60, I think I've probably used that exact same quote! Not sure how seriously that person mentioned it. I work in sales for a financial services firm and we rely on intermediaries (brokers) to reach the end customer. Since I work with middlemen on a regular basis, I often feel that I only want to work with people that "I'd have a beer with." I could just as easily change that to "have lunch" with or "go to a ballgame with." Point being that I know plenty of people in the financial services space and plenty of middlemen are just backstabbers that I don't want to associate with. I feel like I'll waste loads of times on sales calls at these people's offices and get nothing out of it.
I think it's very possible this person was just using it as a figure of speech. I wouldn't read too much into it.