The Best Motivational Movies for Salespeople to Watch

motivational movies

It doesn’t matter how much you love your job, there will be days when you struggle to focus and continue working. It could be a sign that you need to recharge your batteries. Even new businesses leads can wait if your mind is overburdened with unnecessary stuff. Connecting with an inspiring person is one way to ignite your creativity and channel that energy into your work. At belkins.io we understand the utter importance of proper recreation. Our employees are people of various interests and hobbies. However, watching motivational movies turned out to be one of the most popular ways to have a rest except doing sports or playing computer games.

We searched the archives to find the most inspirational sales movies and quotes. These will make you smile, cry, and teach you valuable lessons. Although not all of these motivational movies feature salespeople, they will inspire you to be your best self and might become your energy, not just a lead generator.

1. Jerry Maguire (1996)

This movie is what you have heard of if you have ever heard the phrase “Show me your money!” It is one of the most iconic Tom Cruise roles, and one of the greatest sales-related motivational movies. Jerry Maguire, a sports agent, decides to make a change in his business approach and his entire career is transformed. Although he is loyal to his clients, most of them leave him. Jerry believes that personal relationships are the key to success in business. Essentially, Jerry Maguire‘s narrative game plan revolves around Jerry’s struggles to keep his one client and set up an honorable, and yet profitable, business. Crowe’s sharp insights into the business side of the sports world, coupled with a truly decent sensibility, team to flesh out a good-hearted story, as if the director knew how to do it himself. This approach could be used in real-life business. Personal relations always matter. Use it in b2b lead generation mechanisms and success won’t make you wait for it. 

2. The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)

The Oscar-nominated drama follows Chris Gardner ( Will Smith), a salesman who experiences major financial setbacks and ends up homeless. His five-year-old son Jaden Smith is also in a personal crisis. Don’t let the word “drama” fool you. He has a chance to be a salesperson again. This could be his ticket to happiness. Seeing the pain in Will Smith as he jockeys for position in a dead-end world is certainly worth the price of admission. This is the tale of a man who has been dealt a bad hand by life but has never had the courage to start over. He goes from hospital to clinic, trying to sell a bone density scanner that really offers little new to the science of diagnosis. When he ends up as the sole support of his little boy, he must change his life. He has seen the happy faces of stockbrokers leaving their jobs with smiles on their faces, he decides this is what he would like to do. He has an amazing mind for mathematics and feels he can parlay this gift into a career. The problem is he must continue to eat and find a place to live. There are times when things get a bit far-fetched, but it does grab at the heartstrings and does present a man who faces off against forces we’ve all dealt with. It’s an unfair world and the haves really become obvious to the have-nots. Persistence is the key, it works both for the movie and for b2b online lead generation.

3. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

You can’t possibly have heard of ABC. Always close. This movie is a must-see for real estate professionals. They are told that all employees will be fired by week’s end, with the exception of two closes. It creates a sense of urgency, desperation, and rivalry among the main characters. It’s intense and so sales-oriented that it will make you thankful for not having to work in an office like this.

Is Glengarry Glen Ross really about salesmen, or is it about a bankrupt culture that produces and nurtures them? Certainly, it stands alongside Wall Street as one of the most unflinching views of a mindset that informed a generation of salesmen and stockbrokers during the 1980s and 1990s. Gordon Gecko might have said that “greed is good,” but the men in Glengarry Glen Ross lived the mantra. The film focuses on a group of unpleasant characters, each more disreputable than the next, and uses them to provide compelling drama. As in Reservoir Dogs (which reached theatres the same year), it’s the complexity of the characters not their lack of virtue that commands our attention. At those times salespeople couldn’t address a B2B lead generation service, however, now it’s more than possible and we recommend doing that in case your campaign faces some difficulties.

4. Love and Other Drugs (2010)

The romantic comedy begins with Jamie Randall ( Jake Gyllenhaal), who loses his job to start a new career in pharmaceutical sales. This sales movie may not be enough to entice you, but his passionate romance with Maggie Murdock ( Anne Haway ) might.

“Love and Other Drugs” star Jake Gyllenhaal as Jamie Randall, a pharmaceutical salesman who sells love, Zoloft, Viagra, and other products with equal sincerity. He’s a charmer, determined to sell his way out of Ohio and into the big Chicago market, and if that involves flirting with the receptionists in doctors’ offices, it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it.

