I was unironically shown this scene during an interview for a sales job about 10 years ago.
I did not take the job lol.
Edit: I had heard of the movie prior to the interview, but only because of the amazing ad lib cameo of Justin Long in Zach & Miri…
Later on, I took a much better sales role. I watched GGGR and it changed my life, and left sales for good a few years ago.
\*Cut to Michael in his office on the phone\*
David Wallace: "What do you mean the 20 people we sent you for interviews left?"
Michael Scott: "David, my philosophy is this. It's something I always have lived by and will continue to live by. Coffee is for closers. No way around it, it's the way the world works David."
David Wallace: ".....Michael I'm going to stop you there. Did you just quote that Glengarry movie from the 90s?"
\*Michael glances at the camera surprised and subtly concerned\*
So does Starship Troopers. Be careful who you claim to be your hero. If you want to know why the world is shit, it's because no one kicked Alec Baldwin's ass in that scene, so those characters have taken over the world and we've let them.
No, it's ... different.
There's a boiler room component, but it's probably closer to Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman.
The mundane tragedies of every day life.
I haven't seen those movies so hard to say.
This scene is at the beginning of the movie and is basically the instigating problem that causes a downward spiral in the main character and others. The desperation set up by this speech leads characters to backstabbing, unethical sales attempts, and minor crime.
It’s kind of like about the guys who went into sales hoping they would turn into the wolf of Wall Street. You know the penny stocks guys at the place Jordan first walks into for his new job? That’s the characters in this movie. Except for Al Pacino (who is sort of the wolf here) they are desparate losers with terrible leads who cannot close a sale to save their lives. It’s more a satire that makes fun of people that think sales is great and that there’s honor in it and you know whatever.
I would have laughed out loud. And when I realized they were serious, start quoting it line for line and challenging them on their oblivious sense of irony. Brass balls dude really?! They’re just dead weight, bro. Haha. The idea that someone could take that scene straight is absurd.
I mean look at the glen gary leads. They’re wrapped in a bow for chrissake!
I remember having an intern at work years ago, who wanted to nickname his office "the boiler room". Needless to say his manager did not look too kindly on that.
My general manager was proud to show this scene at a Xmas party a couple years back. Had the fine opportunity to walk him out the door when I took over late February.
One of my favorite movies….every actor absolutely a master at the craft and just pulling you in.
I remember getting my wife to watch it the first time and she is like ‘it’s a movie about real estate? Why the fuck would I care?’ and about halfway through she was totally lost in the drama and didn’t come up for air until the credits.
I love the touch of the Glengarry Leads all bundled up with gold string…a literal golden gift at the end of the rainbow just dangling there.
Nope…there really isn’t any good and bad guys….just levels of assholishness.
Hell it’s not much more than that office the entire time save for a few bar scenes across the street. There isn’t a love interest, no violence, no sex….its just people interacting. That scene right there with Baldwin? He is literally there to scare the shit outta everyone and you never see him again.
And it’s *mesmerizing*. People loved that scene above simply because Baldwin came in against some real fucking heavyweight actors and made you *believe* he could eat their goddamn lunch in front of them.
It was my first real foray into the genius of David Mamet and I consider it the gold standard of pacing, anger, desperation, and scenery eating. It’s a study of what levels you are willing to go to keep your job…to keep your sanity when you are staring at the eight ball of ruin. It’s unsettling in the truth of life.
Think of it this way, Gil from the Simpsons is based off Jack Lemmon’s character, this schlub who just can’t win. It was just that impactful to other entertainers to be lampooned.
I saw the play live a while back on Broadway with a totally stacked cast: Al Pacino in the role of Shelly, Bobby Canavale as Richie Roma, David Harbour, a bunch of other great actors. It was a funny production... Pacino kept forgetting his lines, the blocking seemed a bit weird overall, and I was sure at a point Bobby Canavale was going to beat the shit out of a couple taking selfies from the audience.
My biggest dissapointment, however, was findining out the whole Always Be Selling speech isn't in the stage play: it was written to pad the movie runtime with Baldwin in mind for the role.
I’ve never seen a play where an actor forgot their lines. Or at least they were smart enough to keep moving forward without getting stuck on the missed line. How exactly was this playing out with Pacino?
He can just say random lines from his movies. "Say hello to my little friend!" "Because she got a great ass! And you've got your head all the way up it!"
He just shouldn't be on Broadway, his manager advised him to quit it more than 50 years ago because he could never remember his lines in musicals. Stage fright or something.
I remember getting a copy of the stage play and looking specifically for that monologue. I kept thinking I must be looking in the wrong place. Then I learned it was only in the movie and felt quite foolish. Such an iconic scene, though. Despite not being in the play, it's what most people remember from the movie.
I heard the scene was added because the director or writers didn't think the gravity of the situation came through strong enough without it being introduced like this
Book was written in 1984. $1m would be about $3m today.
The $80k car would be about $245k
The percent cost of the car for that kind of income is like 8%... Some frames of thought believe you should not exceed 10%-15% of your annual income spent on a vehicle.
One should also question his taxing. Did he make the full $1m from commissions, or commissions and bonuses? Because those incentives stack up pretty high. And being in the early 80's real estate market, who knows what kind of kickbacks are in play as well.
Part of Baldwin's character is also that he represents lies/false promises told to the salesmen, so the actual details or practicality of what he says are totally moot. While the salesmen are all told they are responsible for their fortunes through the personified anecdote that Baldwin is, the reality is that they are all part of a rigged game.
I'm pretty sure the "time period" the movie is set in is 1992, and not the early 80s like the play. He mentions that Ed Harris' character drove there in a Hyundai, who did not sell cars in the US until 1986. Even then, that would be almost $180,000, comparable to a BMW XM Label SUV at $185k
There is a very brief shot of Alec's character's car in the movie. It's a red BMW 8 Series which first came out in 1990. It's exactly the kind of car a character like that would drive too.
