by Carl Ingalls

I’m sure you’ve had a salesperson try to push you into a sale by asking something like, “You do want to make money, don’t you?”  How does that make you feel?

A few weeks ago I got a call from a salesman representing a major telephone service provider that wanted my business back.  He was eager to send me a quote so he could prove to me that he could save me money.

The next time he called, I thanked him for the quote.  I told him I had decided to stay with my current provider, which was a small local telephone service reseller.  He asked me who that was, and I told him.

And then, in a slightly derogatory tone, he asked, “Why would you want to stay with them?”

That stopped me cold.  It felt so disrespectful.  I thought about it a bit.  Then I remembered a very important principle.

I said, “I don’t do business with people who talk to me like that.  Goodbye.”

Only do business when there is mutual trust and respect.