I just gave a guy at Wal Mart some side eye.

He had a table set up with
Cookies and snacks on it .

Asking you to pay twice the retail price for veterans.

The least credible presentation , why bother?

‘That’s an interesting perspective I hadn't thought of before. I will look into it and let you know’

"That's nice, but what do you have for persistent testicular itch, with intermittent minor bleeding, and an odd smell?"

ETA: You specifically asked for "professionally". RIF. I apologize, I misunderstood and read "effectively". My bad. Disregard.

if you or your group is as good as you say, and as edjimacated, then you could spend the minutes that you would normally be an asshole and educate the person(s) in question,


no need to be a total ass about it, and as mentioned, that person may have connections that could help, or harm, you in some way

It’s more like “you should hire us to do XYZ,” when they clearly have no idea, what so ever, of what that job entails - the people who do know what that job entails, have many years in the industry and/or doctorates. (IME both, if they are free lancing.)

Sometimes it’s “we want to hire you to make Impressive Amount of product.

Ag: That’s really quite an impressive volume. Sure. We’d be happy to make that for you. We cannot store it, and we will need a 50% deposit, plus you will have to provide packaging, since we cannot use the product or the packaging, if you do not take it.*”

(*Very standard for custom work, other than a 50% deposit is probably low, but I genuinely do want to help people get going/would like to stay their white label packer.)

“You really can’t store it? Just for 6 months or so would work, I think. We should be able to line up sales by then.”

Ag: Are you sure about the volume? How are you meeting demand currently?

“Oh we have a Hobby Machine. Junior is working quite hard, running it 8 hours a day, and is currently making Impressive Amount.”

Ag: Hobby Machine’s maximum output per hour, is what we make in 6 minutes. It’s impossible to make Impressive Amount with it.

“Crickets”

The most recent one, from someone waiting for me, outside of the office. “This is an ice cream manufacturer, right?” (Sign is still on the building, plant is still in an industrial area…)

Ag: “Yes. Can we help you with something? We can sell to the public if you make an appointment, but if you need something, I don’t mind running in and getting it for you”. (It was Good Friday. We weren’t really working but a few of us swung by to do odds and ends. I was the only one left and was leaving at 10AM.)

“I want to rent your plant to make Product in.”

Ag: Excuse me? I don’t think I understand. We would happily pack it for you, under your label

“No. I need to make it myself, and the closest commercial kitchen for rent is XYZ, and I need to rent a plant…”

Ag: We can’t rent the plant. You don’t have the licensing, training, or the experience…. (I handled this part wrong. I should have just mentioned it takes a considerable amount of training, and it would be much more cost effective to just hire us to make his product for him.)

Simple “thanks but I’m not interested.” If they don’t get the hint, sarcasm is deployed.

“Go away”. That’s me being polite.

“Fuck off” Is me not being polite

Use TACT. Tact is the art of calling someone an ASSHOLE and having them thank you.

I will respond with an answer that has nothing to do with what they've stated. Such as "the atomic number of zinc is 30."