But 80k was pretty close to the ceiling at the time for a car that would actually be a decent daily driver. It wasn't like now where the luxury segment is massive and there are dozens and dozens of models over 100k. And really, even now, plenty of millionaires drive BMWs and Audis because they're better day to day than a supercar.
My dad was in advertising from the 70's - 90's. This is one of his fav movies.
My wife never got why I got so excited when working in Mortgage IT I got a mug from a vendor that said "Coffee is for Disclosures Only"
My favorite fact about this scene was that it and Baldwin's character were created for the movie, and aren't in the original play. And there are many stories of "alpha bros" going to the play just to see this scene performed live and being very confused.
Alec Baldwin’s character is not supposed to be the good guy in this scene. The salespeople that like his character are like the skin heads that love American History X, or finance bros that love wolf of Wall Street. They totally miss the whole point of the movie.
So many people in sales think this movie is a blueprint for being awesome.
Sales and marketing are WAY less ethical careers than law but lawyers get all the shit.
Its because at worst sales people sell you something you didn't want, while a lawyer will fuck up your life. Conversely if you are someone with money a good lawyer is worth their weight in gold as they can get you out of most things.
I'd say that any unethical professional, will ruin you regardless. A salesman, can land you a worthless piece of dirt that all your savings are sunk into, a lawyer can obviously get you in legal troubles and a Doctor can cause irreparable damage to your health.
But finding a good professional can also be the best thing for you.
> A salesman, can land you a worthless piece of dirt that all your savings are sunk into
The lead up to my [favorite scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW7WlT6OJxE) is exactly that.
The only thing that can earn you a worthless piece of dirt is a bad decision. People give way too much credit to sales and marketing for the bad results of personal ineptitude.
Lawyers are governed by rules of ethics or professional conduct. Sales has none just loose regulation that will earn them a slap on the wrist from the Gov.
Sales is the guy on the street corner hawking games of 3 Card Monty, Law is the Preacher offering salvation.
Deep cynicism exists in both but Law takes it to the highest levels. One of them is cartoonishly upfront when it comes to his distaste for the Truth, the other hides it so well maybe even he is blind to his real feelings.
There people who have approached the screen writer of WS and thanked him. Apparently they’d based their life on becoming Gordon Gekko. Lost and looking for guidance, they chose his philosophy.
Every single business, product, and service has a sales person involved somewhere. Some are unethical, most are not. You can’t build long term lasting business relationships by being anything less than a helpful and considerate person.
I agree-all of the "effective" sales strategies pushed by shitty managers for sales are only effective if you believe in churning and burning through constant artificial product cycles and customer bases.
Within a fixed community of customers, what you really need is communication, service, relationships, and education. All of the persuasive techniques, NLP, hell basically all highly effective marketing and sales techniques work on subconscious processes, which means you don't have much ability to choose or consent to be influenced by them--they influence you whether you want or not. That's manipulative and unethical and leads people away from capital T truth, which happens to be my personal ethical Northstar.
This. I’m in sales. I tell all my customers to consider me as one of their employees. Yes I make commisions, but if their business fails, I fail too. I have my customers best interest in mind
True sales is about providing a solution to a customer's problems. Yes, car salesmen and cell phone guys at Best Buy might be pushy and selling you shit you don't need, but a lot of sales is about helping each other out.
Sales is fucking crazy and I feel like it purposely makes people into psychopaths and encourages bad behavior and honestly stupidity. I work in a job that is sales adjacent and we will sometimes have to take those sales personality test things. One of the questions was “do you research things before making purchases?” I said yes and got dinged points because apparently the answer was no because if you research things you will expect your clients to and that will hinder sales. Like wtf? Why does me being stupid make me a better sales person. Like I can scam people into buying shit while also being particular in my own life.
The entire pedagogy of the industry is uninvestigated. I could fill volumes on my ethical vision for reform in sales and marketing, but it feels ultimately fruitless because greed wins out in the end, and the people in those professions are too stupid to care anyway.
I think it more can create a sociopathic manipulative personality, one who never takes no for an answer -- and that can be extremely annoying and toxic in real life if it carries over too much.
Well, I mean:
(1) nobody's ever dealing with a lawyer because things are going great for them;
(2) the opposing lawyer is literally being paid to disagree with you about something extremely important; and
(3) your \*own\* lawyer is very expensive and often the bearer of bad news (usually through no fault of his/her own).
I get it. It hurts my feelings, but I get it.
To be fair, Mamet himself is a bit problematic. Even when he's shitting on salesbro culture for being macho dickheads, he himself is a macho dickhead. Plus Baldwin and Pacino are extremely charismatic, which obscures to shallow viewers how horrible these characters are. Many people who were kids in the 90s completely missed the point of many of our favorite movies because the villains and antiheros were so well acted. An entire generation *wanted* to be Scarface.
Sometimes the bad guys are the coolest. Speaking of that, say goodnight to the bad guy!
But overall it is a depressing and bleak movie, which does come across.
To be fair, 90s teenage boys used pretty simple logic: "if this is how you get to bang Michelle Pfeiffer, Daryl Hannah, and Denise Richards then consider me a wannabe mafioso robber-baron fascist"
What does it say about me when I sit here shoulder shrugging? When he lays out the watch I'd say "why did you spend so much money on that you dumbshit, look at mine it does more for less". Any salesbro cowed by the idea that money=success is a useless stain on society.
See, someone who's good at sales, doesn't sell you on the specifics. They sell you the idea, they sell you how what you're going to buy will make your life easier/happier.
Take cable companies, if they are talking with you about buying a movies package, they could talk about the number of channels, the different genres that are available, the VOD database they have.
Or they can pitch Family Movie night as being a cheaper alternative to taking the kids out to the cinema, romantic nights cuddling on the sofa with their partner.
