Kobe Bryant’s wife and my new mattress

The Power of a Well-Dropped Name

A few weeks ago, I made the move back to California. Got a new place, and the whole thing happened so fast I didn’t even bring my stuff with me. I tossed a bunch of things, donated some, and left the rest in storage at my sister’s basement. So here I am, starting fresh.

My friend — and now, client — for whom I moved here insisted I get a high-end mattress. She wouldn’t let me settle for a regular one and had a friend who owns a boutique mattress store in San Diego. So off I went.

Walking in, I immediately felt out of place. The salesperson bombarded me with questions about mattress preferences, and I had no idea.

“I just sleep on them,” I said.

She showed me different options, materials, and styles, and I tested them by pushing down on them and sitting for a second. She wasn’t impressed with my method. “You won’t learn anything by giving the mattress CPR,” she told me.

Eventually, she got frustrated and insisted I lie down. I awkwardly lay flat on my back, hands folded over my washboard abs like a swole Dracula in a coffin. She asked if that’s how I sleep. I said no. She replied, “For fuck’s sake, lay like you sleep.” (the “for fuck’s sake” part wasn’t out loud. I saw it in her facial expression.)

So, I rolled to my side. She told me to stay like that for five minutes. I lasted about a minute on each of the two final contestants and picked a winner.

Here’s the interesting part. As we walked past some models way outside my price range, she casually mentioned that Kobe Bryant’s wife had recently bought a bunch of these. Smart name drop, right?

I told a friend of mine, who’s also into marketing, about this scenario and she said “I wonder how many times she uses that name in a day.” My guess is a lot. Or maybe she tailors the dropped name to the client in front of her. For me, with my Herculean, Adonis-like physique, the Kobe Bryant connection was the right choice. For someone else, maybe it would be Taylor Swift. Assuming, of course, that Tay-Tay shops for her mattresses at this store.

It was a smart move. She gave me a story I’ve shared with at least five people. Now, I tell people I got my mattress from the same place Kobe Bryant’s wife shops.

So, if you have some names you can drop in your sales process, do it. Or at least give people a good story to tell about your product.

For me, it made spending a lot of money on a mattress a bit easier to swallow.