What Jordan Belfort can teach us about sales [Original Training Manual Included]

What contributed to Jordan Belfort’s rise to infamy as the wolf of wall street and how can his successes translate to modern sales?

Almaz Khalilov

Sep 11, 2024

What Jordan Belfort can teach us about sales [Original Training Manual Included]

Why analyse a criminal?

He’s cool, but he’s just a criminal - what even can we learn from him? - That’s what I thought at first as well.

Why does this rich guy’s lifestyle matter? Why even talk about him, wasn’t there an entire movie made about how he swindled his way up the top? There’s a reason he was at the top in the 90’s and it’s all contained in Stratton Oakmont’s training manual that we’ll explore later in the article.

Contrary to what many people think, it takes real skill to trick, (or sell) penny stocks to rich qualified investors. The knowledge he possesses is extremely unique.

Jordan Belfort’s Early Life

Raised in Queens, New York, his entrepreneurial spirit thrived ever since he was a kid. He and a friend (Elliot Loewenstern) managed to earn $20,000 by selling Italian ice deserts from styrofoam coolers at a local beach. Even when young, he still had that hustle in him, and he did it in a much more honest way than other successful people and entrepreneurs, who often even resorted to selling drugs as teenagers.

Initially set on a traditional dental career, he finished a bachelor of science degree and planned to continue on to dental school. However this one thing caused him to drop out of dental school and start him on a completely different career path, slinging pounds of meat and seafood door to door on long island.

That pivotal moment was his dean’s speech, who he admired who went on to say that there was no money in dentistry. This completely shook the core of who Jordan was, and transformed him into a safe career orientated dentist, into an adventurous off the rails door to door seller.

The business eventually failed, and led Jordan to file for bankrupcy at 25. Unfazed and undetered, he went on to find work as a trainee stockbroker at L.F. Rothschild, starting a brand new journey into the world of stock trading and finance.

Founding of Stratton Oakmont

Eventually, L.F Rothschild went bankrupt, which led Jordan to found Stratton Oakmont, with Danny Porush. We’ve all seen the wolf of wallstreet, and I don’t think the insanity that went on there needs explaining.

Stratton Oakmont’s Training Manual

What’s more interesting is the training manual that Jordan Provided. I’ve included it as an embedded pdf below;

Mindset Resiliance

what really stands out is that the first 10 pages are just mindset. The first page is Napoleon Hill’s Great Principles of Personal Achievement.

So why did Jordan included these outdated (even at the time) self improvement exerts into the front page of his training manual? Because he knew that there’s nothing more important than being in the right frame of mind. No matter how much skill you have, or even how much enthusiasm you have, if you don’t master the ability to completely rewire your thinking to ALWAYS WIN, then it’s unlikely you will have the resilience for sales.

Because a lot of the skill of sales is having the resilience to take the “NO’s” on the chin.

On page 32, some of the important affirmations stood out to me to embed habits. They were:

I have clearly defined goals and identify the steps necessary to achieve those goals

I have a well thought out “Battle Plan” In achieving my goals which I pursue with relentless persistence, self-sacrifice and discipline.

I believe in myself and my destiny with success

I have an intense desire for success which creates an energy force which enables me to pay the price of self sacrifice, hard work, persistence and self discipline in order to achieve my goals (?)

I picture in my minds eye, the rewards of success which serves as fuel to keep my engine burning

I know I’m destined for success. Everything that happens in my life is for the purpose of obtaining my success. I view setbacks as learning experiences which invariably will offer seeds of opportunity. Problems are never problems but challenges that with careful thought and action are overcome.

I know that anger, jealousy, vindictiveness and negative thoughts are to be avoided, like a plaque. They are viruses which infect a persons mind, destroying the will to succeed. I know nothing can get me unless I allow it to.

I feel terrific.

Qualifying the prospect

The next section focuses on qualifying the prospect, and jordan felt this was also extremely important because there’s no point in selling a prospect, unless you can be 100% sure that he or she has the means and the want for your service.

You can apply this for any kind of sales, whether it be door to door, or over the phone, Jordan gives a masterclass on the content and the type of prospect that you want

On page 25, Jordan included tips of weak vs strong qualification. This is a major stumbling block of many sales people who think that because a prospect acts interested, or even says yes, then that is a winning prospect. In reality, a lot of these prospects are weak qualifications, who will undoubtedly put up extreme resistance to buying, and diminish your confidence.

“Weak” qualifications will lead to what I call a “sales inferiority complex”. The prospect rarely takes your calls and sounds like he is doing you a favor by just talking to you.

Top Objections and how to handle them

Although these objections are understandably tailored to Jordan Belfort’s stockbroking business, I believe with a little bit of tweaking, they can be applied to any product out there.

O: I’m not interested

R: I understand you get barraged by these phone calls consistently, put your checkbook aside...CLOSE

R: Believe me, I understand you don't know me, however, if you knew what my program had to offer, you would be a lot more receptive...CLOSE

O: I'm not in the market-

R: I understand you are not currently trading aggressively in the market, however, what was your biggest winner in the last six months...CLOSE

R: I could appreciate that you may not be trading over the short term, however, name the last stock you picked up...CLOSE

O: I'm busy, I'm in a meeting-

R: I understand that you are in a meeting, I have people in my office as well, however, I'll get right to the point...CLOSE

R: I sense that you get a lot of these phone calls, am I right (sound sincere). Exactly, say that to the other 50 guys that call you, the reason we're different...CLOSE

O: I'm putting money back in my business-

R: I understand that you are putting the bulk of your funds back in your business, however, that's your active income. What was the last investment you made for your passive income? CLOSE

O: I don't invest over the phone or I don't do business over the phone-

R: I understand you don't know me, believe me I wish we knew each other like college buddies for twenty years...CLOSE

It’s incredible how simple these are. It just reinforces the statistic that over 90% of persuasion is in the body language and the tone of voice, and not specifically what you say.

Jordan Belfort Now

What’s interesting about Jordan is that he’s still successful. Even being out of prison, even with multiple indictments, he still runs a successful youtube channel teaching people sales and social skills.

Tonality

His video on tonality stood out to me, and presented a complete master class on body language when pitching a sales presentation.

When you use certain tones at the right time, you become persuasive by just that alone

Unbeknownst to many people, but when a salesperson (or a friend, lover ect) is pitching to you, you unconsciously narrate against their tonality, You give meaning to their words through their tonality. This especially applies to body language as well if you’re in person. tonality and body language is the bulk of the conversation!

At the essence of all influence, you take control of the conversation, then enter rapport.

You must take control of the conversation to sell, and he’s not saying that maliciously, you just need to offload their thinking. The essence of sales is to offload the thinking of the prospect so that you can present them a direct solution to their problems, and not another “feature” or “tool”.

What is rapport? It’s simply just listening to the prospect (a lot of salespeople struggle with this) and making them feel good. When you enter rapport, the prospect says to themselves that you care about them. You make the unconscious conscious, and more importantly, they feel that 1. that you care, and 2. “I’m just like you” - they feel a connection

Most importantly, Jordan Belfort says that:

charisma is entirely learnable

It’s simply:

effective tonality

appropriate body language

not saying stupid stuff

Takeaway

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