MUSINGS and other writing by Mark Kolke

. . . . . . there is no edge to openness

TODAY'S MUSINGS

FEEDBACK / COMMENTS

MARK SPEAKS

ARCHIVED COLUMNS

ARCHIVE WINTER 2022-23

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2022

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2022

ARCHIVE SPRING 2022

ARCHIVE WINTER 2021-22

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2021

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2021

ARCHIVE SPRING 2021

ARCHIVE WINTER 2020-21

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2020

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2020

ARCHIVE SPRING 2020

ARCHIVE WINTER 2019-20

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2019

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2019

ARCHIVE SPRING 2019

ARCHIVE WINTER 2018-19

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2018

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2018

ARCHIVE SPRING 2018

ARCHIVE WINTER 2017-18

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2017

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2017

ARCHIVE SPRING 2017

ARCHIVE WINTER 2016/17

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2016

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2016

ARCHIVE SPRING 2016

ARCHIVE WINTER 2015/16

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2015

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2015

ARCHIVE SPRING 2015

ARCHIVE WINTER 2014/15

ARCHIVE AUTUMN 2014

ARCHIVE SUMMER 2014

ARCHIVE SPRING 2014

ARCHIVE WINTER 2013/14

CONTACT

MY REAL ESTATE LIFE

WHY I WRITE MUSINGS

SHORT STORY PROJECT

POETRY PROJECT

MARK'S SPEAKING TIPS

SELECTED OTHER WORK

SELLING, MORE ALIVE THAN DEAD

Tuesday Apr. 3, 2018

Sales, marketing, advertising, commerce, trade – all the same, right?

I was pondering Death of a Salesman. We all remember that Pulitzer Prize winning Arthur Miller play, right? Or maybe you just remember the movie – done a couple of times.  Complex tale of man rendered obsolete in his field – by times and circumstance and character flaws …

Today we have technology opening endless frontiers of opportunity while at the same time slamming closed so many doors that used to mean jobs, careers and futures. Not death of any particular field, but change erodes much of what used to be ‘essentials of the craft’ especially for salesmen. Saleswomen too …

Product knowledge and selling skills are in many cases unnecessary luxuries that has been priced out of commodities; first replaced by clerks without skill, further eroded by self-service retailing, B-to-B commerce. In the point/click world ‘everybody can have all the information’, shipping is speedy and costs are driven lower and lower. As our expectation that people we contact will have deep knowledge of their product, of customer problems or the skill to sell or solve …

It’s like that sign at Wal-mart – ‘reducing prices every day’ – one wonders if we should come back when they reach zero …

Selling is largely a lost art – still available in high-end retail, specialty goods and services and in real estate. I’ve sold goods (footwear was my field), services (office services, process serving, property management, receiverships, collections, publishing) and real estate (sales, leasing, consulting, P3, land assembly). I’ve been selling since I was 17. Today it’s writing, speaking, coaching, publishing and real estate.

Tomorrow, meaning the future, will likely seem me add new things to my repertoire – probably still selling, always selling something. We all do, one way or another, don’t we? Unless we are giving (volunteering) our time and labour away, we are selling our services. Technology and new industries are rendering so many jobs/careers and processes obsolete – every day. But we shouldn’t feel badly about that – because there are so many new roles/jobs to be filled running businesses that never existed before, selling products that nobody thought of before – and soon those new goods and services will be mainstream. They will disrupt and render many things obsolete. Somewhere, in all of that whirl of trade and commerce, somebody is selling something to someone.

There will always be a Willy Loman losing out. On the other hand, someone will be launching something new – and they will need sales people to tell the story.


SIGN UP get MUSINGS DAILY
For Email Marketing you can trust.

SIGN UP get MUSINGS DAILY
For Email Marketing you can trust.


Thanks for reading. I appreciate feedback, pro and con, and suggestions to help improve this column and this website are always welcomed - usually published the following day under COMMENTS RECEIVED.
 
Please write to me at: kolke@markkolke.com 

sign up to get Musings CLICK HERE

Comments are always welcome - please contribute to the discussion.  Reply to: kolke@markkolke.com

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. This site is updated daily, each column is retained in the archive when the next day's column is loaded ...  


Copyright - all rights reserved - Mark Kolke, © 2003-2023 - MaxComm Communications

- this site is updated daily, new column on main page, older columns archived - use the tabs; last update - 2023 - January, 28