterprises, an occasional rude or aggressive act has left a generally unfavorable impression among San Diego citizens whenever the shadow of a stranger waits at the door.

Peddling is an honorable and difficult trade requiring people w ho don't discourage easily and who can be persistent and polite at the same time. My experiences as a door-to-door salesman over the past three months have amused, angered and saddened me. Though working for a major, well-recognized consumer company lessens the problem of identification or salesmanship, each day has proven to be a new adventure

People are basically negative to door to door sales; the inevitable conversation must include, “I don't need anything today" or “I've got everything.” When I hear this, 1 know there is hope, since at least half the sales start out in this manner. The answer is a free sample to reduce sales resistance and distract the recipient from the original notion that she didn’t need anything. Then I have to offer something that is legitimately needed, or tempting, or at a sufficiently special price to merit consideration. Once a brochure is in the housewife’s hand and samples^ and demonstrations are coming at her, the balance of power shifts to the peddler. As soon as she stumbles or delays on one item, I pounce on it and start preparing an order thereby adding pressure before she has decided whether or not to take it. Or. once a need is identified, I inquire as to whether five or six are adequate because then she’s not thinking about whether she wants it or not but deciding on a quantity. In a sense you have to lead the customer on except for the hard core or regular customer who requires no propaganda or prodding.

Since women do most of the buying at the door, it is usually bad news when the husband is home. Husbands answering the door will eliminate or reduce a potential sale by their negative reinforcement, “You don't want anything, dear, do you?" Does a poor wife have a choice with that phraseology? Two other setbacks for a door to door sale are company and the phone: both interrupt the psychological groundwork that has been laid.

If an order is the reward, getting turned down can be the amusement in this business. So very often I have spent five minutes at a woman's door listening to her explain why she's too busy to take two minutes out to go through a. brochure. The biggest mistake is to offer encouragement when no interest exists such as. “maybe another time”. Nothing can be more infuriating than the invitation to return in half an hour to discover there is no interest anyway. Or women that are on the phone and ask you to wait, then when they get off several minutes later you discover they had absolutely no interest anyway.

The Southern California community is very open, the weather is good – all the ingredients for door to door sales. At one house I didn't get an order but did receive home-baked cookies. One customer invited me for drinks during my deliveries. At one order I got a 20% tip. Rarely if ever is a door slammed or nasty remarks exchanged. When one said no, her nine year old daughter insisted. “But when I grow up you can visit my house.” Several people have “No Solicitors" signs near their doorbells, but I just go up anyway insisting I am a peddler, not a solicitor. The greatest worry is the overabundant dog population, hath house is a constant gamble as to whether you are intimidating just a barker or the fiercer type w ho prefers flesh samples.

Some people just can't say no themselves, so they send their children to the door with inevitably, “She's too busy now.” Much to her future regret, I might add, since that statement doesn’t declare her not to be a potential sale. Other people just don’t answer the door, but again. I'll be back. In a few cases you get artificial excuses such as moving, but I've visited people over a period of three months who continue to insist they're moving. Besides these two popular ways of saying no, I run into a lot of “no money” even though most orders are taken for payment on delivery. A peddler has a modicum of intelligence and is unlikely to believe the sincerity of a poverty plea from the ocean-side doorway of a $100,000 house. Sales arc lost because of family illness, pet injury, bad horoscope signs, unexpected home expenses, etc. People enjoy telling a stranger the extent of their misery and misfortune: I am a confidant to many medical histories. I know the vacation schedule of my customers, when they pick up their children and in some odd way, I become an external part of the household. People may not always buy, but they usually like to talk. Bravo to those straightforward souls who can admit honestly and firmly, “I don’t use the products" or “I don’t buy from the door". (But more blessed are those who buy!)

When I visited one second floor apartment, the answer was “I can’t see you now; I’ve just had my stairs painted” — the very same stairs that I had just walked up to ring the bell. Appearance and performance do not go unrecognized: at one door a man tried to talk me into joining his organization selling funeral plots. The best and worst house to visit is a fellow peddler who knows the misery of the door to door circuit. In the former sense you get a lot of sympathy orders. In the latter I met a religious crusader who tied me up for twenty minutes trying to improve my standing with God. People can get obnoxious, on either side of the door.

Some people inquire about the commission on each order. Others insist on special favors or discounts. Since the entire earnings in this job is commission, it’s like asking someone you don’t know to give up part of their paycheck not very fair. Of course, some people live for the samples or anything at all that comes free. The peddler pays for his own samples and brochures and uses them at his own discretion. I have a habit of running out of samples every time someone chimes up. “I’m not interested in anything, but I’ll take some free samples." Many people who have aimless, inactive lives pretend they are busy to the limits of the daylight hours. Even a close friend who runs about, cramming 25 hours into each day made a significant purchase when she could be deactivated long enough to evaluate honestly the merits of a particular product I knew she could use. And. despite what you may say, everyone can use something!

Another distasteful aspect of peddling is the influence of electronics. In a computer era where' dehumanized treatment is so criticized, people should recognize the special and personal relationship between the door to door salesman and his customer. Over time this confidence builds so that the relationship is not one of aggressive salesmanship, but rather a sort of consulting with mutual interests involved. For some customers I can even recommend not to purchase something because I know it will be on sale in the near future: I can demonstrate a product in the home in response to an actual problem — the human content of this job generates the greatest mutual rewards and, too often, disappointments. So, when I come to a house where communication is not done on a personal level, but by means of intercoms, I wonder why people complain about an age in which we are both the victim and the perpetrator.

Perhaps the most glamorous stories are about the peddlers who get seduced on their routes. The only invitation I interpreted as such came from a lonely, gay guy. Some girls like to show off clothes and figures, perhaps subtle inducements, but sexual rest stops can never be financially profitable. It's quite true, time is money.

To peddle, you have to start as outgoing and amusing, but a sense of humor develops as experience expands. When one cute lady said, “Your reps haven’t been around here in 1,000 years!" I responded, "Don’t worry, we’re trying to improve service in our new thousand year plan.” Sometimes, what appears to be humor becomes a nuisance — for example the lady who insisted I demonstrate a cleaning product by doing her entire picture window returned an inoperative four year old aerosal can, for credit, refused to prepay for her 88c order, then demanded special delivery consideration. I politely left both the can and the lady. There are others whose order represents a loss measured in anguish and wasted time. Since deliveries depend on factory shipments and parcel post, like any good business position or political job. there is always someone or something else to blame the failures and errors on. This is legitimately true, but when I couldn’t meet one delivery commitment, one lady, well known for vociferously belittling her maid, gave me a fifteen minute tirade about responsibility and meeting obligations, how busy she was and how much of her time I wasted, finally insisting that 1 personally install the refills she ordered before she would pay. The value of the order was $3.14.

The anecdotes and amusing incidents from my experience are endless and only serve to reinforce my feelings that the true reward and interest of peddling are the human content. In more concrete terms, door to door sales offer a rewarding possibility to an energetic, neat person who refuses to discourage easily. Some days I can’t even give products away, but they are quickly forgotten on the glorious occasions when in soaring confidence I could even sell ice back to the eskimos. Unfortunately. this type of work attracts mainly part-timers and students who never fully develop the customer relations that prove most profitable over time.

As a personal and concluding observation. I only expect to be treated with the same courtesy and consideration that an individual would want his ow n child treated in similar circumstances. With that in mind, and since tomorrow' I may be visiting you, let me just tell you briefly about this fantastic, new.....