A Salesman in Dallas
I’m in Dallas this week for the League Conference on Information Technology. It’s very interesting and I even managed to attend some of the discussions and presentations despite the fact that I’m mainly here to represent my company. I love the discussions and the presentations and the exchange of ideas. I guess I simply love knowledge. And, this got me thinking about my role in society.
I’m a salesman. It doesn’t sound like a very glamorous fact, but in a way I’m proud to be a salesman. The role is often dressed up in lots of fancy language like Marketing Director, Director of Communications, Internet Marketing Professional, etc. However, the fundamental fact remains that at the core we marketing people are all just salespeople pushing a product or an idea.
However, the long derided role of salesperson gets interesting and starts to command some respect when you begin to think about how many people in our society are actually salespeople in one way or another.
Think of all the PR flacks and all the ad execs everywhere. Think of the legions employed by the Drug, Oil, Financial, and Technology industries. Nearly all the employees of Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and others are completely involved in building the biggest advertising and sales machine the world has ever known.
Then think of how each and every person, who is not involved directly in sales like engineers, doctors, lawyers, writers. The creators of the world, are continually focused on pushing their own agenda, beliefs, and products. My father, an engineer, railed against the inefficiencies in the production line at his work, and by god he got those new machines.
Finally, don’t forget organized religion. Religion pretty much beats the pants off of any other sales mechanism or strategy, and has power and influence well beyond all corporate sales forces combined. There are many reasons why most religions have a marketing strategy that kicks so much ass, but one big reason is that religion focuses directly on creating the most powerful kind of sales force. The almighty and much talked of customer evangelist.
The net effect of all this selling, persuading, and influencing, is that everyone in the world is a salesperson for something, whether it is a product, an idea, a religious belief, or something else. We are all have a little bit of Willy Lohman in us, especially now, and this realization makes it an interesting time to be a salesman.
