Welcome to Salesman Quotes! If you’re in need of some inspiration, motivation, or just a dose of humor related to the world of sales and selling, you’ve come to the right place. Salesmanship is a dynamic and challenging field, and those who excel in it often have a wealth of wisdom and insights to share. In this collection, we’ve gathered a diverse range of quotes from seasoned sales professionals, business leaders, and thinkers who have experienced the highs and lows of the sales industry. Whether you’re a salesperson looking for some words of wisdom to boost your performance or someone simply curious about the world of sales, you’ll find a treasure trove of quotes to inspire and enlighten you below. So, let’s dive in and explore the world of salesmanship through the words of those who have walked the path of persuasion and profit.
Why do we have to pretend we’re not in the sales game? I didn’t sign on to be a salesman. I signed on to be an actor. Melissa Leo
To make money, I did portraits . The truth is so bizarre! I’m kind of embarrassed. I was like a 19th-century pirate painter. I’d say, ‘Your mom would love a painting of you!’ A salesman! I’d hawk paintings. Taylor Negron
I never understand when people say, ‘Do you do comedy or tragedy?’ I don’t think they’re very much different. They both have to be true, and there isn’t a great play in the world that doesn’t have funny parts to it – as ‘Salesman’ does, as ‘King Lear’ does. The whole idea is to reflect life in some way, which means surely you have to have both. Mike Nichols
In my case, I make it clear to the brand that I’m not a salesman. I can show your product as if I use it every day in my daily life but I won’t tell people to buy it. Bhuvan Bam
My dad being a salesman taught me you can sell anybody anything if you’ve got the ability to believe. Marilyn Manson
It’s a tough one for me, politics. I grew up in a house where my father is a Christian book salesman and a Tory, and my mum’s a social worker. So I can always see the benefits of both arguments. James Corden
Well, I liked it – that was the main thing. I liked it, but I didn’t think of it in terms of a career. I didn’t really know; I didn’t really think about it. One thing just led to another until finally I quit my job as a salesman and found myself working as a photographer. Herb Ritts
When I became proficient as a salesman I was invited to teach new hires. Zig Ziglar
Actually, when I first started dabbling in photography, I was still working for my parents as a salesman. Herb Ritts
I’m going to be the unapologetic chief advocate, chief salesman for American agriculture products around the world. You grow ’em, we’re going to sell ’em. Sonny Perdue
I’m not much of a salesman. I prefer the soft sell and the honest approach. Marc Guggenheim
The book salesman should be honored because he brings to our attention, as a rule, the very books we need most and neglect most. Confucius
Times change. The farmer’s daughter now tells jokes about the traveling salesman. Carey Williams
Donald Trump doesn’t necessarily stay mad for very long. He’s a transactional guy. If you can offer him something, he will take it. Or from a salesman’s point of view, if he’s not making the sale, you’re of no use to him. But if you suddenly come back into the showroom and are willing to buy, he’s willing to sell. Michael Wolff
I would have never imagined that I’d become a shoe salesman so that I could give away shoes. I mean that idea is ludicrous. Blake Mycoskie
The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it. Oscar Wilde
We have this perceived illusion of what the fashion designer does. As an industry, we make it out that this one individual changes the entire face of the earth. I have never said ‘me’; it’s always ‘we.’ I am just the big salesman. Jonathan Anderson
‘Death Of A Salesman,’ ‘Streetcar Named Desire,’ these are the things that, when I was growing up, made me want to be an artist. Charles Bock
Daddy was a salesman and away a lot, always working. My mom took me to the movies on Thursday nights because it was dish night, when they gave you a free dish along with your movie ticket. Valerie Harper
I saw Lee J. Cobb in ‘Death of a Salesman’ when I was about 15, and I couldn’t get up from my seat in the theater; I was so… I was weeping, and I was upset. And I find that people are still like that in a similar circumstance in a theater today, where they just can’t get up. It’s too heartbreaking. Joel Grey
My father was an atheist, absent. He was a salesman; I was four years old when he told me that the end of life was death. Alejandro Jodorowsky
I am a travelling salesman. I deal in ideas. Martin Kippenberger
Certainly it’s a business and you’ve got to have a salesman, but in my mind, when you’ve got two guys doing the same thing, you don’t need one of them. Jerry Lawler
Nobody is gonna love you like you. You’re gonna be your best salesman. T.I.
