I don't recall if he needed it. But as a salesman in those times, you feel like you need every sale you can get.

The competition was so fierce, companies could get away with sales meetings like the one Blake gave. It was the height of the Baby Boomer era - there were just so many people in the system (imagine paying 13% for a car loan, or 16% for a mortgage? That was the 80s - so many people working and borrowing and consuming that demand made money crazy expensive) that employers could mistreat people since there was always an applicant in line for a job and, if you lost your job, as crappy as it may have been, you'd be afraid to no longer be able to keep up with the Joneses. Or buy more crap. So you took crap, and lots of it.

"You got that, you fucking faggots?"

Yes, well put. I was thinking mainly about the contest fore the car. Roma said that Kevin Spacey cost him the sale and the car. Was it after Jack Lemmon made his big sale that ended up being nothing? Maybe that was it. He thought Lemmon caught up to him.

@FlyingSaucersAreReal You might be right! I'm overdue to watch it again.

My understanding was that since Roma was so far ahead of the others, it was just sort of assumed he'd be on top in this contest, and the other men weren't even bothering to compete with him, just vying for second place (the steak knives, or more pertinently, keeping their job). None of them anticipated Spacey's character would sabotage him.

@Kylopod said:

My understanding was that since Roma was so far ahead of the others, it was just sort of assumed he'd be on top in this contest, and the other men weren't even bothering to compete with him, just vying for second place (the steak knives, or more pertinently, keeping their job). None of them anticipated Spacey's character would sabotage him.

He was already far ahead when Roma lost the sale though.

It's an interesting question, and even though Roma was way head of the rest of the pack, I was never sure how the commission on a sale worked. Perhaps in Roma's paranoid mind all it would take was one of his team mates to get a big sale, and with it a sizeable commission that could have been big enough to have beaten his $90,000 lead.

And as for the car - I think Roma was keen to get it purely for the status - which was what most of the 1980s early 90s was all about.

"Greed is good!"