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Comment by hanoz | Hacker News Reader

A good more general rule is not ever to buy anything from anyone who has initiated the first contact. Not sure that's going to be an entirely popular thought on a forum of entrepreneurs who live and die by their marketing to an extent, but from a recipient's point of view I do advocate it.

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I try not to buy anything that I haven't of my own free will realized I needed or really wanted and then sought out a solution for.

And this is why I canceled my amazon prime membership

On the flip side, it’s far easier to sell to someone that comes to you. In fact, many businesses do just that and don’t even bother with cold sales. This is trivially true in the case of stores but also marketing companies, SaaS offerings. And really it’s better that way. It’s not unsolicited, both have mutual interest and the buyer clearly sees value enough to talk to somebody on the expectation it’ll cost.

This works extremely well as a tourist too. If someone is walking up and offering something to me that is almost always a no. Scams frequently depend on seeking out targets.

I remember my dad telling me about a farmer he knew, who said to him once, (pointing at his lane), "Any time Jim, I see a f*er driving in that road I know he's not doing it for my benefit"

Indeed. I always think to myself: if it’s worth coming to my door or cold-calling me there must be a pretty margin. And then they claim it’ll be so much cheaper than my well-researched current contract. Yeah, right.

The only thing that will sometimes peak my interest enough to listen to the pitch, is if they offer non-monetary upside.

Pique (sorry couldn't not do it)

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