Sales People - Modern Hunter/Gatherers

Sales as a throwback to hunter-gatherers

I was sitting in a rather long teleconference that is regularly held among our company’s sales team when I had a revelation.

The sales director sitting next to me, who is a very bright and engaging guy, started fidgeting in his chair, to the point of actually lifting himself up off the seat to crack his back. With a guilty smile, he said, “I’m antsy…have ADD”.

And my immediate response was “No you’re not, you’re just normal”. As the teleconference continued to swirl on, I reflected on the specifics of the salesperson’s role. In today’s modern business world, it seems that salespeople are the throwbacks to the hunter-gatherers of our beginnings as a civilization. We’re not all built for the traditional stay-at-home, 9-to-5 position, and we still have those impulses that kept us alive thousands of years ago.

I’ve always considered it unreasonable for society to expect anyone, be it a 6-year-old in first grade or a high level executive stuck in an all-day meeting, to sit still and be quiet and have their full attention on whatever’s going on. We’re human. We’re designed to be up and about and interacting on a regular basis, not just sitting and staring at a teacher of a projector screen.

If we adapted the ways we conduct ourselves personally and professional to the needs of our basic human functions, I think the incidences of ADD and such would drop ENORMOUSLY.

Thankfully, however, there are still plenty of jobs for those of us who like to wreak havoc from inside the office. :-)