18 Best Sales Movies to Watch at All Time
Have you ever wondered why a lot of Hollywood movies keep the same storyline all the time? Boy meets girl, the boy takes her out on a date, meet each other’s family, then a twist to break them up and reunite after some dramatic circumstance.
Let’s face it, these movies are continuously watched by a lot of audiences because it sells! These movies are what sell best to their target audience.
Just like how these movies work their way through their audience’s hearts, a good salesman knows how to target the right audience along with presenting themselves the best way they can when selling something new.
Here at Sloovi, we believe these best sales movies will not just guide you as a sales rep but will inspire and educate you on `how to give an excellent sales pitch for your company. Without a doubt, a good sales team is the foundation and revenue generator of any business.
Despite how rigorous this job role may be, it requires time, critical thinking, grit, and a bit of motivation to be great at it.
In this sense, we would like to share these top sales movies to help you become the successful salesperson you’re bound to be – especially with your lead generation campaign. Read along to find the top-notch sales movies that will help you improve your sales skills to become your best.
Pursuit of happiness is an inspiring, evergreen movie that displays how being positive and never giving up could change the whole aspect of one’s life. The movie starred Will Smith, who acted as Chris Gardner, and his then five-year-old son, Jayden Christopher Syre Smith, who acted as Christopher.
The movie illustrated how the smart salesman Chris Gardner, a single parent, and his son struggled to live off the American dream in San Francisco in 1981.
Based on a true story, Chris Gardner had hoped to make money from selling at least 3 bone scanners a month to doctors and medical centers to address their family’s needs and financial struggles.
His home situation was upsetting as he was not able to afford rent despite Linda, his wife, running several shifts for different jobs.
Not being able to make more sales after several attempts, his wife leaves him for New York while losing his apartment at the same time.
Gardner and his son are then forced to live on the streets. So, he keeps selling bone scanners while taking up an unpaid internship as a stockbroker in a brokerage firm.
Due to the scarcity of paid opportunities, he continued to train for 6 months. He worked hard to outshine his competitors while continuously selling his devices to feed his kid and meet his daily expenses.
The tear-jerking ending shows the victorious Chris Garner as a broker showing that with hard work, becoming successful and having a better life is possible. Will Smith’s role as Chris Gardner got him a nomination for an Academy Award.
Another best sales movie is the Wolf of Wall Street.
One of the best sales movies of all time, this movie has helped many sales professionals improve their sales game by educating how far you can get with a good sales script and a well-done sales pitch while working as an individual or for an organization.
Wolf of wall street is based on a true story of a dishonorable stockbroker, Jonah Belfort who rose to be a rich stockbroker due to corrupt sales practices. He goes from penny stocks and
In the early 990s, Jordan Belfort and Donny Azoff teamed up to begin a brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmont. Their company grew from 20 employees to over 250 employees, and their prominence in the trading world and on Wall Street grew beyond borders.
To the extent that other companies recorded their public offering through Stratton Oakmont. As their publicity went beyond borders, so did their fraudulent business practices.
They get more noticed than anyone else because when they make big trades, they throw huge parties for their staff. That leads to Belfort being called “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
0n the cover of Forbes Magazine and attracted the FBI to his business activities. Unfortunately, drugs and illicit financial practices led to his downfall which led to his arrest with a serving tenure of 22 months in prison.
This is one of the most known to be inspiring and motivating sales movies of all time.
In this sales movie, Robin Williams delivers a very powerful act. Based on Saul Bellow’s classic novel, Williams characterized a middle-aged Jewish salesman who experienced problems in working out his problems while moving to New York in the 1950s.
His character, Tommy Wilhelm suffers a severe form of mental breakdown after losing his job with his friends and family turning their backs on him. Overall, this motion picture, tells a story of a salesman whose life has been a back-and-forth of luck and his journey towards his desire for success.
4. Joy (2015)
The interesting part about this sales movie is that it was written based on the life story of the legendary entrepreneur Joy Mangano, A businesswoman, entrepreneur, and inventor of the miracle mop. Joy Mangano is a young woman with a lot going on in her personal life. She is smart and full of life.
This oscar-nominated drama stars renowned actors such as Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro.
In this film, Lawrence plays a divorced mother with two kids working as an airline booking clerk. Apparently, her ex-husband lives in her house, her mother lives upstairs and spends time all day watching soap operas, and her father, who has been divorced from her mom for 17 years, is now also living in her apartment.
Mangano’s big break comes when QVC offers to put one of her self-wringing mops on one of their telethons. The spot fails because the salesman doesn’t do his job well.
Mangano fights for the chance to be the star of the infomercial herself, and she soon gets what she wants. This sales move strengthens the concept that hard work pays off. Below are a few sales lessons you can take home from the movie Joy:
- All sales strategies to generate leads into the sales pipeline are not a waste because they will surely pay off eventually.
- Grab every opportunity that shows off your sales skills.
The play Death of a Salesman was written by Arthur Miller in 1948. (1915-2005). In 1949, it first premiered on Broadway starring Willy Loman as the protagonist of the play. He lives in New York and works as a traveling salesman.
