I’m beginning to wonder if salespeople are overrated, and possibly unnecessary. In this information age, I don’t need a salesperson to convince me to buy something; I look up facts about the product online, from the manufacturer’s website or a third party site. I read reviews from other customers. And while these reviews could be clandestine attempts by the manufacturer to manipulate me, I can get past that by just focusing on the bad ones. Why did rocknrolljimmie think his iPod sucked?
In the corporate world, why do I need my reps trying to sell me things? I can do the research myself, and if I can’t, I would get a consultant. A consultant would evaluate my needs and provide me with options. A salesperson would sell me the next big thing.
My conversations with my mobile reps lately have just been making me paranoid about their motives. I don’t think they’re trying to help me, or even get me the best deal necessarily. We negotiate discounts with them, but I am not confident the wasted hours and unnecessary stress in these negotiations pay for the discounts we get. Maybe that’s how the game works and I’m becoming jaded.
But this is what I ask you: do we still need salespeople? I think products need PR reps often, but I’m not sure the salespeople are going at the right angle. Honestly though, it is getting late, and I could just be in one of my “why isn’t the world perfect?” moods. I would entertain some ideas in the comments though, as always 🙂
As a consumer, I think salespeople are useful sometimes — especially if I am just going into a store where they’re not working on commission. Sometimes I can get the information I want about a product through online reviews, but other times I like getting to talk to a real person about it.
I can see how they might seem superfluous in a corporate situation, though.
I think there are two ways to look at this question: the supply side and the demand side, if you will.
From the SUPPLY side, salespeople are as “necessary” as the revenue they generate. If you own “Gizmotronics Inc.” and you judge, based on your budget numbers etc., that you are doing better business by hiring salespeople, then they’re sort of “necessary” to responsible businessmanship.
From the DEMAND side, salespeople sometimes also have their benefits. For one thing they are responsible for what they tell you, which can be helpful. If “joecoolio69@yahoo.com” tells you that the new Toyota pickup truck gets twice the gas mileage of its Ford competitor, and he is wrong, you are stuck with the fuel bill anyhow. But if “Joseph Coolio LXIX, Toyota Salesperson” tells you that, he is in trouble if it turns out not to be true (either legally or from his employers, who now look bad).
Also, salespeople, like advertising, serve a “sexual selection” type purpose in the business ecosystem. If a company can afford to bombard you with ads, you know it must be a highly capitalized outfit capable of fathering fit offspring.