Salesmanship is a personal action or effort on the part of an individual that is intended to bring about the sale of goods for sale. More generally, salesmanship is the art of selling something to someone, and anything that contributes to the consumption of this exchange is necessarily part of the salesmanship.
Salesmanship differs from demonstration in that the latter may not include the former, and it is like a demonstration because good salesmanship usually includes some form of demonstration. Salesmanship is no different than a lawyer’s plea to court or jury. They both contain arguments; and, in both cases, the presenter, whether of arguments or goods or both, is trying to get the directed party to do what he asks him to do.
On the one hand, there is something for sale, be it a life insurance policy, a car, a suit, or a barrel of potatoes. The owner of what is being sold, or his representative, wants to sell what he has to someone who wants it or can be made to want it. To do this, it employs every method that will in any way influence the buyer, including print materials, email, websites, pay-per-click advertising, television commercials, radio ads, beautiful office accessories, and most importantly of all, an adequate presentation of the thing for sale adding personality and voice to the sales pitch.
The seller exists for two reasons: first, out of habit; second, because it is obvious that even the most informed buyer cannot know everything, and the well-informed seller is in a position to give you information about the item for sale. There is opportunity for person-to-person discussion and the presentation of arguments; and this information and these arguments cannot be given with any degree of completeness by the printed page or the advertisement. Or, if they could be, even then they wouldn’t take the place of the supply of personal information and the personalized argument.
Salesmanship cannot be analyzed with chemical or other exactness. Defining it, separating it into its component parts, would be as difficult as analyzing the skill and saying what it is. However, we all know what the art of selling is, and we are capable of measuring the results of its qualities and quantities.
