Part One: Who are Sales People?

A few years back I had to opportunity to be part of a volunteer program to mentor teenagers through a non-profit organization. Our leadership team came from a multi-faceted background of educators, lawyers, doctors, bankers and then two lonely salesmen… yours truly being one, and the other salesmen in the room was my friend, Lou, a VP of a larger janitorial supply company in town. The responsibility of the adult leaders centered on providing an environment of stewardship that would allow the youth to plan, organize, and participate in a wide variety of religious, physical, and community activities. We also tried to promote the older youth, ages 16-18 years old to begin thinking about possible career paths. To help facilitate this process, we had a monthly career night, which we would take the youth out to a local business to have them see the inner workings of the industry and allow them to interact with the movers and shakers in the business. As leaders, we tempered our expectations of how much our youth would really get out of these “field trips,” knowing their minds were pulled in a hundred directions, and a career was as distant as the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. However, there was one particular career night that I gained the most of anyone.     

We had this group of young men who had amazing imaginations and the wit to go along. On this particular occasion we had the youth out to Lou’s company for a discussion on the benefits of salespeople and the occupation. I was asked to give a few minutes on my background. At the time I was a national account manager for the world’s largest printing company. Lou also spoke a little and also had his top salesman address the crowd. As an added benefit for the kids to come out, we always had a nice desert treat afterwards to ensure the youth stayed the entire time. While we were all enjoying a refreshing Klondike bar one of the aforementioned witty young men asked a rhetorical question. He wanted to know what would be the best profession to have during a zombie apocalypse that resulted in the fall of society. As hilarious as it was for the youth, the leaders quickly jumped on the opportunity to engage the youth.

They spent the next few minutes going through the professions represented in the room and the ones the youth could list off…. The youth knew that doctors, firemen, and law enforcement were a must. Someone listed off that engineers and construction would be vital to rebuild. I heard mechanics to keep the machines going, cooks to cook, teachers to teach, lawyers and judges to arbitrate, and even a few shout outs for politicians (hopefully not the same ones we have now). As we were throwing out professions, I looked over to Lou and asked, “What would the salesmen do in this new society?” He shrugged and joking said, “hopefully they don’t run out of chicken and cattle, because we might only be good for that.”

After that momentary identity crisis and lack of contribution post-apocalypse, I began to contemplate the actual contribution to society sales people bring, and more importantly – “who are sales people?” It shocked me how deep this question took me down the rabbit hole.