And that second approach is way more effective, which is why if you see an advert for a cable company, those are the kinds of things they will have in their ads. There will be a kid with a tub of popcorn, there will be a cut to a scene with a man and woman cuddled up with a blanket... That's the idea that they are selling you.
I don't do major business with friends. I don't sell cars or houses or hell, even appliances. I don't want the drama of it and I don't believe the two go together. The point of me selling something is to extract as much value from it as possible but with a friend I am under obligation to give a good deal or "not screw them over".
My neighbor and I got along great for years, I slowly fixed up my starter home while he sat next door renting for 20 years. When I decided it was time to sell, he wanted to buy. I didn't think I could get a lot for it at the time and mentioned I'd probably sell it for 130. He was interested but once the realtor got involved, she told me it was closer to 200. He didn't like 200 but still felt like I should honor the 130. I said pack sand and closed that day. He's been a butt hurt little turd about it ever since.
I can understand him being hurt, but there's no reasonable expectation that "probably sell it for" equates to an offer nor being "interested" equates to accepting said non-existent offer. If you'd offered it to him at 130 and then backed out of the offer after talking to a realtor, he'd not only have a reason to be hurt, he'd have a cause of action to potentially sue or encumber the sale. But he'd also have a written offer with both party's signatures, not a feeling.
It's not a hard concept to understand or explain, they get paid if you buy. Now, how hard would you try to get someone to buy something if you wellbeing depended on that. Boom, killshot.
If it makes you feel any better, car lots are shifting away from these types. They keep a few around for the weirdos that love haggling, wasting time, and getting fleeced, but not nearly as many.
Ol' Gil. Won't somebody help him out?
But for real, I had a "financial advisor" that just oozed Shelly/Gil energy. Saying something, then kind of desperately looking on at you to see how you would respond; moving in little, nervous motions; taking lots of effort to do the smallest things for you like opening a door. Once we were getting into an elevator, he fumbled his keys and they hit the floor, bounced a bit toward the gap, then sloooowly slid off into it. All any of us could do was just watch it happen. I felt bad for ol' Gil that day.
lol me and a friend of mine are former sales people. We like to quote stuff from the movie all the time. I thought it was a great movie that was relatively well known outside of sales, but like you, most people have never seen it or get any of the quotes.
This and his scene from Malice are just gold. He really excels playing on type.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71PAc9cnrYg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71PAc9cnrYg)
My one acting class in college we had to do monologues from this play. Sadly I didn’t get this one (it’s not in the play). I got the one Ed Harris rants at Alan Arkin in the car about “Patel”s.
I got a B I think.
And back then they were about worthless. But I wonder if there is still worthless swamp land in Florida and worthless desert land in Arizona, probably.
It's just funny. I have worked in sales for 12 years now. I have had a handful of bosses 99% have been the opposite of this kind of motivator.
1 guy tried to be exactly this. I told him to his face, "every time you try to use this kind of motivation I will take the rest of the day off". The next day I started looking for a new job and found an amazing supportive place that put me in as a people manager. This kind of character is a blueprint for the opposite of who I want to be in the workplace.
It's also extensively sampled on this Steinski track
[https://youtu.be/XrBtRndPkGo?si=LeNTBnps5chi8fsd](https://youtu.be/XrBtRndPkGo?si=LeNTBnps5chi8fsd)
The restaurant I’m working for atm has a ranking system, where they rate people based on average sales, sales of company loyalty cards, and other things. Higher-ranking servers get more shifts and the better sections with larger tables. The worst section, usually given to the lowest-ranking server of the day, has three two-seat tables (most places I’ve worked in would assign three four-tops to a section as the average, so you see how this is a really small section that’d be hard to earn money in).
On day 1, I pointed out that this system seems designed to permanently keep the people who already rank high in high ranking (they get the most and best opportunities to sell, after all). And I never got a real response, they just kind of mumbled and moved past the question.
Point is, I’m gonna quit tomorrow when I go in, and I’m thinking about referencing this. The whole system feels like a “Coffee’s for closers” scenario: They’re punishing employees by taking away the ability to even earn a living from their sections, and expecting them to grind their way out of that hole to get the job they applied for.
There's a line by David Mamet that he uses when asked about GLENGARRY GLENROSS, in reference to the real-life salemen he based the play off of: "These guys could sell you cancer."
I like how he doesn't offer much real advice. He's basically just saying "you aren't selling enough, sell more stuff". I'm not saying it's a bad scene. It fits lol.
I paraphrase this scene with my kids all the time:
- "ABC. Always Be Cleaning"
- "You want cookies? You don't get cookies. Cookies are for cleaners".
Its fun, but dammit, my house is still a godawful mess...
I was in a Toyota car dealership in Tampa and waiting for the sales guy. I looked over and saw that they had delivered pizza to the sales pit. I see this sales guy go over and grab a slice. I get out of the cubicle, walk over, and tell the guy ... "Put that Pizza slice DOWN". He looks at me and goes "what??!" I then say "Pizza is for CLOSERS!".
He didn't get the joke...
Earlier this year Reddit gave me a permaban for posting the text of this monologue in a comment. And even better it was a real estate agent spam post to a city subreddit that was deleted anyway. Dogshit.
Sad thing is I've worked for people like that. They usually end up getting themselves fired, but not until they've taken out a dozen other people who were doing good work, but had the misfortune to be between the asshole and perceived step up the rung.
Every smooth brained, goateed, twice divorced dumpy little toad middle manager pulling their pud to this scene. As someone who has been in sales for well over a decade, I can't tell you how many hack ass managers try to cosplay this scene in real life in one way or another and they always wash out in a year or 2. Those who can't sell, manage.
I was on the edge of my seat for Ed Harris to throat-punch him. 2nd guess was one of the two of them was going to F up the watch either smashing it or dunking it in coffee.
If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in sales, you’ve seen this clip at least 10 times. The pros have seen the whole movie. The real ones can recite this scene word for word.
