[Peroni]

tl;dr: Believe in your product and don't be afraid to charge appropriately.

All solid advice and adding more to the 'believe in your product' concept, the reasoning for this is incredibly simplistic. If you are attempting to sell something you don't believe adds any value or benefit, it will be instantly obvious in your pitch unless you happen to be a fantastic liar and that's what led to the stereotype of the used-car salesman.

Minor nitpick: Mamet was never attempting to present Roma as a fantastic salesman. He knows the audience can see the deceitfulness. He's actually showing a 'behind-the-scenes' view of how liars have gained the edge in the sales world.

[swombat]

Re: Mamet, interesting, I didn't know that. Any reference to that? If so I'll put an update in!

[luu]

I mostly agree with your take over Mamet's, but that's how Mamet views capitalism.

Here's Mamet on the themes in the play: http://www.upstartfilmcollective.com/portfolios/jcharnick/ma...

The play concerns how business corrupts, how the hierarchical business system tends to corrupt. It becomes legitimate for those in power in the business world to act unethically. The effect on the little guy is that he turns to crime. And petty crime goes punished; major crimes go unpunished. If someone wants to destroy Manhattan for personal gain, they call him a great man. Look at Delorean. He completely raped everybody in Northern Ireland with that scheme ... a lot of business in this country is founded on the idea that if you don't exploit the possible opportunity, not only are you being silly, but in many cases you're being negligent, even legally negligent.

He seems to be of the opinion that it's a corrupt system, and that people in the system are inevitably corrupted: http://www.hanknuwer.com/writing/hankanddavid.html

This play is very much about work and about how one is altered by one's job. ... I felt he was doing his job--doing the job of a sales manager. The job of a sales manager is not to empathize. Irrespective of whether or not it's a "good" job or whether he likes his job is not the point; his job is to inspire, frighten, tempt, cajole, and do any other thing he can do to increase sales. When things fall apart he indulges in the very human propensity to play catch-up ball; because people have been abusing him throughout the play.

I like Mamet's work, but, in general, I try to avoid listening when authors and artists talk about politics, because they're usually not better informed than the average freshman in a poli-sci or econ class, and that colors my view of their work. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mamet's view is nuanced. He specifically says "a lot of business", and I can't disagree there, though we would probably disagree on the precise meaning of "a lot".

I suspect a lot of that is a generational gap. When I look around and I see swombat-style salesmen competing with Mamet-style salesmen, I see Mamet-style businesses getting wiped out. CarMax is cleaning up by getting rid of high pressure sales tactics. It's so bad that around here, multiple car dealerships that used to employ armies of annoying sales people (which I know from firsthand experience) have taken out billboards saying they'll match CarMax's prices and that their sales people no longer work on commission. Barnes & Noble and Borders wiped out traditional booksellers by providing a better experience, and they're getting wiped out by amazon providing an even more convenient experience. I could go on for pages with examples off the top of my head, but I have to really think to come up with examples where a business with a 'traditional' sales model of conning people into something they don't want is eating the lunch of a business that's really trying to give people what they want.

[Peroni]

That's exactly what I was looking for.

Mamet's point holds true to this day. Take any high-pressure sales role. Your employer doesn't care how much benefit you've added to peoples lives, they care about the numbers. Customer satisfaction isn't indicative of a job well done in sales, quantity is. Whilst this concept seems blatantly immoral, it's reality.

Swombats post was aimed at start-ups and his point that someone selling on behalf of a start-up should truly believe in their product is spot on however, in the big, bad corporate world it becomes irrelevant.

[theorique]

Always be closing.