Inspired

I am living the door-to-door dream. I have the answer to all the questions that every homeowner asks after I've left their house and the door has closed.

I was inspired to write this blog by a series of frustrating events. It began at a door, as it seems all things do in my life now. I walked up the snowy steps, binder in hand, and pushed the doorbell. A shiver ran down my spine as I wondered if this was a working doorbell house or a non-working doorbell house. I observed all the junk in the front yard. Trinkets that someone behind the door had convinced his or her self were important. I sighed, realizing that this was a non-working doorbell house, and knocked on the door through my fuzzy mittens. Hearing footsteps, I readied myself for whatever was behind this door. The door opened, and in an instance I had the woman sized up. She was thin, mid forties, and business-like. She huffed like a bull in an arena, and I was wearing red today. A race had begun. I had to reach "my happy place" before she could decide what to say, or her angry words meant for whatever she hated about her life would be absorbed by me, an Innocent by-stander. "Get to the beach!" I told myself. Not fast enough, her mouth was open and her voice box blaring at me. Something about having no right to be on her property, single mother, too busy... any of the many excuses that are supposed to justify her making me the scape-goat for every of life's problems. I turned and walked away before she could catch her breath and move into a second sentence about how awful I am.
As I moved on to the next house, a few thoughts crossed my mind. Before visiting her doorstep, I had visited her neighbours. It just turned out that I had managed to save her neighbour something like two hundred dollars per year. Maybe if she had let me get a word in I could have done the same for her. And, beyond that, if I had spoken to her like that, she probably would have called the cops or something. But she thinks if she never sees me again, why not accuse me of being the devil? Some courage that must take.
The next day, a friend of mine had a customer call him to cancel everything he had sold her only minutes earlier. Oh, the wonderful world of the Internet. She had done her research, found one complaint about the company online, and decided that my friend was a liar, a scam artist, trying to rip her of and ruin her life.
At this point I really couldn't take it any more. Someone has to speak for all those people trekking around living their lives in front of your doors. Someone has to tell you that just because one person did their job wrong at the door, doesn't mean we all do. Also, that one person giving you a bad first impression does not mean the whole company is a scam. How does the company know what this one person is saying? I get so frustrated hearing these stories and complaints, because almost all of them could be prevented by a little bit of education.

So, since no one else is out here, opening the door so you can see the other side, I guess I'll do it. I'll try to be here every day, giving up little bits about the secret life of a direct marketer.
Questions or comments about your experience with agents, or as agents? YES PLEASE!!!

By the way, it's 17c below today, and I'll still be out there, knocking away... hope to see you behind the next door!