The Grass Doctor

why does a salesperson working for the manufacturers of lawn care products need a good chemistry background?

Public Comments

1. I think that honestly, such a salesperson needs a chemistry background for the same reason a chemist needs a good background in American History: it makes the salesperson sound and feel more well-rounded, which makes them better able to sound like they are intelligent and know their product. I think a scientific education, in chemistry, zoology, physics, or whatever, simply helps a person learn to think more linearly and inegrate information into discussion. In a similarly complementary fashion, an arts and history education makes a chemist more able to think nonlinearly. Granted, there really isn't a reason for a salesperson to know specifically that d8 metal centers prefer square planar geometries in metal complexes in order to sell lawn care products. A customer can tell in conversation, though, whether or not you "know stuff," which is to say that you know more than the customer about something, anything. Just having more scientific knowledge in your head is a good thing for that reason alone. It might sound good to be able to know and say that the structures of many weed killers are in the same class of molecules as nerve gases, so they're darn poisonous. Something like that to make the stuff sound cool.