I don’t like losing a ballgame any more than a salesman likes losing a sale. Early Wynn
My dad didn’t graduate from high school, ended up being a printing salesman, probably never made more than $8,000 a year. My mom sold real estate and did it part time. Al Franken
The reality of our business is that for every actor who’s rolled up his tent and given up and gone home, the next day you hear about some shoe salesman at Macy’s who had this audition and now he’s Harrison Ford. There’s always that carrot out there in our business. Scott Bakula
Before boxing I was a car salesman but I was horrible at it and had to make a living elsewhere. Michael Buffer
My father was a salesman, and I always said I wouldn’t be one. Daniel Woodrell
I went into the Verizon store the other day, and the salesman was pretty excited. He was like, ‘Hey Dierks, what can I show you?’ I said, ‘The cheapest, lowest tech phone you have.’ I think he was disappointed. Everybody else was running out for the new iPhone 6, but I got a flip phone. Dierks Bentley
What we need is a good salesman for Mississippi, someone who can effectively represent our interests. Mike Espy
Growth is kinda built into everyone’s genes. It’s built into management’s genes, the salesman’s genes, the investors’ desires. People expect companies to grow. Andy Grove
I think people know Steve Jobs the showman. I think people know the guy who stood up and gave the keynotes. The magician. The salesman. Ashton Kutcher
When you’re dealing with machines or anything that you build, it either works or it doesn’t, no matter how good of a salesman you are. Marc Andreessen
In business, you’re the Chief Salesman. Create a sense of demand, rather than waiting to have demand. Barbara Corcoran
Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he’s fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn’t one of them. He’s a fine fellow and a great salesman, but as governor he was more interested in having the job than doing it. Deval Patrick
But on a utilitarian level, I realize that to try to accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number of people, sometimes we have to become salesmen for what we believe, and part of being a salesman is being effective. Moby
There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent an evening with an insurance salesman? Woody Allen
I had an acting teacher tell me once that if you’re playing a car salesman, you don’t want to be an OK car salesman, you want to play the best car salesman. Aaron Tveit
No salesman can ever guarantee you a grant from any government or non-profit organization. Matthew Lesko
I wanted to be in the FBI. I also wanted to be a pie salesman. Shirley Temple
For years, TransCanada has been selling the Keystone XL pipeline to Americans with all of the enthusiasm of a used car salesman – and using all of the same tricks. However, one myth is more egregious than all the rest: this pipeline will enhance America’s energy independence. Tom Steyer
From being a waiter, to a door-to-door salesman, to a car-washer, to a delivery boy – I have done it all. Randeep Hooda
We have a product for sale called news, and I’m a salesman. Shepard Smith
I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you’re doing. You have to be a salesman, and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish on the basketball floor. Phil Jackson
Being a salesman and an actor were not that dissimilar: It is a good lesson in covering up your feelings. No one wants to buy from someone who looks depressed. Dougray Scott
I wasn’t a very good salesman. Sharon Van Etten
My wife – to-be and I went to see my father. Only he could answer the two questions before us: Shall we get married now? Shall I begin the practice of law, or continue being the successful wine salesman I had become, working my way through law school? Emanuel Celler
I come from Toledo, Ohio, a town that has been hurt badly by the shift of the automobile business towards Japan. And yet I remember how the car workers lived in the neighborhood that I grew up in. My father was a car salesman, and I remember how we lived. I remember how modestly we lived. P. J. O’Rourke
I worked as an interior designer. I worked as a furniture salesman. I worked as a financial adviser. I worked as a painter and decorator – that wasn’t for very long. I was a baker for about four-and-a-half years. Anton du Beke
A successful swindler has to be a great salesman even more than a great actor. David Suchet
I have a definite talent for convincing people to try something new. I am a good salesman. When I’m on form, I can sell anything. Brian Eno
Like most people, I was not able to start selling my stories right away. So I had many other jobs along the way to becoming a writer, including toy maker, gravedigger, cookware salesman, and assembly line worker. Eventually, I became an elementary teacher and worked with second and fourth graders. Bruce Coville
