Still, one of the dangers is the "seems to be too good to be true factor."  These days they apparently don't have to prove in court that you knew it was pyramid scheme, they just have to prove that it "seemed too good to be true," you were in a position with means to investigate, and you took no action.

Thing is it's a legal pyramid scheme since you don't have to buy anything really oustide some lisecnsing fee... you just sell and the company makes a profit. 

oans.

I suppose if you really wanted to be a dick just contact your local news. They eat things like that up in their special investigative pieces.

I spent all of three days selling cheap Chinese-made junk out of a cardboard box in parking lots. I quit after I got picked up by a police cruiser who asked me if I had a peddler's license. Being a noob, I had no idea what to tell him as we went on a nerve-wracking tour through downtown looking for my co-workers.

I wasn't actually arrested or anything, and my superior later assured me that we did in fact have a license, but any job that gets you the attention of local law enforcement can't be a good career move.

I've stayed the hell away from sales jobs ever since. Even when they're on the right side of the law, there's something about convincing somebody that they need to buy something that they don't really need that turns my stomach. For the three days I worked that job, I barely ate a thing, even though I was on my feet at all times hauling a box around.

the kirby thing sounds pretty legit to me. Its a standard run of the mill sales job, except more out in the field as opposed to being in a store or office or something.

Mafoo, 1 in 6 seems a bit high as a hit rate. I doubt that if I went to 6 people, one person would buy a 1200 dollar vacuum. I think 1 in 6 seems like a good number of people that would be even willing to hear your pitch! So getting a 1:30 or a 1:40 hitrate sounds more realistic to me.

If you get 40 pitches in a week and sell one vacuum, i think that would average around 435 or whatever it is, right?

If you average it out, it comes out to be around 10 bucks an hour, which sounds right too. Its a tough way of life; you basically have to get rejected and treated like scum and punched in the face 39 out of 40 times, week in and week out.

But you know what? Having knowledge in how tough sales can be, I have a lot of respect for those salesmen. They endure a LOT in order to feed their families and to support themselves.

As for the Cutco knife thing, marketing to strangers wouldnt' be so bad. Now with the advent of craigslist, I imagine it to be easier. However, I didn't like how they want you to pimp out these knives to all your friends and family. Its lke Cutco is deliberately using your social network to make more money. On a personal level, I don't want to subject my friends/family to any of that stuff. If they want to buy it, then sure. But if they are buying it out of pity or just to "help me out," then that's not cool. I'd rather just have them give me 20 bucks as opposed to them buying a 200 dollar set of knives.

i wouldn't mind pimping out ShamWows though. Why don't they sell that door to door?

Billy Mays singlehandedly turned a lowly pitchman business into something respectable and praiseworthy.

Vince Offer wouldn't be able to hold 1/20 of Billy Mays' awesomeness in his ShamWow.

You are not going out cold. Someone in an office somewhere called people up, and told them they get something for free if they listen to the pitch. So, all of them want the item, so they must listen to the presentation.

He told me 1 in 6, and I did 12, and sold 2. That second sell made me feel like such a low life, I quit.

true. I was thinking of cold calling.

Having a guy generate leads for you is a luxury. Its like he's the guy who's taking it in the face 20 times so that you don't have to.

you should get his ass on jail