Here's the thing, you might be able to side-step the issue, but when your competition's sales guys chat about the NCAA finals hopefuls, team composition, coach

Here's the thing, you might be able to side-step the issue, but when your competition's sales guys chat about the NCAA finals hopefuls, team composition, coach histories, and certain rivalries and you can only comment a little bit at the dinner after your demos, the customer will remember more levity and just plain fun about the other guy than you when it comes to the emotional side of "which company has reps I will have more rapport with?" Think of it similar to dating and trying to impress a few girls - without a sense of humor you are at an immediate disadvantage. This is what most engineers outside sales would think of that golf course meeting or something, but it's all about establishing something more than just a one-time transaction relationship - it's going to continue, so it's not far off from the dynamics of dating aside sexual part. But consider for a moment that everyone is on even footing in a dating pool - the one that is most memorable and associated with good feelings where you let yourself be vulnerable will win. Enterprise sales is complex but still fundamentally rather emotional among the decision-makers. The kinds of companies that buy $10MM of software in a year from one vendor are only so many, so there tends to be reputations that follow people, and many sales persons simply follow along a few friends that are executives at organizations across their careers and sell whatever software they're peddling every time they switch companies.