Clubs that help you sell

Feb 26, 2014, 5:01 AM

So I thought I'd post a real question for those of you who know your local clubs. Asked this on SW about a 8 mo back and got 0 answers but the TUSCL crowd probably knows more clubs:

So I was talking to a friend of mine about the strip clubs with women that help a sales process. Sales guy come with his customers and the girls work with the sales guy. They loosen the customers up, make sure they drink if the sales guy wants them drinking, subtly pull away when the customer starts to express doubts about the products to get the old Pavlovian training going.... Strip clubs are no longer deductible, and sales budgets in general have gone down. But mostly almost anything a few guys can spend in a stripclub pales in comparison to what addition concessions would be on the contract.

I know this great tradition of stripper assisted sales lives on in Atlanta. But where else? Are strippers still willing to do this sort of VIP work? Do they get enough of it to know the drills? Are club managers willing to support it the way they used to?

comments (8)

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crazyjoe11 years ago

If you need a club to help you sell, you should try another profession

sclvr500511 years ago

If you need a salesperson to loosen up the customers then you need hotter dancers.

deogol11 years ago

Might have worked in one era, but not today.

There are four era's in marketing - Production (A good product will sell its self), Sales (Creative advertising and selling will overcome consumer resistance), Marketing (The consumer rules, find a need and fill it), and Relationship (Long term relationships with customers and other partners lead to success) (1). Each era comes after the other and right now it is relationship.

It sounds as if your promoting the Sales Era which is two eras behind the times. Using dancers to get someone to say yes is bad form for realizing people want what they want (the realization of Marketing era) and, we all know dancers are a temporary thing (bad for the sales relationship era of today).

(1) Contemporary Marketing, 13th edition, ISBN 978-0-324-53638-6

farmerart11 years ago

I would never dream of trying to close an oil patch deal in a SC. The oil patch is as macho as macho can be but a SC is no place for business deals.

I have closed many deals in the lounge of Caesar's Steakhouse in Calgary, using hefty steaks and alcohol to lubricate the deal making.

Dolfan11 years ago

Maybe its just me or my industry, but it's unlikely I could be closed in a SC. It would probably have the opposite effect, I'd be reconsidering if I was leaning towards it and almost certainly looking elsewhere if I was on the fence.

I've always got options and I've always got someone to justify my decisions to. The net result is I tend to go with what I honestly believe is the best option. If you want to wine and dine me, all its getting you is time to extend your pitch. Frankly, if that's needed you're more likely to be the one wrong side of concessions in the contract and you should be happy to get any business at all out of me.

tumblingdice11 years ago

That tactic is almost as old as the worlds oldest profession.Like Deogol said it just doesn't wash anymore,but I've heard it can lead to a little extortion.

knightwish11 years ago

@deogol interesting idea. I picked up the book.

SuperDude11 years ago

With more women being included in deal making, SC entertaining of customers has limits. Some professional women will go to a SC as part of closing a deal just to prove she can hang with the guys. Other professional women would feel uncomfortable in the SC as part of official duties, but would still go if it was her choice on her own time. Many years ago, The New York Times carried a story about business expenses and mentioned that as more women advanced to the upper ranks of corporate accounting departments, the reimbursements for SC entertaining were more closely monitored and increasinlgy denied.

Detroit auto parts manufacturers and suppliers to the Big Three and auto company purchasing agents used to fill the SCs. Those days are gone. IRS regulations, accounting department practices and general cost cutting have all taken their toll.