The Ultimate "fake It Till You Make It" Article:

[Al3x Lee]

A post on LinkedIn reminded me of this thread. I went to the internet Wayback Machine to get a PDF of the original article.

Lol. Ironically I daily drive a Honda. My dad lost a big client back in the 90's because the daughter of the owner saw him drive up in a nice Mercedes and a suit. She said, "Wow, if he can afford that car, we must be paying him too much for our insurance!"

 

[DHK]

Lol. Ironically I daily drive a Honda. My dad lost a big client back in the 90's because the daughter of the owner saw him drive up in a nice Mercedes and a suit. She said, "Wow, if he can afford that car, we must be paying him too much for our insurance!"

Someone certainly focused more on what it is and what it's called rather than what it does. But clients can be finicky and irrational at times.

 

[Tahoe Ray]

This is @Al3x Lee 's Honda.

 

[Markthebroker]

For some reason I couldn't get the article link to work.

I can tell you something interesting, though. I've been working with investors and business owners for over 20 years. Almost every time I'm in a meeting, when I look at who is the least well dressed - that's the person with the most power in the room, and usually the most money.

If you're trying to wear fancy clothes or drive a fancy car to impress people - then the real players, the shot callers, will see right through that.

 

[WinoBlues]

Yeah, I have shown up over dressed and I have shown up under dressed.

 

[DHK]

For some reason I couldn't get the article link to work.

The original link doesn't work anymore, but I did post a PDF of it a couple of posts back.

 

[somarco]

I started in a MONY agency many years ago and was given similar advice by the sales manager, a snobby frat boy who thought his shit didn't stink.

He criticized the way I dressed and told me to get a good suit or two, white dress shirts and some regimental stripe ties . . . the kind frat boys wore with their blue blazers with a crest on the pocket.

No free leads other than orphans and what I could scrape up on my own. One day an orphan called, asking for an agent to review their coverage. Husband and wife that owned a hardware store about 20 miles outside of Atlanta.

I don't recall the particulars but they both had WL with term riders so I asked the frat boy to ride out to meet with them. All the way out there he complained about how much further and saying my 3 year old Buick Regal wasn't good enough. He said the successful agents drove BMW or Mercedes.

As it turned out, they really weren't orphans, he has written their coverage several years before but never kept in touch.

He took over and pushed me aside. He also converted the term to WL and signed the app as the AOR.

On the way back to ATL he asked me what I had learned. I told him I learned to never again ask him to go out on a sales presentation.

 

[DHK]

I think today, flashy image doesn't work nearly as well as being genuinely authentic and sincere.

 

[Tahoe Ray]

For some reason I couldn't get the article link to work.

I can tell you something interesting, though. I've been working with investors and business owners for over 20 years. Almost every time I'm in a meeting, when I look at who is the least well dressed - that's the person with the most power in the room, and usually the most money.

If you're trying to wear fancy clothes or drive a fancy car to impress people - then the real players, the shot callers, will see right through that.

This is why I stopped wearing clothes to meetings and just carry a gun instead.

I really control the room.

 

[Tahoe Ray]

I think today, flashy image doesn't work nearly as well as being genuinely authentic and sincere.

I think that the point of that article loses a key fact.

People with money spend money on nice stuff. It isn't always to show off. They just have money and have quality suits, cars, etc. because it's not that much of a cost in the grand scheme of things.

Spending money like that when you don't have it is stupid. But if you do, it certainly doesn't hurt to acquire clients who view you as their equal.

You can have all of those attributes and still be authentic and sincere. One thing doesn't define the other.