Flibbertigibbet

Exploitation

One of my account managers stopped by my desk this morning and said that she wanted to take me with her to meet with a client.

When I asked her why, she told me that she wanted to meet one-on-one with one of the senoir-level contacts, but there was a lower-level contact that kept getting in the way. I was like, "Ah! Sure. I know her [the speedbump] so I'll just ask her to take me to meet with their tech guy and that will leave you to talk account stuff with the head honcho."

But my account manager (I should point out that she is also a good friend of mine) said, "No, that's not really what I was thinking."

She then intimated to me in so many words that she thinks the head honcho guy is gay and she wants me to come along because she thinks it will lure him away from the speedbump who keeps getting in the way of her sales pitch.

I'm not even sure how to respond to that sort of thing. I am more than happy to visit with a client and I think I can effectively communicate the value of our products and services to prospects. I also think that I am a rather charming person at times and I understand the value of being personable and at least moderately attractive when it comes to building trust in people of any gender or sexual persuasion.

On the other hand, it strikes me as somewhat unprofessional to make an appeal to sex as a primary sales strategy. I'm sure she would not say that this is a primary strategy, but she is, in practice, making it a point of leverage to get to this contact.

Of course, sex does sell and is used constantly to sell things in advertisements. But I'm not an advertisement.

I think I'm more amused by the notion than anything.

Exploiting the libido to gain confidence is an age-old practice. I've just never been a party to such and it seems awfully forward that someone would actually say out loud that their plan is to try use this.