Sales
DEATH OF A SALESMAN… And the Impact of Denial by John Ace Underwood
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This article isn’t about a play written by Arthur Miller in 1948, about the life and failures of a salesman by the name of Willy Loman. While the play revolves around success, failures, delusions of grandeur, I will focus on his perpetual cycle of denial and draw some parallels between this character and a reality in which so many sales professionals find themselves cemented in, usually totally unaware. More and more major purchases are made by the consumers without the assistance or interference of a “salesperson”. One only has to look at the auto industry, conventional site builders, and the evolution of online representatives to see evidence of this shift. In the factory-built housing industry, the profession of selling, as we know it, is a dying profession. If one chooses to ignore changes in technology, changes in marketing, changes in how people think, shop, and buy, this profession has no significant future, and for many of you, this will be a hard pill to swallow, but no less accurate. Knowing that you are becoming obsolete is never good news. Manufacturers have discovered that sales organizations, independent or not, have always been the weakest link in the distribution chain. Poorly hired, trained, and managed sales organizations providing an underwhelming customer experience have been a primary culprit in our inability to take our rightful place in the affordable housing space.
74 | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2021 EDITION
