A Salesman’s Sympathy for the Politician
Neither are inherently evil. Yet both are very similar.
Sales and Politics have a great deal in common. Some might say, that’s an overstatement of the obvious. Well, perhaps. But I don’t think too many would realize these certain similarities I’m about to flesh out.
I come from a sales background. I have been successful in sales and marketing. Yet I was forced by my own conscience to leave that business, as it was like walking a high wire trying to balance success and ethics. The margin between the two felt microscopically narrow, oftentimes.
One thing people new to sales virtually always have is optimism. They believe they will win over their customers, simply by being friendly, informative, positive, and honest. They believe they will be well-liked, quickly gain trust, and even be able to present hard truths with patient and understanding receptions. They believe they will be different—yes, they will be special. They believe they will become successful by being the guy or gal everyone likes.
But the first week on the sales floor or out in the field, proves to be miserably different than their starry-eyed aspirations anticipated. For starters, nobody trusts them, regardless of how friendly, informative, positive, or honest they were. By their very sales nature, they are hopelessly lying cheats to their customers. Then, their sales bosses demand they do whatever it takes to make a sale, or face everything from shaming in front of the sales team, scare tactics of winding up a penniless failure, and ridicule for not being able to control their customers, to imminent threats of firing. Then there is the incessant psychological manipulation that is presented under the guise of “sales training.”
Once naïve yet enthusiastic and sympathetic new salespeople, they are now fretting that they will never be able to pay their bills, and so they become ravenous wolves. Everyone around them, after all, are also ravenous wolves—their fellow salespeople, their management, and even (in their own minds) the customers, who are now seen as the enemy, a hostile and self-seeking army standing directly in the way of their achieving their goals of financial success and overall happiness.
But, for the tender and mild, each day brings a series of ethical dilemmas and relentless crises of conscience. They find themselves in between the customer they want to serve and the manager they want to please. They know, if they ignore their bosses, they will suffer their wrath; and if they disregard their customers, they will be exposed for their deceitful or manipulative tactics.
Some will harden their hearts. They will learn to “grow a pair.” After all, “it’s us or them.” They will become what they once despised, and a part of the establishment which survives only by replicating its own greedy sharks with those who have developed a taste for blood and can now smell it a mile away. They have been genuinely corrupted.
Politicians are no different. The political world is much like the sales world, in that it takes altruistic and idealistic people who just want to do good for others, and turns them into selfish, greedy, power-hungry liars whose only goal is to benefit themselves. And should they ever come out of their stupor and simply ask a reasonable question, they not only question the policy or practice itself, but the very policymakers and practitioners who are considered the foundation of all authority and principle.
I believe there are good, decent politicians at every level of government, who have either become victims of their own compromise, or who fight the system to the point of exhaustion and eventual demise. The public, nevertheless, hates them, no matter what they do. The establishment, on the other hand, embraces them, as long as they only do what they’re told.
In sales, it’s not exclusively the fault of the salesperson for caving to the pressure; nor the boss’s for applying the pressure; but it’s also partly the customer’s fault, for placing extraordinary demands on the salesperson, the services he offers, and the desires of his own unreasonable heart.
Accordingly, voting citizens place harsh demands on their elected officials; no wonder they get lied to on a regular basis. Who could tell them the truth? They either ignore it, or deny it, or pretend they accept it when it’s not enough to get them to the polls. They don’t want the truth—they want to hear what they want to hear. They want what they want. They are their own problem, which no politician—no matter how great—can ultimately fix.
There are politicians speaking the truth, but they’re not the populists. They’re not even popular at all. They do not have a cult of personality. They only have truth. But voters are far too inoculated to the truth, to ever recognize it.
I’ve had customers tell me I’m lying, when I was honest with them (even at the risk of losing my job). So, I was compelled to go one of only two ways: either the way of saying, “Fine. Here’s a lie. I hope you choke on it, while I’m spending your money from the sale”; or the way of saying, “Fine. Buy from somebody else. I’d rather sleep well at night, even if it’s on the streets.” I confess, I’ve done both. But I realized, I’m neither a salesperson nor a politician.
And yet, I have sympathy for both. I also have sympathy for the customer, and the voter. And I think that’s the point of this discussion. There needs to be sympathy in our understanding of things. It’s not as simple as, “All salespeople are liars,” or “all politicians are corrupt.” There must be a willingness to see the nuances that are there.
How can we demand of our politicians to act justly, if we cannot act justly toward them?
I’m not, by any stretch of the imagination, advocating for excusing politicians’ bad behavior. I am saying, their job is tough, grueling. They have an incomprehensible pressure placed on them by the establishment, that would likely break most of us. They have a constituency they are dutifully trying to serve, yet like a massage therapist wearing handcuffs. Many don’t actually lie when they address the public—they merely speak in ways that the people can handle, to not cause overreaction or even panic, though none should be warranted in the first place. It makes sense for an overly unrealistic and demanding population.
As far as I’m concerned, that narrow margin on which politicians balance, is fierce and taxing. I know, firsthand, as a former salesperson. And American citizens are tired, too, so much, we’ve all become quite punchy.
There’s an easier way. It’s the way of truth. When all sides can accept it, all sides will be able to speak it.