The ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Gives Advice to PestWorld Attendees

Jordan Belfort was this morning's opening general session.

PHOENIX, Ariz. — In his introduction to Wednesday morning's Opening General Session, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, NPMA President Kevin Pass announced the association's new tagline as "Our mission is your protection." The tagline is applicable to both NPMA's commitment to its members as well as pest management companies' focus toward protecting its customers.

Dow's Commercial Leader of Global Business Dave Morris then introduced world-famous entrepreneur Jordan Belfort, about whom the soon-to-be-released Martin Scorcese movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street," is based (Click here to watch the trailer). "I'm being played by Leonardo DiCaprio which is pretty cool, huh?" Belfort said. "At least I'm not being played by Danny DeVito."

Discussing his building of one of the most dynamic and successful sales organizations in Wall Street history, Belfort explained how he succumbed to some of the traps of the wealth and overcame them, learning that "Success in the absence of ethics and integrity is not success."

From his experience, Belfort has developed his Straight Line System of sales success and consultation business, applicable to any business. Regardless of the product or service, "every sale is the same," he said, passing along a few secrets during the presentation, such as: The most difficult sale to make is that of turning a non-buyer into a buyer. So rather than focusing on those who do not use your service, focus your sales on converting buyers over to your service.

Belfort has acted as a consultant to more than 50 public companies and has been written about in numerous major newspapers and magazines around the world.