I could tell right away that the guy was no pro.
He was following a set of memorized prompts that he fumbled through and even repeated.
Having caught me in a more patient mood, I listened to his messy pitch and left it at: I’ll think about it.
I looked up the company afterwards on Better Business Bureau and found a B- rating, with dozens of complaints. Most of them were about poor service and how difficult it proved to cancel the service contract, but one comment jumped out at me:
The sales guy made up a couple of neighbors who he claimed were existing customers.
Sure enough, the sales guy had claimed that he was in my neighborhood because he had just completed services at “Mike’s house, if you know Mike, he’s just, um, seven houses down that way, and, uh, Brenda, too, who lives just around the corner.”
“Mike” and “Brenda,” as the BBB comment pointed out, represent a nasty little persuasion technique that seeks to build trust through social proof:
Your neighbors are using this service, so you should, too.
Neighbors that may not exist.
Taylor Coe 