Recently, I turned on an episode of a new Disney Plus show that promised to take viewers behind the scenes of Pixar Animation Studios. I anticipated a short, 20 minute episode focusing on the creative process of some artist, director, actor, etc.. However, I was shocked to see the amount of non-sales selling occur from the artists at Pixar Animation Studios.
The episode I watched focused on Jessica Heidt, a script editor at Pixar. She had discovered a problem with the scripts of many Pixar films: nearly all lines went to male characters, and there was hardly any female representation. Heidt began to literally count the number of lines spoken by male characters compared to female, and would present these numbers to anyone who would listen. In order for her bosses to take her seriously, Heidt couldn’t spill all her candy in the lobby. She had to be very factual to help others see this problem. While she wasn’t in a typical sales role, she had to sell her bosses on this idea.
Through this process, Heidt attracted the attention of her peers. One peer took interest and developed a software that would do the work Heidt was currently doing by hand. Heidt now had something solid to sell her bosses on. It was interesting to watch how Heidt used the techniques we talked about in class to sell her bosses on this new idea. In the end, she was quite successful in making Pixar more exclusive. What use to be a 6:4 male to female ratio is now closer to 1:1, and where 90% of lines used to go to male characters, the most recent movie she worked on was 50% male and 50% female.
BoweryJE22
Very interesting blog! Its always cool to hear the ways modern powerhouses are navigating the market and different ways to sell to their customers. Very well written blog well done!
Interesting seeing something like animation industry which at first glance might seem so far removed from the sales process, actually having to use sales principle to gain success.