If they start out with, “How are you today?” say, “Why do you want to know?” Or you can say, “I’m so glad you asked, because no one seems to care these days and I have all these problems, my sciatica is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died.”

When they try to get back to the sales process, just continue on with telling about your problems. And needless to mention, they’ll disappear at once.