The Social Network movie, although dramatic at times, depicts the story of Facebook’s founding. An influential character is Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook. In the movie, Parker gains the trust of Mark through his charisma, style, and success. It’s clear Mark admired Parker and wanted to become like him. Another character in the movie is Eduardo, a friend of Mark and co-founder of Facebook. Despite his loyalty, Eduardo starts to become ignored by Mark. Sean Parker was simply more intriguing to Mark. Eventually, Eduardo was no longer involved in Facebook.
What can we learn from this story? In terms of sales, we can learn how to sell ourselves more effectively. Sean Parker did this by presenting himself as a friend. By leveraging his charm, he earned Mark’s trust. Think about it: would you rather work with someone you see as a friend or a sales representative? A client, however, can easily detect ingenuity. As such, try to establish an actual friendship with prospective buyers. Once solidified, pursue a sale. If you create a strong relationship with your customers, future sales will also become more likely.
A second lesson you can learn from The Social Network is that you can sell by expounding upon your client’s dreams. Sean Parker convinced Mark his mentorship was the answer to finding success. Mark wanted Facebook to be used by everyone and Parker presented himself as a resource to get there. We can do the same in sales. Clients are more likely to buy when told a product or solution will help them be more successful. After all, success is what most customers want.
Clearly, sales can be benefited through relationships and linking the customer to the product. Doing so creates trust in the seller and what is being sold.
testacr22
Hi Liam, I think your post is an interesting application of the concepts we’ve discussed in class. One of the fundamental keys to successful selling is being able to sell yourself. It is imperative to have confidence in your abilities both as a seller and a person. How can you expect others to believe in your product if you don’t believe in yourself?
Good post, Liam. Both of your tips really revolve around treating the customer as the hero in the sales process. It’s all about what you can do to help your customer. No pain, no sale 🙂
I really like this post because it talks about the non-sales selling that happens everyday in our lives. This is important because if we are unable to sell ourselves, then we will never be able to achieve what we want most in life. This type of selling happens in jobs, dating, and just in daily conversation.