Topics: Business, Social Media, US News, Leonardo DiCaprio, Twitter
The internet has been left divided after video of the real-life Jordan Belfort using his sales techniques on a client went viral online.
Fans of Martin Scorsese's iconic 2013 cult film The Wolf of Wall Street will recall Leonardo DiCaprio portraying the former stockbroker, and on-screen, we saw a dramatized version Belfort's life and famed selling tactics.
There's the obvious technique viewers will remember, 'sell me this pen', which Belfort says to Brad Brodnik, played by Jon Bernthal, but that's really to see how good a salesman someone is.
Well, now, a video of the real Belfort making a sale has been making the rounds online, and people have some varying opinions.
Advert
In the video, you see him greet the client with a smile before asking him how his day has gone, as you would a friend or a colleague.
But as the clip rolls, you see him promising that the client won't be disappointed with the results if they did use his business.
Without too much context, it's difficult to understand what he's actually selling, but he certainly does so with passion.
In the viral video, he can be heard closing: "What I'm saying is that I'm confident that if you could just see a little bit of what I could do we can use that as a benchmark to go forward, so I'm going to ask you for one shot 30 days and believe me, you're going to be a client for life. Sound fair enough?"
To which the client replies: "Look I have to see the numbers but it sounds reasonable."
"Perfect," Belfort quickly says. "So, let's open up the account now, there we go, okay."
Before the client finishes with: "Thank you."
Users on Twitter cannot come to an agreement over what they saw, whether Belfort is a genius or a 'con-artist'.
"He comes across with that salesman stereotype to me. I guess it works though," one person commented.
A second person wrote: "My company hired him for a 1 on 1 training. His book on sales is Top Notch."
"He gets people into a position where they are uncomfortable saying no," a third penned.
someone else simply wrote: "How does he do it?"
Meanwhile, another typed, 'he is not a sales person, he is a con artist', before going on a tirade about the 62-year-old's past.
"He’s terrible at sales. He made his name by promising insane gains. That’s not sales," added another.
"Salesman bulls***. He is just promising. Not delivering anything. I am not impressed," a disgruntled user shared.
