The whole structure of society depends upon their work

Above: the sales people at the shopping mall.

At lunchtime I went to the local shopping mall - run-down, boarded up units, big (supermarket-size) Oxfam shop. Under a covered way two sales people were stopping shoppers and asking them questions (actually subjecting them to a sales pitch). Being interested in all aspects of the sales process, I tried to eavesdrop (without getting so close that I risked being stopped and sold-to myself).

They were very good at getting attention, and hardly anyone walked past them without stopping (this is what caught my interest - normally personal selling of this kind would have a high rejection rate). Once they had the prospect's attention, they worked through a script, but the delivery was personal, so that people became talkative and volunteered information. Finally they managed to obtain names and addresses, maybe even bank details (they were getting donations for one of the big national charities).

Professional sales people don't have a very good reputation, but the whole structure of society depends upon their work (either through maintaining cash flow into the private sector, or through generating taxes that fund the public sector). The selection, training and motivation of good salespeople is one of the key success factors of a company (along with good credit control and getting the marketing right). To be good at sales you have to be able to take lots of rejection, which is why most people cannot work in sales.

You can always spot people who are good at selling as they have very high levels of self-confidence, bordering on arrogance, that enables them to take all the rejection. Historically our company has been able to grow field sales people internally, promoting the co-ordinators on the Sales Desk. Only when we recruit externally do we tend to have duds.

Scott Ryan, Area Sales Manager for the northern home counties (loud, aged early twenties, short fair hair), is a good example of someone with almost limitless enthusiasm and ability to take rejection. The downside of this is that nothing you can say to him will put him down - except that this afternoon he was uncharacteristically full of self-doubts, wondering whether he was appreciated. "I was going to be up in Glasgow today, but it was cancelled at the last minute" he said. "What's that all about? Sometimes I think I'm just not wanted in this company..." - this self-pity went on for some minutes until I managed to change the subject (by asking whether he had any product samples for photography). Later he returned to the issue: "What do I have to do to get on in this place? I work really hard, I've built up my area, I bring in the sales month after month, and yet I'm still treated like I'm eighteen."

Part of the problem is that he makes a joke of everything, so even when he has worked hard at something he laughs it off as unimportant (and so it never gets properly appreciated). But there was no way I could tell him this. It's something he'll have to work out for himself.