Why Joey Tribbiani is a Better Sales Pro Than Most of us.

How you Doin?

Joey Tribbiani is a good-natured, dim-witted, caring, loyal guy…OH and a massive womaniser, however, have you ever considered he’s also a fantastic sales pro? I have, and I couldn’t BE more serious. Here’s why… 

Joey works in one of the most competitive industries, acting, he sells himself to every casting producer his agent Estelle Lonard gets him in front of and more famously he sells himself to the women of New York, constantly. To his credit, he’s very good at closing the ‘deal’ with the ladies!  

With an enviable little black book and big roles in TV shows such as ‘Days of our Lives’, ‘Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E’ and movies like ‘Shutter Speed’ (she’s been dead for 10 years!) he must be doing something right!!  

When it comes to women, Joey’s product is him, he’s even branded it as Ken Adams! Joey sells himself through the art of storytelling. I’m sure you all remember the fictional story of him backpacking across Western Europe, just outside of Barcelona where he was hiking in the foothills of mount 'Tibidabo', am I right? The reason you all remember that story is because when we hear information through a story our retention rate is around the 65-70% mark compared to 5-10% when statistics are used to convey information. Compelling huh?  

Joey’s clearly practised his story and believes in it so much that when Ross comes to Joey for help he pre-warns him that once he hears his story he’ll want to close a deal with Joey there and then!

So with his ‘Ken Adams’ brand and his successful trekking story how does that see him close the deal with the ladies so consistently? Practice. It’s that simple.

One of Joey’s key traits is his humble approach and attitude to selling and that's evidenced throughout the 200+ episodes of Friends where we constantly see Joey practicing for an upcoming audition, and he’s not afraid to try something new whether that be reading lines with friends, practicing on a pineapple or kissing Ross, he is always practicing for the next opportunity to sell himself.

As a sales pro, how often do you practice for that upcoming meeting? Do you ever go over your product demonstrations by yourself and fine-tune your pitch or do you save all that until you're actually on the screenshare/in the room with your prospects? Regardless of how good YOU think you are or how ‘experienced’ you are you can always be better and surely we all recognise that, but do we ever actually practice like Joey does? My guess is probably not, or if you do its nowhere near as often as you should.

It's not just practising either, Joey’s also not too proud to ask for feedback and he embraces it. That's best evidenced when he’s auditioning with Jeff Goldblum; Joey knows he messes up in his audition, he even reads aloud ‘long pause’. Where most of us would simply move on, Joey’s instant reaction to failure is to ask Jeff’s character for feedback “just tell me what I did wrong, I’d love to work on it and come back and try it again for you” - and guess what, he returns later that day and nails the audition. That's the attitude and characteristics of a top sales pro. It’s just a shame when he gets the congratulatory hug he urinates all over Jeff!

In my opinion, it’s the 4th episode of series 8 where we get to see Joey at his very best as a sales pro and that he’d also make for a great sales manager to! The episode starts with Ross approaching Joey, explaining that he hasn’t ‘sold’ anything in nearly 6 months and Joey, who closed a ‘deal’ within the last 24 hours, like the kind-hearted guy he is, wastes no time in sharing a trick from his personal ‘best practice’ library and hands over his 'Tibidabo' story and encourages Ross to try it on his next pitch - which Ross does and he fails spectacularly, but in my opinion that comes down to the poor qualification of his 'prospect'.

Red-faced Ross goes straight back to Joey’s apartment and says “your story sucks!" - Joey isn’t having it “Hey! If it didn’t work you didn’t tell it right” and then without hesitation goes straight into role play mode with Ross “Show me how you did it”

Ross, the under-performing, yet ever proud sales pro is shy, “No, no I don’t want to” - even though he has a successful sales guy offering help. Eventually, he agrees and enters role play mode although he fails to impress…

“No Ross, I’m not feeling it, I’m not hot - are you hot?!”

Joey’s convinced the problem here lies in the storytelling, Ross isn’t selling the story, Joey moans “it’s like you don’t believe it Ross!” - unfortunately, Joey can’t stick around as he’s off out to close another deal. So he makes a suggestion “do what I do when I’m preparing for an audition, I’ll set you up with my video camera, you can record yourself and then watch it back and see what you’re doing wrong”.

We’re then left with Ross, the under-performing rep, and just as he attempts to go into role play mode he’s interrupted by Rachel walking in. Ross does, however, accidentally record himself trying to seal the deal with Rachel using his own methods, the 'relationship' sell.

What does this teach us? Joey has no ego, he will record himself and sit and review his performances and look to improve for next time. He is committed to perfecting his sales pitch.

Do you ever sit and listen back to your sales calls or demos? If you did I can guarantee you’ll identify ways in which you can improve, they say hindsight is a wonderful thing and it is. Only when you invest in yourself and spend time reviewing your performance do you find ways to improve and ensure that next time you close the deal. Sales isn't luck, it's a skill, a skill that can and should be worked on.

The recording Ross accidentally made is actually analysed too, both Ross and Rachel walked away from their "sales meeting" with a different opinion in how the deal was negotiated. Even though Joey, Chandler, Monica and Phoebe weren’t in the meeting they’re able to review it by re-watching the tape and we see them as a group identify the key moment (Rachel telling the 'Tibidabo' story) that lead to the deal being struck.

Everything you need to know can be found in revisiting a past performance. All the answers are there, you just need to listen back and look for them.

At Refract our sales coaching technology is being used by sales managers and teams to fine-tune their skills and improve performance. Our platform captures your sales interactions and lets you listen back to your calls, rewatch your demos and take on scenario challenges - in the reviewing process along with managers and colleagues you’re able to highlight and timestamp those “OH. MY. GOD” moments of brilliance and ways in which you can improve as well as share your very own 'Tibidabo' sales moments with the rest of the team and store them in the best practice library.

To sum it up, Joey is pretty ‘wisdomous’ - his words! He’s a sales pro with no ego or attitude, he never feels he’s too good or experienced that he can’t improve. He practices and reviews his performance, he asks for feedback and embraces it. Joey is always looking to get an edge over the competition and close the next deal. 

• Joey practices.
• Joey records and reviews his performances.
• Joey shares success with his colleagues.
• Joey isn’t too proud to ask for feedback and embraces it.
• Joey isn’t too good or experienced to learn and improve.
• Joey performs with confidence having played out his frailties when it doesn’t matter.
• Joey sells consistently. 

And that is is why I think Joey’s a fantastic sales pro. 

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Thanks

Mark