Matt Ryder argues that a common mistake salespeople make is flaunting a one-off past sale or a famous client as an ongoing credential. He says buyers care about what a salesperson can deliver now and about current professionalism and versatility across offers; leaning on a single past name makes a rep look stuck in the past and does not help close current deals.
The dumbest flex that I keep seeing from salespeople is where, like, they made money on an offer once and they use it, like, forever or they did one thing for somebody once. First of all, nobody cares who you used to sell for. Nobody cares who used to work for. It's about what can you do for them now. Like, your professionalism should shine through. You should be able to be good on multiple offers, multiple disciplines. And if your entire sales career is built off, like, doing one thing once for one person, then, like, you don't have a real sales career. And, like, also, it's not that difficult to sell for really famous people. People want to talk to sales reps. They're famous for a reason, right? They're an attractive character. And so if your biggest flex is that you want sold for someone who has a gigantic name, it's not going to help you get more deals, it's not going to help you close deals now. And it just makes you seem like you're someone who's living in the past and trading off somebody else's name.