In this film, Loman’s character is a broken-down salesman who thinks that being a successful salesman revolves around being liked by many. His wife, Linda, works hard to keep the family together, while his sons, Biff and Happy are in constant search of their purpose in life.
The movie Death of a Salesman is comprised of sales lessons that would in a way help the sales team;
- CRM systems can be very powerful tools to effectively manage your pipeline and process.
- Your pitch should focus more on the buyer than yourself.
- In the world of sales, collaboration with other sales reps is much more important rather than withholding sales practices.
You cannot help but agree that Wall Street is another sales movie you have got to see if you want to learn how to generate leads. Set in the 1980s, the movie illustrates how a young, ambitious, and impatient stockbroker, Bud Fox is willing to do anything to get to the top.
As a person who admires the greedy Gordon Gekko – who is the most successful stock trader on Wall Street, Fox builds a close relationship with him and builds an allegiance with him.
Gekko uses insider trading information to move the market, and his motto, “Greed is good,” says it all about how he does it.
Gekko in one of the scenes said that information is the most valuable commodity, which a lot of sales reps will agree with, particularly for those who generate their leads via cold sale call and email.
Gekko will do anything to get a good deal which influenced Bud’s strong drive to be successful. Soon, Bud finds himself getting information from anywhere to stay on top of the sales game.
All of this turns into concern when Gekko goes after Blue Star Airlines, where Bud’s father has worked for 24 years, with the secret plan to break it and steal the retirement fund from the workers. One of the popular lines in the movie was “Life all comes down to a few moments.”
Boiler Room is named one of the most outstanding sales movies of all time revolving around the theme of the hard sell. Giovanni Ribisi plays a 19-year-old college dropout who lands a job as a stockbroker in an attempt to please his father.
In this attempt, he becomes hyper-aggressive in phoning highly paid clients and compelling them to make decisions to their firm’s benefit. In return, he reaped the rewards of his hard work in the form of mansions, sports cars, and other material wealth.
Although the film brings some exaggeration to the table, it well depicts the training of young sales reps founded on friendship and competition.
In a nutshell, the Boiler Room illustrated how a college dropout, who from being jobless becomes a well-paid salesman who would aggressively sell to unsuspecting buyers, and actually is good at it! A few key takeaway gems from Boiler Room are the following:
- Conducting sales through a sales call is high-stakes that requires top-notch skills which should be practiced in the field of sales.
- Do not waste your time around people who are either indecisive or have a hard time taking accountability in decision-making.
- Asking for sales takes patience and should be done at the right time.
This 2010 unconventional real-life based romance drama focuses on the life of a salesman in the pharmaceutical industry.
Being a viagra salesman played by Jake Gyllenhaal, he charms doctors, nurses, and all those who stand between him and the success he wants to achieve without shame.
He showed a willingness to break some rules, would not take no for an answer, and unfolded wise ways in medical sales which leads him to become Pfizer’s top salesperson.
His love interest, played by the very beautiful Anne Hathaway is a free-spirited young lady suffering from Parkinson’s disease where they find themselves bonded by love.
In the end, the movie goes to show that there should always be a balance between love and reaching for your goals as working too hard can sacrifice time and relationships.
Based on the true story of Ray Kroc played by Michael Keaton, this movie depicts how a master salesman transformed an innovative eatery into the fast food empire known around the world today.
As a milkshake machine salesman, Kroc signed a deal with two brothers to franchise the business that sells affordable food and swiftly delivers them to customers in perfect proportions.
The sales movie had a core message that revolves around the theme of persistence. Although Kroc’s lack of morals gets worse as the movie plays, he eventually succeeds in turning Mac Donald into a global fast food empire.
Glengarry Glen Ross depicts how a group of real estate salesmen working in a Chicago real estate office with a quest to close deals out of fear of being laid off from work.
A definite must-see among sales movies with renowned stars, Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, and Kevin Spacey.
It shows the realistic ups and downs of older real estate salesmen when management states that all will be fired at the end of the week except the top two salespeople. This heats up the atmosphere in the company especially when coworker Dave Moss comes up with a strategy to steal leads.
Shelley Levene (Jack Lemmon), who is nursing a sick daughter at home tries everything he can to get his boss, John Williamson (Kevin Spacey), to give him prospective sales leads but all to no avail.
Things get heated up for the desperate salesmen when his coworker Dave Moss (Ed Harris) comes up with a plan to steal the leads. Al Pacino’s Oscar-worthy performance and smooth-talking Ricky Roma steal the entire show. This sales-oriented intensity will definitely make you think twice about working in the sales industry.
What are the sales lessons you can learn from Glengarry Glen Ross 1992?
- One of the most valuable sales mindsets is Always Be Closing (ABC). It is essential to take the little steps that lead up to closing a deal.
- It is important to hear out what the buyer has to say while you give them clear and concise answers.
- You always have a vivid goal to be able to make it in the sales industry.
Aluminum-siding salesmen Bill “B.B.” Babowsky and Ernest Tilly, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Danny Devito, respectively, are professional competitors in a high-pressure sales industry.