The movie takes place at that point in the 1990s when Viagra was tumescing in the marketplace, and Jamie is riding the success of his employer, Pfizer. He infiltrates hospitals, befriends doctors, pushes drugs, and sabotages the best efforts of his aggressive rival Trey Hannigan (Gabriel Macht), whose product Prozac is outselling Zoloft. Whether these products or any of their products work very well is not a concern of the salesmen. They sell. The picture, yet romantic in its core, shows how laws of marketing work – at that time it was all about personal meetings and appointment setting.

5. Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Few people know the story of Jordan Belfort the corrupt broker, as told by Leonardo in this image. From there, “Sell me the pen” was born. It’s a great sales movie. The actors are amazing and show salespeople at their best.

There will be a few points during “Wolf” when you think, “These people are revolting, why am I tolerating this, much less getting a vicarious thrill from it?” At those moments, think about what the “it” refers to. It’s not just these characters, and this setting, and this particular story. It’s the world we live in. Men like Belfort represent us, even as they’re robbing us blind. However, it would be silly to argue that Belfort knew how trading mechanisms worked. If he had used his knowledge to create a b2b lead generation company, then who knows, he could have become rich without bringing pain to other people. Not to repeat his mistakes, be sure to learn how to extend your online presence on the market.

6. Boiler Room (2000)

You should be watching motivational movies that quote Glengarry Glen Ross or Wall Street to go sales meta. This room is filled with high pressure, which is why it’s called “the boiler room”. It’s where young SDRs (Giovanni Ribisi (Vin Diesel), Nia Long (Ben Affleck), etc.) can be found. Millionaires are made overnight. Although it is a crime drama, there are some exaggerations. However, the story depicts well the sales training of young reps that was accompanied by friendships and competition.

7. Cadillac Man (1990).

Joey O’Brien, Queens’ car salesman ( Robin Williams), has everything at stake right now: He must sell 12 cars to keep his job and repay his mafia debts.  Given the choice, would you prefer a movie about a hotshot car salesman so shameless he’d try to sell a car to a widow at her husband’s funeral? Or would you rather see a movie about how the salesman tries to talk a suicidal husband out of killing himself and everybody else in the dealership? The movie is extremely diverse.

The movie stars Robin Williams as Joey O’Brien, the car salesman, who addresses the audience in confidential asides, like Tom Jones or Alfie. He has a lot of problems, most of them revolving around women. He likes women, he has trouble resisting them, and he spends a lot of money on them. The movie seems to be a setup for a big sales contest in which lies will be told and dirty tricks pulled.

Suck tricks are still used in modern marketing, by the way, though they can’t be called dirty or illegal. Joey should have targeted the right audience in the film. For that task, he could use email outreach techniques. To improve the overall deliverability of emails, it might be a perfect plan to use specialized software to let as many people around as possible know about your business offer.

8. The Big Kahuna (1999).

The movie, a comedy-drama about business, is set in front of the convention. Three marketing reps wait for the arrival of the largest client. This will help their business get on track. Instead of pitching the product to the client, the youngest rep chooses to discuss something personal. It will help or hurt your chances of landing a big deal.

9. Trade Places (1983).

You should know that this movie has Eddie Murphy as its director. This movie is also brilliantly funny. It’s a bit like ” My Fair Lady”, except that two bankers bet that even a homeless person can become a respected salesman if he is placed in different circumstances. This is a battle between college-smart street-smart people and college-smart people. It won’t end in the way you think.

10. Moneyball (2011)

One day, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a baseball team manager, has a revelation—everything conventional about baseball is flawed. He gets an idea to reinvent his team with a tight budget in order to outsmart richer ball clubs. It’s a struggle, but everything’s possible with the help of big data analysis and Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), and that is what we have to remember about teamwork and planning strategically to win. For this task, the hero of the movie could go b2b lead generation outsourcing strategy. Thus his idea of a new baseball team could be brought to life much faster and with fewer expenses.

Wrap Up

We all need to take our time and unburden our thoughts. However, these films are not just a means of entertainment but a chance to think about the ways of improving your own business, to learn from these characters’ mistakes not to repeat them in real life. That’s truly the magic of motivational movies, isn’t it?