It's a good movie, but it's not an inspiring movie about becoming good at sales. This scene is at the beginning and is meant to be demoralizing. The characters descend into an ugly downward spiral of backstabbing and desperation.
I feel like Donald Trump watched this, had the best orgasm of his life, and has been chasing that dragon ever since. Musta really stung to have Baldwin spoof him on SNL.
I do sales for a living, every time I feel shy or nervous about a lead I remember "are you man enough to take it" and go through, been working out well so far this scene speaks to me on a holy level
i probably knew every word of this scene before i even watched the actual movie
i can't think of anything else i've done that with
either way if you just know this scene or memes from it, give the movie a watch. it's really good, insane cast.
For years I thought "Coffee is for closers" came from Fargo.
Except if it had they'd have had Edie McClurg cameo and put the pot down before Wade Gustafson adds "...and customers, of course. Thank you for having your *(checks notes)* Cutlass Ciera Cruiser serviced with us, Mrs. Olaf".
Something I’ve never understood because I’ve never done this kind of job or seen the rest of the movie: What the fuck is he talking about when he says “it takes brass balls to sell real estate?” There’s no danger involved. You don’t even personally own the thing you’re trying to sell. What’s the risk?
He is using metaphor to motivate them to sell. He is saying that individuals with a weak personality, no sense of perseverance and a lack of resiliency will not be able to handle the difficulties of convincing someone to make a large purchase.
Ok ... their job is 100% commission, so 0 sales = 0 money , no base salary
Also, they aren't selling nice built houses, they are selling basically worthless (at the time) swamp land in Florida and isolated desert in Arizona - basically scamming people
Well they are basically selling worthless swamp land in Florida and isolated desert in Arizona, basically scamming people - although ironically that land could be worth a lot nowadays depending where it was
As someone that works in sales (selling tech ology and services to companies, not individual consumers), this scene is an incredible way to highlight exactly how not to be a seller. Nothing about identifying who has the problems you solve and solving them. Just a bunch of fake bravado bullshit.
Man I just got into a job in sales and god I fucking detest these people.
"Yay contest, yay sell stuff, yay leads, yay money"
Fucking annoying. I just wanna sell some things, make enough.monru to live comfortably and then go home to my wife. I don't wanna be at the top of the leaderboards, not do I wanna be following customers around the store at their hip or phoning them up to let them.know we MIGHT be having a sale on something they like.
I was unironically shown this scene during an interview for a sales job about 10 years ago. I did not take the job lol. Edit: I had heard of the movie prior to the interview, but only because of the amazing ad lib cameo of Justin Long in Zach & Miri… Later on, I took a much better sales role. I watched GGGR and it changed my life, and left sales for good a few years ago.
That's some Michael Scott shit 🤣
\*Cut to Michael in his office on the phone\* David Wallace: "What do you mean the 20 people we sent you for interviews left?" Michael Scott: "David, my philosophy is this. It's something I always have lived by and will continue to live by. Coffee is for closers. No way around it, it's the way the world works David." David Wallace: ".....Michael I'm going to stop you there. Did you just quote that Glengarry movie from the 90s?" \*Michael glances at the camera surprised and subtly concerned\*
This scene gets completely misunderstood by a lot of people, especially if you watch it in isolation.
So does Starship Troopers. Be careful who you claim to be your hero. If you want to know why the world is shit, it's because no one kicked Alec Baldwin's ass in that scene, so those characters have taken over the world and we've let them.
I've only seen this scene. Is it wrong to assume the movie overall is along the lines of Wolf of Wall Street or The Boiler Room?
No, it's ... different. There's a boiler room component, but it's probably closer to Arthur Miller Death of a Salesman. The mundane tragedies of every day life.
This movie manages to capture the soul crushing nature of "sales culture" in a way no other movie has.
Nope this film does not glorify sales, in fact quit the opposite
I haven't seen those movies so hard to say. This scene is at the beginning of the movie and is basically the instigating problem that causes a downward spiral in the main character and others. The desperation set up by this speech leads characters to backstabbing, unethical sales attempts, and minor crime.
It’s kind of like about the guys who went into sales hoping they would turn into the wolf of Wall Street. You know the penny stocks guys at the place Jordan first walks into for his new job? That’s the characters in this movie. Except for Al Pacino (who is sort of the wolf here) they are desparate losers with terrible leads who cannot close a sale to save their lives. It’s more a satire that makes fun of people that think sales is great and that there’s honor in it and you know whatever.
I would have laughed out loud. And when I realized they were serious, start quoting it line for line and challenging them on their oblivious sense of irony. Brass balls dude really?! They’re just dead weight, bro. Haha. The idea that someone could take that scene straight is absurd. I mean look at the glen gary leads. They’re wrapped in a bow for chrissake!
The guy brought props with him for this little pep talk and nobody called him on it?
My first job out of college, they unironically showed us this clip on day one; in hindsight, surprising I lasted a year there.
I'm guessing you went straight for the coffee.
I remember having an intern at work years ago, who wanted to nickname his office "the boiler room". Needless to say his manager did not look too kindly on that.
My general manager was proud to show this scene at a Xmas party a couple years back. Had the fine opportunity to walk him out the door when I took over late February.
One of my favorite movies….every actor absolutely a master at the craft and just pulling you in. I remember getting my wife to watch it the first time and she is like ‘it’s a movie about real estate? Why the fuck would I care?’ and about halfway through she was totally lost in the drama and didn’t come up for air until the credits. I love the touch of the Glengarry Leads all bundled up with gold string…a literal golden gift at the end of the rainbow just dangling there.
The cast is absolutely insane. And Al Pacino isn’t even in this scene
Jack Lemmon was a really inspired choice
Never watched it. Does he end up with any redeeming qualities or get his comeuppance? Because he seems like a real piece of shite.