The rivalry of these door-to-door salespeople then becomes personal once a minor accident forces them to take accountability which both of them do not want any part of.
Tin man discusses corrupt sales practices and how it penetrates teams and relationships which can lead to uncertainties that naturally occur in the sales industry.
And as its most memorable tagline states “The American Dream Changes. The People Who Sell It Don’t.”
This Oscar-nominated movie is based on the real-life memoir of Billy Beane, played by the famous Brad Pitt.
He was the talent scout for Oakland Athletics and rose to become a general manager while making big bets, challenging the status quo, and transforming little resources into great outcomes.
The Moneyball strategy takes on leveraging the power of data. Like in major league baseball, businesses leverage the power of data to draw decisions for sales forecasting and pipeline management.
However, as he tried to apply baseball’s conventional wisdom did not work as he planned. So instead, he utilized a mathematical strategy for his team that allowed him to draft and acquire players which changed his management team as the general manager of the struggling Oakland Athletics baseball.
Beane’s innovative solutions to traditional problems encourage the creation of new perspectives in the sales process.
As the popular quote from this movie states, “You’re not solving the problem. You’re not even looking at the problem!” should drive your sales reps to figure out what the problem is before coming up with the most sensible solution.
This comedic take on sales movies tells the story of a high achiever inheriting a young child that changes her life. Consultant J.C. Wiatt, played by Diane Keaton finds herself challenged in focusing on her job while raising a child.
As time goes on, she learns to love the baby and provides the inspiration for her to acquire other toys, such as a Vermont farmhouse, and a baby-food company.
Wiatt eventually discovers that there is no such thing as bad luck and finds her calling as a great entrepreneur which leads her to sell her own brand of baby food.
Believe us when we say that this is something that most new business owners have got to watch!
One of the best sales movies that stars Chris Farley and David Spade, where a son commences on a journey to save his late father’s business. Although this movie may sound sweet and sentimental, this film has a hilarious take on showing different sales processes, particularly having bad sales calls.
In many of his attempts to sell, Tommy (Chris Farley) handles disapproval, losing a pitch in front of a prospect, and gets in a deep rivalry with his late father’s assistant.
Here is Tommy Boy, you will be reminded of the things you need not do as a sales rep in a competitive sales world.
Don Ready is a lot of things as a human being, but he is well-known as an excellent salesman. Played by Jeremy Piven, Ready realizes he’ll be able to save a car dealership on the brink of bankruptcy. The only question is, how?
He then hires a team of “car commandos” to boost sales over the Fourth of July weekend in the last effort to save the day. Led by the quick-witted, foul-mouthed, and confident Don “The Goods”, they find themselves having to sell a dozen cars in three days.
But what he does not expect as he starts his new job, he quickly falls in love with his boss’s daughter, Iv. He then realizes that he will be needing more than just his cars and lying skills to get through the tough weekend.
One of the most famous roles Tom Cruise is known for, Jerry Maguire plays the role of a handsome, charming, and successful sports agent. After losing his job after he sends a compelling memo to his advisors that states the clientele is more important than money.
As Maguire starts from scratch, he only has one, a money-loving client named Rod Tidwell – A rookie football receiver. Together with Dorothy Boyd, another agent at SMI, he sets out to rebuild his life.
As things get worse, Jerry attempts to prove that a good spirit and love towards clients can become beneficial as a salesman. And as you may know one of the most famous lines “Show me the money!”, this movie goes to show that when someone believes in your ability, you can do just about anything.
This movie is definitely a must-watch! It is a sales documentary from Albert and David Maysles that follows the real-life story of the rivalry of door-to-door salesmen that work for a Mid-American Bible Company. The four men travel across middle America in an attempt to sell hard-sell gold-leaf bibles to the old folks.
This movie highlights the strive for sales and emphasizes how one’s grit and determination play a huge role in surviving the tough world of sales.
The Big Kahuna is a business comedy-drama movie that takes on a thrilling chase of a game-changing deal for B2B sales strategies.
In this story, the “Big Kahuna” is the CEO of a large company targeted by three people of industrial lubricant sellers at a trade show.
The three people hope to meet a business executive that Larry calls “the Big Kahuna, el Kahuna grande,” to get a new client. As their stay in the hotel goes on, the difference in life experience between young Bob and his two coworkers becomes clearer.
One of the sales gems that can be taken from this story, is that you have to acknowledge being a human being before selling to anyone. As their famous quote goes, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or “How to Make Money in Real Estate with No Money Down.”
Final thoughts
Can I learn sales?
The above are a few movies you will find resourceful as a sales professional. They will not just inspire you but also educate you in generating leads for a marketing campaign.
Yes, you can learn sales. Everyone can learn how to sell. This doesn’t mean, though, that anyone can be good at selling. Explore some interesting sales memes to motivate your sales team.
People who are new to sales often want to learn how to close a deal right away instead of learning the basics of sales. Hopefully, these movies can boost your morale and power up your grit to become a great salesperson.
Have fun binge-watching these films and share them with your friends and colleagues!
