By no means do I condone sex trafficking or illegal prostitution, but I do recognize that prostitution regularly produces large quantities of wealth for pimps. Although you may not like to think about it, pimps share a lot of the entrepreneurial drive and mindset that wolves on Wall Street possess.
The Department of Justice funded a research report released in 2014 titled “Estimating the Size and Structure of the Underground Commercial Sex Economy in Eight Major US Cities.” There are three key areas the report focuses on, from which we can learn a lot about effective sales:
- Advertising: Pimps would not be making any money if they couldn’t match their employees with clients. “Common methods and venues of advertisement included online advertisement, walking on the stroll, word of mouth, local print newspapers and phonebooks, business cards, and directly approaching customers in business establishments.”
- Pricing: This is dynamic based on several factors. “Rates varied dramatically across respondents. Price was most commonly determined by amount of time, single date, and/or sex act.”
- Operating Costs: Just like any normal business, pimps also much watch the bottom-line and keep close track of operational costs. “Pimps routinely covered costs associated with employee housing, transportation, employee appearance and personal appearance, advertisements, and hotels and motels. Other business-related legal expenses included bail, and costs associated with arrests and prosecution on charges related to pimping.”
Granted, this isn’t a typical sales post. It does, however, go to show that sales lessons can be extracted from all types of situations, and that almost every profession involves components of sales!
Trinity Blank 
Daniel 
Tessa
While I agree that we’d all rather pimps be less successful at sales, this is an interesting angle on what we’ve been learning. It also is a good reminder that, on a less dramatic scale, to be careful about the professions we choose. I doubt any of our classmates would go into the commercial sex business; however, it is important to fully believe in the product you are selling. I had a successful businessman tell me he could never work for Coca Cola because he thought they sold sugar-water. College is a great time to determine your values and standards before facing the hard job choices.
This is a very interesting way to look at sales – I never would have though of this. Sales is something that we see allover the place, even in shady deals.