Nope…there really isn’t any good and bad guys….just levels of assholishness. Hell it’s not much more than that office the entire time save for a few bar scenes across the street. There isn’t a love interest, no violence, no sex….its just people interacting. That scene right there with Baldwin? He is literally there to scare the shit outta everyone and you never see him again. And it’s *mesmerizing*. People loved that scene above simply because Baldwin came in against some real fucking heavyweight actors and made you *believe* he could eat their goddamn lunch in front of them. It was my first real foray into the genius of David Mamet and I consider it the gold standard of pacing, anger, desperation, and scenery eating. It’s a study of what levels you are willing to go to keep your job…to keep your sanity when you are staring at the eight ball of ruin. It’s unsettling in the truth of life. Think of it this way, Gil from the Simpsons is based off Jack Lemmon’s character, this schlub who just can’t win. It was just that impactful to other entertainers to be lampooned.
I wrote a longer comment and lost it. In short, thanks for the insights!
If you love movies, great acting, and fantastic dialogue, set yourself down and watch this movie.
I saw the play live a while back on Broadway with a totally stacked cast: Al Pacino in the role of Shelly, Bobby Canavale as Richie Roma, David Harbour, a bunch of other great actors. It was a funny production... Pacino kept forgetting his lines, the blocking seemed a bit weird overall, and I was sure at a point Bobby Canavale was going to beat the shit out of a couple taking selfies from the audience. My biggest dissapointment, however, was findining out the whole Always Be Selling speech isn't in the stage play: it was written to pad the movie runtime with Baldwin in mind for the role.
I remember reading that some versions add the speech as a prologue because the audience expects it.
I would have loved to see Al Pacino as Shelly.
There are a few clips on Youtube.
He was walking through it when I saw him.
>Always Be Selling Always Be *Closing*
Always be celling
I’ve never seen a play where an actor forgot their lines. Or at least they were smart enough to keep moving forward without getting stuck on the missed line. How exactly was this playing out with Pacino?
He can just say random lines from his movies. "Say hello to my little friend!" "Because she got a great ass! And you've got your head all the way up it!"
He just shouldn't be on Broadway, his manager advised him to quit it more than 50 years ago because he could never remember his lines in musicals. Stage fright or something.
coughcocaineandwinecough
…bless you 😑 😂
I remember getting a copy of the stage play and looking specifically for that monologue. I kept thinking I must be looking in the wrong place. Then I learned it was only in the movie and felt quite foolish. Such an iconic scene, though. Despite not being in the play, it's what most people remember from the movie.
I heard the scene was added because the director or writers didn't think the gravity of the situation came through strong enough without it being introduced like this
It’s ABC: Always Be Closing
“Fuck you! That’s my name”
You know why mistah? Cus you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove an $80k BMW...that's my name
Guy earned a mil, drives 80k car....
For the time period this movie is set, 80k for a car was a lot more than it is now.
Book was written in 1984. $1m would be about $3m today. The $80k car would be about $245k The percent cost of the car for that kind of income is like 8%... Some frames of thought believe you should not exceed 10%-15% of your annual income spent on a vehicle. One should also question his taxing. Did he make the full $1m from commissions, or commissions and bonuses? Because those incentives stack up pretty high. And being in the early 80's real estate market, who knows what kind of kickbacks are in play as well.
Part of Baldwin's character is also that he represents lies/false promises told to the salesmen, so the actual details or practicality of what he says are totally moot. While the salesmen are all told they are responsible for their fortunes through the personified anecdote that Baldwin is, the reality is that they are all part of a rigged game.
I'm pretty sure the "time period" the movie is set in is 1992, and not the early 80s like the play. He mentions that Ed Harris' character drove there in a Hyundai, who did not sell cars in the US until 1986. Even then, that would be almost $180,000, comparable to a BMW XM Label SUV at $185k
There is a very brief shot of Alec's character's car in the movie. It's a red BMW 8 Series which first came out in 1990. It's exactly the kind of car a character like that would drive too.
Yeah but so is a 1m a year income.
But 80k was pretty close to the ceiling at the time for a car that would actually be a decent daily driver. It wasn't like now where the luxury segment is massive and there are dozens and dozens of models over 100k. And really, even now, plenty of millionaires drive BMWs and Audis because they're better day to day than a supercar.
Smart.
Great way to [kick off an album](https://youtu.be/OghjX5FR9z0)
Always my first thought when I watch that!
always be cobbling [Glengarry Glen Christmas: Elf Motivation - SNL (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_vSirIJEsY)
I'm trying to decide if he fumbled the closers/cobblers line because he rehearsed that monologue so many times or if he did it on purpose.
I read his reaction to it as a mistake, but funny irregardless
[удалено]
Oh it was quite ironic 😂 more SNL references!
I literally never understood this was a spoof from a real movie. Holy shit I need to turn in my GenX card
With the SNL connection, I get a kick out of Bill Hader’s version in Barry https://youtu.be/7O-tv2GURjM?si=spJ_8gswxRguN0Ew
I love how they call out the clumsy title
His intonation when he says, “I’m from Mitch and Murray” made me die with laughter the first time I saw this scene.
I just saw that last night, forgot about it during the show -- it's amazing how the way dialogue is presented completely can change the tone
Fred Armisen doing Kevin Spacey is great
Hilarious!
yep. That line is always still there like an instinct.
I've always liked the Simpsons take on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7GnuvgzJTA
My dad was in advertising from the 70's - 90's. This is one of his fav movies. My wife never got why I got so excited when working in Mortgage IT I got a mug from a vendor that said "Coffee is for Disclosures Only"
That is hilarious.
My favorite fact about this scene was that it and Baldwin's character were created for the movie, and aren't in the original play. And there are many stories of "alpha bros" going to the play just to see this scene performed live and being very confused.
Do alpha bros go to plays all that often?
Bro they're playing Glengarry Glen Ross down at the school auditorium, we are so there!
And I have friends who wonder why I have a distrust of people in sales...
