Teaching and Salesmanship

"Oh, we don't want to learn anything from them!"

Even I cringe at the title, and I just wrote it. Mentioning of salespeople brings to mind an unpleasant experience of being harassed on the phone, on the way out of a supermarket, and when considering buying a used car. Occasionally, a salesman sells me a piece of junk, and after a day or two I find myself cursing both him and myself. Clearly this is not what I have in mind when I think of where teaching should go. There is also a good (as in non-evil) model of salesmanship: A financial adviser suggested to me a certain mix of financial tools for keeping a sum of money, and I went ahead and used it. A year later, I am still happy with that choice. A mattress salesman showed me a few options that he said would be good for me, and I bought one. Six months later, I am still happy with the choice. So, we can distinguish between a good sale and a bad sale by how happy the purchaser is after a while. A good sale makes everybody feel they did the right thing - even in the morning after.

Another type of selling that occurs often is that of selling an idea or a plan. "Let's go to the movies" is part of a sales pitch. Now the person interested in selling the plan needs to get the other person from a state of not-having-thought-about-it, to a state of wanting-to-go-to-the-movies. One way is to badger the poor soul (please please please please please) until they crack and agree. That's evil salesmanship. A different way is to find reasons why the other party would like to go to a movie: Maybe there is a particular movie they wanted to see; Maybe the movie can be restful; Maybe something else - good salesmanship is very personal. A naturally good salesperson often has a knack for finding what it is the other person would appreciate and want, and to find how it can be combined with what the salesperson wants. The best ones are quite empathic.

This is not the only possible way to look at teaching, but one useful model for teaching, is that of good salesmanship of ideas. The very first idea that needs to be sold to the students is: "It is good for you to learn this." Most of my teachers over the years believed they are teaching me something that is good for me to learn. In very few instances, the idea made it across to me. So, why did I study? They used a whole set of sales technique: Threatening, Badgering, Bribing, Inducing a sense of guilt and insecurity, Dubious claims of relevance, ... Sounds horrible? Sounds familiar? None of the teachers I ever knew were evil, but most of their techniques were.

In addition to getting students to buy into the idea of the importance of studying the subject matter, the teacher then needs to convey many messages and ideas for the students to accept willingly - or reject thoughtfully. There is constant selling of ideas going on, which is not easy. In mass schooling, another factor is the fact that the teacher needs to sell the same idea to a whole class of students at the same time, when each of the students may be in a different state of mind, so how can a personal sale be made? Some people can fire up a crowd. I had very few teachers who could. Here is another challenge for education, if we didn't had enough: How to make all teachers good sales people?

Continuing the analogy with the world of business: How do you make the job of salespeople easier and more effective? It's all in the marketing:

• A good product: What it is that we teach? What details are important for all students to acquire? What details can be left aside?


• A great value proposition for the students: What does a student get for the trouble of studying a lesson, a subject, at school in general?


• A good sales-kit: Up-to-date books; Physical teaching aids; Access to a super salesperson for help when needed


• An ongoing training program: Keep teachers up to date with the changing teaching material; Practice techniques to convey the particular ideas


• An effective feedback system: Measure the success of teaching each subject matter, in the system as a whole, and for each teacher. Learn from the results of the measurements

Human endeavor has many facets and disciplines. Each of them is advanced in some respects, and lagging in other respects. At this point in time - early 21st century - Education can benefit from looking at certain business practices, such as Sales & Marketing. It would be strange if the establishment in charge of teaching avoided learning from others.