Welcome to this week’s edition of The Small Business Corner newsletter!
It’s curious how sometimes what is meant to be a cautionary tale ends up being embraced as a guide for behaviour.
Take, for example, the now-cult movie Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), directed by James Foley and based on David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
The plot is straightforward — a 2-day glimpse into the lives of four real estate salesmen.
The cast is stellar, featuring Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, Shelly Levene, and Ed Harris. The dialogue is a masterclass in writing.
If you haven’t watched the movie, it’s worth your time.
I won’t spoil anything, but here’s the gist. These four salesmen are under immense pressure. They’re told that if they don’t boost their sales using the leads they’ve been given, they’ll be fired. The top performer, by contrast, will get the premium leads for the new Glengarry Highlands development.
The salesmen complain that the current leads are weak and worthless, making it really impossible to close any deals.
Enter Blake (Alec Baldwin), the firm’s top salesman, who delivers a now-iconic speech.
His advice?
Two key principles: 1) “Always be closing” and 2) Follow the AIDA framework: grab Attention, generate Interest, guide Decision-making, and prompt Action.
Blake's methods and the desperate tactics the salesmen resort to over the next 48 hours reveal a harsh truth: it’s not about how you make the sale—just that you do, by any means necessary. Even if that meant lying to and deceiving your leads.
The movie satirises the ruthless business practices of the era, where the ends justified the means, regardless of the deceit involved.
Despite that, the movie has been co-opted and has become a classic example, almost a sales manual, within the very same industry it was critiquing. I’ve come across several articles using the AIDA framework and the "always be closing" mantra as golden sales rules.
While these strategies might boost short-term results, they’re not sustainable if you’re relying on trickery and deception.
Perhaps the main question you ought to ask yourself when you’re wondering why you’re not closing any deals is the following: do you have good quality leads? Are you speaking to potential clients who are in fact interested in buying your products? Or are you, like in the movie, trying to sell real estate to people who can’t even afford it?
Always be closing, but how, authentically, with integrity…?
“There’s barely a product or service on the market today that customers can’t buy from someone else for about the same price, about the same quality, about the same level of service and about the same features. If you truly have a first-mover’s advantage, it’s probably lost in a matter of months. If you offer something truly novel, someone else will soon come up with something similar and maybe even better. But if you ask most businesses why their customers are their customers, most will tell you it’s because of superior quality, features, price or service. In other words, most companies have no clue why their customers are their customers. This is a fascinating realization.”
Simon Sinek, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
On Ultra-Processed Content, Cal Newport
“This is how we should think about the ultra-processed content delivered so relentlessly through our screens. To bypass these media for less processed alternatives should no longer be seen as bold, or radical, or somehow reactionary. It’s just a move toward a self-evidently more healthy relationship with information.”
It’s Time to Embrace the Mess, Rory Sutherland
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