Does Hollywood paint a realistic picture of business? In short, probably not. However, that doesn’t mean that real-life business lessons cannot be learned from the movies.

2014’s Oscars best picture award finalist, The Wolf of Wall Street is based on a true story of the rise and fall of stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Despite the fact that this drama-filled flick casts the financial sales profession in a negative light, their surreal plotline does an incredible job portraying some of the most intricate aspects of sales. Here are two valuable sales lessons we picked up.

1. FOCUS ON TRAINING

Never underestimate the power of training. For those who saw the movie, you know the atmosphere and culture at Belfort’s brokerage firm was ludicrous. However, outside of the spending habits and outrageous parties, Belfort created a competitive and energized environment by being an exceptional motivator.

Jordan Belfort truly understood the importance of training. Belfort successfully transformed uneducated and unqualified people into selling machines with his simple and effective sales model. He focused on hiring the right people, not necessarily the most experienced, and then trained and motivated them to ensure they were successful.

The takeaway? Investing in the development of your sales team is investing in the future success of your company.

2. ESTABLISH A NEED

There is one memorable and valuable scene in the movie when Jordan teaches his sales team one of the most important lessons in sales: focus on establishing a need for your product/service.

In this scene, DiCaprio’s character Jordan is sitting at a table with his hometown buddies, a group of inexperienced misfits, whom he hopes to turn into penny stock sales pros. In an attempt to teach them their first sales lesson, Jordan pulls out a pen and going around the table, thrusts it in their faces, one by one, with the instruction: “Sell me this pen!”

As each one takes the pen from him, they fumble through an attempted sales pitch: “This is the best pen ever made…”, “Let me tell you about why you’d want this pen…”, and so on. After each one, Jordan shakes his head and snatches the pen back. Finally Jordan hands the pen to his friend Brad, who he believes is a natural sales person.

Jordan (DiCaprio): “Brad, show ‘em how it’s done. Sell me that pen.”

Brad: “Why don’t you do me a favor and write your name down on that napkin for me.”

Jordan: “I don’t have a pen.”

Brad: “Exactly! Supply and demand my friend!”

The takeaway? Don’t rely on selling all the features and benefits of your products and services. Frankly, most people don’t care. Effective sales is about framing things around your customer’s needs and issues. You must establish a sense of demand and urgency before you can convince someone to buy your goods.

Our Two Cents

Hollywood is often chastised for painting an unrealistic and over-exaggerated view of how the world works. While this perception may be true, the A-List celebrities cast for these roles like Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street can be as insightful as the most respected Ivy League professor.

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