Tommy Boy is on a mission to make his first sale and throughout the whole movie he is trying to sell a ton of break pads so that his father’s business does not go under. In the scene above is one of the many sales attempts that Tommy Boy makes where he fails. Now obviously, we probably would not get to this level and start destroying things on the customer’s desk, but we could be doing the exact same thing to the sale that could have been made if we just sat back and listened while asking probing questions. This comedy also teaches other things like no could just mean in that moment or that learning from failure is surprisingly beneficial. In the movie, there is a scene of many customers saying no to him and he immediately responds with an “okey dokey” and just leaves without asking why they are saying no or finding out if it is just a bad time and seeing if they could do business in the future. No does not always mean no in the future so finding out if they will be interested some day is beneficial. Another thing that he does is failure after failure and he keeps trying to say this joke the whole movie and screws it up and on the final sale he finally gets it right. On top of that he learned from his many mistakes throughout the movie and made the final sale which was the one that he needed to keep his father’s business afloat. Also, if you have not watched this movie, I highly suggest it since it is very funny!
duzx20 
Ethan David 
Aliyah Shelatz 5 thoughts on “What COULD Happen if You Do Not Follow 70/30”
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This movie definitely has lots of examples of what to do and what not to do in sales. This scene is a great example of failing in a sale, and by the end we see that failure only goes so far until eventually you succeed.
Have a great week Alex!
I love that you used a classic. Tommy Boy is such a funny movie that paints sales in a hilarious light. Tommy is a confused salesman that somehow closes sales in his own unique way. This clips is a perfect example of how sometimes it’s the little things that end up closing a sale. Tommy boy learns from his mistakes and figures out what to say to close the final sales. It is important to follow the 70/30 because as you can see, Tommy does a little too much talking (and breaking things lol).
Good stuff Alex! It definitely shows salespeople in funny ways that I’m sure they can relate to. Tommy bot throughout the movie shows some rules that we talked about in class that we for sure keep in mind when selling!
A “no” doesn’t always mean a definitive “no,” unless you clarify, which is so important in sales. Tommy has a lot against his favor when it comes to his process of selling, but I think he’s a humorous example of what not to do as we learn about the concepts, such as the 70/30 rule in class.
The 30-70 rule can be inverted a lot faster than people would think. It is just a very tricky to detect. I took a hit during my sales project and so did few others. But the solution is easy: always find ways to keep the prospect talking