Salesman Documentary Review

Salesman (1969)

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Directed by: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
Starring: Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker, Raymond Martos
Rated: G
Watch the trailer

Plot
Four dogged door-to-door Bible salesmen travel from Boston to Florida on a seemingly futile quest to sell luxury editions of the Good Book to working-class Catholics. 

Verdict
This portrays the hardships of sales, but it's not like these guys are selling a product that's easy to demonstrate. Nor is it an encyclopaedia set that so many households bought. What is the inherent value of the book when most families that would want one already have one? I was curious how these salesman ended up here, but we don't get that. I expected high pressure sales techniques, but that's not really the focus either. Instead of an inside look at sales it's more just a day in the life, and it's not all that exciting of a day.
Skip it.

Review
Door to door sales is tough regardless of the product. Selling bibles is an extra layer of difficulty. It seems like the basis for a comedy skit more than anything else. Part of selling is demonstrating the product, and there just isn't a lot to show off with this book. What most of the salesman come back to are the full color depictions at the back. Salesmen attend meetings where they're encouraged and given pep talks. We see them trying to sell bibles, and that's contrasted with them gambling at night in their free time.

I don't even know how you would sell a bible. The very fact they're selling it seems strange, as I always imagined it was easy to get one. I expected some kind of sales meeting or demonstration to aid them getting in the door and then getting a sale, but we don't get that. The only recourse a salesman has is some kind of guilt trip for not buying. So many items sold door to door have a specific benefit, but with this book you can only get out what you put in. It helps that when this took place demographics skewed more religious.

Paul Brennan, Charles McDevitt, James Baker

The black and white as well as the fashion is what dates this. Door to door sales still persists. People are desperate to make a buck. Now sales has been replaced with the gig economy and apps facilitating such jobs. I doubt it's a coincidence that all of these men are on the older side. I'd like for the movie to explore how they ended up in this job.

Nearly every scene depicts a salesman playing a part, trying to convince people to buy something they likely don't need and possibly don't want. It's the lament of the salesman. You can't get in the door. If you do, they don't want to buy. If they do want to buy, they don't have any money. One woman even tells a salesman she wishes he was selling encyclopedias instead.

I expected this to delve into techniques and approaches, coaching them on how to overcome objections. I assumed the drama would be the salesman struggling to meet quotas. We don't even learn about their backgrounds. How did these guys end up in this job? Why do they stay in it? There's so much more to what we see. I want this to answer the fundamental question of how to sell a bible. All this provides are the salesman touting the glossy, full color, inserts. That's just not enough in any sense.

Title Card