Death of the black salesman

Since the emergence of the economic classes of black diamonds and black emeralds - a steady decline in the number of black sales professionals has emerged.

These new economic classes have given rise to the constant desire, and mostly fool-hearty, understanding that - in order to be successful in life, one has to be a corporate/government executive.
Sales and the art of selling was discarded for the new art of lobbying and rent seeking. 

The common touch made so famous by entrepreneurial juggernauts such as Herman Mashaba, and many more - who started out as sales professionals. Going door-to-door to sell a consumer product. Gaining the necessary skills to propel them into consumer driven businesses.

Reading a post on one if the social networks I am on, I was amazed, OK, maybe even taken aback by the author's debate; his greatest point was the question: "how many black-owned car dealerships are there in South Africa?" Seeing that most buyers of vehicles are black.

This business thrives only on the shoulders of a sales professional - tenders and connections will do you little favour here.

You cannot force the state to buy a fleet of vehicles from you monthly.

This got me thinking further, across all sectors of the economy - the number of black sales professionals has declined. Insurance and financial products seems to be the only one sector that is enjoying increased number. To my opinion, decreased quality of professionals.

In the late 1990's, as democracy dawned and hope for this great land of ours at its peak - in their droves our most educated, talented and ambitions sales professionals vied for the abundantly available jobs in government and new opportunities available to climb the corporate ladders of white South African companies.

Few saw this metanoia as an opportunity to trade further and embark on business opportunities, previously out of reach of black people. It became an opportunity to get into government.
A similar thing happened to the Afrikaner population when South Africa become a republic and the end of English rule. A tide of Afrikaner people moved into government, with the level of entrepreneurship declining to small pockets.

Great lessons can be learnt from this - lessons when learnt, would limit errors and the destruction of a skill that is under appreciated.

At the end of it all, we are all in some or greater degree, sales professionals. Whether we sell ideas, products or buy-in from constituencies.

Let us claim back the role and importance of the black salesman for business in South Africa.