Breakdown of a Genius Sale by Dwight and Jim

Dwight and Jim are an iconic duo in “The Office.” While they are mainly known for their mutual hatred towards each other, pranks, and competition, they can sometimes come together and be a sales dream team. These moments in the show are so endearing and wholesome because it shows that these two might not truly despise each other as much as they think. One such “dream team moment” is shown at the beginning of this video:

jim and dwight going on sales calls for 9 and a half minutes | The Office US | Comedy Bites

There is a lot to unpack here. First of all, in the beginning, Dwight shows the epitome of something we talked about in class recently by hyping himself up to some rock music right before going into the sales call. While this may not be as effective as interrogative thinking-as we discussed in class-it seemed to be effective enough to give him the confidence he needed.

When the scene cuts to Jim and Dwight in the meeting, we hear Jim listing benefits to the prospect. He’s talking too much. The prospect looks bored. Then, Dwight does something strange. He asks to use the office phone. Upon receiving permission, he loudly makes a phone call and is out on hold as Jim continues rattling off benefits. While Jim does show that he knows of certain customer needs (by mentioning tax season), he assumes too much and asks too little. The prospect denies the offer because Dunder Mifflin’s prices are higher than “the big guys.” Jim admits this is true, then does something great. He asks a question: “How important to you is customer service?” The prospect answers that it is very important. Then, looking down at the phone, still on hold, Dwight tells the prospect that on the other end of the line is one of “the big guys.” Jim then calls Dunder Mifflin and gets an answer immediately.

While not a perfect sales pitch, this unconventional method worked extremely well and landed Dwight and Jim the deal. Based on what we’ve learned in class, I think Jim should have led the prospect down a pain funnel rather than listing benefits and then asking one question. He also should not have assumed that the prospect needed his mind eased about upcoming taxes. Bottom line is, they may have gotten the sale even without the whole show if they had better sales practices, but for the purpose of their demonstration, their execution was great.