The Salesman Dies Again

It's not every day that a YouTube video becomes universally viral across a specific profession, but the creators of "Joy of a Salesman" have managed to capture the attention of salespeople everywhere.

If you haven't been fortunate enough to see this six minute masterpiece, the premise is simple. An older sales manager is reviewing the performance of his top salesperson in a 1-on-1 meeting. As the manager slowly picks him apart, the salesperson defends himself as if on truth serum; attacking his adversary with accusations of highway robbery in relation to his commission plan. I'm clearly not doing the piece justice, but every commissioned salesperson in the country will relate to some portion of this.

And that's exactly what makes this so interesting. Sales can cross over into many different business sectors, and with the rapid addition of new technologies, these jobs are growing by leaps and bounds each day. The goal of salespeople is universal. Make money. Make money for the company and make money for themselves. It sounds simple on the surface, but to truly be successful, many need to fight, scrape, and claw for every available dollar. If you happen to lose a fight (and there will be many), the expectation is to quickly dust yourself off, stitch up your chin, and move on to the next battle.

If their mission is successful, and a majority of them are, the expectation is to be rewarded accordingly. If they exceed quotas, most feel that their compensation should rise in lock step. But it rarely does. Companies like cost certainty and a few things always seem to get in the way. When they inevitably do, the salespeople are left in the courtroom alone, and defending themselves without counsel.

So, the obvious thought is that "Joy of a Salesman" was created by a disgruntled employee in a specific industry who has clearly voiced chagrin through comedic animation. However, a quick check of the user comments from this video reveals something dramatic. This compensation issue exists across all of corporate America, and in fields as similar as day and night.

An assorted list of names cited include the following:

AT&T
Blue Cross
Carmax
Clear Channel
Comcast
Cumulus Broadcasting
Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Geico
Prudential Securities
Verizon

It's truly stunning. Just glance at the list for a moment. It covers telecommunications, transportation, finance, cable, radio, car insurance and health insurance. Quite a list. Many have no clear relationship with the other, yet employees in these respective fields felt an equal sting from the same parody. Patterns like these speak volumes.

Perhaps we really do need a different compensation system for our country's salespeople. Daniel Pink, author of a new book called, "Drive", suggests that employees are inherently motivated by 3 intrinsic factors unrelated to money - - Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. He may be onto something.

Maybe one day some consulting firm will figure this all out and make videos like "Joy of a Salesman" a thing of the past. But until then, let's have a little compassion for these salesmen.

They don't always have to die. Sometimes they could just be wounded.