Being in B2B sales, I tend to be more tolerant of telemarketers when they call my house. I make my share of cold calls at work, so I’ll listen to a B2C sales pitch for about 1-3minutes. Almost always, I decline the offer to purchase whatever the company is selling. Having said that, what I have no patience for are sales people (and religious zealots for that matter) who come to my home uninvited. I just detest these sorts of face to face encounters. Such a situation happened to me as I entered my building tonight. Inside the doorway was this young woman who I assumed was waiting on a friend. She sad hello and we made small talk about the monsoon like rain coming down outside. It was then that she launched into her pitch for me to become a sponsor of Save the Children Foundation. I was so taken aback that it left me momentarily speechless. Luckily I recovered quickly and made a mad dash for the elevators after telling her that while I’m sure they do good work, I already give to several other charities. Plus, I’d seen enough Save the Children infomercials with Sally Struthers on late night television, that if I was going to give to that organization, I would have done so already. Heck, any organization that can afford to run infomercials doesn’t need my money.