The Businessperson's Dilemma: To Wear the Rolex or Not!


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?


More Resources

Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

More Sales Management Information:

Related Articles

Commodity Sales Prospecting - How to Stand Out From Your Competitors
I have received a number of requests for advice from salespeople and sales managers that sell "commodity" products and services. When I refer to commodities, I don't just mean pork bellies or frozen concentrated orange juice.
The Achilles Heel of Management Coaching
While heading home at day's end, you begin reflecting on a coaching meeting you had earlier that day with an employee, Chris. You hope that, this time, you finally succeeded in getting her to understand the importance of spending less time in disruptive socializing in the office and more time elevating her performance.
How to Sell Strategically
If you want to maximize your sales performance, take a strategic approach to selling. After all, wouldn't you agree that "the 80/20 rule" applies to customers, where approximately 20 percent of customers produce approximately 80 percent of sales?The starting point for strategic selling is figuring out a) which customers produce the bulk of your sales, and b) what they are buying.
5 Secrets to Managing Your Sales Manager Productively
Many people believe that the main reason for representatives leaving their organisation is that of money in that they leave for a bigger salary. In fact, the biggest reason why people leave organisations is that the role they are doing is no longer offering any challenge or excitement.
Is Sales Process & CRM Stopping Sales?
Standard metrics and KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) are created usually between The Sales Director, The Financial Director and The Managing Director. These KPI's tell the sales teams what they should be doing.
14 Top Lead Generation Tactics
According to former Harvard Business School professor David Maister, typical marketing practices are not only inapplicable for professional service firms, but they may be dangerously wrong.Often professional service firm principals tell me they are frustrated with the quality of their marketing materials, they are concerned with their firm's low profile or they feel pressure because their efforts are not generating enough new client leads.
6 Steps to Avoid Losing Summer Sales
It's a fact - the online world dies down in the summer time. Kids are out of school, families are on vacation, there's fairs to attend to, and many are just spending too much time outside to be online.
A Fracas in the Franchise - Keep Your Customers by Keeping Your Workers
As a previous owner of a Franchise I know the importance of maintaining employee commitment, loyalty and enthusiasm in maximising customer satisfaction, generating positive customer perception and protecting your investment.Repeat business is the life-blood of any business worth its salt.
Is Your Sales Trust Factor High Enough to Win Against the Competition?
How high is your sales trust factor?Is it higher than the sales trust factor of your competition?It should be, if you want to increase your success in sales.Your trust factor represents the level of trust that buyers have in you as a seller.
Drop Discounts and Earn Top Dollar
Every dollar you discount is a dollar of pure profit you're giving away. Therefore, your efforts to remove discounts will be richly rewarded.
The Nine Warning Signs that You Need a Sales Video
Corporate videos are an important sales tool that can often be overlooked in marketing budgets.We look at the top nine tell-tale signs that indicate whether your company is in need of an innovative and effective way to promote itself.
How To Build A Worldwide Distributor Network
When your product is market ready and has a good bargain, it will be no value to you if you don't know who's going to buy it, or how you are going to tell the world about it. Your product will only sell if it has a good wide distribution network.
Getting Off The Advertising And Sales Rollercoaster
Seeing the results of advertising your business can be like watching a roller coaster. The day you run your ad you see a flurry of activity; your ph0ne starts ringing, your web site traffic increases and/ or potential clients visit your store.
10 Things to Help Your Business When Sales Are Slow During the Holidays
Twiddling your thumbs and waiting for some business to come in? Why not use this downtime to set yourself up for greater success in the new year? Here are my 10 picks, but you don't have to do them all. Even doing just one will get you another rung higher on your business ladder.
Sales & Marketing Plan Strategies
Design and Implementation of a new Sales & Marketing campaign must be carefully thought through from the beginning. What message do you want to send about your company, products, and services? What are the anticipated results? What is the execution strategy? What is the cost ratio versus expected return?These are just a few of the questions that run through our minds in the early stages of planning.
Pointless Targets
I recall a heated discussion with a sales director some time ago where I proposed that the long-term effect of setting activity targets for salespeople would eventually lead to failure. He vehemently made the point that he had systematically imposed activity targets on his sales force and that the result had been to treble average income per salesperson within 18 months.
3 Ways to Increase Your Sales
Last week I got a call from Jose, who was looking for help improving his ads. He'd been running the same ad in four local papers for two months and only gotten one response.
Increasing Business Through Distributors
You're a small company with a good product. You are confident that the product can sell, but you don't have the financial resources to hire a team of fifty salespeople to market and sell the product for you.
The Hardest Job Of A Trade Show
You've heard this before: There were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
Shorten Sales Cycles in Complex Sales Environments
Help buyers discover the answers they need to understand and align all of their decision variables.In complex sales, salespeople often find themselves negotiating their way through a web of decision influencers, conflicting initiatives, and multiple priorities.