DREAMS OF A SALESMAN

Sometimes those dreams of a lemonade-stand salesman really do come true. Thirty-one years ago, Eric Yergan was actually one of those rare, driven 7-year-olds who set up a Kool-Aid stand on Long Island street corners. Today, the 38year-old senior vice president at PaineWebber Group Inc. sells treasuries to foreign governments and is ranked among the top 10 salespeople in his division.

Yergan credits the Gulf War for enabling him to have a superior year. "The war caused a lot of volatility in the market that allowed the astute salesman with the astute customer to take advantage of the market," explains Yergan, who during the war spent round-the-clock hours on the phone, often at home, monitoring the gains and dips in world markets.

PaineWebber recognized the former Honeywell Computer salesman's performance in February, promoting him from first vice president to senior vice president. That's the highest title a salesman can attain at PaineWebber and remain a line producer. As one of only four senior salesmen on the fixed-income trading floor, Yergan spends at least six hours a day on the phone.

When Yergan, a graduate of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., arrived at the Harvard Business School in 1982, he took a standardized personality test designed to target natural aptitude for certain jobs. "I was off the scale as an extrovert's extrovert," Yergan recalls, laughing heartily. "That made me perfect for sales."

Yergan began his career in high finance as a $32,000a-year salesman at A.G. Becker. After Becker was sold to Merrill Lynch in 1984, Yergan joined PaineWebber as a vice president. There he set his sights on being a major force on the firm's sales team. And Yergan fits all the stereotypes: a guy (with a strong Long Island accent) with rolled-up shirt sleeves in the middle of a chaotic trading floor yelling to both a phone receiver and a trader across the room, "Buy. Sell. Buy." On the other end of the phone are customers--mostly officers of foreign reserve banks--listening to his advice on how to invest their money in long- and short-term U.S. bonds. When his advice is on target, the customer makes a profit, and so does his firm.

"In this business perfection is the key. [To the customer,] it doesn't matter if you're white or black, if you speak their language or you don't. In fact, I wouldn't even try to speak another language because I wouldn't want to make a mistake. The cost of mistakes are too high in this business. The question is: `Can you perform for me?'" Yergan says. "The best and the worst of Wall Street is that you're judged by performance. For me, that's the best. As a trader, you must always look for ways to grow your business." Right now Yergan, working to expand the firm's global business, is comfortable in his super salesman role. Although he is considering a more senior management role someday, a voice in the back of his mind keeps saying "Maybe I'll just be kind of wealthy and manage my own account. That's a dream we all would like to come true."

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