COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

How many of your advertising salespeople are on a pure salary program?

Of those, how many of them will get to keep their jobs regardless of production?
Recruiting is sales. Recruiters are taught how to prospect, qualify, and close. Same as other sales jobs.

Sales can be fun and rewarding. But sales is also tough. It can be stressful. Especially during a market downturn such as our recruiters are experiencing.*

Some salespeople will succeed. Many, perhaps most, will fail. And when they do, their failure has personal consequences as well as professional ones. Failing salespeople have family troubles too, because they don't earn good money. And successful salespeople have family problems, because they work long hours, which is probably the biggest reason they are successful.

Military recruiting offices are no different. They don't function that differently from any other outside sales office. I wonder if the Times would ever consider running such a maudlin story about the people in its own advertising department. Given the recent circulation scandals (which don't affect the Times, as far as I know, to its credit), the newspaper advertising sales force is going through pressures of its own, and reacting in similar ways.

I think this reporter would benefit from spending time working in a commissioned sales office. Maybe Kirby vacuum cleaners.

At the very least, he should go rent two movies: "Tin Men," and Glengarry Glenn Ross."

I still walk past my recruiters office when I see him and recite Alec Baldwin's sales motivation speech from Glenngarry:

"Third prize is you're fired!!!"

*I should say that for all the newspaper accounts telling me how terrible everything is, my own numbers in my unit are definitely trending upward. I've got a great recruiter, but also great junior leaders that soldiers want to work for. Plus, where I've got a less, ummm, popular leader on his way to retiring, don't think I don't have a tickle file ready to bring in all the people who left his element in the last couple of years. Those are super soldiers and I want them back, soon!

Here's how the conversation goes:

"Hello, John Smith, please."

"Speaking."

"Smith!!!! Captain Van!! How's things!?"

"Sir! Wow, you made Captain. Congratulations!"

"Yeah, thank you. Just checking in with my peeps. What are you up to these days? School? Work? How's the family? Still married to the stripper?"

"Blah blah blah blah"

"Ok. Hey, look, Smith, I got a question for you."

"What's that?"

"Ever see a movie called "The Blues Brothers?"

"Of course!"

"I'm putting the band back together."

:-)

Splash, out

Jason