In all cultures, food and meals play a central part in the human experience. Meals are where we come together as families and groups and enjoyment of food is central to bonding and socializing. Travel the world and you’ll meet people who will gladly share their meal with you, and that’s a big part of making new friends.

In that light, it makes sense that the idea of a feast as a celebration is universal to all cultures, and sales is no different.

When I sold mattresses it was standard practice for the mattress manufacturers to finish up the quarterly and semi-annual new product presentations by taking us all out to eat. Interestingly, Sealy, then the #1
brand in the world, only ever took us to lunch at a moderately priced soup and sandwich type eatery.

On the other hand, Simmons, their competition, routinely took us out to nice dinners at expensive restaurants, and had a no-holds-barred attitude toward their expense account. Steak, lobster, and unlimited booze. It’s like as the #2 brand Simmons felt they had to live it up with us in order to win us over.

They may have been right.

Fancy dinners are often a reward as well as a celebration. In my first month on the job at a now-defunct Western Canadian retailer, I earned a spot in what they called the “President’s Club;” it’s a tally of the highest performing salespeople in the company that was contested monthly, quarterly, and yearly. After month-end we were flown to Vancouver for two days and treated to a nice dinner atKamei Sushi, a very nice Japanese restaurant.

Before I went, my store’s general manager put the Fear Of God into me:
“Whatever you order, make sure you finish it!” Apparently in the past there had been individuals who made pigs of themselves, ordering too much food just because they could, and the owner and the president both frowned on that kind of waste.

Needless to say, when the president and the vice president ordered rafts of sushi for the table and I found myself confronted by hundreds of pieces of sushi, each the size of my fist I was terrified of looking bad at my first meeting with the big bosses, so I just kept eating and eating, trying desperately to keep up.

I love sushi. I mean I really LOVE sushi, but I thought I was going to die of sushi that night. When dinner was over I could barely stand up from the table, let alone waddle back to my hotel.