In my home town, being a salesman is the easy way to get rich and gain respect. 1 But this was exactly the job that I wanted to run away from when I was young. Not because I don’t like money, but because I don’t like convincing people. You might have a good product. But if you can’t convince people that they need your product, you are doomed.
I didn’t want to be a salesman 2. So what did I choose? I became an academic. But twenty plus years later, I realize the job of being an academic is not that different from being a salesman. Only I can’t get filthy rich: The trading usually does not involve money. Even if it’s about money, it does not go into my pocket directly. 3 You probably will earn more or less the same, when you are mediocre academic salesman or elite academic salesman. The only bad thing would happen when you are underperforming academic salesman: You have to work elsewhere.
Let’s start from the beginning. I need a PhD. Not only I need to have the resource and devolution, I also need to be a salesman to sell my profile to the recruitment committee. OK, now I am finishing my PhD and I need that piece of paper. Not only I need to have done good research and have written a good PhD thesis, I also need to be a salesman to convince the thesis committee that I have done some good work and deserve that piece of paper.
Now I am Dr whatever and I need a job. Not only I need to have 11 grants on my CV, I also need to be a salesman to convince the recruitment committee I am a good fit for the job. Now I am a researcher and I have done some good research; and I need to publish it. Not only I need to have a good paper, I also need to be a salesman to convince the associate editor and reviewers of a journal that my paper is great. Also need to do the same thing for the reviewers of conferences. I also need to be a salesman at the conference to do a fantastic demo of my product, namely, my research. I need to network at these conferences to broaden my possible clients or possible business partners.
Now I am an educator and I need to teach my students. Not only I need to be able to teach, I also need to be a salesman to make my students happy when I sell them my knowledge. Now I need some research fund for my project. Not only I need to have a good research proposal, I also need to be a salesman to convince the reviewers that my project deserves to be funded.
You have to be a celebrity because being a celebrity sells. You have to be on social media, you have to be on the news, you have to be on podcasts, you have to have your own podcast. You have to have your own newsletter to send your thought to your clients. But probably you don’t need to have a blog. Because no one reads blogs.
Some bad attempts to be a salesman is to teach someone to be a salesperson. See, this blog rarely talks about how to do better research. Instead, this blog mostly talks about the salesperson-side of the academia. Let’s say, this, this, this, this, this, and this.
After so many years in this business, I think I have to confront my feeling about this. Of course, it is important to have a good product, be it a research paper, a proposal, a software, a lecture, a service plan, anything. However, having a good product does not mean I can sell it to my clients. The failure can mean many things: The product is not good enough, the prior of my clients is too strong and they don’t like it, or simply because I suck at selling. As I don’t know the reason and all I can get is the news about the failure, I always assume it’s me who fucks up. Of course, it doesn’t feel good. Especially when the product is not only mine, it’s perhaps the fantastic work of my coworkers. My comrades. It’s not because I am not tough enough to face my own failure. In fact, it’s because I know where the weakest link is.
Remember the motto of this business: The customer is always right. Not you. Not I.
In my home town, those jobs are not called being a salesman (or saleswoman). Instead, there is a Chinguish term for that: “Sell Si” (the Cantonese-inspired pronounciation of “Sales”). And in general, it is not talking about being a salesperson at a drugstore, but rather selling bags at LV; doing telesales or selling a flat or bond or derivative or cryptocurrency. Because these jobs can get you a lot of money fast and money equals to respect there, so it is the easy way to gain respect. There are of course other ways to gain respect in my home town, such as being a loyalist of the party. But I think being an academic is not. ↩
I will use the non-gender neutral noun “salesman” throughout this piece. Not because I am against the gender-neutral language such as using “salesperson”. But because this piece is mostly about my feeling and I see myself as a fail salesman. Please don’t fit yourself into this framing. It is designed to be not inclusive. ↩
Well, I am talking about countries where there is no corruption. ↩