Not offering this kind of guarantee means that they do not believe in their product enough, and they do not care about if a salesman is over promising or over selling their product. Matthew Lesko
I really enjoy theater. I just went to see ‘Death of a Salesman,’ and it knocked me on my ass. Jason Reitman
My parents didn’t make a lot of money. My dad was not a high school graduate – he didn’t have a career as such; he was a printing salesman essentially for most of his working life. Al Franken
From 1965 to 1974, I served the best possible apprenticeship for an actor. I learned firsthand how a truck driver lives, what a bartender does, how a salesman thinks. I had to make a life inside those jobs, not just pretend. Brian Dennehy
My first sales assessment, they tell you your strong points, and they told me I was the emotional salesman, the one who could really connect with people by making them feel comfortable. Once someone told me that, I couldn’t get past how manipulative it made me feel. Katie Nolan
I am an author, and like many in my profession, I am also a traveling salesman, going all over in an attempt to persuade people to spend twenty-five dollars on a hardcover book by me. Ian Frazier
A lot of the stuff that’s happening now, I can trace back to ‘Death of a Salesman.’ Francine Maisler, the casting director, saw ‘Death of a Salesman’ and called me in for ‘Unbroken.’ The casting director of ‘Normal Heart’ had seen ‘Salesman’ too. I look back on it now, and it’s like one thing led to another; it was a chain reaction. Finn Wittrock
Forty-six years after my parents’ journey from India, here I am, the grandson of a spare auto parts salesman and a file clerk, tapped by the President of the United States to be the nation’s chief communications regulator. Ajit Pai
My dad never graduated high school. He was a printing salesman. We lived in a two-bedroom, one-bath house in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. We weren’t rich – but we felt secure. Al Franken
I am a salesman, I am an executive, I look at budgets, I think about power politics, but then I am also a creative person. Noah Hawley
In Britain, the idea one could go from blue-collar beginnings to the university was so far out, it was quite unthinkable. I took a variety of jobs to pay for tuition – from ice-cream salesman to night-club bouncer. Whatever earned the most money in the least time. Norman Foster
My father is a retired army captain and banking software salesman, and my mother is an English teacher. Jim Parrack
Roger King is, without a doubt, the greatest salesman in the history of anything. And I don’t ever limit him just to television. He could sell you anything. Merv Griffin
I had a great time being a salesman because of the pitches that I gave when I was selling shoes. However, I don’t think I’m as well versed in shoes as I am in comedy. Being a salesman was all about being a people person, and I enjoy being around people. I also love talking to people – which is why I think I did so well. Kevin Hart
Their educations ended with high school – my father going to work as a clerk and then salesman in a company dealing in printing and stationary, and my mother working as a secretary and then bookkeeper in a firm of wool merchants. Martin Lewis Perl
My first paying gig was a play called ‘The Voice of the Prairie’ at a theater that no longer exists in Chicago called Wisdom Bridge. I played a fast-talking radio huckster – a salesman of crystal sets in the 1920s – and I actually won an award. Look at that! And then promptly didn’t get hired for a year. Denis O’Hare
I’m in the theater because of two plays: ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘Death of a Salesman.’ Mike Nichols
I saw an ad for an expensive car and got so excited about it, I called the dealer. ‘How are those new cars?’ I asked. ‘They’re fine,’ he said. I thought he’d offer to let me drive it for a weekend. He didn’t. I expected a salesman to call. No one did. I didn’t buy the car. Stanley Marcus
Every actor is somewhat mad, or else he’d be a plumber or a bookkeeper or a salesman. Bela Lugosi
I haven’t read Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare – except ‘The Merchant of Venice’ in ninth grade. I’m not familiar with ‘Death of a Salesman.’ I haven’t read Tennessee Williams. August Wilson
When my dad was a traveling salesman we moved, I think, seven times before I was 14. There was no real home. Of course, it was wherever my mom and dad were and the house we were living in. Steve Doocy
