Do you dislike salespeople?

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It's well known that sales work is not the optimum setting for Aspies, but I'm curious as to whether we are likely to be more aggravated (vs. NT's) when we are on the 'receiving end' of sales work. I'm OK in a shop when they ask ONCE if I need help, but other situations are irritating:

1) Before do-not-call, and even before telemarketing and caller ID, we'd get called at home, usually during dinner. I was always PO'd to pick up the phone and get solicited. My NT mom would shrug it off as "they are just college students trying to make ends meet", and I suggested that SHE be the one to run for the phone then. That cooled her jets, to use an old expression.

2) At work. I'm in engineering and we had smarmy sales types who knew all the buzzwords, were PowerPoint freaks, and would sell anything to the customer, collect their commission, and leave all the problems for the engineers, without a care or thought as to whether the product would perform to customer satisfaction, specs, etc when they set up the sale.

Overall, I guess it's the fakery and superficial nature of it all that rankle, and for item 1), it's the nuisance of being interrupted. Any thoughts?

It's interesting that's what seems to be OK for sales people to do when trying to get their s**t sold would be called "sexual harasshment" if you'd behave the same way against a person that you were interested in...

On the whole, salesfolk and I start off on the wrong foot.

One reason might be that they are experienced with a particular majority mindset, both because it is their own and because it is what they most often encounter.

Then they run into someone different and they're thrown. Or so pre-programmed that they don't notice their style, pace, selling point is no longer appropriate.

Example: Mobile phones. It took me ages to get through to the salesbod that I didn't want the latest, flashiest, coolest, most multifunctioning device. I wanted the simplest, most reliable, permanently-ready device for emergency calls only. I don't want to be rung, or ring, on the move.

Even the one I ended up with does far more than I want, but it's the best I can do.

I can tell you one thing, I most people was like me, a non-NT. Salesman would not be able to take me for a ride. If I am considering buying a product, I will look at the reviews of the product in magazine and net before I buy.

You average NT especially the younger ones are plain suckers for manipulative advertising. They buy stuff on TV like cars based on fancy advertisement. Example the dancing robot Citron advert. A man with a logical brain in his head is going to buy a car based on good handling fuel, economy, comfort, reliability and how it could attract the babes. Not no silly dancing robot. Sometime an NTs lack the interesting in using a search engine to acquire facts to help them with every day life never fails to amaze me.

Just the other day I had to convince my brother-in-law, to buy a more fuel efficient car. A manual-transition, diesel car(very popular in UK). Instead of a automatic Gasoline car. At first he would not listen to me, he said he knows more about cars then I do and he as been doing it a long time. I tricked him to go to parkers.com and he found out that the automatic Gasoline car did 25mpg but the manual-transition, diesel car did 44mpg and it would top 50mpg if he took some of my tips on how to drive more economically too.

In many ways we have to be grateful that there are plenty of suckers NTs out there. They keep the economy strong and create many jobs. They buy so many things they don’t need, or buy them for the wrong reasons. If everyone was like me the country would probably run into a recession because very few jobs would be created because everyone would be low product consumer and only buy the best products. For example we would only be cars from the top ten reviewed modals.

In George Orwells book 1984 “Ignorance is power” might not be true for individual people but ignorance is very important for the health of the economy.

The world has never been so flooded with advertising as today, and there is a profound difference between even old advertising [of the pre-1914 world] and newer advertising. During the industrial revolution, advertising focsued on the qualities of the product, while today, they are focusing on the need of a group identity for the customer, which means that functions generally comes second hand, and the sheer status of the product is the main matter of the need to consume that product. One very good book to propose would maybe be Naomi Klein's "No Logo" which deals with identity.

This is a commercial from about the middle of the 20th century. Note that the product is in the centre of attention.




This is a commercial from the early 21th century. Note that it has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the product.



This can seem irrelevant for the discussion, but realise that this current age is one where those with economic power wants to increase consumption exponentially because the system is so dependent on growth that even small local disturbances [due to globalisation] could cause chaos, and maybe a new depression. Salesmen [and bureaucrats] are only the lowest caste of the price system establishment. Those who are most dependent on the system are big multinational companies and established political movements, composed of businessmen.

