Saying No

Just like you, I was raised to be kind and polite. However, one of the things I failed to recognize for a while is that there are times when firmness in dealing with others is being kind to yourself. But I did learn along the way.

          Everybody earns a living by selling something: talent, manual labor, cars, and myriad other things. And selling is an art which has been perfected over the years and has become very aggressive. Marketers call, usually at dinner time, to try and convince you to buy such and such a thing, or to tell you you’ve won a trip. As soon as they start reading their sales pitch, I simply say: Thank you, but I’m not interested, and hang up. Such calls have stopped. Must be my manner is noted and passed around to other marketers. Good. I’m proud of being in charge of myself and not being pushed by others.

           My car was recently included in a recall by the manufacturer to correct a problem. While I was at the dealership getting a part replaced, everything about my car was noted especially that it is a few years old. Since then, I have been getting calls from salesmen trying to convince me to buy a new one. Before they get too deep into their pitch, I simply say: No, thank you, and hang up since my car runs just fine and suits me. A sales person I know was telling me that hanging up in such a fashion is very impolite. I told her that I don’t believe it is. Why make the person lose time on me when he could be pitching a person more apt to be buying a car.

          And don’t talk to me about selling on the Internet. Unless you delete your on line history, everything you do while on line is recorded somewhere and that information is used to advertise directly to you when you connect later. You compared air travel costs to go from here to there? Suddenly you’re getting all sorts of ads for there, and so on. The worst offenders are the spammers who bombard you e-mail inbox. Many moons ago I thought it’d be wise to quickly unsubscribe from these e-mails then realized it was a means of verification that led to a slew of other spams. Now I simply delete right away which in effect is saying no and hanging up.