Grover Group

The Alternative "Willy Loman": Is Today’s Salesperson "Tragic"?
October 1, 2005

It would be presumptuous for me to create a "new" character that portrays the sales representative's world in 2004, essentially as an update to what Arthur Miller created in Willy Loman in his classic play, "The Death of a Salesman." I am not attempting to do that, as this article contains no poetry or prose that can come close to helping you to understand the depth of excitement, and despair, that today's salesperson experiences day to day.

That being said, I think that we need an alternative to Willy Loman, and this is not because Willy Loman's life and tragic end are irrelevant to today's business world. Rather, because today's business world has transferred many of Willy's tools from the manual to the electronic, from the slow moving to the speed of the Internet.

As a result, it occurs to me that the outsider, (the outsider being anyone who does not make his living directly through sales), may feel that today's salesperson has an easier life. This easier life - translated through air conditioned cars, customer marketing software, laptops, cell phones, pagers, airplanes, Starbucks and car coffee holders, routing software - may have led us outsiders to think that today's sales representative is no longer going to suffer the fate of Willy Loman. Life, as they say, is too good, perhaps too easy.

This conclusion could not be further from the truth. For this reason, without creating a "new" Willy Loman, please use the following ideas as a way to challenge your perception of the sales representative's life, and possibly help you to better sympathize and thus support those sales representatives whom you may know.

Today's sales representative has it a lot easier, in terms of modern technology; however, she still must create the opportunities for her company to generate revenue through business relationships. This is true of the rep dealing with transactional sales, as well as the rep dealing with longer term, relationship sales.

Today's sales representative:

Has more urgent deadlines to meet based on increased expectations put upon her due to technological changes, including email, voicemail, and cellular communication.
Must work within compressed timeframes to get things done, managing internal and external relationships to gain information that provides the customer accurate information within short time frames.
Has lost, (some say has been dis-intermediated), the ability to control information that her accounts can get electronically.
Must demonstrate value in relation to product pricing in an environment where competitors come not only from the next county, but the next country.
Must be able to prioritize and plan time with customers based on customer projections and metrics, which are primary compared to the desire to have a cup of coffee and catch up on how the customer's family is doing.
Must adapt to new business technology, and utilize new tools that may be foreign or uncomfortable.
Must deal with a business environment that has downsized its workforce in order to create greater efficiency, which means that new decision makers are constantly surfacing.
Must demonstrate value each and every day, each and every sales call, not only through words but also through documentation.
May be faulted for seeking to understand through patient questioning, face to face, instead of through the expedience of electronic communication.
Has new "bosses" that are driven by shareholder value, that are blind to the rep's family and personal conditions and are less tolerant than ever when a rep has a bad year, quarter, month, or even day.
Must absorb large amounts of new product and application information in order to appropriately represent increasingly complex and larger products and services.
Must deal with the reality of changing compensation rates, which reflect the necessary changes that companies are addressing through new "pay for performance" models.
Must communicate through electronic, verbal and written communication in order to ensure that his company can provide "high touch" service and familiarity.
Must deal with the reality that his company may change ownership, managers, structural changes, etc. at any given time, given the amount of generational change that occurs in privately held businesses, and the ongoing consolidation that occurs to mid-size firms.
Must deal with the reality, (and threat), of integrated supply and commodity management, which take existing customers and contacts and outsources their sourcing decisions, "depersonalizing" decision making and the value the rep has brought to the account. (Often for many years).

In looking at the above bullet points, (and there are in infinite number that are not included which you can add to the mix), how many do you think existed during Willy Loman's time peddling in the mid 20th century?

While many, or all may have existed, perhaps in different form, (like the advent of new green bar computer reports that gave rep's information in formats they never imagined), how many of these points have heightened the stakes, and the associated stress points for the sales rep?

What additional expectations exist for the sales rep, looking within your organization?

While today's rep has more comfort and more advanced tools than during Willy Loman's time, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that his life is necessarily easier or less stressed than Willy Loman. Tragedy, by definition, is the recognition of loss during one's lifetime. It would be tragic, for us to assume that today's sales rep has it easier because of today's comforts. Rather, I contend that his life has added dimensions and pressures that make it ever more challenging. If you recognize this, think of ways to support the sales reps you know to preclude the tragedy of Willy Loman. Technology and advancement may create more comfort for today's rep, however it may lend to greater tragedy if we don't recognize the negatives.

Grover Group LLC is led by Jeffrey Grover, who has an extensive amount of practical wholesale distribution experience. This experience is anchored in his 22-year career at National Paper and Packaging Company, where his major focus was on sales and marketing management.