During the agricultural age, businessmen were generally despised [with businessmen, I am referring to those who employs people transport and store goods in warehouses] because they were'nt working with their own hands, but just transmitting the goods that peasants and handworkers produced and put their heart in. Today, businessmen are not longer called businessmen. They are called leaders.

Do'nt blame the salesmen for this desperation. Blame the system which indirectly forces them to act that way.

It's the politicians' fault They're not even trying to put some limitation to the commercial madness.

I'm actually in sales, and yes, other people in sales really irritate me.

I think car sales people are the worst. My sister bought a new car a few weeks ago, and I made her take me along so I could crunch the numbers and make sure she wasn't getting ripped off (like she was with her last car purchase). Here on the West Coast, cars have two stickers. One is the manufacturer's price sticker, and the second one is the dealer's sticker. The dealer sticker usually says some thing like "dealer prep" fee and adds another $2,500 to the price. I pointed to the dealer prep sticker and said, "You don't expect to sell it for that much, do you?" And the sales person said the most stupid thing,: "If we are audited, we have to say that is our sales price, and we also have to say that we offer 36-month financing." Pure BS.

I am in sales at a small high tech firm (anyone need a video image capture or machine control board? ) and my approach is different. When I call new prospective customers, I tell them what my company makes, and I tell them I looked at their web site and see they do xyz, and I ask if they would like a free evaluation of our abc board. I would feel really uncomfortable being pushy.

Sometimes I answer the phone, and the sales twits who call my company have the dumbest come-on lines. "Can I speak to the person who makes your janitorial decisions?" is my favorite. I get one of those every week. I also get arrogant people demanding to speak to the company CEO, and some of them are so rude it's shocking. Do they really expect to sell something when they're rude?

yeah sales peopel bug me im very very selective who i giv emy phone number too.
i dont even know it, it is so secret but the bastards keep calling me.
i tell them where to go, the reason this is effective is that im not trying to be rude, i really mean it when i tell them to F off...and they just do.

A woman called me today on a political poll for a poll institute, and I answered issues for about ten minutes. It was interesting.

The pushy ones get on my nerves.

Almost everything I but is from garage sales(I cant barter...if I dont like the price I dont buy)And at
thriftstores.When I have to buy something at a store(like my computer)I do alot of research on line and then watch the adds to get price points.My ussual approach to sales people is "adversarial"....their objective when working on commission is to sell the product that the company is pushing...either over stocked,soon to be obsolete,or with the highest mark up for companys profit(like soda at fast food places....I always bring my own)I have found some younger sales people(like at Best Buy) who will actually tell me not to buy the most expensive item because the cheaper one is as efficient for my needs...never know if I should trust them or not...they come off as sincere,but I ussually already have something in mind when I go in....I am easily influenced....my boyfriend will help me see through the sales "speil" in these situations...

Long before I knew I was on the spectrum, I tried sales jobs. Made ok money, but I could only do a median level performance. There was no way I could utilize the techniques that they tried to train into me. I get it totally, but I'm not made that way, I can't treat people that way, on purpose. I know all the tricks, though and I am particularly annoyed by the pushy types.

Don't you dare try to "close" on me, until I ask for it.

Dirtdawg....


sounds like you had "ethic" problems as well....I can never sell someone something that I thought was a bad product...which is alot of them....I considered going into advertising because it seemed like it was something I could use my creativity and psyc degree....but when I thought about the concept of "manipulating" peoples insecurities to "trick" them into buying....I couldnt follow through with it...

bummer.I make a lousy capitalist...

I don't like the really pushy ones, you know, the ones that can't take a hint get on my tits.

But then I work in the world of sales myself. I don't sell anything but am an administrator for those that do sell stuff.

I can not stand pushy sales people. They are very irritating I usually know what I am after and where where I can find it I do not need there help if I do I will find them and ask.

There was always some of that questionable ethics stuff bugging me, also. Knowing and using effective ways to coerce a person to give up their freewill and 'trick' them into increasing my sales averages does not appeal to me.

I can still use the skills, but I use them in ways that mean something, like convincing one of my neighbors not to put the fancy hostas he just bought in the afternoon sun. I was able to 'sell' him on the idea that, not only do I know what I'm talking about, but that the plants will thrive even with his spotty care, by changing his plans a little.

Saving a valuable plant is always worthwhile.