How the Wolf of Wall Street Can Help Your Business

What is the easiest and best way to sell a product or service to someone?

It isn’t by having the best product or service.

It isn’t by being the cheapest.

Frankly, it isn’t even to do with your reputation as a business.

It all comes down to this one thing that I am going to explain to you over the next few minutes.

If you can grasp this concept, your whole world view on selling will be changed. You’ll be able to sell anything to anyone.

“Sell Me This Pen”

One of the most famous lines from the movie “Wolf of Wall Street” is none other than: “sell me this pen”.

At the end of the movie Jordan Belfort holds a seminar.

He goes round the room asking people to ‘sell him this pen’.

What do people do to get him to buy the pen?

They start monologuing about the pen.

“This pen is blue”.

“This pen made from this precious metal or environmentally friendly plastic alternative”.

Yada, yada, yada…

They all fall for the common pitfall of overselling on the product features.

It seems like a good idea, but people do not buy simply because of logic.

If you were to go back to earlier on in the movie, Jordan is sat in a diner with his sales colleagues.

He asks one of them to ‘sell him this pen’ – the response?

“Can you write your name down for me?”

Boom.

Pen sold.

Think of what the pen can do for people.

With the pen they could write the next great movie or book.

Think of all the ideas people have and that they could write down with a pen?

Do you start to get the idea of where I am going with this?

The Drill Analogy

Let us use another analogy.

When someone goes into a hardware store and asks to buy a drill, what are they actually asking for?

This may seem like a trick question, but they are looking for a way to make a hole.

No one just buys a drill for the sake of it, they want to be able to make a hole (in a wall, floor, bit of wood etc.)

People know that when they need to make a hole, they need a drill.

You wouldn’t catch someone coming into a hardware store and asking how to make a hole. We all know that you need a drill.

You need to understand this principle when selling.

You must sell people the hole, not the drill itself.

The drill is a means to an end.

It is a necessary evil for the consumer to do what they want.

What Not to Do

Think about any time you have gone to by something technical e.g., a computer.

The salespeople will bombard you with how many gigs, ram, and what sort of processor it has.

Most people have no idea what this means unless they are really into computers.

Most people just want a high-speed computer that can access the internet and other common programs without crashing.

No one cares about all the features at first – they are useful bonuses and should be used to highlight the benefits of buying the product.

First things first, you need to sell them on the product itself.

You must sell the amazing, incredible product.

Same goes for if you bought an online course or e-book. No one is buying one for the number of pages or videos inside it.

They are buying it because the content helps to solve a problem they have.

It is the NEED that sells. Not the features.

You will catch yourself not selling the product.

You must remember that outcome > product. 

Real life examples

I’ll give you some examples to go away with.

Remember the super foods hype? Goji berries and wheat grass?

Yes, they might have been a good food to add into your diet.

But they weren’t going to solve all your dietary problems.

You might call it a bit of a scam. It was simply a very good marketing ploy.

They sold you on the need to be extra healthy, and the best way to do that was with their super foods.

Think about coffee shops for a minute.

They all make the same mistakes.

They will sell on price, having a nice store, or even some fancy arabica beans…

No one cares, especially for the sake of a coffee.

What about if a coffee shop had a sign that said “Tired? Nice warm coffee.”

Everyone is walking around tired, and a nice warm drink paints a pleasant picture in your head. It helps attracts people like a moth to a flame.

As a final reminder, people sometimes buy what they want, and always buy what they NEED.

Look at what you sell and think “why would someone NEED this?”

If you need help with this then:

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