It's easy to forget that before the advent of big−box superstores where customers go in, find what they want, pay and leave — before the advent of the Internet, where in−person advice is replaced with online reviews — salespeople played an integral role in the shopping experience.
But the growth stunt of sales employment that has taken place over the first decade of the 21st century does not reflect the job market through the second half of the last century, when sales was one of the fastest−growing American jobs.
While the traditional American salesman has not yet vanished, he is certainly being marginalized, leaving a generation that grew up with him as a role model asking, "Where have all the salesmen gone?"
Not long ago, customers would find a salesperson, explain what they were looking for and be treated to personalized shopping assistance, according to Professor of Economics Lynne Pepall. This exchange often included salespeople spending 20 to 30 minutes explaining the benefits of a certain product, and the price of the sales pitch would be accounted for in the price of the product actually being sold, often resulting in increased costs, Pepall, who is also the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said.
The Internet has made product information about a large variety of brands easily accessible, allowing consumers to be better informed and slowly phasing out the need for salespeople. The very products sold in these stores have become available for purchase without ever having to leave the house.
Still, the shift from in−person to online shopping necessitated that Americans trust and actively decide to use the Internet for business.
"It's only been in the last five years or so that customers have become comfortable making purchases online," Pamela Goldberg, the director of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program at the Tufts Gordon Institute, said. It began with the online purchase of books from Amazon.com, she said.
"Books are safe — you know what you're getting," Goldberg said. "We've learned to trust the quality of online purchases. Just about everybody uses the Internet now."
Yet, as the Internet has become the consumer's best friend, it has also become the traditional salesperson's worst enemy.
"People can always check online for what prices ought to be, which is the general phenomenon with the increased use of the Internet," Professor of Economics George Norman, the William and Joyce Cummings Family Chair of Entrepreneurship and Business Economics, said.
Still, Goldberg emphasized that while face−to−face sales may be on the decline in the age of Internet shopping, online sales are not. In fact, she said, the Internet is one of the best tools for facilitating the growth of the sales and marketing industries.
"It used to be that the company comes to the consumer," Goldberg said. "That still exists, but it's a shrinking component. Now companies are spending a lot more money on online marketing."
Companies will frequently make use of "inbound marketing," which is a process of search optimization that makes certain companies or organizations appear among the first results of related Google searches, she said. The Internet also facilitates communication with a larger audience.
"You can be in touch with so many more people — directly or indirectly — than you ever could with direct sales," Goldberg said.
While the Internet is certainly the driving factor in the decline of traditional, in−person sales, the decrease can also be attributed to a cultural shift, some students said.
Freshman Monica Weber said that people of college age might not find jobs in face−to−face sales appealing because they might be uncomfortable not knowing whom they'll encounter on the job. Contact with the unknown is disconcerting or even frightening to many people, she said.
"Americans as a whole have lost a sense of community," Weber said.
Goldberg agreed, explaining that safety is also a concern for many people who work with strangers.
"The culture has changed, and security issues are more paramount," she said.
Others believe that while online sales will continue to replace traditional sales as the dominant form of business transaction, the demand for a creative human factor in sales will always exist.
The role of the salesperson in a globally interconnected age will, without a doubt, have to adapt to new forums of communications, Norman said, but the need for creative people to develop innovative ways to reach and sway customers will not disappear.
"Future salespeople really have got to know their product," Norman said. "They have to not only be able to sell but also be really well−informed."
"The sales profession will never die out," he said, "because we still need people to persuade consumers to buy the product."
