The ABC of sales for the 21st century

The pre-social media era of the hard sales techniques is over, and it has been replaced with understanding and guidance

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) is an iconic drama film about the lives of four American real estate salesmen and the desperation that sets in when their head office sends a trainer, Blake, to ‘energise’ the team. In a particularly savage scene, Blake launches into a torrent of abuse at the salesmen, telling them that only the top two of the four salesmen will keep their jobs at the end of the monthly sales contest. He tells the salesmen to adhere to the ABC of sales: always be closing, noting that they should pressurise prospects into making purchase decisions quickly.

In the 1990s, the power of the salesperson relied on information asymmetry, where they had superior knowledge about the products they were selling. The customer was not able to easily make comparative decisions, enabling a ‘buyer beware’ pressurised sales culture. Salespeople were regarded as untrustworthy and aggressive. Although Blake's techniques may have been effective the back then, they soon became out of step and ineffective once the internet and social media became more prevalent.