Do You Want Your Salesman to Spend Money or be Cheap - Global Sales Mentor | Zach Selch

17 Sept 2020 · 2 min

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2:08

In this brief sales mentorship video, Zach Selch argues that the most effective salespeople are often those who are comfortable spending money on luxury items rather than being overly frugal. He illustrates his point with a story about two high‑performing sales reps he managed: one lived a Spartan lifestyle, saved every penny, and struggled to close big deals; the other spent freely, bought an expensive house and cars, and closed the largest deal in their industry. Selch notes that some sales managers even screen candidates by asking about their personal buying habits, believing that cautious spenders make poorer sellers. The video ends with a second speaker delivering a short promotional call‑to‑action encouraging viewers to contact the firm for help growing international sales.

Chapters

Sometimes a little luxury, a little bling, is a sign of a good salesman. You see people who hold on to money too tightly, who are too careful with their buying considerations, they might have difficulty talking through a customer who's being difficult, who's asking a lot of questions, who's raising a lot of concerns, and they might not really identify with the idea that you might want to get past those concerns. Sometimes the really best salespeople are the ones who can't hold on to money themselves very long. As an example, I had 2 great guys working for me at one time, both intelligent, both great guys, good salespeople, good relationships, that kind of thing. One of them really was very careful with his money, saved every penny he had to help put his kids through college and then build apartments for each of their kids. He owned one suit, didn't own a nice pair of shoes, didn't own a car, traveled everywhere by public transportation, really lived a very Spartan lifestyle. The other one, he couldn't hold on to a dime. He bought himself a beautiful house, one of the nicest houses I've ever seen, and literally at one point we closed the single biggest deal that my industry had ever seen. And on his way home from signing the client, he stopped at a BMW dealer to buy himself a brand new car and buy both of his kids new cars because he had been thinking for years about what he was going to do when he closed that deal. Okay? And that's the kind of shark I want on my team. I actually was speaking to a fellow sales manager the other day and we talked about this and he said, you know, he actually tests people and asks them when he hires them how they go about spending their money, what their buying process is, because he knows that people who are too careful buyers very often aren't very good sellers. Something to think about.
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