So yesterday morning around 10 AM, I walked into my new offices with the large company I work for (who shall, as always, remain nameless in public). Interesting experience!
Part of the security procedure is a check-in, assigning a badge to an individual, and taking that person’s fingerprints. It’s part of the routine; in order to get into the server room floor, or certain parts of the building, you must not only have your badge, but also put your hand on a fingerprint scanner. It works fairly reliably, and is a sensible part of general security policy, which is “what you are, what you have, and what you know: choose to verify at least two of the three for reasonable security.”
So I’m chatting with the security guard, and he blurts out, “You sure seem a lot more like a salesman than a computer guy.”
<blink> <blink>
“No, really,” he goes on, “you seem to have the personality. You enjoy people; you should really consider a career in sales. It could be good for you.”
<blink> <blink>
“It’s financially rewarding, and really, it’s all about building good relationships. You seem to have that down pat.”
Fact: I hate sales. With a passion. It’s a necessary evil, I suppose, but it’s something I watched my Mom stress out over for twenty years. It’s not a place I’m interested in going. I’m a tech, and was pretty much really anti-social until 10th grade when I decided it was time to get some hygiene and get some friends.
“Well,” I responded, “I’ve been some sort of computer admin for about ten years now. I’m pretty good at what I do, and I enjoy it a lot.”
“Fair enough,” the portly security guard responded as he turned away to finish setting up my badge and handprint security settings, “but I think you’re missing out.”
The thing is, this wouldn’t have been so weird if I hadn’t felt like I’ve had this exact same conversation every place I’ve worked for the last ten years.
“Why are you a meter reader? You’d make a great salesperson.”
“Wow, Matt, you’re far too sociable and friendly for me to imagine you stuck behind a computer screen being a geek all day.”
“I think you got into the wrong career, son; you should have been a salesman.”
What is it? Is it my short hair? My slightly-plump friendliness? Reasonably good hygiene?
(Which reminds me, after putting my hand on the same hand scanner as everybody else in the building, I better go wash my hands. Ugh.)
It’s hard to develop a serious reputation as a UNIX geek extraordinaire when most people seem to think I’ve missed my calling!
Pyramid
When those people break into more complimentary chatter and then ask you to join them and their friends at a hotel for a meeting about sales…
Run. Run fast.
They usually lead with the “you would make a great sales person” and then it grows into “have you ever thought about making money on the side” and then they close you with “I want to share my business with you at a meeting tomorrow night” and then you wonder how anyone can feel good about themselves by selling worthless junk to their family and friends and their friends’ friends.
Sam
Interesting take!
Call me naive, but I’d not thought about that angle. It could have been that this was just a standard opening salvo to “feel me out”. And, perhaps, it was also the same story those times before!
And then, to push the conspiracy theory further, they never followed up with the “sales invitation” because I eventually told them I’m an absolutely horrible salesperson. That I don’t like that kind of work. And that in particular I’m disgusted with multi-level marketing like Quixtar/Amway (yeah, same company!).
Heh, I remember once when I was hunting for a job that my wife’s friend’s husband mentioned he had a potential job for me. He stopped by and introduced himself. I was a bit leery because he was wearing a business suit. Anyway, he handed me his card, and I asked “so, what sort of business are you in?”
He responded, “E-Commerce”.
“Cool!” I thought. “I have experience with Sun Solaris, GNU/Linux, and Win32 tie-ins for e-commerce platforms. I’ve worked at an electronic commerce shop before, and am really good at enabling the back-end technology to do its job. How fun to be in the industry again!”
Lo and behold, I looked up “Quixtar” on the web to find out what kind of business it was (expecting, like most jobs, that I’d have an interview, need to be able to say why I wanted to work for them, etc.) and it turns out it’s just Amway. People call it “e-commerce”, but it’s not — or, at least, from my perspective, had nothing to do with ecommerce as I’d been involved in it. It’s just the same old stuff with an online ordering system. And this guy was just out pimping for more recruits to push the products.
The products seem to be fine, but the business method is manipulative, destroys relationships and finances, and is just yucky. I refuse to have anything to do with it. Maybe it’s that aspect of sales that I’ve soured on: purposefully establishing relationships with the sole purpose in mind of getting the other person to buy something from you. I just don’t like it.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Yo! Saleguy..
I hate -expletive deleted- sales guys.. they make me want to -expletive deleted- on a -expletive deleted- and ….
Wait..
-expletive deleted-..
I think this is the wrong topic.
Sales Nazis are icky
It’s soooooo sad, but soooooo true: you HAVE to ignore salespeople! Give one the time of day, and it’s like giving an aminal food…they’ll never go away.
