Dead Time

At any given time of the day or night, in every country around the globe, there are thousands of anonymous sales people, frantically journeying from place to place, each pursuing that all-important deal closing sales meeting. Lost in the flow of everyday traffic, these voyages remain both primarily invisible and largely unacknowledged, yet they are an inextricable aspect of the smooth functioning of the global economic system. All successful sales people know that the old sales maxim,...
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At any given time of the day or night, in every country around the globe, there are thousands of anonymous sales people, frantically journeying from place to place, each pursuing that all-important deal closing sales meeting. Lost in the flow of everyday traffic, these voyages remain both primarily invisible and largely unacknowledged, yet they are an inextricable aspect of the smooth functioning of the global economic system. All successful sales people know that the old sales maxim, 'people buy from people' is as valid today as it ever was, for they are patently aware that even in this high-speed digital age of web-based sales and marketing, the truly major sales decisions only get taken when you are face to face with the customer. Conversely, any other work based activity that does not involve physical face time, no matter how critical it is to the final outcome, is simply known as 'dead time', which is estimated at 80% of sales peoples' working day.Through shadowing the daily journeys of a number of sales people, this body of work seeks to explore this dead time, largely spent in transitory spaces en route to meetings. Like a parody of the American road trip, which promises freedom through discovery, here we see sales people travelling theses routes in pursuit of very different objectives. Where this constantly shifting population momentarily inhabit real, and pop-up virtual offices, feeding off the free Wi-Fi in motorway coffee shops and burger joints in their attempt to conduct commerce, and at the same time, keep in contact with Head Office, whilst endeavouring to ascend the precarious career ladder of this extremely isolating and at times desolate occupation.Jim Mc Keever