It was the ’50s, and the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal System were in fashion. I hung out in the 812 section – American theater and plays. This is where I first read Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of a Salesman’ and was transfixed. I remember staring into space for what seemed an eternity after reading Linda Loman’s final speech. Jeffrey Tambor
My dad was the 10th of 11 children. My mother has three brothers. My dad was a salesman, my mum was a school nurse. Sofia Helin
I thought at the time that I wanted to go into institutional sales, selling stocks and bonds to institutions. In those days, which was the 1960s, the institutional salesman was making about $100,000 a year. I thought that was just an enormous amount of money. Henry Kravis
The best of merchandise will go back to the shelf unless handled by a conscientious, tactful salesman. James Cash Penney
I was a salesman just out of college, traveling all over American roads in the cause of selling handbags to stores that would in turn sell them to American women, not unlike my father had done. Tom Junod
I had a father who was a traveling salesman. Philip Seymour Hoffman
My dad was a meat peddler who drove a refrigerated truck. He bought his meat in Sheboygan, Wis., and sold it to stores in the region. He was a terrific salesman. People loved and trusted him, and he never let anyone down. Tony Shalhoub
I was born in Springfield and raised in West Springfield. My father ran a dry cleaning business and was a salesman. Mike Scully
My dad was in the army. World War II. He got his college education from the army. After World War II he became an insurance salesman. Really, I didn’t know my dad very well. He and my mother split up after the war. I was raised by my maternal grandmother and grandfather, and by my mother. Al Pacino
People worship anyone in the entertainment industry. You can be a used-car salesman and have a television commercial on the local station, and that makes you a celebrity. Mark Foster
At one point my dad called me and said, ‘You have always been a great salesman. I think it’s time you come home and sell swimming pools.’ Courteney Cox
My older brother’s a cricket groundsman, my other brother’s a salesman, and my younger brother’s a trader in the City. Daniel Mays
I was living in a small town in Indiana working as a telemarketer and a vacuum salesman. I was really bad: the vacuums seemed to always be falling apart. Every time I did a demonstration, I’d say, ‘This is the material the astronauts used on Apollo 13.’ And no sooner had that come out of my mouth, something would malfunction. Adam Driver
I always just wanted to write and maybe direct. I’m really only interested in that. And yet the business that I’m in has forced me into being a salesman – that’s the last thing that 17-year-old me would imagine I’d end up being. I’m uncomfortable trying to sell anything, but that’s what you’re doing every time you walk into a pitch. Rob Thomas
By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation: those of the politician, the salesman or the charlatan… In other words, it forfeits its own evolutionary potential. Joseph Brodsky
Unless you’re a salesman, or a bad guest on a talk show, you don’t call someone by his name that often. Patricia Marx
So the poet, who wants to be something that he cannot be, and is a failure in plain life, makes up fictitious versions of his predicament that are interesting even to other persons because nobody is a perfect automobile salesman. Allen Tate
You want to try and bring a character to life in an honest a way as you possibly can. It doesn’t matter whether he’s a doctor, an actor, a car salesman or a captain of a starship. If you can bring truth and honesty to that character, then your audience will believe you. Scott Bakula
Miller didn’t write Death of a Salesman. He released it. It was there inside him, waiting to be turned loose. That’s the measure of its merit. Elia Kazan
Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman – not the attitude of the prospect. W. Clement Stone
I think I’m not a natural-born salesman, for sure, but If I have a product I really believe in, I can overcome some of the shyness and get through the things that aren’t natural to me. Phil Knight
I worked as a telemarketer for an SAT-prep company. That was the worst of it, because I had to call people in post-Katrina New Orleans and offer them this very, very expensive SAT class. And I’m not even a good salesman. Kate McKinnon
When I was an adolescent in England, at school we had to read ‘Death of a Salesman.’ I remember feeling incredibly moved by the portrayal of these people and the idea with which Miller broached the whole subject of failure or failed systems, or the way that people are crushed by a system in which they find themselves. Simon McBurney
The good lawyer is the great salesman. Janet Reno
I was a car salesman, if you can believe it. Chris Stapleton
I think basically an actor is a salesman. Paul Lynde
