John Hendow

We have known since purchasing our house that at some point we’ll replace our inefficient, leaky single-pane aluminum windows. We attend home remodeling shows to get ideas, and this month at the fall remodeling expo in Seattle, we signed up to begin gathering a few estimates. Last weekend we had scheduled a visit from a windows salesperson who spent a few hours performing an energy audit of our house. He also provided an estimate for window replacement. It wound up being educational from two perspectives, one good and one bad. Maybe it would be three perspectives, if you include “the ugly”.

The Good �
The good learning was that we now know quite a lot about window construction, quality, energy loss and what to look for in a new window. The salesman walked us through a number of stages of education surrounding windows and I now feel much more informed with respect to this process. His product was actually quite impressive from many standpoints, but I found the price tag to be shocking… it was more than twice what I expected. Armed with this information I’ll be looking around for a quality product at a more reasonable price. 

The Bad
The sales pitch took much longer than we had expected, and longer than is reasonable. When I accepted this solicited appointment, the manufacturer told me this would take between 60 and 90 minutes. It actually took 4 hours. We had arranged to have another window representative arrive for a second estimate 2 hours later that day. When he arrived, it was only halfway through the first pitch. In a way, it worked out reasonably well, as we had already ruled out the product being sold by this second company. So I intercepted rep #2 in the driveway and told him we’d find contact him if we decided to reschedule.

Also in the “bad” column was the subtle ratcheting-up of sales pressure during the presentation. My suspicions were raised during this portion of the pitch, and I excused myself to “check on the availability of leveraging a stock sale” on my office computer. What I actually did was Google the company to see if anyone had reported on their sales tactics. There were plenty of examples posted, and they seemed to outline a consistent script. Armed with this information, I told Teri what to expect next, and sure enough, the rest of the sales presentation went according to the outline.

The Ugly
Before it was over, we’d been offered all the customary incentives, financing packages, and multi-phase project approaches. The final phase of the pitch moved into “time share sales” mode, where we were informed we could get an 11% discount for purchasing today only. When we passed on this offer, and on the subsequent sub-package deals, he had to “call into the office to inform his manager” of our unfortunate decision. This tactic was described online and we knew what was coming… our sales rep informed us that his company’s marketing department would like to offer us a $2000 discount if we’d be willing to (1) put their sign in our yard (2) provide names of friends who might want windows (3) allow photographs of our project to be shown during future sales presentations (4) write a customer testimonial. The company’s web site has numerous testimonials from delighted customers, and now I suspect all of them may have provided under this incentive program… not technically coerced, but definitely compensated.

The Future
As a result of this experience we had a long discussion about strategy to avoid a repeat occurrence. Teri and I have already decided how we’ll handle all future sales pitches in our house:

• The entire presentation will be allotted an agreed-upon maximum total time. We’re thinking 60 minutes should be plenty for the entire pitch.
• We reserve the right to terminate the sales pitch at any time.
• This information will be relayed to the company attempting to schedule the sales call.
• Upon entering our house, the salesperson will be informed of their total available time and of other terms governing the presentation.
• We will start a countdown timer. We’ll notify the salesperson when they have ten minutes remaining. When the end of time is reached, the sales presentation is concluded and the salesperson must present the final price of the product. This is the price that will be considered. Any last-minute calls, same-day incentives, and other adjustments must be declared as part of this price.
• The salesperson will be asked to leave the premesis.
• Our decision will be relayed to the salesperson.

Window salesmen of the world, you may thank your colleague for educating these consumers.