Please treat salesman with some respect…

Technically I am an Insurance and MF salesman. We salesmen meet our prospects from the position of weakness and not all people we meet treat us well. Rejections, disappointments are part of our job and we are usually OK with it. But sometimes things go awfully wrong.

I met a dentist in his clinic yesterday. I had called him a day before for an appointment and he happily agreed to meet me. I again called him half an hour before appointment for confirmation. This time also he was well spoken and asked me to come to his clinic.
When I reached his clinic on time, the dentist was yet to reach. I called him and he said that he is on his way and would reach within 5 minutes. There were no patients in the clinic and I was the only person waiting for him. The dentist did not arrive for next 30 minutes and by the time he reached 2 patients had come. This man rushed past us to his cabin wearing a look of attitude and superiority. He did notice me on his way to his cabin.
Since I had reached before patients, his assistant let me go in. I opened the door of his cabin and asked for permission to come in. He angrily looked at me and rudely said “Bahar ruko (wait outside)”. He then called his assistant and asked her to send patients in. I did feel bad for the way he talked to me but then I thought being a doctor his first duty is towards his patients and he is doing the right thing. This was an evening appointment and since I had no other appointment after that I chose to wait outside.

He made me wait outside for another one hour attending his patients. Every time the patient would come out I would look at his assistant and she would ask another patient to go in. After more than an hour like this I was the only person left in the clinic with no other patient and finally his assistant allowed me to go in.

This time I opened the door and politely asked him permission to come in. I was responded with an arrogant nod of head. I settled in a chair in front of him. I introduced myself and started by asking whether he invests in MF (since I had specifically taken this appt. for MF).
He said “Mai faltu chijo me invest nahi karta (I don’t invest in useless things)”.
I said “No problem sir. Where do you invest?”
“I invest only in property and LIC” he replied.
I politely asked “how much investments go into LIC Sir?”
As I asked this, he looked at me with such a bad stare and facial expression as if bad odor is coming out of my body and he is not being able to bear it.
He said “Ded do lakh dalta hu mai saalke(I put 1.5 L to 2 L every year)”
I said “Don’t you think sir, even LIC is a Mutual Fund if we keep aside insurance part of it?”
Very rudely he replied “Sab pata hai mereko. Tumhare MF me invest hi nahi karna mujhe. Dusra kuch hai to bolo (I know all of this. I don’t want to invest in your MF. If you have anything else to say then speak)”
Sensing that there is no point spending time with this man, I took out my visiting card and held it out to him saying “Here is my card Sir. If you feel like investing in MF in future, I would love to assist you.”
Again very rudely he said “Wo card wagaire mai nahi rakhta. Merepass number hai tumhara. Jarurat padi to call kar dunga (I don’t keep those cards. I have your number. If required I will call you)” And he gestured me to get out.

I thanked him and left his cabin wondering what made this man behave like this with me. I took out my phone and put him a message thanking him for giving me time to meet him. Immediately his reply came asking me not to send any further messages.
I thought if he did not want to listen to anything I had to say, then why did he ask me to come to meet him? Why did he make me wait for more than one and half hour outside his cabin? Why did he give me appointment at all? Did he want to teach me a lesson? Did he want to show me my place? Or he wanted to prove that he is smarter than all the salesmen and he knows how to treat them? Doesn’t he have any sense of how to behave with fellow human beings? Who does he think he is? He doesn’t deserve any good adviser to work for him. He is better with his LIC agent who sold him endowment policies. Good things come only to good people. He surely doesn’t deserve me as his Adviser.

I do face rejections almost every day but nobody ever treated me like this. I kept driving for more than half an hour though my home was just 5 minute’s drive away from this doctor’s clinic. . This man really hurt my ego very badly. I would have surely ended up smoking heavily had I not promised my fiancé not to touch cigrate again. I deleted his number from my mobile and tried to forget this incidence but he kept coming to my mind. When I reached home, I could not even eat my dinner. I tried to watch TV but couldn’t watch it. I tried to read Dnyaneshwari (Marathi commentary on Gita) before sleeping but couldn’t read much of it either. I slept at night with this hurt.

Why don’t some people understand that salesman is also a human being. He also has emotions like everybody else. He also feels bad when rejected and ill-treated though it is part of his job. He does not like to disturb and irritate people either but it is part of his job and he has to do it to earn bread and butter for his family.

For God’s sake please treat salesman with some respect…