(Watch from 0:00-1:35)
In this short movie clip from Star Wars (0:00-1:35), Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker are looking for someone who can take them through a dangerous path. Once Hans Solo found out about the goal of the Obi-Wan and Luke, he sees opportunity. I would say that there are good and bad aspects of his sales pitch.
First, it was obvious that the Jedi were in a desperate situation, so Solo came in strong. While in this situation it was perfect, in most sales scenario you have to make the customer feel as if they are extremely important in my opinion. Solo gives off more of a “I’m going to get mine” type of mentality. If the two were not in such a desperate situation, they may have looked elsewhere for someone who isn’t as sketchy.
Second, Solo sold them the idea that the Millennium Falcon was the greatest ship in the galaxy. He uses past experiences as a way to show how fast the ship is. While the ship is very fast, and Solo is an extremely good pilot for the job (considering he is relentless), he does fail to explain that the Falcon is an older ship. From the spectating viewpoint it does not look like it is in shape to fly. Luke Skywalker in a later scene in the movie even says, “what a piece of junk!”. While the Falcon and Solo were able to get the job done, if Kenobi and Skywalker were to see the ship rather than Solo selling it to them, they may have never reached an agreement.
The last thing I took away from this was that Han Solo was very straightforward and himself. Because of this, the two parties were able to quickly reach a deal. If it were not for Han Solo’s sales pitch, the galaxy could have ended up completely different.
BoweryJE22
At first I thought you’d be looking into the advertising behind the new Star Wars single “Solo: A Star Wars Story”, but this is even better. I enjoyed your analysis of Solo’s tactics of sales in this scene, which really demonstrates a classic depiction of an effective salesman.