3 Lessons Sales Organizations can Learn from the Runaway Success of “Barbie”

They said the movies were dead, and then along came Barbie. The movie had the highest grossing opening weekend ever for any film that is not a remake, sequel, or superhero property, making more than $155M in the United States and over $330M worldwide. 

Normally applying lessons learned from the success of a movie to the real world is a stretch – but when that movie is based on a product that has racked up a billion sales since its invention in 1959, it’s worth taking a look at. 

Here are a few lessons sales organizations can learn from Barbie. 

Lesson #1: There’s power in hiring people who love your product. 

Barbie director Greta Gerwig is one of the most highly regarded directors in all of Hollywood. Her films Little Women and Lady Bird were both critical and commercial hits. 

But she is a rarity among directors, and not just because of all the awards she’s won.

According to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, just 22% of Hollywood directors are female. When one of those directors has a track record of making hit movies, hiring them to direct your film probably seems like a simple decision – and maybe it was.

But her talent and prior success aren’t the only reason Gerwig was a perfect fit. She is also a self-professed Barbie fan, stating in multiple interviews that she played with the doll until she was a teenager.

“I was still doing it in junior high,” Gerwig said while promoting the film. “Kids were drinking, and I was playing with dolls.” 

One of the most common (and true) pieces of sales advice you’ll read is the need to be passionate about your solution. Most sellers won’t be a lifelong user of any solution, but if you’re a sales manager and you have the opportunity to hire a former user (and current fan), take it. 

Whether you’re selling a film or selling a software package, buyers will recognize authentic passion rooted in personal experience. 

Lesson #2: Meet your buyer where they are at. 

Viewed one way, Barbie isn’t that different from Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cars, or any of a number of movies that seem designed to sell merchandise and toys.

Viewed another way, it is the first film franchise based on a female character made by, for, and with women. It is a product designed for an underserved group that happens to be half of the entire global population. 

In other words, a gold mine. 

Recognizing the market potential, the makers of Barbie spent more money ($150M) on marketing than they did on production ($145M). Even among product-based films, that’s rare. 

The studio partnered with a slew of brands to promote the film, including multiple clothing companies and beauty product makers. One of their most innovative partnerships involved working with AirBnB to put together a real-life Barbie dreamhouse available to rent in Malibu, California. A reality show about building a Barbie dreamhouse is also in the works at HGTV.

And they didn’t just build homes. They went low-tech, too. 

For example, the film’s striking visuals were also leveraged to create 24 different movie posters that could be shared on social media. 

Basically, they flooded the market. 

While sales organizations rarely dictate marketing spend or messaging, sellers can always also borrow a page from Barbie, just at scale. 

How? By being hard to ignore. 

In July 2023, Barbie was everywhere. 

When you opened Spotify, there was the option to listen to the Barbie playlist. On opening weekend, googling Greta Gerwig meant your results were themed pink. 

You might not be able to build a Dream House or have your own playlist, but you can be everywhere by growing a brand that meets your buyer where they are at.

Lesson #3: The right competitor can actually be a good thing.

You may have heard, but Barbie wasn’t the only big movie in theaters. It opened the same weekend as Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s big-budget biopic about the famous scientist and leader of the Manhattan Project. 

Barbie is a movie bathed in pink. Oppenheimer is a movie about the tortured man who helped pioneer humanity’s relatively new ability to instantaneously destroy itself. 

By almost every definition, you couldn’t have two more different movies open at the same time – and both films exceeded industry expectations for their opening weekend. Together, the phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer” has – at least temporarily – brought the movie industry back from the brink. 

In sales, it’s easy to think of your competitors as enemies. But the right competitor can help you better frame your value proposition. 

Oppenheimer’s dark tone and subject helped Barbie’s pastel world stand out even more – and vice-versa. 

And most industry experts agree that having the two movies open on the same weekend delivered a bottom-line benefit for two very different – though technically competitive – films. 

Like Barbie, Oppenheimer past expectations. Originally projected to earn $50M in the United States on opening weekend, it instead ended up earning over $80M. 

Being a seller can feel like a zero-sum game, but there are often more than enough customers to go around.

And your competition can sometimes help illustrate your value proposition just by being different. Without Pepsi, it might be hard to know if you really like Coke, or if it’s just the only option available. 

Plus, one company doing its own thing is a business. Two companies doing the same thing is an industry. 

And sometimes it can be a lot more lucrative to stake your claim on a piece of an industry, rather than having all the business to yourself. 

Summary and Takeaways

Barbie exceeded box office expectations and smashed records in its first weekend. Between the success of “Barbie” as a toy and the success of Barbie as a film, there are a lot of lessons sales organizations and sellers can use. 

Remember:

1. If you have the opportunity to hire a seller who was once a dedicated user of your solution, take it. That type of passion sells itself.
2. Borrow a page from Barbie, and try meeting your buyer where they are at. 
3. Competition can be a good thing. It allows you to frame your value proposition against an alternative.

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