Taylor sells home alarm systems door-to-door, and he is the devil, lying, manipulating, and preying on customer’s fears push a product. Now he has stepped forward to confess/brag about his sins:
I lie. I lie to people a lot about their home safety. And I don’t feel particularly good about it, but when my iPhone buzzes in my pocket, I forget the lies I’ve told and think of the MacBook Air that just shipped to my house.I sell home security systems for a living and I only work the three summer months of the year, and maybe four or five weeks the rest of the year. What I fail to mention is that my bank account regularly has 6 digits. All because I lie to people for a living….
The ten lies he tells, inside…
1: “I am a marketing Rep from (insert alarm company here) and am just doing some marketing in your neighborhood today.”
Don’t believe a word of what I am saying. I am a high pressure sales rep that is focused on making as much money off of your insecurities as I can. Granted, I don’t tell myself that every morning while shaving, but when the chips are down, thats what I will tell you. I use the marketing line to come off as inexperienced and even non-intrusive. People find the word sales as dirty, so I don’t use it. I use softer words to assure people that I am not taking their money and I don’t even really care if they help me. But inside I know that if someone lets their guard down for even just a second, I will make the sale and have another commission.
2: “I’m just in the neighborhood talking to a couple of particular families in the area, seeing if they will help (alarm company) market their new product line thats just come out.”
I don’t believe you are smart enough to figure it out, so I keep feeding you what you want. I’m not interested in two or three families on your street. I am interested in getting every person in a 50 mile radius to buy my product, because I like money. I’m not looking at special cases that will help market my product. I am interested in forcibly getting you to sign a contract that binds you for three to five years and pays my bills for a while. And the product isn’t so new and improved. Its been on the market for years now. Don’t let me tell you that this stuff just came out and we are trying to get a couple of families to use it and try it out because we just want to push product. Simple as that.
3: “What we do is give families this free equipment to put in their home, and all we ask is they put our little sign out in front of their yard. Thats it. That way, our sales department can have some product in the area to point to as examples. We are willing to take the hit, if you are willing to help us out.”
Sure you don’t pay for any equipment put into your home, but really do you think we would just give you this stuff for free? I have all the placards to show you how each piece of equipment is close to two hundred dollars, and that is cost we as a company are willing to swallow. What I don’t tell you is I pay minimum manufacturing price for each piece of equipment I sell. So really, all those things I say we are willing to “take the hit” for, don’t cost anything. I am just telling you this to make you feel like you are beating the system. And you suckers think you are getting a deal, yet you never really do.
4: “All this equipment will cover your home and give you an extra sense of security in this area. Now, this area isn’t a bad area at all, but there have been a few reports in the news of some home invasions recently.”
Doesn’t “invasion” make you think of the Germans storming into Poland? I love using the word “invasion” and watching people light up with emotion. And these two or three articles that I am showing you? Just random articles with a bit of Photoshop work and you are all of a sudden suffering from major home invasions in Podunk, Iowa. I change the name of the city, paper, and maybe other small details and that is it. You are starting to believe me, aren’t you? Now, I’ve got you emotionally charged up and I give your home the walkthrough.
5: “These windows here in the back of your house are big security threats because of (insert general safety tip). In fact, in this recent break in, the article cited the back windows as the point of entry for the prowler.”
I am working you into an emotional frenzy. I went directly to the back windows and doors without you even asking me to come in. Don’t ever let me do that again. You don’t even know me, yet you are willing to let me into your house and all the way to the back door? And the back windows aren’t that big of a deal. You have no idea how people break into houses, but you are willing to believe me, because hey, its my job right? Actually I don’t know any more than you do. I just sound a bit more knowledgeable than others, and have this great system just waiting to be inserted into your house.
6: “So let’s sit down here and go through the equipment you selected to cover your less secure areas. Now all we need to get this equipment released to you is to make sure you are the homeowner. We have had problems with (random lie concerning equipment and ebay). I will just call this in and we can get this taken care of.”
I am running a credit check. Right now because you have given me your birthday and or social security number, I have the power to check your credit and see if you are eligible to make the monthly payments. I don’t tell you this because you don’t know who I am calling, giving all this information to, you don’t know who I am, checking your credit, you don’t know me at all. Don’t give me your information like we are long lost brothers just making sure we found each other. I am praying to the credit gods that you are worthy to be swindled. And in two seconds, presto. You are.
7: “In the event your security system ever really does go off or even needs to be serviced, we ask that you have a personal password that we can verify with you. That and some emergency contacts if we can’t reach you. Just fill these out right here and we can release the equipment to you.”
I am diverting your attention so I can fill out the contract. Or “terms of agreement,” as I will call it in a second. Its the age old trick of diverting someone’s attention from the important so they won’t be shocked by it. And you are doing it!!! I’m filling out terms and conditions, signing everything now, so when I give you this paper and the pen, you will skim it, not really care, and sign. Because its important.
8: “Now that we have that emergency contact information, lets go over the terms of our agreement. You remember I said earlier that all you needed to do was to put the sign out in your front yard and you could be given the equipment? Well that’s all this says. You are qualified and willing to meet these terms to have the sign in your yard and have the equipment in your house.”
