In life you will encounter bullies. In your youth it might be the kid who took your lunch money or gave wedgies to humiliate you. Funny how the older you get the reasons of bullying don’t really change. People still want to take your money or make you look dumb. In my life I encounter many pushy salespeople who I’ll label as using bullying sales tactics.

The first obvious trait about a sales bully is that they most likely will have approached you and not vice versa. These people tend to do a lot of cold calling and gravitate to any inkling of interest. The good ones that last all have one common trait, persistence. They are told not to take no for an answer. So when you find yourself in a situation from a pushy salesperson, I’m going to give you an approach to how I handled a situation that is currently ongoing.

Anyone and their brother has the opportunity to sell you energy from a 3rd party. Meaning that their energy company handles the billing but the service doesn’t change, Peco still provides the energy. So you get a lot of people walking to your door trying to convert you to their energy company. They can save you cents on a kilowatt of energy and perhaps reduce some tax charges on current billing. The total savings might be 10-20 bucks a month which obviously isn’t going to save you any substantial money. I’m just pointing this out to give you an idea of how important this decision is to a business owner. However, signing up new accounts is the most important thing in their business as they get some sort of incentive to do so.

I had a random guy approach our business offering 9.3 cents per Kilowatt of energy and no cancellation fees (which should immediately be a red flag about the industry). I said I’d consider it, give me some time. The next day he came back and asked if I was ready to convert. I said no I don’t make decisions quickly on random people selling me something. A few days pass and he’s at the door again but this time he has a rate of 8.7 cents and he flat out asks “can we go through the application to get us signed over.” I respect the persistence of a sales person but this is how you answer this type of aggressive approach, “I’m not signing anything today and if you don’t back off I’m not signing anything period.” At this point he’s standing in front of me and it’s completely awkward because he is finally understanding that he’s not pressuring me into signing anything. He leaves by asking “when can I follow up…”

This guy will not be getting my business because I don’t like him or his approach. He’s 100% fake as they come and that’s the worst kind of person. He acts like he’s helping you out and trying to be your friend but it’s only because of his own self serving interest. Plus he’s switching rates to get me in the door and the whole process is and sales approach is dishonorable. I like doing business with people I trust. I’d rather pay more for something and know that I’m giving business to someone I like. This situation is something that you should never feel pressured to make a decision while some salesman is standing on your door step. It’s ok to tell strangers to fuck off.