Better Call Saul – Sales Review

This will be a sales review of Saul from Better Call Saul, successfully selling burner phones to a biker gang. Initial review of the interaction would seem to suggest a well crafted pitch. After all, he got the sale. But let us look at it a little bit closer from a sales funnel point of view.

Saul began the interaction with a general opener. He simply greeted the gang, asked how they were doing, and followed with a compliment. As friendly and open ended as this opening may have been, it fell on deaf and uninterested ears as shown by the reaction from the gang – defensive.

Second we see an attempt at need analysis, but the question was a simple, flat, yes or no question. While Saul got lucky with the answer – “Los Cruces” – which let him answer with a witty quip, the question itself was rather poor. You will also note as well, that Saul asked that question because he knew the need he was attempting to fill. He was specifically trying to sell to bikers who needed a better way to contact their buddies in prison without being watched or listened to. Often, this is not the case, and even in this specific example, it probably was not the best idea. A more open ended approach that opened the door to other possible need may have been a more affective strategy. However, an important caveat is that he knows the market well. having worked as a lawyer, he knew his customer base like the back of his hand and a thorough need analysis, and intricate sales pitch may have done much more harm than good. Under ordinary circumstances – I.e, not selling to thugs and biker gangs – you should have a good idea of need based on your pre-call analysis, but should not let that research color your glasses and muddy the waters in your attempt to find a more painful problem.

Ultimately, what Saul does is build trust with his client. He shows – albeit in a very risky manner – that he knows his clients plight, and that he has a deep understanding of their pain. He then offers a well thought out, clearly understood, and succinct solution to the problem. To understand Sauls sales strategy, you have to understand the customers that he is going after. While Saul did fail to use any probing questions, he ultimately did not have a lot of time to ask many questions. His clients  prompted a quick and effective pitch, and I believe that given his situation, he was able to probe to the correct pain very quickly and yet effectively, and offered a good solution in the time that he had to do so.

Saul was able to start with a good opened, identify his customers needs, build trust, and then offer an effective solution to the problem in under 2 minutes, and he made the sale. While unorthodox, on can’t easily deny that this was a successful and well performed sales pitch.