Last Updated on October 7, 2022
These days, it takes more than a good product to compete in the cutthroat sales industry. Apart from being bold and persistent, you need to perfect your own marketing technique to score sales. And if you ever need a little inspiration to get you there, here is our list of the 10 best salespeople you need to know:
Table of Contents
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is best known for making Amazon.com the gargantuan online marketplace that it is and he owes his success to his out of the box thinking. Bezos introduced a “predictive analytics” concept, which basically pushes certain products according to a user’s search history. This innovative idea is not only beneficial to vendors; it offers better shopping experience for Amazon customers too. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!
Steve Jobs
The Apple Inc. founder and iPhone maker is hailed as one of the best salesperson of all time. Being quite the perfectionist, Jobs spent months designing the iPhone with his engineers. He went back and forth the drawing board until he was satisfied with the final product. Now, it’s one thing to create an amazing product and another to sell it. He proved to be just as great as a salesman, making the iPhone a resounding success. Within the first hour of its worldwide release, the original iPhone was sold out!
William Colgate
William Colgate is an immigrant that sold soap, candles, and starch back in 1806 New York. Who would’ve known that his legacy would still live on today? Thanks to his tireless efforts, his business grew and became known for its Pearl starch and Windsor toilet. 13 years after his death, the Colgate brand developed a revolutionary product: a toothpaste in a tube! The novelty was part of Colgate toothpaste’s initial success but thanks to ingenious branding, the brand became one of the largest in the world.
William Wrigley Jr.
Just like William Colgate, William Wrigley Jr. started out selling soap and starch products. Because the competition was cutthroat, Wrigley thought of an ingenious marketing idea: he offered two packs of chewing gum for a can of baking powder sold. Eventually, the freebie became even more popular than the product itself so he created his own line of chewing gum and made his fortune!
William Henry Hoover
While James Spangler invented the first portable vacuum cleaner, William Hoover made the then-newfangled gadget a success. Hoover bought the patent from Spangler in 1908 and began adding his own enhancements to the original design to maximize its potential. The final product was launched but initial sales were low. To attract more customers, Hoover offered a 10-day “free home trial” as well as door-to-door demos. His plan worked and he went down in history as one of the best salespeople of all time!
Donald Trump
Before he was President of the United States, Donald Trump was a struggling businessman who was on the verge of bankruptcy. At his lowest, The Donald was borrowing money from siblings to fund his business. Instead of giving up, he worked hard attracting potential clients and getting lucrative deals. His colorful personality led to media exposure and book deals too. Apart from leading the most powerful country in the world, The Donald has a net worth of 3.5 billion.
Benjamin Franklin
At the tender age of 12 years old, Benjamin Franklin was an apprentice to his uncle who owns a printing shop. The experience allowed the future politician and author to get to know the business like the back of his hand. BY the time he was a young man, Franklin was a successful printer and newspaper editor in Philadelphia.
Alfred Fuller
Alfred Fuller is a legendary salesman known as the “Fuller Brush Man,” thanks to his invention: a household brush. But he did more than just sell the brush, he reached out to his customers, asking them for design suggestions, qualities they’d like to see in a brush. He implemented all the suggestions he got from the hundreds of housewives and maids that he talked to and transformed his business forever.
Ben Feldman
Feldman was an insurance salesman who held the record for selling the most number of products in a year and in a day. From 1942 to 1993, Feldman was able to sell $1,800,000,000 worth of life insurance policies, surpassing even the total sales of insurance teams within the New York Life insurance!
Debbie Davis
In 2004, Davis was on the verge of losing her job. Desperate for work, she signed up as an Avon representative to get the $24 sign-up bonus and started selling makeup door to door. She became so good at selling Avon products that she became the first Avon representative to become a millionaire. Today, Davis is a successful entrepreneur who leads a team of 8,000 direct sellers.
To learn more about the best salespeople there are, check out the infographic below:
“>
Tina Lee-Almazar is a beauty and lifestyle writer based in the Philippines. She started out as a production associate at ABS-CBN Broadcasting Network in 2004 before transitioning to creative writing in 2006. When she’s not surrounding herself with pretty things or discussing herself in the third person, Tina watches funny cat videos all day.