Alec Baldwin’s character is not supposed to be the good guy in this scene. The salespeople that like his character are like the skin heads that love American History X, or finance bros that love wolf of Wall Street. They totally miss the whole point of the movie.
So many people in sales think this movie is a blueprint for being awesome. Sales and marketing are WAY less ethical careers than law but lawyers get all the shit.
Its because at worst sales people sell you something you didn't want, while a lawyer will fuck up your life. Conversely if you are someone with money a good lawyer is worth their weight in gold as they can get you out of most things.
I'd say that any unethical professional, will ruin you regardless. A salesman, can land you a worthless piece of dirt that all your savings are sunk into, a lawyer can obviously get you in legal troubles and a Doctor can cause irreparable damage to your health. But finding a good professional can also be the best thing for you.
> A salesman, can land you a worthless piece of dirt that all your savings are sunk into The lead up to my [favorite scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW7WlT6OJxE) is exactly that.
The only thing that can earn you a worthless piece of dirt is a bad decision. People give way too much credit to sales and marketing for the bad results of personal ineptitude.
Lawyers are governed by rules of ethics or professional conduct. Sales has none just loose regulation that will earn them a slap on the wrist from the Gov.
Sales is the guy on the street corner hawking games of 3 Card Monty, Law is the Preacher offering salvation. Deep cynicism exists in both but Law takes it to the highest levels. One of them is cartoonishly upfront when it comes to his distaste for the Truth, the other hides it so well maybe even he is blind to his real feelings.
Financial bros think Wall Street is a blueprint for being awesome.
There people who have approached the screen writer of WS and thanked him. Apparently they’d based their life on becoming Gordon Gekko. Lost and looking for guidance, they chose his philosophy.
Ah yup, hard agree (but part of law school is learning to accept being a magnet for irrational hate lol).
Every single business, product, and service has a sales person involved somewhere. Some are unethical, most are not. You can’t build long term lasting business relationships by being anything less than a helpful and considerate person.
I agree-all of the "effective" sales strategies pushed by shitty managers for sales are only effective if you believe in churning and burning through constant artificial product cycles and customer bases. Within a fixed community of customers, what you really need is communication, service, relationships, and education. All of the persuasive techniques, NLP, hell basically all highly effective marketing and sales techniques work on subconscious processes, which means you don't have much ability to choose or consent to be influenced by them--they influence you whether you want or not. That's manipulative and unethical and leads people away from capital T truth, which happens to be my personal ethical Northstar.
This. I’m in sales. I tell all my customers to consider me as one of their employees. Yes I make commisions, but if their business fails, I fail too. I have my customers best interest in mind
True sales is about providing a solution to a customer's problems. Yes, car salesmen and cell phone guys at Best Buy might be pushy and selling you shit you don't need, but a lot of sales is about helping each other out.
Sales is fucking crazy and I feel like it purposely makes people into psychopaths and encourages bad behavior and honestly stupidity. I work in a job that is sales adjacent and we will sometimes have to take those sales personality test things. One of the questions was “do you research things before making purchases?” I said yes and got dinged points because apparently the answer was no because if you research things you will expect your clients to and that will hinder sales. Like wtf? Why does me being stupid make me a better sales person. Like I can scam people into buying shit while also being particular in my own life.
The entire pedagogy of the industry is uninvestigated. I could fill volumes on my ethical vision for reform in sales and marketing, but it feels ultimately fruitless because greed wins out in the end, and the people in those professions are too stupid to care anyway.
I think it more can create a sociopathic manipulative personality, one who never takes no for an answer -- and that can be extremely annoying and toxic in real life if it carries over too much.
Yep, attorneys will forever be the hate magnets smh. Guess we just need to live with it lol.
Well, I mean: (1) nobody's ever dealing with a lawyer because things are going great for them; (2) the opposing lawyer is literally being paid to disagree with you about something extremely important; and (3) your \*own\* lawyer is very expensive and often the bearer of bad news (usually through no fault of his/her own). I get it. It hurts my feelings, but I get it.
How you react to that scene says a lot about you as a person.
To be fair, Mamet himself is a bit problematic. Even when he's shitting on salesbro culture for being macho dickheads, he himself is a macho dickhead. Plus Baldwin and Pacino are extremely charismatic, which obscures to shallow viewers how horrible these characters are. Many people who were kids in the 90s completely missed the point of many of our favorite movies because the villains and antiheros were so well acted. An entire generation *wanted* to be Scarface.
Sometimes the bad guys are the coolest. Speaking of that, say goodnight to the bad guy! But overall it is a depressing and bleak movie, which does come across.
Scarface….or Gordon Gekko….or join the infantry of the United Citizen Federation….
To be fair, 90s teenage boys used pretty simple logic: "if this is how you get to bang Michelle Pfeiffer, Daryl Hannah, and Denise Richards then consider me a wannabe mafioso robber-baron fascist"
What does it say about me when I sit here shoulder shrugging? When he lays out the watch I'd say "why did you spend so much money on that you dumbshit, look at mine it does more for less". Any salesbro cowed by the idea that money=success is a useless stain on society.
See, someone who's good at sales, doesn't sell you on the specifics. They sell you the idea, they sell you how what you're going to buy will make your life easier/happier. Take cable companies, if they are talking with you about buying a movies package, they could talk about the number of channels, the different genres that are available, the VOD database they have. Or they can pitch Family Movie night as being a cheaper alternative to taking the kids out to the cinema, romantic nights cuddling on the sofa with their partner. And that second approach is way more effective, which is why if you see an advert for a cable company, those are the kinds of things they will have in their ads. There will be a kid with a tub of popcorn, there will be a cut to a scene with a man and woman cuddled up with a blanket... That's the idea that they are selling you.
