Coffee is for closers

Glenngary Glen Ross (released in 1992) is an iconic sales movie starring young versions of Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris and Jack Lemmon, among others. If you’re in sales and you haven’t watched this movie, go and hire it. For no other reason than to remind you of how disturbing the techniques of ‘traditional selling’ were and still are today.

This movie is about a bunch of desperate and unethical New York real estate agents from the same office caught in a scandal (involving police) regarding one of the four salesmen stealing the good leads from the manager’s office: high value prospect details printed on small cards.

In one of the early scenes in the movie, Alec Baldwin’s character, ‘Blake’ an obnoxious sales manager unleashes a “so called pep-talk” containing a barrage of offences and insults including the infamous line, “Coffee is for closers!”

In this scene Blake is sent by the owners of a real-estate sales office to improve the flagging efforts of the employees through threats, intimidation and the gimmick of a sales contest, in which first prize is a Cadillac, second prize, “a set of steak knives,” and third prize “you’re fired.”

Baldwin’s character tells Lemmon’s character, an aging and now struggling ex-sales star who has gotten up to refill his coffee mug, “Coffee is for closers”, implying Lemmon’s character cannot get coffee, since he is not a “closer”.

Unfortunately today, many salespeople (still) believe “closing” is the most important sales skill. Although, “closing” or as I prefer to regard as “gaining agreement” is important it’s not the most important sales function. Closing implies a level of control over a situation; a completion or finalisation of sorts. As a salesperson you never control anything, the best you will do is facilitate a process that allows the customer to make the right buying decision.

If there is a “close” to be made, that right is reserved by the customer, only they can make that decision, thus making the “close” something you are best avoiding if not to offend your customer from taking control and making the buying decision themselves.

I can thank this movie for inspiring me with an idea that is now a big part of the success of my sales training programs. In the movie, mid-rant Blake moves to a chalk scribing on the whiteboard to elaborate the ‘The ABC’s’ which stands for, ‘Always Be Closing!’ Today, we all know closing is a waste of time, so the new ABC’s stand for:

Always Be Contributing.

So stop closing and start contributing. Know your ABC’s. Take an interest. Listen. Look for new and interesting ways you can add value and enhance benefits. Do more. Not less and then hope for the best. “Sign here!” is a waste of time unless you’re contributing first.

For more Selling Strategies advice, click here.

Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of BOOM Sales! a leading sales training and sales development specialist. He is also the creator of The NAKED Salesman, BOOMOLOGY! RetroService, and the Empathy Selling Process.