Surprising Sales Lessons from Glengarry Glen Ross (Part 2)
Part 1 discussed how AIDA — the mental stairway prospects climb as they consider purchases — is more appropriate than ever. In 4IR, markets are personalized conversations — as they were when AIDA, which pre-dates broadcasting, was developed.
100 years ago “travelling men” and local shop clerks got to know their customers. ML/AI and Big Data are restoring individualized interaction as the foundation of selling — albeit not necessarily with humans. Personalized Instagram and Facebook ads and e-mailed “letters” are new means to the same end as an Elias Elmo St. Louis* mail-order ad.
What about ABC, Blake’s other acronym?: “A-B-C……….A — Always. B — Be. C — Closing. Always. Be. Closing. Always be closing!”
Like getting dressed, a sale has a natural progression — underwear, pants, shoes. Asking for a sale too early is like putting shoes on first. You end up looking silly. It’s ineffective, and intellectually dishonest. Trying to close a deal before shared understanding of wants and needs — and a meeting of the minds — negates the honest purpose of a salesperson (or the purpose of an honest salesperson).
If customer needs don’t matter, it’s better to skip the salespeople and sell via advertising and self-service. This eliminates the discomfort of person-to-person dishonesty — plus it shifts 100% onus for bad purchase decisions to the buyer.
Consumers don’t expect honest ads. Advertisers don’t even expect consumers to expect honest ads. Apple was sued for advertising an iPhone as “Twice as fast. Half the price.” Their defense was: “No reasonable person….could have relied or misunderstood Apple’s statements as claims of fact.” What? You expected honesty?
Brand advertising meticulously avoids claims of fact, and it’s impersonal — so lying is OK. Plus, it frees marketing departments and agencies from pesky advertising ROI conversations.
Salespeople, on the other hand, have to deliver ROI — or else they’re fired. And they present their own risks — they’re human. You never know what they might say or do.
Sometimes there’s no alternative. So far.
Forbes’s wonders “Are Salespeople Becoming Obsolete?” — it’s a legitimate question given the increasing percentage of self-service sales, and the emergence of AI-based chatbots and personalized advertising. It’s not the first time technology cast doubt on the future of salespeople. In 1916 the New York Times asked:
- ARE SALESMEN NEEDLESS?; Advertising Alleged Better Than Personal Solicitation.
And answered their own question in a different article:
- SALESMAN STILL NEEDED.; In Many Instances the Catalogue Cannot Take His Place.; and
Prognosticating is hard.
100 years later, the Harvard Business Review took a fresh look in “Despite Dire Predictions, Salespeople Aren’t Going Away and concluded history is on salespeople’s side: “As in the past, innovation within companies and across entire industries will continue to produce new offerings and new ways to buy that are not yet apparent to buyers. This knowledge gap will create a need for salespeople to help buyers navigate unknown waters, even in today’s environment.” 4IR means more salespeople, not fewer.
Back to ABC — should salespeople Always Be Closing? The answer is yes, but not literally. Don’t rush to conclude a sale with a Columbo Close, Puppy Dog Close, or Assumptive Close. Those get prospects to run away, not (as Blake would say) “sign on the line that is dotted.”
A trusted sales-prospect relationship is built on defined steps with amorphous interactions: attention leads to interaction, interest to rapport, desire to trust, and — perhaps — action. A mysterious, alchemic process forges these elements into a relationship. Like all relationships it ebbs and flows —the strength of these tides increase with the stakes.
Glengarry delivers an advanced lesson on “soft-sell” trust-building. Our teacher isn’t Blake, but Ricky Roma (Al Pacino).
As Blake monologues, Roma — the top closer — is out of the office (the top closer usually is). We meet him in a Chinese restaurant, chatting a prospect up with light “they say” humor: “They say…they say, it was so hot downtown this afternoon, grown men on the street corner were going up to cops — begging the cops to shoot them. They say you should not drink alcohol when it’s so hot...” He gets them each a drink — he and his prospect are now united, drinking alcohol in the heat, defying “them” together.
The he starts his ”pitch”: “All train compartments smell vaguely of shit.”
As does ABC — if taken literally.
“It gets so you don’t mind it. That’s the worst thing that I can confess. You know how long it took me to get there? A long time.”
He meanders on — women he’s slept with, great meals he’s had, the totality of life: “Our life is looking forward or it’s looking back. That’s it. That’s our life. Where’s the moment?” It seems aimless. But Roma has a plan for someone who feels life is passing him by, someone not in control, someone who needs an opportunity.
Roma’s semi-coherent rambling sets him up as a straight shooter. A kindred soul, bent out of shape from society’s pliers (thanks Bob Dylan). Has Ricky uncovered the elusive formula to straighten up and stand tall? He’s not pushing a sale. He’s talking about life. Maybe...just maybe...life can get a little better.
Then, his point: “Stocks, bonds, objects of art, real estate. Now: what are they?….An opportunity. To what? To make money? Perhaps. To lose money? Perhaps. To “indulge” and to “learn” about ourselves? Perhaps. So fucking what? What isn’t? They’re an opportunity….”
“What does it mean? What do you want it to mean?”
