> Find out all you can about your prospects before you call on them' their general living conditions, wealth, profession, hobbies, friends and so on
(another example)
>Tell the person who opens the door frankly and briefly what you have come for' it will get her on your side
Edit: also find this spelling of Nobel prize interesting:
> he has actually won the Nobel Prices
When I was at uni I made friends with a fellow. He was into theatre, so the invited me and the rest of the gang up to his house. Dude had an empty 5 bedroom house that he used for theatre nights.
So I arrive and I see his stove is on.
"Bro you've left your stoves on?"
"Yeah it's an Aga"
"A what? I thought we were eating out?"
"Yeah we are, we just keep this thing on to heat the house. Useful for keeping food warm as well."
"Wait so you have an empty house that has an oven in it which is always on?"
"Yes, feels great when I arrive before a theatre night!"
You would throw wet laundry on top of them either and overnight they would dry. They have multiple purposes but ultimately a source of heat that is effcient for long grey wet winters presented by the Atlantic temperate climate.
My then-partner and I lived in an even older house, whose only sources of heat were a defective boiler and a coal-burning grate in the (genuinely medieval) fireplace in the living room. Our experience was, shall we say, authentic to the time-period in which it was built.
People underestimate how miserable the British climate is in winter, and how energy-intensive those old homes are to heat. An Aga wasn't invented as a status symbol, but as a practical item for a particular circumstance. Moving it outside of its original context is what changes its meaning.
Surely that’s only true with a resistive heater? Heat pumps must more more efficient than burning oil.
>Go to the back door (most salesmen go to the front door, a manoeuvre always resented by maid and mistress alike).
Being seen at the front door to imply to others that they are your guest is what gives salesmen a bad name. It's like when someone tries to talk to me about what "execs" want in my org. I've had engineers talk to me about "the business," and it's difficult to hear anything after that through the cringe. Sales people presenting themselves as peers makes them seem oily.
>If you add confidentially that the transaction will show you a profit, the prospect will prefer to buy her own fuel.
"the maintainance cost isn't that high, but if you were really budgeting that much, I may be in the wrong business, and I would consider hiring a subcontractor to deliver it for you myself at that price. It's really much lower."
>Learn to recognise vegetarians on sight. It is painful indeed to gush over roasting and grilling to a drooping face which has not enjoyed the pleasures of a beefsteak for years.
Is this person involved in security? There are some people who are just going to be negative without ever being a strong or valuable ally if even you convince them.
>Try and avoid being drawn into discussing competitive makes of cooker, as it introduces a negative and defensive atmosphere.
Apple does this probably the best of anyone. They sell the experience. They didn't even acknowledge security, viruses, and malware until recently because it wasn't a part of their brand. A different product isn't even part of the discussion because it's the enabler for a different vision.
I think the best ad examples are ones where people are doing something cool and powerful and not having to think about your product at all.
in tech, if you have accepted that tech is inferior and what you have when you aren't valuable, then sure, you're a dog, but if you are engaged in delivering a product that delivers value, there is no separate "the business," just the concrete need that you are a part of, imo.
To put it another way - they're being treated like a dog, so why is it surprising that they talk like one?
To most of us Yankees, this makes no sense. Many of not most of our single-family homes are built in areas that don't implement an alleyway, so the back door is really only for the residents to get to the back yard or carport, etc.
If a salesman knocked on the back door it's likely they'd have the police called on them / or worse.
Heat pump conversion would involve ripping the house to pieces and lots of cash too.
It's mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but one of the best books I have ever read on advertising and marketing is Ogilvy on Advertising. If you have even a passing interest in selling anything to anyone, or just want to see how the sausage is made, I would strongly recommend it. One thin book, no fluff, with more concrete advice than ten thousand blog posts.
dan353hehe•5mo ago
DaiPlusPlus•5mo ago
with predictable results w.r.t. quality-of-living when your house already has central heating.
Agas used to be a very rural middle-class thing: it was how I imagine most countryside homes' heating and cooking worked, and it scaled from a modestly-sized cosy cottage to being in expansive stately homes. But postwar, and especially since the 1960s, Agas are just a status-symbol appliance to me.
Like, in North America, you know you've made it when you have a Wolf range and a Subzero fridge in your kitchen. In the UK, it's when you've got an Aga.
...probably because the only comfortable way to run the thing is by also having central air-conditioning installed and running full-blast while you use the thing.
crinkly•5mo ago
The worst one I heard was someone who paid £10k for their top end Aga, found it was costing £700 a month to run and it was scrap in under a year.
Dead technology.
OJFord•5mo ago
£700pcm to run sounds like something's wrong anyway.
cycomanic•5mo ago
justincormack•5mo ago
OJFord•5mo ago
They can be solid fuel, possibly oil too, but in recent decades mainly gas - not sure new solid fuel ones are even made, that would just be people who already have them or buying them second hand.
pcrh•5mo ago
Coal was the usual source of energy, and coal fires were usually continually burning, being "banked" at night. In this context, the "always on" AGA was not so unusual.
So the AGA stove served not only as a cooker, but also as a source of heat, similar to masonry heaters. Many were also connected to a hot water tank.
The sales manual above states that the cost of running an AGA stove in 1935 was £4 per year, or £247 (~US$330) per year today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonry_heater
TheOtherHobbes•5mo ago
But yes - AGAs are ridiculous Veblen goods, literally coal-fired technology repurposed for modern fuels, with modern fuel costs.
They stopped making the always-on models in 2022. The UK has ludicrously high energy prices because of regulatory capture by the fossil fuel lobby. So Agas remain a status symbol for a decreasingly small segment of minor aristocrats who don't care about running costs. But the bulk of the market used to be the aspirational middle classes, and they've mostly moved on.
For smaller cooking jobs an air fryer cooks faster and better, and costs a tiny fraction to buy and run.
DaiPlusPlus•5mo ago
I can't really agree with that. It's true the UK's energy (surely "power"?)-mix is depressingly natural-gas heavy, but I don't believe that's not due to regulatory capture: it's because natural-gas plants are what get approval to be built because 15 years ago no-one in the Lib/Tory-pact wanted to sign-off on new nuclear.
DaiPlusPlus•5mo ago
Unfortunately I'm past the edit time window, bah.
mhh__•5mo ago
Wistar•5mo ago
I thought the whole thing was ridiculous.
defrost•5mo ago
nojs•5mo ago
Funny, the doc says 2-3 hours.
styren•5mo ago
Wistar•5mo ago
elygre•5mo ago
Dalén lost his sight in an explosion while developing his earlier invention, a porous substrate for storing gases, Agamassan. Forced to stay at home, Dalén discovered that his wife was exhausted by cooking. Although blind, he set out to develop a new stove that was capable of a range of culinary techniques and easy to use.
stevenwoo•5mo ago