Will salesmen Always Be Closing?

I finished reading Chris Anderson's Free a few weeks back and although the book wasn't quite as great a read as I was hoping for it did the job of making my brain whirr away with thoughts and started me thinking on many spinoffs of "Free".

One of the chief thoughts that has been swirling around in my head over the last little while is "What does the future hold for salespeople?"

This thought has been percolating because as is noted in the book, there are so many sources of free information these days and this dearth of info is only getting larger and larger as the internet continues to increase in popularity and more and more people have access to it. You combine that with a younger generation that grows up online reading forums, wikis, and interacting with discussion groups and online friends and you start to see why salesperson could be an interesting occupation to watch the development of down the road. What is a salesperson possibly going to tell people that they haven't already been able to find out on their own or from someone else online?

I, in fact, am a perfect example of this. If i'm looking for something specifically the first thing I will do is go online to try to find it. I'll check out specs, prices, and shop around. One such purchase I made recently was a portable sound dock for an ipod player. I search Future Shop, Best Buy, and London Drugs' websites comparing prices and features, reading the odd review that I could find on products that matched my needs. Once I had finished this part of the purchase cycle, I merely walked into the store, grabbed the product and marched up to the counter. In and out in 2 minutes.

But electronic retail stores aren't the only example of a possible death of the salesman. On the evening news last night they ran a story on how more and more people are using online stock trading tools to do their trading for them instead of using a stock broker. Will this effect the industry? I should think so. Granted stock traders provide a lot more value than people probably give them credit for as they research deep into potential companies to invest in, talk to the owners, and provide personalized recommendations to match your investing style. But more and more people are going to be doing their own research and using eTrade or another online brokerage to make their trades. Some people may not have much luck using this method and therefore end up back in the arms of an awaiting broker, but those that do have success could greatly influence the movement of the stock market as opposed to the traditional powers of brokerages to provide upward and downward momentum on specific stocks based on what they put their word/clients into. Somewhere down the road instead of seeing "Cannacord Capital forecasts targets of $30.00 per share for so and so corp" you may see "Facebook member ChunkyMonkey53 forecasts an increase of $1 per share by the end of the year according to their status update".

At the same time, if you've ever been on the BullBoards on Stockhouse you will realize how much crap there is out there and how it can be tough to trust the majority of information you read on some of these sites. Hence the role of a broker to de-crapify this information and make sure you get the appropriate facts you need.

Recently I even purchased a pre-sale condominium and to be honest, aside from writing up the contract, I'm not sure what the salesperson did to sell me. I found out all the information online, I looked through their display suite on my own, I talked to the bank on my own. So how much value are they really providing to be getting a major cut of the money that the company is getting off me.

Well now that this is seemingly spinning into a rant i'll close off here. My brother is a salesperson, and i've been a salesperson in the past, but I don't know if I would encourage my children to get into the profession in the future. It could be one of those things a few generations down the road that our great grandchildren miss out on, just like stamps, home phones, and paperback books.

Salesperson Species

Every once in a while I have the joy of dealing with a salesperson coming into my company's office and pitching me a new service/product/business. As a result I have been able to determine two major species of salesperson.

Professional Rex

This person will show up dressed sharp. Whether it is the more relaxed salesperson look of jeans with a sharp shirt and blazer or a full out suit this person reeks of someone who is successful at their job. They realize that this life is their profession and your first impression of them is an important part of moving you to a sale. This person will also have done some research on your company, probably by visiting your website. That being said, they typically haven't gone too in depth into your company and can't really talk the talk with you.

Stereotypicus Salespernicus

This guy arrives at your office in a somewhat professional outfit and typically rolls in with a coffee in their hand. They reek.......of smoke, you can smell it from across the boardroom table, seriously. It happens again and again to me. It's shocking and immediately gives off the aura of them being one level below the professional salesperson. Now this isn't to mean that this salesperson is any worse at their job than the Professional Rex, but they have to do a lot more work to do the sale. Also they are usually much less prepared, including not having a business card and choosing to wing the appointment which becomes obvious immediately.

Now there are various categories of salesperson that fall below each species, but that is for another time when i've thought about the various people. I just find it interesting that you can lump the majority of salespeople into these two species. And for reference, if I can smell the smoke on a salesperson from across the table I immediately start to become questionable about the product/service they are selling.