The following list of movies each have a primary focus on sales (feel free to add your own):
Glengarry Glen Ross
Directed by James Foley. Written by David Mamet. Starring Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Jonathan Pryce. 1992. The all time best sales movie ever produced. Period. Great cast and superbly performed. This is not an uplifting, feel-good type of movie. After watching it you may decide to be a horticulturist instead. You'll get over it.
Tin Men
Directed & written by Barry Levinson. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, Barbara Hershey. 1987. Illustrates the true spirt of sales competition. Confidence, motivation, and focus in abundance. Makes you want to go out and sell something!
Earthworm Tractors
Directed by Ray Enright. Written by Hugh Cummings and Richard Macaulay. Starring Joe E. Brown, June Travis, Guy Kibbee. 1936. One of the funniest movies ever made. Alexander Botts is indeed a "natural born salesman." If there is one movie you don't want to miss before you die, this is it.
The Music Man
Directed by Morton DaCosta. Written by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey. Starring Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett. 1936. If you look up "glib" in a dictionary, you should be seeing Robert Preston's smiling face. A master fast-talking close-em-hard scamster. Nice soundtrack too.
Wall Street
Directed by Oliver Stone. Written by Oliver Stone and Stanley Weiser. Starring Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas. 1987.Young ambitious stockbroker gets a fast-track ride to the top and finds out that the air is thin up there. Famous scene where Michael Douglas's character Gordon Gekko explains the realities of capitalism. Definitely an 80's film.
Boiler Room
Directed and Written by Ben Younger. Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long. 2000. College dropout that runs a casino out of his apartment finds out too late that the new gig he is offered is with a company run by crooks. The training is brutal, the job high-pressure, but what the heck, the money is great.
The Big Kahuna
Directed by John Swanbeck. Written by Roger Rueff. Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Peter Facinelli. 1999. Two pros and a rookie rehearse a pitch for the big one, Kahuna that is.
Door To Door
Directed by Steven Schachter. Written by William H. Macy and Steven Schachter. William H. Macy, Helen Mirren. 2002. Finally, a feel-good positive sales movie about a guy who personifies persistance and courage. If any of us ever whine we will look really bad in comparison.
Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise
Directed by Danny Boyle. Written by Jim Cartwright. Timothy Spall, Michael Begley. 2001. On the job training the way you know it's supposed to happen. If nothing else you gotta love the title.
The Hill
Directed by Sidney Lumet. Written by Ray Rigby and R.S. Allen. Sean Connery, Harry Andrews. 1965. Some may argue that this "war" movie has nothing at all to do with sales. They are "correct" from their perspective. From mine, it has everything to do with sales. It captures the essence of the agony Sysiphus experienced on his hill, and that of a rep making the 97th cold call of the day.
Lord of War
Directed and written by Andrew Niccol. Nicolas Cage, Bridget Moynahan, Jared Leto. 2005. Think you got a tough sales job? Think again. Ukranian immigrant Yuri Orlov is the best of the best. It's almost like somebody up there is watching over him as he narrowly escapes disaster while plying the world's (second) oldest trade. A closer's closer guilty only of selling what people want to buy and doing so better that the rest.
Tommy Boy
Director by Peter Segal. Written by Bonnie Turner & Terry Turner. 1995. An incompetent, immature, and dim-witted heir to an auto parts factory must save the business to keep it out of the hands of his new, con-artist relatives and big business.
Jerry Maguire
Director and written by Cameron Crowe. 1997. When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent with the only athlete who stays with him.
Cadillac Man
Director by Roger Donaldson and written by Ken Friedman. 1990. Joe's a car salesman with a problem. He has two days to sell 12 cars or he loses his job. This would be a difficult task at the best of times but Joe has to contend with his girlfriends (he's two timing), a missing teenage daughter and an ex-wife. What more could go wrong?
SUCKERS
Daniel Benzali stars as a scowling pit bull of a car salesman in this comedy directed by Roger Nygard. Bobby (Louis Mandylor) seeks employment at Southside Motors, where Reggie (Benzali) trains his employees to bilk his customers out of as much cash as possible. Things go astray in Reggie's tightly run venture when loan sharks visit to call in some of Bobby's substantial debts.