The Southwestern Company Internship Difference Blog
It’s widely known that summertime brings out the door-to-door sales person. No secret there… after all, Southwestern Company has been doing it since 1868. Thinking about the increased activity in door-to-door solicitation this time of year, I read a good article on how to know when to answer the door. It was written by Lisa Beisel, a staff writer for The Capital, Annapolis, Maryland.
In her article titled, “Beware scammers knocking on your door,” Beisel acknowledges there are legitimate knocks, but she takes a swipe at the disreputable ones, citing specific examples. These include scammers and con artists posing as legitimate workers or contractors, and, of course, magazine sellers.
Some of the advice in Beisel’s column includes: (1) See if you can find out who is at the door before you open it; (2) Do not open the door if you feel uncomfortable; (3) Look for red flags such as odd behavior or unyielding pressure; (4) ask for identification; (5) if a contractor, check them out, follow-up; (6) Call the police/9-1-1 if you feel endangered.
There is a distinct difference between reputable and disreputable. This article makes it a point to keep it balanced. While not all door-to-door sales calls are scams, you should always take precautionary measures… better safe than sorry.
I have met door to door activists twice at my door in Estonia. One time happened last winter when the outside temperature was -13 Fahrenheit outside (yes, it was that cold!), plus a strong wind. It was too obvious that the two guys chose this day with extremely bad weather conditions on purpose, to get in the houses. I quickly threw on my winter coat, jumped in my boots and stepped outside on the porch (it was quite a surprise for them
), looked at their bible door-demo and helped them out with pre-approach. However, they asked to get inside the house twice …
I would add to the abovementioned list: if in doubt, it is always better to go outside the house yourself, than to let strangers indoors. Also, it is not trustworthy, when someone shows up at your door and their whole plan is to play on your sympathy.
HM – thanks for the comment. Yes, sympathy sales are not very honorable. People should have more integrity when it comes to door-to-door sales in that regard.
I just had a salesman who was very angry that I did not buy his product and asked where the next neighbor lived that had young kids "elementary age" because he wanted to bypass the old people??? And he was selling a product for all school age children.
Contact me at trey.campbell@southwestern.com and let me know more information so i may address the issue if it was a student dealer from our company. Thanks!