The best salesperson you've ever met, and why?

the chancer in kilmaley co clare, who 20 odd years back sold me a heap of sh!t car, he could charm the skin off a snake "tis mighty on the petrol"

granted i was totally naive to all things mechanical at the time..but just within a fortnight of buying it the thing began to fall asunder

2 grand it cost which at the time was a lot of money to me :mad:

Akrasia wrote: »

A good salesman is one who sells people the products they will actually use so that the customers are satisfied and will come back and tell their friends. A con artist is someone who sells you something you immediately regret buying as soon as you get to use it

That all still comes back to the product or service rather than the salesperson though. A good product or service that the customer needs then chances are that there is very little selling involved and the product ultimately sells itself. Granted if a range of different products are being sold there may be a certain amount of talent associated with selecting the one that's right for the customer and selling it to them - arguably the focus here is more on profiling the customer and having a good product knowledge with a more limited focus on pure selling.


Unfortunate as it sounds the con artist you mention who manages to sell you something you immediately regret buying is arguably the more talented salesperson (albeit without any ethics)....selling ice to an eskimo and all that.....

Akrasia wrote: »

They're talented at ripping people off, but I wouldn't want them working for my company. They'd be grand at selling directly on the street corner where there is no comeback, but in an established business, they're just going to generate returns and complaints.

There were lots of 'good salespeople' who sold a lot of payment protection insurance and probably got big bonuses at the time, up until the banks were found out and they've had to refund all those customers and pay huge fines for mis-selling

Fair enough and I did mention that these con artists weren't always acting in an ethical manner. Ethics has really come to the fore in recent years, particularly in the financial and insurance sector and as you mention there has being refunds, also contracts made null and void and worse still huge fines for mis-selling. Fair to say what defined a good salesperson in the financial/ insurance industry say 15 or even 10 years ago dramatically differs to what defines a good salesperson in that industry now.


However, from the point of view of what makes a good salesperson in a traditional sense I just don't particularly see any talent in having a brilliant product that sells itself....such as the shoe cleaner the two lads sold one of the posters in a shopping mall when they were on holiday in the States. To me the talent lies therein selling a product where there are a lot of homogenous alternatives or creating a need or want in that customers mind for a product they don't particularly need...of course remaining within the law is another aspect that must be considered if it enters into the equation.