This is obviously a classic example of why the entire sales industry has gotten a bad rap. In the Wolf of Wall Street movie,
Leonardo DiCaprio plays a stock broker, who “sells” a client on a stock sale.
DiCaprio lies, manipulates and cheats the customer and is obviously only in it for himself. However, he gets the sale because, despite all of these unsavory tactics, he does a few things right.
What he did right:
- Relationship Building: Right off the bat he cements his credibility by reminding the customer that he requested more information from his company. This positions the salesman as coming from a place of service in answering his inquiry. He also uses his first name, “John,” many times throughout the conversation. Building that relationship is essential to making the sale.
- Confidence: Sales success always increases commensurately with confidence levels. DiCaprio controls the conversation from the beginning to the end, and does so in a confident “I’ve got this” tone.
- Results: He refers to his track record of success by mentioning that he is very rarely wrong about his stock recommendations, which lessens the risk the buyer might be feeling. Also, he mentions the analysts’ predictions, giving his offer more credibility.
- ROI: The salesman points out that a mere $6K investment could pay off up to 10 times, which would result in a $60K pay off. The pay off mitigates the feeling of the expenditure.
- Tangible Reference: When the salesman mentions a potential profit of nearly $60,000, John says, “Geez, that’s my mortgage.” DiCaprio then says, “Right, you could pay off your mortgage,” which makes the potential payoff visual, tangible and essentially much more believable in John’s mind.
Ultimately, you want to use the tactics shown by the Wolf of Wall Street, but use these powers only for good! As you can see, the same tactics can be used for positive or negative purposes, but they are highly successful and can often seal the deal for you. Build a relationship, show confidence, guarantee results, show how your product or service can save or make money for a client, and give a tangible reference whenever possible. All of these strategies are proven to seal the deal when from a place of serving the customer or client.