Sales Management Information

By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

You’ve heard the expression that’s says: “Everyone loves a winner!”

But is it true?

Specifically, if you’re a success, and a conspicuous one, as a salesperson, consultant, or businessperson, with all of the goodies to show for it, including a Porsche, London tailored suits and a Rolex, will clients be pleased or will they think your services are too costly?

Likewise, let’s say you’re teaching selling skills. Should you be a persuasive devil, someone with the gift of gab, and be magnetic?

Or, do you need to be merely a teacher, a trainer, someone who can explain and interact well, but not be a star in your own right?

In other words, to be credible and therefore more effective in your assignments, must you talk the talk AND walk the walk?

Opinions differ.

I did a significant, six-figure consulting engagement in Houston. One of my trainees later became a top salesman for a financial services company in Ohio, and on the strength of his recommendation, that company hired me for what also turned out to be a serious six-figure assignment.

He remarked with genuine respect and awe: “Gary, I told them that when we met in Houston you were wearing the most expensive suit I had ever seen in my life!”

True enough, it was VERY expensive and very impressive to him, and I guess that suit paid for itself about 400 times over, with his help, alone.

Clothes surely “made the man” in that case.

But his companies respected high-earning salespeople and executives, and they felt better surrounded by reminders of success and affluence. If I’m good enough to get these things for myself, the logic says, I must be good enough to teach them, right?

But this sentiment isn’t universal. There are companies, quite prosperous ones, where they downplay all indicia of wealth while frowning on displays of opulence.

You can profit from your work with them, but don’t show it.

They could be in a cost-cutting campaign, asking the rank and file to economize, and your obvious displays could seem excessive or even undeserved, and you could engender resentments instead of cooperation.

But modesty has its limits, and overall, I don’t always agree with that famous line from the play and movie, “The Producers;”

“If you’ve got it; flaunt it!”

But suffice it to say that your choices of clothing, jewelry, autos and other things that can be seen easily, will speak volumes about you.

What do YOU want them to say?