The Sales of Dwight Shrute

Do you watch “The Office?” If so, do you care about the sales aspect? Or do you care about the comedy? Chances are, you care about the comedy. What if I told you that the reason that some of the comedy is funny to us is because of our inherent knowledge of sales? Take Dwight Shrute for example. He is a unique individual. He is direct, blunt, and generally…socially unaware. We see Dwight use a variety of sales techniques. Sometimes, he approaches a sales situation by focusing on the customer. (We have learned in class that this is the correct way to approach a sale). We sometimes see Dwight talking to clients about their family, work, the weekend, etc. Other times, Dwight is aggressive and pushy with a sale. This often results in him getting hung up on.

The reason we find Dwight funny is because of the way he conducts his sales calls. We know that being pushy and aggressive in sales is wrong because we know we would not want to be sold to in that way. We can anticipate the reaction that Dwight will get from potential clients when he uses these methods, but in an odd way, we kind of pull for him. We see throughout the course of the show that Dwight has the potential to be a great salesperson, and every once in a while, we get a peek into a very caring side of him.

The knowledge of sales we all have comes from a life of experiencing sales. It is easy for us to see what is wrong in sales situations, as well as to recognize the power of a good sale. Because we see Dwight make good sales sometimes, we pull for him to make good sales all the time…but when he doesn’t, it’s comical!