A sale is made with every call.. who's gonna close?
By Denis A. Baldwin

One of my favorite movie quotes is good and so true of sales, I felt I had to share. The quote comes from Ben Affleck's character Jim Young in the movie "Boiler Room":

"And there is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can't. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, that's it, I'm done. "

While Boiler Room is about stock brokers and some of their questionable business tactics, the message applies to sales and marketing of any kind. Your ultimate mission is sales is to move product. It's good to have collateral missions like being customer centric, saving the earth, helping out good causes, etc.etc. but in the end, it all comes down to how many customers are buying, and why.

I often remind myself of this quote before meeting with a customer. I know my product is a great one. I know that this client needs this product. Now how do I show them what I already know?

The best things you can do are to be honest, forward and direct in your communication. A sale is rarely about the product itself, but how it's marketed. If it's priced too high, they will sell you on that. If it's priced too low, they'll be suspicious of it's quality and sell you on that. If it doesn't do enough of what it's supposed to do, it's an incomplete product. If it does more than what it's supposed to do, it's a jack of all trades and a master of none. I've heard every rebuttal I think a person can hear at this point, and two things remain true.

1. The customer is only going to believe in you and your product if YOU believe in you and your product, so learn all you can, be honest and direct and find ways to sell YOURSELF, instead of selling just a product.
2. A sale is made with every call. Who's gonna close? You'll sell him a product or he'll sell you a reason why not.

Now, as Jim Young from Boiler Room would say, be relentless.