When Success Is An Illusion
By: Brian Dickens Barrabee
Tags: Success, Financial Planning, Investment, Business, Sales

A study done by Experian Automotive and published in Forbes finds: 61% of the wealthy people in the US actually drive Hondas, Toyotas and Fords.

Photo by Yogendra Singh on uNSPLASH

Coaching advice to salesmen on how to be effective is almost as big an industry as selling.

Buzfluent.com breaks sales into 2 categories tangible and intangible. They go on to add that although both seek the same result the sales approach they take can be very different. In particular, sellers of intangibles may have to create the need for their assistance. Intangible sales typically involve selling a service as opposed to a tangible product that a prospect can see, smell or taste.

Intangible sales are where creativity lies. The sales executive has to “Paint a picture” for the prospect.

A gruesome example of this is the insurance industry’s phrase “Back the Hearst up to the door” (frightening the prospect’s family by reminding, usually the wife and kids, how life would be financially as well as emotionally without the family breadwinner).

When the sale is tangible, the saying is usually uttered by the prospect,”Who am I to believe, you or my own eyes?”

You like the blouse or not, the pair of shoes, the ice cream cone, the car.

For good reason, intangible sales is where the money lies for the sales executive. And deservedly so, it’s harder work.

Financial planning involves — well, planning. The objective being economic security; monetary protection for you and your family.

The points mentioned above are pictures painted by the salesperson who then has to convince you to follow his advice to prosperity.

It takes a certain combination of events to effectuate an intangible transaction. Much more than, say — buying an ice cream cone, or a blouse.

There are as many opinions as there are employees when the questions comes up as to how one should project when on an appointment to transact intangibles.

What to wear? What car to drive? In what type of building is your office? Do you have a private corner workplace with a view?

How important is the illusion of success?

The overwhelming majority of advisers in the financial service field feel that to appear prosperous in any meeting made with any client is of utmost importance. At a minimum, Brook Brothers men’s and women’s attire. Drive as an expensive car as you can afford; Tesla is the happening car currently. Extravagant workplace lavishly appointed.

All of these accouterments give the salesperson the illusion of success to many.

The logic is irrefutable: you’d like someone who has money — handling your money.

If the financial planner doesn’t have his own house in order; how can he make yours?

Uuuh yes! His own house in order.

A study done by Experian Automotive and published in Forbes finds: 61% of wealthy people actually drive Hondas, Toyotas and Fords.

www/cnbc.com. There’s a scientific reason the billionaires routinely wear the same thing. By sticking to a kind of uniform, they’re avoiding a phenomenon known as decision fatigue, which describes the way choices become harder and harder as a day goes on and your finite store of energy gets depleted.

Expensive office space is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Who would you want handling your retirement Warren Buffet: who will drive up in his 2014 Cadallac and probablly be wearing 1 of 9 suits he owns made by Dayang Group, a large mid to high end menswear manufacturer in China? Maybe drop in and see him in his modest office at 3555 Farnam St. Omaha, NE? Anyone can.

Or

Would you have more confidence in — Donald Trump?

In the end: only real financial success begets financial success.

Beware of the wolf in sheep’s clothing

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