Why Is It That Hardly Anyone Grew Up Wanting To Be A Salesperson?

Isn’t it the truth? When you were eight years old and your friends were playing “cops and robbers”, were you on the sideline saying, “No thanks, I want to be in sales management one day – let’s do role plays instead!” We’ve all played “doctor/nurse”, “fireman”, “postman”, “scientist” etc. but who ever played “sales guy/gal”? Well, maybe in the school store, but that’s order-taking!

In school, there are few courses to support and extend our discipline. Most I have seen have a title like “Sales and Marketing 101”. Sales is not marketing and marketing is not sales. I have a son who is a sophomore in college. When I asked him to read this blog he told me, “I have no idea what you’re talking about in your posts, but I like the layout!” No one teaches the art and science of selling, not in K-12, undergraduate, post-graduate, or god forbid doctorate. Why? Should they?

Here are some of my thoughts why few of us grew up wanting to be sales people:

Sales people build poor perception in others. I am not so sure. Lawyers have been accused of building poor perception in others, but how many of your friends wanted law school badly out of college?

Nobody likes a quota hanging over their head. Maybe, but doesn’t every profession have a productivity quota over their heads? Scientists must accomplish so much research. Consultants must have a certain number of billable hours.

Let’s try some more potential reasons:

Hollywood and TV don’t glamorize the profession. Right on. Doctors, lawyers, cops, soldiers and even dogs (Lassie etc. etc.) get all the glory when you are a kid growing up watching TV, movies and/or reading books and magazines. Heck, I remember only one exposure to the sales profession in a book required for 7th Grade Literature, Death of a Salesman. It scared the heck out of me! And I’m sure it did the same for you! My next exposure to the sales profession from the entertainment media was not until 1992’s “Glen Gary Glen Ross”. I was two years into my sales career at the time. It didn’t scare me, it depressed me. Not until my third viewing did I come to find it absolutely hysterical. It almost drove me from the profession. I put that movie on top of a Willy Loman sandwich and I went looking for a new career. I’m glad I did not find one!

Schools don’t teach the profession. Right on. Where else can a child or teen or young adult learn about, wonder about and explore our profession? I am not sure why it is not taught, but I have some ideas. Any professors/faculty out there care to weigh in? Is it because the profession is not deemed worthy (that perception thing again)? Is it because few appreciate the “science” of selling? Is it because very few sales pro’s go back into the academic community to build content and teach it? Is it because of a perceived lack of demand? Since when does student demand dictate a class schedule anyway? My sophomore son can’t register for half of his desired classes because they are full!

My vote is to teach the profession starting in high school and then into college. What is missed here is that one of the problems in this world is that not enough people of the world know how to sell. And I don’t mean it’s important to be able to sell a widget. I mean that it’s important for people from all walks of life to do the things good sales pro’s do all the time. It’s important to listen, to effectively build relationships, to persuade rather than force a view point. It’s important to be able to find solutions to problems, to evangelize a new concept, to win a new friend. It’s just too darned important to be left from our school’s curriculum. Forget about Hollywood, that’s a story for another day! What are your thoughts?