On sales and marketing

Today’s class was the last for the investment banking class that meets every Monday for four hours. We spent the day discussing the 2002 situation where Hershey’s was up for sale and potential suitors included Wrigley’s, Kraft, and Cadbury Schweppes.

In March when investment banker Gary W. Parr spoke to our class via teleconference, he talked about some of the skills that have made him successful. He said (paraphrasing because I lost my notes) “if I can’t convince a client why my team is better at analyzing a deal than everybody else in town, I have lost a client.” I thought about that yesterday when I talked to a friend from college. He now works for a high power finance firm in Boston and recently had the opportunity to overhear a conversation between the chairman of his firm and another passenger on an airplane. The passenger asked what the chairman does for a living and the chairman’s answer was very telling. He did not say he worked in finance. Nor did he say he worked in mergers and acquisitions. And it was not investment banking neither. He told the passenger he worked in sales.

My friend relayed that story to convey the importance of salesmanship skills in non-sales jobs. But it got me asking, “why stop there?” Hardly a week goes by when I don’t do something that requires sales or marketing skills. This reminded me of a line from the movie Boiler Room where Ben Affleck’s character was motivating his team of salesmen on the art of closing a deal over the telephone. He said (again paraphrasing) “every telephone call results in a sale. Either you sell the customer into opening an account or he sells you his explanation on why he won’t open one.”