Glengarry Glen Ross

[Seshmeister]

In full. A brilliant movie


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Glengarrymovie.jpg


Glengarry Glen Ross is a 1992 American drama film, adapted by David Mamet from his acclaimed 1984 Pulitzer Prize- and Tony-winning play of the same name. The film depicts two days in the lives of four real estate salesmen and how they become desperate when the corporate office sends a trainer to "motivate" them by announcing that, in one week, all except the top two salesmen will be fired. The film, like the play, is notorious for its use of profanity, leading the cast to jokingly refer to the film as "Death of a Fuckin' Salesman". The title of the film comes from the names of two of the real estate developments being peddled by the salesmen characters (Glengarry Highlands and Glen Ross Farms).
Glengarry Glen Ross had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival where Jack Lemmon won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. The film was not a commercial success, making only $10.7 million in North America, just below its $12.5 million budget. It was critically well-received with highly positive reviews by most of the major critics. Al Pacino was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the film.

[jhale667]

I remember my first day working music retail in '99 they had us watch this and the manager said "We'll understand if any of you guys want to quit right now..." :umm:

[Nitro Express]

I almost took a job being a pharmaceutical rep for Pfizer. I had no idea how corrupt the pharmaceutical industry was at the time and I'm glad I didn't take the job. The job is mostly just smoozing and bribing doctors. There is an art to doing that well and I'm pretty good at it but I just never enjoyed being a full time sales rep. I did it in the finance industry as an entry level job but as soon as I could get out of just churning commissions I did. People make fun of used car salesmen but I think stock brokers are far worse.

[jhale667]

Including the 2-year retail stint, was in sales for close to 10 years. I was good at it, made good money, but I hated it. Can't ever imagine doing it again.

[Nickdfresh]

A. B. C. Always. Be. CLOSING!! :)

[Nitro Express]

Including the 2-year retail stint, was in sales for close to 10 years. I was good at it, made good money, but I hated it. Can't ever imagine doing it again.

That was me. I did well in commissions but hated it. I was so bored. Sales is a pretty shallow life. There are people who love the smoozing bit of it. I got tired of it. I felt like an actor acting in a play actually. When I worked in sales and it's long hours and in reality, you are always in it because everyone is a potential customer. At least when you are a broker.

I did learn there are or maybe were good people in the financial industry. One of my boss' told me the better I got at my job the more naive I would see people and there would be the temptation to take advantage of them. He said if he ever caught me taking advantage of a client over selling them products beyond what they reasonably needed, I would be fired.

That's why seeing all these politicians taking advantage of the public drives me nuts. They are con artists screwing a gullible public. They need to be fired. When I see one of these guys stay in for life I want to puke.

[Seshmeister]

When I worked in sales and it's long hours and in reality, you are always in it because everyone is a potential customer. At least when you are a broker.


No offence to anyone here but I tend to avoid salesmen in my social life.

Especially once they have been doing it for a while, very often they can't switch off. If you spend all week bullshitting people over drinks and food not surprisingly a lot of people find it difficult to stop at the weekend when seeing friends. I know one guy who can do it but he is the exception, the rest of the ones I have met come across initially as friendly but then you start to realize they are 'in character' and you start to wonder if they are as nice about you when they go home.

The other problem with sales is, as the movie shows, you judge yourself entirely by money and income. Most other jobs that is part of it but far from everything. Inevitably the bad times come and often completely outwith the control of the salesman like say a competitor comes up with a better product. At that point with all self worth built on income and unsure about the reality of their 'friendships' these guys can really hit some lows.

My hatred of sales probably hasn't helped me running my business but fuck it. :)

[Little Texan]

Glengarry Glen Ross...I thought that was the name of a rock singer, specifically one of the former lead singers of Black Sabbath.