Everyone is on the lookout for opportunity. Everyone wants a better life.
Feel better…look better…be better. Can you fatten my wallet? — I’m taller standing on a fat wallet. Will you get me 200 Facebook likes? — I like being liked.
John D. Rockefeller said “the ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability, than for any other under the sun.” In sales, that ability equals paycheck size.
Which bring us back to Blake. Spelling out AIDA, he demands: “D — Decision. Have you made your decision for Christ?!” **
That’s a daily decision. Each morning, everybody — whatever their job — prices their integrity. Ricky Roma, like all salespeople, has a more visible tag.
Honesty can be expensive in sales, at least in the short term. You turn-down business that’s the wrong fit. You refuse to lie to assuage objections. You give advice, deliver quotes to prospects who vanish after receipt, respond to likely-wired RFPs, pay it forward again and again. And like a major league hitter, you know you’re going back to the dugout more often than you’re reaching base. It’s the game you play. And if you’re good, you play honorably.
Being honorable, when the guy across the table isn’t, makes you especially vulnerable. The Prisoners Dilemma teaches that betrayal leads to optimum outcomes — the odds don’t favor honor. And your exposure is more than just the money on the table. Because the best cheats — masked narcopaths with perfected cons — make sure that when the shit starts flying, it covers the honest guys face.
“All train compartments smell vaguely of shit. It gets so you don’t mind it.”
The lesson isn’t over.
The numbers on the tally board are familiar: a top producer with 2, 5, or even 10 times the laggards. We don’t know how Roma got all his sales — just one. And in that one, we never saw him lie, steal, or cheat. He just connected and offered up an opportunity. Like any other: ”An opportunity. To what? To make money? Perhaps…..”
Roma does suss out psychological weak spots, using them to transform shady Florida real-estate into an irresistible metaphor. Incoherent babble. Yet, he’s speaking honestly — and making sales — while his colleagues struggle and spew lie after lie:
- “On the Rio Rancho Estates…..we’ve had a situation come up……the President of our company is in town just one day….certain parcels, certain choice parcels, which he’s given me a hold on for just 48 hours…Listen to me! I’ve got 48 hours to make you a lot of money…..”
- “I’m the Vice President of Rio Rancho Properties….I’m calling from the airport, and consulting my map I see you and your wife live near the airport….I have some rather unusual, rather good information on the property…..
- “I can only speak to a Mrs. Nyborg…..Oh this is Mrs. Nybrog?….Please listen closely Mrs. Nyborg. I’m calling from Consolidated Properties of Arizona….our computer has chosen you from all the many thousands who write in requesting information on our properties. Now by Federal law….
By today’s standards Ricky Roma is a saint (see the sad truth about the state of the truth at Politifact). He didn’t overtly lie. He didn’t even push: “I want to show you something. It may mean something to you, it may not. I don’t know. I don’t know anymore. What is that? Florida. Glengarry Highlands. Florida. Bullshit. And maybe that’s true, and that’s what I said. But look at this.”
Is he honest? Was Goldman Sachs honest when they created the Abacus “synthetic collateralized debt obligation” — a shadier investment than Glengarry Highlands — that netted $1 billion? Or like Bitcoin. Is it Bitcoin at $50, $500, $5,000 or $50,000? Roma doesn’t know. He doesn’t pretend to. He’s just serving up an opportunity.
Until the films end, Ricky Roma is the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. Till he thinks he’s lost top-dog status (and the Cadillac that goes with it). Then he breaks down and resorts to the same trite lies as his colleagues.
That’s not needed. Honest conversation that speaks to the soul spurs action. He demonstrates what the “SALESMAN STILL NEEDED” article concluded:
“Nothing can ever supplant the personality of the salesman. It is this personality which really sells…to a customer, often when he does not really want to buy...”
This is the double-edge sword of the salesperson. Might you be happier today if a salesperson “sold you” Bitcoin at $200? You didn’t need to buy any. If you wanted to buy some badly enough, you would have — self-service. Usually it takes interaction to spur action. Most people would hang up when that sale call came it. Passed on an opportunity because of fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of being conned. If a salesperson can get you over that fear, hasn’t he done his job — and you a favor?
“What is that? Cryptocurrency. Bullshit. And maybe that’s true, and that’s what I said. But look at this.”
So why, in 2018, do you care about these 35-year old sales lessons? Because 3IR salespeople, and the entire way you generated revenue yesterday, are becoming obsolete.
Paradoxically, the new way in 4IR will draw heavily on tools and techniques that 3IR made obsolete. AIDA for sure. ABC — taken figuratively. Always close on action to build a relationship. Always guide the conversation forward.
We need new lessons — often the opposite of what we were taught (The link is Eric Barker’s blog — he wrote “Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong.” Plus old ones which, with some updating, will guide success in 4IR.
Glengarry Glen Ross is a tragedy — but on the cusp of a new era, it teaches ways to avoid one.
*Elias Elmo St. Louis was a prominent “ad man” who developed AIDA in the late 1800s. He worked at NCR, ran advertising for Burroughs computers, founded an ad agency, and wrote prodigiously.
**On Blake’s blackboard the “D” in AIDA is “decision,” rather than “desire” — artistic license
