The Blog

Why has Glengarry Glen Ross become the film every salesperson knows?

Bob explores its lasting influence, memorable quotes and what it still teaches about selling today…

David Mamet has written so many famous plays and films such as The Untouchables, American Buffalo and The Verdict. One of his most popular and controversial plays is Glengarry Glen Ross – about a sales team trying to sell land to gullible customers. It has given rise to several sayings that people use in sales now, probably without realising: “Always be closing.”; “Coffee is for closers.”; “This watch cost more than your car.”; and “What is our life? It’s looking forward and it’s looking back. And that’s our life. That’s it. Where is the moment?”

The action takes place in two locations – in a restaurant and a sales office that has just been robbed. The dialogue is fast, angry, very profane and very revealing. The types of salespeople – Ricky Roma’s hot shot, to Shelley Levene’s old boy laggard – these are recognisable types. Mamet wrote the play because it exposed a society where people are becoming ‘what they sell’.

At a recent all-women production in London, the script wasn’t changed or softened. The world is no longer full of salesmen – but salespeople, who are just as competitive, underhand, manipulative and desperate. When you are only able to use whatever comes into your head in a split second then you realise you’re living on your wits – and that’s the life this play exposes. It would be nice to quote some more from the film but it’s too profane to do that! The film starring Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon is available to stream.

There are other great sales films – Boiler Room, Tin Men, The Wolf on Wall Street, Margin Call, The Pursuit of Happiness, to name a few, but even these are all extensions of what Glengarry Glen Ross created – the language and the spin of a sales operation, and what it can do to you. 

If you’re in sales and you’re not aware of it – time to watch it!