I just got a call from a political party. This same person has called me before, and, I find her detestable so I always pretended to be someone else rather than taking the call. This time I said, &quot;hold on I&#x27;ll get him on the phone for you.&quot; Well, they are still talking, its been about 10 minutes. I kept the phone on speaker for a while -- then I put on 34dB attenuating construction hearing protection and put the phone in another room. I recorded the whole thing in case anyone is curious. Normally when I&#x27;m the guy talking I am self-questioning whether I&#x27;m being too harsh, or that I&#x27;m not being direct enough, or etc... Listening to someone else talk, as if it were me, lets you observe. I heard the telemarketer laughing at the terrible jokes, and, I felt sorry for her. Like she has to laugh at everyone&#x27;s jokes. I can see now how appeasing the customer (i.e. laughing at terrible jokes) is not the path to a sale. There is something to this &quot;neg&quot; (as popularized by the pickup artists in &quot;the game&quot;) both in pursuit of conquests and in pursuit of a sale. The customer needs to want your approval and then you&#x27;ve got the sale. I read the comments on this thread and yeah I can see both sides. It&#x27;s rather difficult and time consuming to get rid of the telemarketer once he&#x2F;she has you on the phone, so I will be using this again for sure.