Whether you are just starting out a new business, or launching new products or services, you need to have a strong sales proposition. Maybe you need to draft a powerful sales letter, or perhaps you are trying to come up with a sales pitch for your telemarketing team and wondering how to get it right.
While you may not agree with the worship of greed that highlights the life of Jordan Belfort – the protagonist of The Wolf of Wall Street – there are several genuine sales lessons than you can learn from the movie.
Without being dishonest or callous, you can use the following sales tips to give an edge to your sales process.
- Hone your Sales Pitch Do you remember the scene in the movie where all callers were introducing themselves as the Vice President of Stratton Oakmont? It helped them grab the attention of the customer and build trust straight away. Keep this is mind: People don’t like to talk to juniors or greenhorns. Understand the psychology of your target audience and create a sales pitch that is most likely to impress and hook them.
- Work out a Success Formula There are many people who are great at sales, but only a few, like Belfort’s character in the movie, have the capability to create a team of salespeople. Analyze your sales process, see what works, and create a formula that every member in the team can follow. This will enable you to use ordinary resources to get extraordinary results.
- Inspire your Team To build a team of winners, you need to repose your trust in the abilities of the right personnel. There is a scene in the movie where Leonardo talks about a lady – one of the key sales people is his company now – who was broke when she joined and wanted $5000 in advance. He gave her $25000 and won her love, devotion and loyalty.
- Nurture Fighters “Don’t hang up the phone till they say YES!” We hear Leonardo say this several times in the movie. Drill this discipline in your callers and in your sales people. If you are a small business owner, make it a habit to put all your energy in getting a YES from your clients.
- Stay Engaged, Lead from Front We see Jordan Belfort’s character come up on the stage and give inspired speeches frequently. We see him talking to his employees, and we see him demonstrate how to win over a client. He succeeds in doing one thing: connecting with the team and motivating them to do their best for him.
- Balance between Work and Play Working hard the whole day and doing drugs till three in the morning is not a shining example of work-life balance. But, you can add some joy to your workplace by organising fun events at work and giving the sales people a chance to relax.
- Celebrate & Reward Success The ‘reward’ method works on many levels. By rewarding and celebrating success, you impel your sales team to do more. Through Wolf of Wall Street, we see scenes of parties following successful projects. By rewarding employees liberally for the success of the company and celebrating the success, you create a winning culture. Bonus: Identify Demands that you can fulfill. No matter how good a salesman you are, consistently selling a product that doesn’t have much to do with the real needs or desires of your audience is not possible. The first step is to identify the emotional, physical and psychological situation of your customers, to understand their personality type, and then modulate your sales pitch to suit their needs. If you can push the right button for the right customer at the right time, getting a sale is not that difficult anymore. As a salesperson, you need to learn to think on your feet, be responsive to the tone of the customer, and adjust your sales pitch to succeed.
What’s your take on the movie, and what did you feel about the sales tactics employed by Jordan Belfort? Are there more things that you learned from it? Please share it with us in the comments!
