Glengarry Glen Ross

Sales is often spoken of as the tip of the spear for any enterprise. That’s not true --- marketing is the tip of the spear. But we’ll leave that alone. Sales is often the first time a customer or buyer experiences a company --- the ethic, the product, the approach. Sales as a career attracts a certain type of person --- driven, very focused, sometimes with big but usually at least a healthy ego. Many focused on the needs of their customers. Many focused on the bucks. Some even focused on both. Like any position, you get people who are out on the fringes of the bell-shaped curve (to be fair --- marketing included). In sales, on one end, those who are so focused on the dollars, they’ll do anything to keep them rolling in. On the other end, those who whine that it’s all stacked against them --- they have no help, no prospects, no luck, no life. 

I was struck like a lightning bolt by an examination, a wild and exaggerated examination, but one that was close to the truth, of both extremes in sales by the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. Marketing will make you an observer --- of trends, of behavior, of people. When I saw Glengarry, a chill ran down my spine and I thought, my god! I’ve been in cars for hours with these guys! What I’d observed out in the wild was up on the screen. But distilled down to its essence. You rooted for these guys, or you hated their guts. What a film…

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