What is the Number One Sales Movie? [Research]
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I love watching movies. It’s a relaxing exercise after a stressful week. Interestingly, I can’t watch the same movie twice. It’s simply too boring. Truthfully, I’m not a huge fan of sales related movies. I prefer to watch short clips on YouTube and call it good. I came across a clip the other day that put a smile to my face. In the clip, a sales rep tries to overcome the objection of a prospect saying he needed to talk to his wife before he made a decision to purchase a financial stock.
Prospect: “Well I just have to talk to my wife first. Then I’ll call you right back.”
Salesperson: “You don’t have to do that, Harry…”
Some dialogue continues and then the salesperson says,
Salesperson: “Just think of the flip side. When your wife does the shopping does she call you from Pathmart to ask you if she can use the coupons for Captain Crunch?”
It’s a great line and in the movie it works. The prospect decides to move ahead and purchase the stock. But, that’s Hollywood. I’m not sure that line works in real life.
Not long ago, a few of us here at the office started debating what was the most popular sales related movie. Surprisingly, there was not a clear winner. I was shocked at some of the movies that people mentioned as I didn’t really considerer them a movie related to sales. After a lot of discussion we decided we’d finalize the debate with a research study. Why not ask a few hundred sales people what their favorite sales related movie was and once and for all see if we couldn’t settle the debate. So we did. We gathered a list of a handful of sales related movies and sent a survey out to a mix of sales positions. We had 433 people respond. The top three sales movies were:
- Glengarry Glen Ross — 24.5 %
- The Wolf of Wall Street — 23.1% (Note: number one for respondents under 35)
- Planes, Trains, and Automobiles — 22.4%
Glen Garry Glenn Ross
A — always, B — be, C — closing. Always be Closing. — Alec Baldwin
Always be closing. It’s term I’ve heard for as long as I can remember. For a long time, I didn’t know where the line came from and then I was shown the famous speech by Alec Baldwin from Glengarry Glenn Ross. I used the edited version so we didn’t offend to many people but if you can’t get motivated by Mr. Baldwin, you probably can’t get motived. Listen to it below:
The Wolf of Wall Street
Don’t watch this movie if you don’t like the F-word. It was reported that Wolf of Wall Street used the F-word 569 times making it the film with the most uses of that word. It might be a bad movie, but there are some great sales scenes. The movie is based on a true story about Jordan Belfort who starts his career as a Wall Street stock broker and then is fired following Black Monday. He takes a job at a brokerage firm specializing in penny stocks and it doesn’t take long for Jordan to climb the ladder, start making millions, and become the Wolf of Wall Street. Below is my favorite scene where Leonardo DiCaprio sells penny stocks. Check it out:
Planes Trains and Automobiles
This one is an oldie but a goodie. John Candy is the master at selling shower curtain rings. Yes, that’s right, I said, shower curtain rings. In Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Steve Martin is a marketing executive, who meets John Candy, a happy, talkative, and annoying shower curtain ring salesman and they go on an adventure trying to get Steve Martin home for Thanksgiving. Here is the classic scene where John Candy works his magic with shower curtain rings.
At the bottom of the list was Tin Men staring Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss as door-to-door aluminum siding salesmen who will do anything to close a sale. Only 7% of respondents thought Tin Men was the best sales movie. Here is a clip for you to check out:
There you have it. I think this audience definitely missed a couple but the numbers speak for themselves. My vote probably would have been Tommy Boy. I still love that show and Chris Farley is as good as it gets when it comes to sales.
What’s your favorite sales related movie?
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