I Slammed the Door in His Face. Twenty Minutes Later He Sold Me $300 of Frozen Chicken Breasts.

Who says door-to-door sales doesn’t work?

Just last week, my wife and I bought a six month supply of frozen chicken breasts.  From a guy we never met before.  From a company we never heard of.    All from the comfort of our front porch.

We got sold. It might have been the shortest sales cycle ever – just 20 minutes from his knock on our door to our cash in his hand.

I started out doing what most of us do when a door-to-door salesman comes knocking.   I politely said, “No. Thank You.”  Then, I slammed the door in his face.  Twenty minutes later, our freezer was full of chicken and our heads were buzzing – what just happened?

Let me get one thing out of the way.  We’re happy with our purchase.  That’s not what’s nagging me.  The question that nags me is – how did he do it?

I am not the kind of person that buys from door-to-door pests.  After a few days of re-enacting the events in my mind, I think I have the answer.

Read on to find out how he did it . . .

Turns out, I just finished reading  Robert Cialdini’s Influence.  If you haven’t read it, it’s a classic work on sales psychology.  For years, Cialdini studied the reasons why people buy.  His book boils it down to six principles.  I compared my experience to these principles.  The results were illuminating -what happened to me was no accident.

1.  Social Proof

If someone we know and trust does something, we are more likely to do it too.

The salesman’s opening line was, “I was just delivering to your neighbor.  Thought I’d knock on a few doors while I’m here.”  That one statement packs a whollop of sales punch.  We know and like our neighbors.  They’re smart people.  If they buy from this guy, we might too.

With that one statement, I was instantly more willing to talk to him.  To at least, hear him out.  Little did I know that I was slowly losing control of the situation.

2.  Authority

We tend to believe people who are authorities on the subject

Turns out this guy knew a lot about meat.  He’s been doing this since 1993.  He had worked at the Whole Foods counter in Beverly Hills.  He had a regular TV spot on cable TV.

I felt excited when he told me how healthy his meat was in comparison to the stuff we could buy in the store.  You know – no hormones, free range, that stuff.

We were convinced he knew what he was talking about.  If he says his product is quality, who are we to question him?

3.  Liking

We like to buy from people we like

Looking back.  It is amazing how much we had in common with this guy.

I told him my name is Roger.  He responded, “Wow.  That’s my name too!”  We told him we shop at Whole Foods supermarket.  What do you know.  He loves Whole Foods too!  My wife asked about sodium content.  He said he didn’t know off the top of his head.  However, his wife is health conscious too!  And she eats it.  So, it can’t be that bad.

You might be thinking – how gullible, that guy was playing you.   Probably.  But, Cialdini’s research shows that we want to like people that are like us.  So, we aren’t naturally skeptical in these situations.

Regardless, I did like this guy.  In addition to everything we had in common, he was enthusiastic and just seemed like he loved what he did.  I felt good about buying from him.

4. Commitment and Consistency

We act in a way that is consistent with our prior actions

Now, you’re probably wondering.  How did he get back in after you slammed the door?   Here’s what happened.

My wife wanted to know who was at the door.  I told her it was a door-to-door meat salesperson.  She was interested – just to see what they had to offer.  So, I ran outside and invited him to come back in.

In Cialdini’s framework, that move was profound.  By inviting him in, I openly expressed my interest.   So, I need to act consistent with being interested.  That means – I should listen to his sales pitch.  I should sit through his product demonstration (more on that later).

In retrospect,  I completely lost control of the situation once I asked him in.  I found it nearly impossible to stop him in the middle of his pitch (and there were times I wanted to).   I just couldn’t .  That would be so rude – after all I invited him in.

5. Reciprocation

If someone gives something to us, we feel obligated to give them something in return

Let’s look at his sales pitch now.  A big part of it was  a product demonstration – a fairly intense one.  He wanted to show us all the different kinds of meat he had for sale – chicken, fish, beef, pork.  And all the flavors- santa fe spice, teriyaki, honey dijon.

He went back and forth to his truck to get the ones we wanted.  In the end, we had about twelve open boxes of frozen meat on our dining room table and floor.

Standing there, looking at all that meat on display.  I felt a sense of obligation to buy something.  I mean, he had just gone through all that trouble.  I had given up on saying, “No.”  I was trying to find out the least expensive way of saying, “Yes.”

6. Scarcity

If something is scarce, we tend to want it more

I  don’t think the scarcity principle came into play.  He didn’t threaten us with a deal that would expire if we didn’t take it right then.  He didn’t tell us he was running out of chicken or anything like that.

I will say that he didn’t invite us to buy the stuff later.  He didn’t tell us we can order online (turns out we can).  So, I can’t say I felt an urgent need to buy right then.

We Were Influenced

Our door-to-door salesperson did a marvelous job of weaving almost all six of Cialdini’s Influence principles into his pitch.  Those principles are universal to all humans.  So, it’s no surprise that they worked on us.

But, that is only half the story.  There is one reason we bought that is not covered in Cialdini’s book.  And it is by far the main reason.  If it weren’t for this one thing, we wouldn’t  have a freezer full of chicken.

To find out what it is, come back next Monday when I post Part 2.