Any fans of Glengarry Glen Ross out there? In this awesome movie from 1992, Alec Baldwin’s character, Blake, goes off on the sales staff of a company that sold home lots using high pressure tactics. Part of his rant included the phrase “Always be Closing”, which has become a part of American sales lexicon. Untold numbers of sales and marketing people adopted this mantra as the gospel over the years, apparently oblivious to the fact that it was just a line in a movie.
I am not sure if this method of selling ever worked, but you can easily spot the disciples. First they are always smiling, even at a funeral. They also must have one of those electronic, up the sleeve gimmicks as their hand could look empty one second, and the next there is a business card popping out of it. These are the people that hand you a card before they even know who you are or what you do. These cards must send off some kind of radio signal, as the moment it touches your hand, these robots start spewing. While the inevitable result of this process is alienation, business owners always smile when they witness one of their robots in action. Ironically, the same business owner that beams with pride at how “effective” his guy is, won’t give another company’s robot the time of day.
I can certainly appreciate the “old days”, I’m a big fan of Mad Men, the AMC series about an ad agency in the 60′s. Smoking and drinking in the office all day, the pointy bras women used to wear and those three martini lunches that my dad tells me used to make him worthless the rest of the day. In hindsight, I am amazed at how successful he was, given that he really only had about 3 hours a day to work. But what worked then, does not work now.
Beware robots… you are about to be unplugged. It just doesn’t work anymore. As soon as you start running your sales program on someone, they shut down. I may be looking at you, I may even be smiling, but I am not listening, I am just praying for someone else to walk up so I can introduce you to them and slink off when your program shifts to them. As a robot of course you are oblivious to this as you have been programmed to believe that everyone is a prospect for whatever you are hawking and if you can just get to the end of your pitch they will buy. Always Be Closing.
Business owners take note, sending robots out into the field does not grow your business. The only people they are able to close anymore seems to be their employers. So what is the answer today? I would tell you, but I am tired of writing now, I’ll get to that in my next post.
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