Lessons Learned: The Wolf of Wall Street

Everybody knows the famous Wolf of Wall scene. Jordan Belfort, surrounded by his colleagues, closes a customer on a penny-stock deal worth thousands of dollars.

His colleagues look at him like “he just discovered fire”. The entire scene was done over the phone, using nothing but words, wit, and a little charm.

Let’s break down the scene.

The first words out of his mouth are:

“Hello, John, how are you doing today?”

This line right here is designed to bridge the gap between unknown and known, essentially he’s lowering the barrier by making the conversation personal.

The most common mistake many cold-callers and even warm-callers make is saying:

“Hi, is John there?” Or “Hi, may I speak with John?”

Without any phone sales etiquette, the average person wouldn’t see anything wrong with this. If you’ve gotten cold calls before, you know whenever someone starts with this, your DEFENSE barriers go way up.

“Who’s calling?” “Can I HELP you?!” “What’s this in regards to?”

By starting with the first name, he’s overcoming that potential barrier without a flinch. He’s building trust with “John” and getting “John” to do one very important thing:

Say “Yes”

It works 99.9% of the time.

Let’s continue onto the scene:

Next, he identifies that John has in some way requested information – he’s doing this to get his second “yes”. He then goes on to spin a fantastic story about the greatest deal- a little something called Aerodyne. Then he slams it home and gets him to close.

Hook, Story, Offer. It’s an easy formula, and will average a lot of success.

• Hook John first by getting his attention, and building trust…

• Tell John a story about who you are, and why you’re calling…

• Then create an irresistible offer.

Remember that sales is a number game, and you can typically replicate this to pretty good success. Just maybe don’t follow Belfort down the rest of his Wolf of Wall Street story, and you’ll do just fine.