Sales isn't dead

Sales still matters more than social media

As Frank Cespedes points out in this HBR article (free registration required), companies like Google, Facebook and Groupon have more employees in sales than in technology. This would seem to fly in the face of the (new) conventional wisdom that social media trumps conventional sales techniques.

As Dan Pink points out in his groundbreaking book, To sell is human, one in nine Americans officially work in sales roles.  Furthermore, he argues that the other eight are also involved in sales, just not officially.

Personally I come late to an interest in sales.  Just finished a terrific book, The Art of the Sale by Philip Broughton.  This isn't what it sounds like, but rather is a voyage into the psyche of the salesperson, drawing on Death of a Salesman, some other literary works, and the testimony of some of the top salespeople of all time.  Far from being obsolete, the importance of the ability to convince someone of the value of our offering has never been greater.