
What I learnt about sales from the angry subway preacher - ajju
http://aarjav.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/what-i-learnt-about-sales-from-the-angry-subway-preacher/
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ryanwaggoner
_I believe in the utility of my product more than he believes in his._

I can almost guarantee you this is false. His beliefs have driven him to stand
on the street corner every day and yell at strangers. Your beliefs have you
picking up the phone here and there or sending a few emails. Not even remotely
similar in terms of evidence of underlying belief in what you have to offer.

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secretasiandan
You're probably right, but everything is relative. Maybe he's deathly afraid
of phones. Maybe the other guy feels very at home yelling at strangers.

Que Dr. Jules Hilbert "if you pause to think, you'd realize that that answer
is inextricably contingent upon the type of life being led... and, of course,
the quality of the pancakes."

~~~
ajju
I am not deathly afraid of phones, in fact I have grown sort of fond of the
challenge of calling of stranger and convincing them about something I believe
in. In that sense at least, I am not very different from the preacher.
(Assuming of course that he likes what he does. Didn't seem that way from his
demeanor :))

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mildweed
A funny experiment in street preaching and the crowd's reaction:

<http://kcimprov.com/?p=mission02>

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icefox
Of course the question I want to know his how many sales does the angry subway
preacher make. More then one every few months like this guy?

~~~
thetrumanshow
If you're talking about public conversions, very few, I would guess.

Most preachers I have heard speak on the subject like to say that if you
witness to people and the number of conversions you see in your lifetime is >
0, then you can call it a success, and if the number of conversions = 0, then
you can at least be confident that it had some impact according to a verse in
Isaiah 55:11 that says "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:
it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."

Given that, from the street preacher's perspective, his success-rate is 100%.

As far as actual conversions, also called a Profession of Faith, I would guess
that the quality of the pitch has a lot to do with the final results. Here's
an example of a good pitch (American street preaching in Peru, with
subtitles):

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjYLUpHQaiE>

~~~
ajju
I suspect that this is true, although in my view religious conversion is not
very different from changing your clothes. Neither, in and of itself, affects
how good of a person you are.

