Re: Sales droids

In article <2tbgf496723kanm8fuou30dd4h9s7vl1ne@xxxxxxx>, says...

I've worked supporting a team of sales people in the past. It taught me
one thing which was whilst they were well paid[1] they worked very hard
and the successful ones were expert at their jobs. Calling them 'plain
fucking thick' is simply ignorant.

I'd agree with that, but IME there are "classes" or maybe "leagues" of
salespeople. At one end of the scale there are the gung-ho, pushy types
flogging near-identical items to their competitors through sheer
pressure or adrenaline. They tend to do ok for a while, then burn out.

At the other, you've got the talented types who combine product and
sector knowledge with a subtle understanding of human psychology (even
if that understanding is sometimes informal), and project a personality
that tries to ensure they're pissing the minimum number of people off at
any given time.

The really good ones are generally very personable people, IME. My
current Account Director, for example, is a total petrolhead who is
totally dedicated to what he does, is never short of a laugh, tells
great jokes, seems to genuinely care about his colleagues, goes out of
his way to help others, takes time and effort to maintain relationships
(internally as well as externally) and is just generally a jolly good
egg, as well as being sharp as a razor, and will bravely defend those he
considers to be doing a good job, should they fall foul of a senior in a
bad mood.

The worst I've ever seen was a manager of mine maybe 20 years ago, back
when I first started doing pre- and post-sales IT consultancy; he was,
and I kid you not, the absolute twin of David Brent (in personality, if
not appearance), and a more self-deluded and selfish individual I have
never encountered in business, before or since. Every success was down
to him, every failure was your fault, and you absolutely knew, every
second of every working day, that if he could shaft you in order to make
another couple of quid commission he'd do so, and moreover do so without
a second's hesitation.

As Sales Manager, he regularly stitched up his own salespeople in order
to grab their commission, and when they complained, he engineered their
departure. I was lucky, in that I merely had him as a line manager, and
didn't have that much to do with him on a personal basis (I was charged
out to clients on a daily rate so spent 19 out of 20 days a month on the
road, which I loved at the time), so I got to merely observe his
Machiavellian shenanigans, although he did once try to stitch me out of
a £1,000 pay rise in order to top up his own income, but lost that fight
on points.

He eventually came hugely unstuck after trying to stitch up one of the
Board in order to boost his figures and thus grab a few thousand more in
commission - you don't *** with a Managing Director and live to tell
the tale. I sometimes wonder what became of him, and whether he made a
success of his life or not, or even changed as a person over time. He
became my benchmark for pisspoor management, and I still tell stories
about his antics, because some of them defied belief.
--
2002 Yamaha R1
Saab Aero Sport
.

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