We buy most of our products through Dell. I made the mistake of taking a call from a CDW salesperson a few weeks ago. He made his pitch, I told him that’s great, but we deal with Dell, I’ll talk to my boss, and if anything comes up, I’ll contact you.
EVERY DAY he tries to call me now. The secretaries at work know to put him to my voicemail or to say I’m out. It’s horrible…
And the thing is, I’m smart enough to know where to look when I need to buy something, I don’t need a salesperson so much as a techy guy who can answer questions I have about capabilities and such.
Matt, maybe that’s your calling…not as the pushy sales guy, but the sales guy who’ll just be there to answer your questions. See if SGI or Sun will pay you to be a technical resource. The key is to sell something you use, like Mozilla or GMail, You’ve done that on this board.
My $.02 Weed
Not all too true
So, I’ve been reading all of your responces and I have to say maybe you’ve all been approached the wrong way. I am one of those “quixtar / amway ” people. I have to say I would never even think about selling the idea or products to my friends unless they we’re interested, definitely would not push it upon them. As for the complaint of yours that the business is a pyramid, you couldn’t be more wrong, are you all ignorant, have you taken the time to even observe the business diagrams, plans and do you even understand at all how it all works?? I’m not even going to bother explaining the concept to you because you won’t read it and i would have just wasted my time. All I have to say is that I’ve been successful in my endevours with the company and it hasn’t all been success through harrassment, there are other ways to prevail.
To like, or not to like?
Amway has a repulsive history. You can’t wrap a turd in a nice package and have it be anything else than a turd.
Score one for you, but the majority of “training seminars” teach people to do exactly that. A repulsive practice. That you don’t do it is a credit to you. Pardon the hyperbole, however, but it’s much like joining the KKK and deciding not to be a racist. Sure, you may have good luck finding the spiritual underpinnings of the organization, and believe it’s valuable on a level that people don’t understand, but the moment you tell people you’re a member of the KKK, they will still go “UGH!” and find an excuse to talk to someone else.
Yeah. It’s a “direct marketing” company now. Turd == still a turd. They can’t escape their vile history. You should understand what Amways is NOW, because of court orders and bad publicity, vs. where they were before. The program still destroys lives and finances on a regular basis.
Isn’t that high-minded of you? “I won’t provide links or references for my baseless allegations because you’ll just crap all over them.” Like the old “Pearls before swine” argument. You’re a true believer.
Oh, yeah, that makes me really like you. “I’m making money hand over fist, how dare you question my methods!!!”
So I guess that deceptive practices, fraudulent recruiting, resemblance to organized crime, overpriced, low-quality products, and suppression of free speech don’t qualify it to be, on the whole, an evil in the world?
You know what? Stick with Amway, the two of you seem to be a perfect match.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
You’re So Dumb
Joe, I don’t know who you are, but you are stupid. I mean a real idiot.
Go ask Albania about the fall of its economy. A pyramid “scheme”. Yes, I use the word “scheme” here because it implies a manipulative effort on which people are preyed. Pyramid schemes don’t deliver any real growth in GDP or contribute to advancement of the human spirit. They prey on others. Anyway, that’s basically what happened in Albania. The government wanted to keep passing on debt to others, rather than actually do real work. Albania has become a classic example of the dangers of resorting to pyramid schemes at a responsible level in society.
Yes, I am now associating the pyramid scheme with irresponsibility. So there’s the three links to this response — stupidity, scheme, irresponsibility.
Go away.
Matthew, Sammy… tell me
Matthew, Sammy… tell me honestly:
Did Amway abuse you as children?
It’s OK… we’re all friends here, you can let it out. These things need to be brought into the light before the healing can begin…
—————————– “I can kill you with my brain…” Arthur Rowan
Seriously…
Seriously, I’ve watched — and heard of — far too many lives thrown down the toilet by slavish devotion to Amway. Abused as children? Nah. But watching friends move away because their family went bankrupt trying to get the pyramid scheme to work? Yah.
And, of course, in classic cult fashion, they blame the victim for the failure. “They didn’t work it hard enough”. “They were stupid”. “They didn’t follow the program”.
Whatever. The program only works for a tiny fraction of the population, and that tiny fraction sits, befuddled and bemused, at the overwhelming failure it is for the rest of the population.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Yes..
Amway took me to the neverland ranch.. and I guess i didn’t mind.. until the monkey came out..
DAMN YOU MONKEY!!
No, my family was into NuSkin.. same idea.. same bad idea. Cost us lots.
Face it people.. the way to get rich is to work hard, be ambitious, educate yourself, sacrifice, save, invest, and have a little luck.
There are very very few buried treasures, and the people who have gotten rich off of schemes, lotteries, gambling, and (yes people do this) buried treasure, have made 10% of what the poor other suckers have spent trying to get rich.