In many sales classes and even in sales interviews the term boiler room is tossed around like a football. This term which is rarely understood or explained leaves many interviewees or students guessing “what the heck is a boiler room?”
In the 2000 film,Boiler Room, Vin Diesel stars as Chris Varick a top salesmen at J.T. Marlin a boiler room that masks itself as a Brokerage firm. Boiler Rooms are outbound call centers that are filled with pushy salesmen whos only purpose is to make the sale. it is from these call centers that the common sales quotes “buy or die,” or “Always Be Closing” come from. These call centers have made many people very successful but at what cost? It is also interesting to note that a lot of other illegal activity such as pump and dump schemes arise from these types of businesses.
BoweryJE22
It’s fortunate that the sales world has deviated from this style of selling. Vin Diesel does a good job at personifying how a lot of people view the stereotypical pushy sales person. Kind of reminds me of Leo’s portrayal of Jordan Belfort in the Wolf of Wall Street.
The movie is a classic example of bad salesmanship. And although times have changed since, there are still some examples of Vin Diesel’s selling style, just not as over the top.
These are the types of places you hate to get calls from. They don’t focus on you as the customer at all and are just concerned with telling you all the features. It’s frustrating when someone who shows up out of the blue won’t take no for an answer. They need to separate prospecting from closing in their sales system!
It’s a sad thing that so many people in our world are as manipulative as this character. Sure, he made the sale, but at what cost? I hope to be the kind of salesperson with whom people enjoy interacting because of a posture of helpfulness and care. Thanks for this example of what not to do!
This is actually really helpful for me in understanding a “boiler room”. I have never seen the movie and have wondered what the heck people mean when they refer to that. Seeing just a clip of the movie so far gave me a peek into the actual feel of the environment and although funny at times, it is ultimately disgusting the greed and manipulation that happens here. I hope that as we move away from traditional selling these call centers will eventually dissipate as well.
Great post and very insightful! I had no idea what boiler room was referring to, and your post made that very clear. Clearly it exemplifies poor sales techniques.
It was interesting to see this tactic used in class. Its surprising to see that it worked back than. Although, nowadays it would be very rare that this would work at all because all the customer has to do is a little research and if what the client is telling them is wrong they can find a better deal elsewhere. Having the internet has truly changed the sales game. It definitely benefited the customer but also the seller because they can find customers that fit their particular product better instead of cold calling or playing a numbers game.
Thanks for explaining the term! Certainly finance has been rife with ethical issues for quite some time now. I guess it’s just easier to confuse the client and distract them when they are lusting for money.
Interesting post. I also had no idea what a boiler room is. Thanks for clearing that up!