It’s just the terms of the agreement. Just like I said. If you start to look at the monthly costs of this alarm system I will go directly back to lies number 4 and 5 and work you into your emotional state again. After that, the monthly costs don’t look so bad now do they? Yes, they do. It’s still money out of your pocket. YOU ARE NOT GETTING THIS STUFF FOR FREE!!!! You are going to give me your credit card number in a second so that I can process this transaction and start you down the path of constant payments.
9: “I am just going to make one phone call to our corporate office so that we can get this all set up. (At a certain point in the phone call, Corporate asks how the customer is going to pay for the initial transaction, which is taken out immediately. I look up from the phone and politely say) They are asking for a credit card number to be placed on file so we can have a record of me being here and completing this agreement. What card were you going to use for that?”
Yeah, I knew about this part earlier. You don’t want me to hang up with busy corporate though, do you? They are right here on the phone, it’s really easy to just give them the number over the phone. If you are really hung up on it, I will talk you into your emotional frenzy again and then maybe even become a bit combative as I accuse you of breaking our trust that we had just moments ago. Hopefully it won’t get to the point where I have to tell you, don’t worry about the cost, its not even a price that is established by us. Some mysterious company decides the prices for every neighborhood. That’s completely false and misleading, yet still works 85 percent of the time.
10: “We have technicians in the area that are following us around and at no extra charge to you, installing each home security system we give away. Its a service from our company that lets you guys get to know the technicians in your area a bit more and you can know your system is being properly installed.”
These guys are just college kids like myself, with minimal training by some country bumpkin who once ran his own phone lines in his house, so he is qualified to train on home security. Hopefully they can put your alarm system in today, so that when you start to get buyers remorse, you will already have the holes in your walls. Holes in walls can squash any thoughts of remorse real quickly. And hey, you don’t have to pay for these guys to come in and professionally install it, so its not that big of a deal! Just watch out when they take four or five hours to install this system and then have to come back to fix it because they just wanted to leave.
The ten lies I tell people, preying on their fear, and insecurities. And I feel no remorse.
The moral of this story? Shut the door on door-to-door salesmen. (Except for Girl Scouts, of course. Thin Mints are essential to a balanced diet.) Let’s hope this story is Lie Number 11, and Taylor’s just trying to scare us into being careful. But just in case, I’m keeping holy water by the front door.
(photo: dyanna)
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@MercuryPDX: Yeah, I guess this is true, you gotta go with the flow, but in our neighborhood and our city I have never even seen a house with one of these signs, so if you had a sign here, you would definitely be the odd one out!
I would stay away from ProtectAmerica….
@mthrndr: My mother had a “No Solicitors” sign at the front door and no it did not work…mostly because the people who were knocking on the door did not know what the word “Solicitor” meant. She then made a hand written sign “NO Selling, I am a grumpy old lady and I don’t need any more $H!+”. That pretty much stopped everyone except for the school aged kids.
A professionally-installed alarm system provides excellent coverage that would thwart all but the most sophisticated burglar and/or someone with inside knowledge of that alarm system. The problem? NONE of the major national companies ADT,Brinks,etc do a true professional installation. Nor are most homeowners willing to pay for it.
Just the equipment (actual wholesale price) for my alarm system ran about $1k and that’s the wholesale price for the parts alone. I’m not sure what the markup from an alarm company would be, but I’m sure it’s got to be at least double that. And that doesn’t even include installation, and the labor would be at least that amount. Are most homeowners willing to pay $3k or so for their alarm systems? Probably not. Too bad, as a half-assed alarm system is worse than no alarm system.
@mthrndr: $40-50 bucks a month?!?! Who the hell pays that? $8.50/mo is what I pay and that’s the “retail” rate. The wholesale rate is $2-4 depending on the monitoring station. Full reporting of open/closings, UL-listed monitoring station (my insurance co picked it + the alarm equipment).
Oh yeah, forgot to add in the $2k for window & door reinforcement/replacement + restricted keyway locks that the insurance co also required (and helped fund).
Taylor. This post is hilarious. Are you LDS? My experience is that they use the Mormon Missionary Model to market these things. After all, you are more than comfortable with having the door slammed in your face.
Johnson?
I have a great security system. It consists of a German Shepherd who likes me, my wife, and no one else. Plus a bunch of ways of inflicting bodily harm on people who come on my property without my permission.
So, I’d probably just cut out the middleman and introduce the alarm sales guy to my dog. Woof.
Gratitude to the previous homeowner for installing an alarm, though, my homeowner’s insurance went down.
Oh those kooky alarm companies… back in 1984 I worked as a temp in an ADT office. Came to learn that the company had just settled a lawsuit that derived from the fact that certain of their salesforce had been paying burglars to target specific houses… the homes of folks who hadn’t bought their services, on the hopes that those homeowners would then re-consider! And apparently it had worked for a while, but the scumbags visited that well once too often.
Obviously, that’s an extreme- and likely unique- example, but yeah, it’s been shown that the best salesmen have more sociopathic tendencies.
