The phone rang, I picked it up. The voice on the other end went into it’s pitch, “Hi, I’m so and so. Would you be interested if you could invest in a stock that could give you a cud-jillion-billions return in 60 days?”
Yes, it was one of those pointless boiler-room calls. But is was a slow day, I was a little bored, so I decided to have fun.
“Yes, I’d actually be very interested in getting that kind of return. However, before you go further, would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?”
I could hear the excitement in his voice, you could almost hear his thought process, “Caught another sucker, now I just have to reel him in.” But he said, “Sure, I’d be glad to answer your questions.”
So, I responded, “My business is to help sales people close more business faster. I can imagine, that you have to make hundreds of calls to get someone like me who is interested in talking to you and investing in your stock recommendations. We happen to have a guaranteed method where I can actually reduce the number of calls you have to make by 75% and triple your personal income at the same time. Surely that has to be something you are interested in.”
Silence……
“What do you mean, are you trying to sell me something?” came the confused response.
“Absolutely not, I’m just want to show you a way to triple your income doing 25% of the work. Surely, it would be foolish to pass up that opportunity. Think of it, if you put in the same amount of work, your income could go up 12 times!”
“Wait a minute,” he said, getting a little impatient and frustrated, “Let’s talk about how you can make money with this stock!”
I interrupted, “I’m glad to talk about that, but would you please answer my question, wouldn’t you want to learn how you can increase your income by 12 times doing the same amount of work?”
He was clearly getting upset. I guess my response wasn’t on his script. “You can’t be selling me something — I don’t know you, why should I believe you! Let’s get back to this stock!”
“Wait a second,” I replied, “I’m confused, you won’t talk to me, because you don’t know me and you are skeptical about my claim, is that correct?”
“Absolutely, now let’s…….” he continued.
“No, hang on, you won’t listen to me or buy from me. But I’m confused, why should I listen to you?” I replied–trying to sound very sincere and very concerned.
Click…..
The line went dead……
He was probably busy dialing someone else, making one fo the 500 or so calls he has to make every day.
I’ve been chuckling to myself since then. It was a fun call. Sometimes, I just can’t help myself 😉
Never, ever turn the tables like that on anyone again, you exposed him for what he is, a hickster. Huckester come in many shapes and forms but most of them draw their claok of authority around themselves so that they become unapproachable. To this guy it was the image he had of himself of the master salesman, to others it’s the illusion of the degree, or the lawyer’s wig or whatever.
In my case I often think that I actually know what I am talking about and upon exanimation it is wrong. Thany you for your insight, it’s a hard lesson to learn and even harder to apply to oneself.
Peter, thanks for the comment.