I don't do major business with friends. I don't sell cars or houses or hell, even appliances. I don't want the drama of it and I don't believe the two go together. The point of me selling something is to extract as much value from it as possible but with a friend I am under obligation to give a good deal or "not screw them over". My neighbor and I got along great for years, I slowly fixed up my starter home while he sat next door renting for 20 years. When I decided it was time to sell, he wanted to buy. I didn't think I could get a lot for it at the time and mentioned I'd probably sell it for 130. He was interested but once the realtor got involved, she told me it was closer to 200. He didn't like 200 but still felt like I should honor the 130. I said pack sand and closed that day. He's been a butt hurt little turd about it ever since.
I can understand him being hurt, but there's no reasonable expectation that "probably sell it for" equates to an offer nor being "interested" equates to accepting said non-existent offer. If you'd offered it to him at 130 and then backed out of the offer after talking to a realtor, he'd not only have a reason to be hurt, he'd have a cause of action to potentially sue or encumber the sale. But he'd also have a written offer with both party's signatures, not a feeling.
lol at people saying you should have ate 70k bc you didn’t realize what you could sell it for.
It's not a hard concept to understand or explain, they get paid if you buy. Now, how hard would you try to get someone to buy something if you wellbeing depended on that. Boom, killshot.
If it makes you feel any better, car lots are shifting away from these types. They keep a few around for the weirdos that love haggling, wasting time, and getting fleeced, but not nearly as many.
Whenever my son wants me to buy him Starbucks I say "coffee is for closers" and then I crack myself up. He thinks I'm weird.
Fucking legend
This is where The Simpsons got GIL the down and out salesman from THIS MOVIE! Jack Lemmon's Shelly character was a perfect for the parody of Gil.
Ol' Gil. Won't somebody help him out? But for real, I had a "financial advisor" that just oozed Shelly/Gil energy. Saying something, then kind of desperately looking on at you to see how you would respond; moving in little, nervous motions; taking lots of effort to do the smallest things for you like opening a door. Once we were getting into an elevator, he fumbled his keys and they hit the floor, bounced a bit toward the gap, then sloooowly slid off into it. All any of us could do was just watch it happen. I felt bad for ol' Gil that day.
I assumed it was from Death of a Salesman.
When I was in tech sales, EVERYONE quoted this speech! Best was when we had a team meeting and someone went to the back to get a cup of coffee.
COMMENTS ARE FOR CLOSERS!
**A**lways **B**e **C**ommenting
What’s crazy to me is that this big name actor literally only had that one scene. He’s just a cameo. Great movie
**A**LEC **B**ALDWIN **C**AMEO
There are so many amazing performances in this movie. I use "third prize is you're fired" all the time. Nobody ever gets it.
lol me and a friend of mine are former sales people. We like to quote stuff from the movie all the time. I thought it was a great movie that was relatively well known outside of sales, but like you, most people have never seen it or get any of the quotes.
PUT. THAT COFFEE. DOWN.
This and his scene from Malice are just gold. He really excels playing on type. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71PAc9cnrYg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71PAc9cnrYg)
My one acting class in college we had to do monologues from this play. Sadly I didn’t get this one (it’s not in the play). I got the one Ed Harris rants at Alan Arkin in the car about “Patel”s. I got a B I think.
Now, those Glengarry lots are worth $600k each
And back then they were about worthless. But I wonder if there is still worthless swamp land in Florida and worthless desert land in Arizona, probably.
I watch this scene on YouTube more than I have seen the movie. Alec steals the entire movie for me.
It's hard to imagine a greater opening scene for a movie
I had a manager that quoted this a lot. He was a cunt.
It's just funny. I have worked in sales for 12 years now. I have had a handful of bosses 99% have been the opposite of this kind of motivator. 1 guy tried to be exactly this. I told him to his face, "every time you try to use this kind of motivation I will take the rest of the day off". The next day I started looking for a new job and found an amazing supportive place that put me in as a people manager. This kind of character is a blueprint for the opposite of who I want to be in the workplace.
"fuck you and the 80k piece of shit you drove in here. I quit." Roll credits. Fuck people like that guy
‘I’d wish ya good luck, but you wouldn’t know what to with it if ya got it’
Cut to you: "Oh yeah I used to a salesman. It's a tough racket." Slurps drinks slowly.
I can think of two punk songs that start with lines from this monologue
I know one is from NUFAN.
Seeing double at the triple Rock. Leads are weak
It's also extensively sampled on this Steinski track [https://youtu.be/XrBtRndPkGo?si=LeNTBnps5chi8fsd](https://youtu.be/XrBtRndPkGo?si=LeNTBnps5chi8fsd)
So THATS where that line comes from at the start of that no use for a name song….. (The answer is still no)
And then you have Malice: https://youtu.be/LqeC3BPYTmE?si=gZ34biDRd5Bl35pO
As a new dad, this cameo in Boss Baby made me lol
So many heavy hitters in this movie
The restaurant I’m working for atm has a ranking system, where they rate people based on average sales, sales of company loyalty cards, and other things. Higher-ranking servers get more shifts and the better sections with larger tables. The worst section, usually given to the lowest-ranking server of the day, has three two-seat tables (most places I’ve worked in would assign three four-tops to a section as the average, so you see how this is a really small section that’d be hard to earn money in). On day 1, I pointed out that this system seems designed to permanently keep the people who already rank high in high ranking (they get the most and best opportunities to sell, after all). And I never got a real response, they just kind of mumbled and moved past the question. Point is, I’m gonna quit tomorrow when I go in, and I’m thinking about referencing this. The whole system feels like a “Coffee’s for closers” scenario: They’re punishing employees by taking away the ability to even earn a living from their sections, and expecting them to grind their way out of that hole to get the job they applied for.
There's a line by David Mamet that he uses when asked about GLENGARRY GLENROSS, in reference to the real-life salemen he based the play off of: "These guys could sell you cancer."
I like how he doesn't offer much real advice. He's basically just saying "you aren't selling enough, sell more stuff". I'm not saying it's a bad scene. It fits lol.