@Jim and bnorton: back when I had more free time I greatly enjoyed being a time sink for sleazy sales guys. I still do if they get me with enough time and in the right mood. I agree that it’s a ‘good deed for the day’.
We have a sign that says “No solicitors” but it’s ignored by all the religious proselytizers (who are the primary ones it’s aimed at).
Buy a sign off of eBay… that should play enough psychological game with anyone thinking about doing anything around your house.
Damn salespeoples… can’t stand em!
What I do: As soon as I know it’s a sales pitch, I simply (and rudely, if I must) interrupt and tell them that solicitations aren’t welcome – please leave immediately. If they insist on anything else but leaving, I get verbally hostile and start flashing the ol’ Louisville Slugger that I keep by the door.
My only exception is the neighborhood kids selling their candy bars, coupons, cookies, etc. for various activities they might be involved in. The downside is that I have a freezer full of Girl Scout cookies piling up over 2 years that I can’t seem to eat my way through.
What’s the difference between a girl scout and a salesperson anyway, besides age? Innocence? Youth? So what? They’re after your money to do something with their lives so you don’t have any money to do something with your life.
Try this: if you know of anything you can sell to them, be it old books, old clothes, some network marketing thing you tripped into, sell that to them. Get telemarketers all riled up about your website. Use them to add money to your life.
OMG, this guy must have worked for Honeywell! A Honeywell guy came to my door not one week ago with the exact word for word spiel.
Only til #3, however, when I said “I said no, I am going back in my house now!”. I’m glad I went with my gut.
I think this article is a good example of a manipulative person who is out for themselves which is the bane of the sales industry. That being said it falls on the consumer to be informed and have good judgment when it comes to signing a contract and all of those alarm sales companies have a call between a corperate office in which they ask if the customer is aware that one, they will be in a 3 or 5 year agreement and that they relize the first payment will come out when the systems is installed. All of the people here advocating violence towards ppl are a bit ignorant. American is built on free enterprise and a young person going out and making money on only results teaches a lot . But maybe we should be teaching people to good sense would take care of this problem on both sides of course.
A guy from just came to my parents house claiming to offer this service. I confronted him about it and of course he said “It’s not a scam!” After I read him this script…he left without a signed contract. He was very persistent. Walking the neighbor in the early afternoon when usually it’s the elderly and stay at home moms who are too busy or too tired to know better.
everything this guy said is so true. i worked for 2 different security companys. they push us to push ppl, honestly i couldnt do it. in the mornings all the sales reps would get together and joke about how many people we could con to sign up. what ppl dont know is the companies get all that equipment pretty much free and then they make over 1000 just off one person signing up! i went door to door for 7 months. i didnt get rich like this guy boasts about. if someone said they couldnt afford it or werent interested i got the heck off their door step. but the people i did sign up were already looking for a system but didnt know who to go thru, in that aspect i have had customers call my cell phone thanking me for helping them thats how i slept at night because the people who signed were well off and could deffinitly afford this let alone they actually wanted the system. and this guy really doesnt kno what the hell hes talkin about he may have made a ton of money off screwing ppl over but not all companys pay like that i always had to fight to get payed the right pay, its not just customers who get screwed its employees as well. so if you cant handle screwing people over and screwing up their credit stay away from sales jobs its not worth it!!
This guy sounds like a candidate for a public caning, Phillipines style. This article hits home as I own a small alarm company. If I do a job in a neighborhood, you can bet I’m going to knock on the doors of the neighbors. The difference here is 1.) I’m not some out of state company who will never see you again. 2.) Since I’m local, I’m far more interested in protecting my reputation. Guys like this don’t make life very easy for me. While I do offer a FREE system with contract, I also offer systems with 1 year or even no agreement on the monitoring service. People are smart. They know if they get a free cell phone or alarm system they are going to sign up for the service. If not, come up with some money up front. You will pay now or over a period of time, but you WILL pay. What kills me are some folks who want a FREE system and a 1 year agreement! sorry, I cannot repeal the laws of economics. Listen,when you buy be careful. Check the company out. Log on to the muni court website where this company has been operating or headquartered and see how many times they’ve been sued. Do not trust the BBB. Their revenue comes from businesses buying an annual membership from them and if you have a complaint, they do nothing. Call or log on to the Attorney General website of your State to check them out. Make sure they have a valid phone number. If they are at your door explain it will take a day or so to check them out (or tell them you’re not interested.) which usually they will leave.
as an employee for vivint security used to be (APX) I Have to completely disagree with everything there is a huge difference in lying to someone and being smart enough to use legit sales tactics to gain someones interest in an industry that is almost impossible to get your potential customers attention for longer than 5 seconds… in every job across america there are shady people that lie cheat and still but for every bad employee there are usually 15-20 good ones… i just think its funny that you professional consumers always think you are too busy to give us 10 seconds of ur busy little life if you guys would just listen reguardless of wether you buy or not the information that i could give you could benefit you in one way one day when something does happen and u have to stick ur foot in ur mouth and buy an alarm system i have helped out many people young and old and can assure you that millions of people benefit from these security systems every year this is a billion dollar industry it isnt going anywhere