Selling - Part II

I had my 30th birthday in New York.  I had won a sales competition and that was the prize; to attend a big conference there.  It was a turning point in my life.  Unlike British companies, whose managing directors were usually engineers or accountants, it appeared that all the CEO's of US companies were salesmen.  If they hadn't exactly come out of the ranks, they called themselves salesmen.  It was very refreshing.  I was offered a job and accepted, but the process of acquiring a green card was so long I had almost forgotten about it 15 months after it became available.  By then I was chasing a new position back in the UK

About this time I met a man who was a senior veterinary surgeon for the government.  During a conversation about our various jobs, I had used one of the old euphemisms for selling, like "area manager," and he said: "Oh, you're a company representative!"  I admitted it.  To which he told me this: "Soon after I left university, I was in a hotel with my old professor, and I noticed a number of extremely well dressed young men around. (this was in the days when there were virtually no women in the work force outside secretaries - sorry, ladies!)  I mentioned to my professor that maybe they were shooting a film there as there were so many of these smart young men.  He said no, they were company representatives to which I replied: 'Oh you mean they're just salesmen!'  He then said that I had underestimated their positions, as in fact they were hand-picked to represent their companies, rather like ambassadors.  He then said that the best person to represent a company was the managing director, but usually he was too occupied with so many other duties that he had to have personal representatives to do it for him.  So these men were chosen for that role."

I have had many young men and women join me for selling careers, and since that day I have always told them about this conversation I had so many years ago.