mid-sales pitch

[Kaiapó]

Hi everyone

"He loses all interest in selling houses. He tapers off mid-sales pitch, looking at the blank spaces on the wall between the perfect family portraits or worse, at the grounting between the tiles of the en-suite bathroom."

The guy is an estate agent and the text comes from T. Stevens' The Shining girls.

Does that mean his sales aren't as good as before (he's just lost his daughter, by the way)?

Thanks for your time

K

 

[Miss Julie]

No...it means he loses interest/enthusiasm (and thus he stops talking) during the middle of making his sales pitch.

"Mid-" often means "in the middle of." He cut me off mid-sentence. (He interrupted me while I was speaking--before I could finish my sentence.)

A "pitch" in this context is a persuasive sales talk (according to the WR Dictionary, definition 14 under N-noun).

The fact that he has lost his daughter is definitely a factor in why he's not interested in doing his job (as a realtor).

 

[Myridon]

He tapers off (slowly stops talking) in the middle of his sales speech. Mid-(sales pitch). "Mid-" is a prefix and "sales pitch" is a compound noun. The punctuation is unfortunate but there's no good way to add a prefix to a compound noun that still has a space in it.

 

[ESustad]

A sales pitch is a rehearsed speech a salesman gives to potential customers. If he tapers off in the middle of it, he stops trying to charm the potential buyers, and loses the sales shtick. Imagine a bright and eager smile turning to a frown, and the salesman forgetting what he's saying to try to sell the property.

 

[Kaiapó]

Mama mia, I was miles away...

Thank you so much all of you