Alcohol and Sales Jobs

Image courtesy of arztsamui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is a touchy topic because the alcohol culture has existed for thousands of years and is entrenched in the North American professional culture from the time an individual turns 18.  Unfortunately, it is not just in college that alcohol helps increase the popularity index for any individual, it is also a prevalent means to closing in the business world.

Well, let’s keep it short: it is a fact that a salesperson who takes his/her client out for a drink has a higher probability of being successful than one who does not. You will find at the end of this post a link that explains why.

However, I would like to dedicate this post to the non-drinkers. Whether it is for health, religious, or even personal preference reasons, you decided to build your career while maintaining sobriety! Good for you!

But if you are like me, you keep measuring and comparing yourself against other salesmen who get to invite their clients out for drinks, expense it and close a deal! That hurts every time!

There is a way out. But it is as much spiritual as it is practical and beneficial in the long run.

First of all, I never believed that I, alone, am responsible for my own wealth. I believe that I am responsible for putting together the right building blocks and slowly build my stream of wealth circumstances that start playing on my side. This ideology is very strong in the Muslim culture where we call those building blocks, “asbab” in Arabic. It is a liberating feeling that, though we are responsible for working hard to earn our living, we are not directly responsible for the outcome. If it does not happen, that is because something much better ought to happen eventually. So I never sell to close, but I sell to build my stream, hence, building strong and sustainable relationships. Please read my last post about being a good salesman to better understand what I mean.

In parallel, one has to understand that long lasting sustainable relationships are never one-off, but repeat business is key to true success. Considering you do not take your client out every time he/she renews the contract, this drinking ritual is essentially a one-off and is never sufficient to maintain business. That is why you invest so much in building a long-term relationship afterward. The reason why some rely so much on this initial social drinking exercise is to loosen the ends and bring down the client's defenses to eventually open up to personal lives. When that point is reached, a certain forced confidence is established, that is artificially created, hence, breakable, which causes a mountain load of problems, and that happens frequently.

Alternatively, if you are a non-drinker, you will naturally only attract clients that are willing to loosen up to you because of your good and positive character and the friendly aura you manifest. I have to admit that those types of clients are less frequent, but you do find them and they are faithful to your business for life (assuming you have a quality product, of course). It is not easy to be genuine all the time. As humans, there is this tendency of selfishness that is easily manifested in settings such as tradeshows, industry meetings, etc. but some strong willed professionals, who have been doing it for years, have the power to control this tendency and focus on the reason why they personally like each individual in their network.

If you look at it from a purely statistical point of view, this article explains very well why drinking evenings, rather than character, are used to close deals. That being said, the successful salesperson who abstained from alcohol has a much greater chance of keeping a business relationship for a very long time, and it is less likely that he or she will fail because of that instant loss of capacity due to alcohol.