Black In Business

I have spoken to more bankers, these guys are outside of Wall Street and they confirmed the money is great. One man, worked in health care sales, and even moved up the ladder, but has discovered the money in banking can be huge. My friend, and major Wall Street money manager, told me to advise  Blacks for whom money is an important job consideration, to stay away from operations or administration, and key on sales. My other contacts felt the same.

Wall Street firms did a major study to determine, why do 20% of sales people make it and 80% fail.As Dennis Kimbro would say,”what makes the Great Great.” This study lasted several years and represented an considerable investment. The findings were inconclusive, showing few common traits.The Great ones, the 7 figure stars came from backgrounds and personalities all across the board.

It was shown that less black sales people made it than the standard 20% and more Asians made than the norm. Military Officers, particulary Marine officers did well.This is attributed to their focus and problem solving ability. The best were very goal focused and were able to take big issues, break it down to small parts, and fix the small parts step by step. In the end they had more success solving the big problems. We all should take note of that

The “Great ones,” had the ability to get in someone face and tell their story. My interpation is the great one are tough and will not allow anything , even the dynamics of race or gender stop them

The best black Wall street salesmen,

 were able to use their race as an advantage. They went after a black market and built relationsships based on comfort, respect and trust. I heard a story of a young black banker, who would travel to the southern cities, stay at the Red Roof Inn to meet his prospects. He would take these affulent black southerns to his hotel and say, “I have invested my last nickle to come here to meet you and let you know how important your business is to me.He also wanted to remove all doubt that he was a brother.Over time affuent blacks would seek out the brother and not much later he was able to stay at much nicer hotels.

The ones that failed, could not use their race as an advantage and were not able to find a following, with the white customers they went after, or from the black ones they paid no attention to. They had many of the same values as the white bankers but could not penetrate the black market. The black sales professionals who targeted their own people were more successful and over time also picked up white business due to over lap opportunties.

In closing,there is opportunity on Wall Street for blacks in business. Many firms consider black talent a trophy hire. Take a look at the 10 reasons for black in business success; (check out archives,) if you can relate to those dimensions, and like big money, have excellent problem solving skills, and not get trapped by vices, like drinking,sex and drugs, sales on Wall Street may be for you.