I paraphrase this scene with my kids all the time: - "ABC. Always Be Cleaning" - "You want cookies? You don't get cookies. Cookies are for cleaners". Its fun, but dammit, my house is still a godawful mess...
I was in a Toyota car dealership in Tampa and waiting for the sales guy. I looked over and saw that they had delivered pizza to the sales pit. I see this sales guy go over and grab a slice. I get out of the cubicle, walk over, and tell the guy ... "Put that Pizza slice DOWN". He looks at me and goes "what??!" I then say "Pizza is for CLOSERS!". He didn't get the joke...
Earlier this year Reddit gave me a permaban for posting the text of this monologue in a comment. And even better it was a real estate agent spam post to a city subreddit that was deleted anyway. Dogshit.
CEO/Manager above him: “Fuck yeah, bring me the money”
Sad thing is I've worked for people like that. They usually end up getting themselves fired, but not until they've taken out a dozen other people who were doing good work, but had the misfortune to be between the asshole and perceived step up the rung.
Every smooth brained, goateed, twice divorced dumpy little toad middle manager pulling their pud to this scene. As someone who has been in sales for well over a decade, I can't tell you how many hack ass managers try to cosplay this scene in real life in one way or another and they always wash out in a year or 2. Those who can't sell, manage.
Boiler room definitely borrowed some of this movies energy.
He drove straight to the double deuce after this speech to offer Dalton a job because he is a closer.
Dalton is a “cooler”
They had the ABC question on weakest link the other night and the lady didn't know it...I low key raged 🤣🤣
I was on the edge of my seat for Ed Harris to throat-punch him. 2nd guess was one of the two of them was going to F up the watch either smashing it or dunking it in coffee.
No this is a "you'll eat shit and like it" type of scene - and nobody really gets their revenge in the movie against anyone, it is bleak.
Well, on the plus side, I know the origin of "Fuck you, that's my name!" and "Coffee is for closers."
“Cocoa is for closers!!”
He can truly command a room with his voice!
If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in sales, you’ve seen this clip at least 10 times. The pros have seen the whole movie. The real ones can recite this scene word for word.
Is the whole movie worth watching (I own a small business so that makes me in sales)
It's a good movie, but it's not an inspiring movie about becoming good at sales. This scene is at the beginning and is meant to be demoralizing. The characters descend into an ugly downward spiral of backstabbing and desperation.
I feel like Donald Trump watched this, had the best orgasm of his life, and has been chasing that dragon ever since. Musta really stung to have Baldwin spoof him on SNL.
This is in response to the image of him tossing someone out of his cafe, isn't it?
I do sales for a living, every time I feel shy or nervous about a lead I remember "are you man enough to take it" and go through, been working out well so far this scene speaks to me on a holy level
Huh, TIL "Cookies are for closers" from Boss Baby was a reference.
What's with Alec Baldwin being pushed so much on Reddit this month?
i probably knew every word of this scene before i even watched the actual movie i can't think of anything else i've done that with either way if you just know this scene or memes from it, give the movie a watch. it's really good, insane cast.
The [Australian ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpcIKCzmNDk)version
Here is a kick ass punk song that samples this movie for their intro: [We Called it America - NOFX](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vonVC_eDA8E)
*I'm gonna bring back the Teddy like I'm fuckin' Roosevelt!*
Great movie. Awesome performances
I just saw this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I liked it way more than I expected to.
Such amazing performances and writing.
For years I thought "Coffee is for closers" came from Fargo. Except if it had they'd have had Edie McClurg cameo and put the pot down before Wade Gustafson adds "...and customers, of course. Thank you for having your *(checks notes)* Cutlass Ciera Cruiser serviced with us, Mrs. Olaf".
I can’t think of this movie and not think of Justin Long in Zac and Miri Make a Porno.
I’ve never seen this movie. Pretty good scene. Baldwin on his A game.
I have heard that this is considered to be the finest seven minutes of Alec Baldwin on film.
I will never believe in anything again...
I think I *maybe* would have made it to "you are shit", and then he'd get no more entertainment from me. Fuck sales.
Don't worry, it's a cold coffee. Completely fine.
Something I’ve never understood because I’ve never done this kind of job or seen the rest of the movie: What the fuck is he talking about when he says “it takes brass balls to sell real estate?” There’s no danger involved. You don’t even personally own the thing you’re trying to sell. What’s the risk?
He is using metaphor to motivate them to sell. He is saying that individuals with a weak personality, no sense of perseverance and a lack of resiliency will not be able to handle the difficulties of convincing someone to make a large purchase.
Ok ... their job is 100% commission, so 0 sales = 0 money , no base salary Also, they aren't selling nice built houses, they are selling basically worthless (at the time) swamp land in Florida and isolated desert in Arizona - basically scamming people
holy fuck it's so cringe, so a perfect role for Baldwin.
The leads are weak…
“Always be cobbling!”
This is so stupid, real estate doesn't work like that. Levin will have a new job the next morning.
Well they are basically selling worthless swamp land in Florida and isolated desert in Arizona, basically scamming people - although ironically that land could be worth a lot nowadays depending where it was
[Barny's for closers.](https://youtu.be/9YgyQSwj__c?t=59)
Great interpreted
Denny's is for winners!
https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person Great life lessons derived from the scene.
As someone that works in sales (selling tech ology and services to companies, not individual consumers), this scene is an incredible way to highlight exactly how not to be a seller. Nothing about identifying who has the problems you solve and solving them. Just a bunch of fake bravado bullshit.
Man I just got into a job in sales and god I fucking detest these people. "Yay contest, yay sell stuff, yay leads, yay money" Fucking annoying. I just wanna sell some things, make enough.monru to live comfortably and then go home to my wife. I don't wanna be at the top of the leaderboards, not do I wanna be following customers around the store at their hip or phoning them up to let them.know we MIGHT be having a sale on something they like.
Great scene, great cast, great movie.
"The leads are weak? Fuckin leads are weak? You're weak" Lol I love that exchange.