projekt draco

I’ve spent the last 2 weeks (5 days to be exact actually) promoting/selling door-to-door ice-cream, and some other things. I know it may not seem like a long duration, but I’m sure it is enough to have witnessed some interesting and equally stupid experiences and then talk about it.

And now, my resume can contain “Ice-cream salesman”. Oh and I was a web designer by day, and ice-cream man by night, how cool is that?

All right, all right, here’s the list of interesting things (at least to me!) :

Peepholes

99% of the residents I’d knocked on have peepholes installed on their doors — something I didn’t know of since I don’t get to use a peephole myself (because of the way my house exterior is planned).

Interestingly, among these 99%, a small percentage think that when someone knocks on the door, all they have to do is to peep through this hole, and then walk away acting like there’s no one at home if someone they are not expecting is at the door. Please! Grow some brains, and at least have the courtesy to say “no”(politely) when prompted of the sales — we’re bringing you ice-cream right to your doorstep to save them from melting disaster and the least you can do is to reject us with a no, thank you and not have us wait at your doorstep like some idiots.

Somehow, I think my job uniform gave me away most of the times because on days that I didn’t need to wear the uniform, more people opened up the doors and talked to me. Or maybe it’s just the residents.

And a smaller percentage of people have their padlocks blocking the views of the peepholes, funny sight when you imagine them opening the door only because they can’t see you through that hole!

The customers

There’re bad people, sure. But there’re also good people (such as yours truly). These are people who would be nice enough to understand that we’re doing them a service by bringing ice-cream to their door steps, and that even if they do not want any, they’re polite enough to say sorry, but no, thank you!. This kind of replies just make any rejected salesman feel better.

While you may think everyone replies this way, you’re so wrong. There’re people who just say NO! And there’re people who would look at you sternly and say, no, not interested. Oh, and some wouldn’t even come out to meet you — all you would ever hear is a fade no thanks! from somewhere…

Some extreme cases are before you start talking, they would have already rejected you. Sadness indeed.

I have not experienced any go away! and I think I’ve been lucky. Someone ought to tell them we do not owe them anything and we should not be taken for granted!

And I don’t understand why people can’t say “no”. I mean, I may pester you for a while if you say no, I may pester you a little longer, but ultimately if you insist you do not need any ice-cream, I’ll still leave. How many years someone need to live to figure this out?

There was a boy who came up to the door, and I asked if he was interested in any ice-cream in mandarin. He tried to say something but stammered for a while… and then said, Er, no.. I’m a Muslim and I’m fasting..

WTF? Okay maybe he was a chinese muslim, fine. But beside the door, there was some sorts of “May Lord bless you” plaque. His stammering, his chinese characteristic, and his having to think so long to come up with such an excuse really made me felt like he was lying. If I wasn’t arepresentative of the ice-cream company, I would have taught him how to say no.

Kids!

Anytime someone says I was born smart, but education ruined me again would be shot by me. The education system by both the government and the parents have been implemented so well that Don’t talk to strangers actually worked. There were occasions where a kid would open up the door, and just shake his head for everything I asked, no words at all.

But kids are either born natural liars, or are trained somewhere because they lie without even having second thoughts! I’ve met kids who denied that their parents were at home, and just as I cruised along the windows, voila! their parents were there watching television. So much for Kids shouldn’t lie!. Yea right.

And nowadays, young girls seem to be very confident about showing up naked infront of strangers. On my first few sales, there was a seemingly ten-year-old girl who showed up naked at the door when she heard “ice-cream!”. So her younger sister(not naked, lol) was counting the coins on the floor when she suddenly joined in, covering her top and bent over to help the counting. Her sis reminded her that she wasn’t dressed and her reply was, Aiya, don’t care la.

(Wow. If only there’re ladies of my age with such attitudes and I’ll never quit being an ice-cream man!)

Okay so she wasn’t dressed, but I was only seeing her back so I guess it was fine. Then suddenly she stood up right infront of me, WTF! I was taken aback and I ran away. Her mom just laughed and called me back after hurrying her daughter back into the shower. Man, was I breaking cold sweats.

Knock, and die.

Trust me, netted metal gates are tell-tale signs that there’re some sorts of four-legged creatures in the abode, so knock, and die. Especially those who are afraid of dogs, like yours truly.

Some’ve even gone the distance and pasted “Beware of dogs!” sticker that features a Tasmania lookalike dog. Virtually telling the salesman, “we may have no dogs, but if you’re salesman and you bug me to buy something I’m not interested in, I’ll bite you personally”.

Or worse is the combinations of either the netted metal gates, or the sticker, with opened metal gates. So if someone were to open the wooden door, any creature would be able to rush out and attack me. No good at all. This are the apartments that I didn’t knock on.

Think that is the worse scenario? No. Couple the above scenario with barkings as you approach the apartment, and that’s the worse you can get.

Advice : leave that place as soon as possible as the owner may come to the door to see why the dog is barking! Take it from me.

More about dogs

I’ve a reason to be afraid of dogs. But this is a story for another time. But much to my surprise, there was a dog which was afraid of me!

When I was going down some stairs, I chanced upon a leashed dog at the most furthest end of the corridor, that is, the last apartment on that level. After some mental calculations, I’ve confirmed that the leash was long enough for the dog to be alarmed and rush to where I would be heading — the end of the stairs. So I panicked. Should I move back up and go down the stairs on the other corner of the building, or should I try my luck with this huge Golden Retriever.

Then I saw a maid coming out in the house, I asked for help to keep the dog in that position while I made my way through, which she promptly agreed. As I strolled through with much ease, the dog was more alarmed than I was to be gin with! It quickly hid behind the maid and wanted to go into the house, trying to stay away from me as far as possible.

Wow, do I look like some dogs hunter, or what? In the end I didn’t do that house either, because somehow I decided I should give that dog some peace of mind by not going near it. No, not because I wasn’t afraid, mind you!

Lesson learnt

One of the most important lessons learnt in this period of ice-cream selling is, if you insist on something, you’re sure to get it. When I was under Day-1 training, I was told that at first the customers didn’t want, persuade them. Pester them. If in the end they really decided that they want no ice-cream, then leave.

I thought they were bull-shitting. I grew up thinking that, if at first thought you don’t want something, that’s it — you won’t want it. But experiences showed me that if you show perseverance and persistence, a small amount of people will end up buying.

Now I fully believe in perseverance - now I insist on getting things I want, and give it all I have. Even if I don’t get it in the end, at least I tried my best and I’ll have no regrets!

Ah, so much things in just 5 days of work. And alot others too, with no regards of my job… but I’ll save that for another time — this entry is way too long.

And I’ve also decided that I am not exactly a good salesman/promoter; I’m too honest. *grins*