Saks Sells!

Several years ago I worked with a man named Bill B. He was a mid-20's year old tobacco chewing (especially in the office!), strip-club patronizing blowhard for many other reasons. It was even rumored he was having an affair with our boss! And she was far from good looking!

But he knew how to play the name game. In this case, how to play the former employer name game.

You see, Bill would love to tell people about his days working at "Sacks" (I purposely spell it that way to help illustrate the point later – work with me).

Everyone he would meet, especially consultants and vendors, with in seconds he would say "When I worked at Sacks…", "Back when I was at Sacks…", "Over at Sacks we had this-that-whatever…" , Sacks, Sacks, Sacks! And he impressed everyone, though he himself was far from an impressive appearance with his John Candy figure, worn and cheap shirt, and cup of tobacco spit juice (just picture that in the work place!). But saying "Sacks" got him much admiration.

Why?

(here's where the spelling comes into play: )

When he spoke of "Sacks" everyone thought he meant "Sachs" as in Goldman Sachs, the high and prestigious investment banking firm. But no. He meant "Saks" as in "Saks Fifth Avenue", the high end retailer!


In truth when someone did call him on it by saying something like "Oh you were at Sachs? Did you know so-and-so in XYZ department?" or "I was at Sachs for many years, what group were you with?" etc, he would say – in a much lower tone – it was Saks Fifth Avenue.

But that happened at best 10-15% of the time. The rest of the time it was just assumed he meant Goldman Sachs. And Bill knew it. And he milked it for all he could!

Sometimes it's not what you say but what people think you're saying that matters.

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