If you have seen The Wolf of Wall Street, you may be wondering why I am using the unethical sales tactics of Jordan Belfort as an example of good selling. Even more so, I would tend to agree with the fact that no salesperson should follow the majority of Belfort’s tactics. However, this does not mean that all of the sales strategies depicted in the film are bad or unethical; some of the sales tactics shown in the film are actually quite good. While many of the sales strategies depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street are not right to use, certain aspects of them can be effective for ethical selling.
For simplicity, we will analyze one specific scene from the film to see what we can take away from Belfort’s sales tactics. At the start of the film, Belfort begins making good money by selling penny stocks (or stocks for small companies many people do not know about.) The product itself is not that great, and Belfort knows this, often overexaggerating the value of the stocks in order to make a sale. In this, Belfort unethically exploits the customer by selling them a not-so-great product, which he masks as something of high value. Despite this, however, he does frame the sale in a way which points to the customer’s pain, essentially using the idea of easy profits from the penny stocks to help sell the product. Piggybacking off of this idea, Belfort does not focus on his product when selling, but focuses on the benefits it can provide for the customer. Both of these tactics, when applied correctly and ethically are actually good to use.
Obviously there are other examples of both good and bad sales tactics in The Wolf of Wall Street, but even in this one short scene the viewer can see both sides of the coin. While Belfort exploited and defrauded his customers to make a fast buck, he did know how to sell well. The ways in which Belfort framed his product as a benefit to solve his customer’s problems is a good tactic to use. Evidently, this scene shows that what matters is how a salesperson uses their abilities and strategies. In order to sell ethically, one must put aside personal interest and focus on helping the customer to fulfill his or her needs. Overall, selling should not be only for the benefit of the salesperson, but should be used to guide and help customers solve their pains and problems.
Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPORRudmQv0 (Please note the scene does include some foul language)
Meyersak24 
rauhauserar23 
principera24
I agree with much of what you said about selling in Wolf of Wall Street. Considering much of the movie is wild, it gets a bad reputation. I also agree that we don’t necessarily have to include the sales components in that bad reputation. I like the part where he sells the pen. He was very witty in the way that he created a need where there wasn’t already one. Although some of the characters act unethically, some of their sales philosophy was on point.
I could not agree more with what you’ve said here. Since this main plot of the movie revolves around the sketchy and highly illegal tactics of Jordan Belfort, people assume that every single move he made was bad. This is not the truth though as, how you have pointed out, Belfort’s selling of penny stocks at the beginning of the movie is a great example of just how valuable a good salesperson can be. Belfort was able to make a huge profit not because he was selling great products, but because of his skills in selling and connecting with the customer.