salesmanship

CEFRB2

/sˈeɪlzməˌnʃɪp/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
The skill of persuading people to buy something.
02
noun
Extra detail
A position as salesman.

Examples

His good salesmanship helped him to win the top award at work.
His successful career was built on excellent salesmanship and charisma.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 4
Parts of speech: 1
Citations: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

The skills and knowledge of how to sell.
The art or skill of selling products, services or ideas through persuasion and effective communication.

More examples

In context

Salesmanship is the art of persuading people to buy a thing.
2012, Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘Treehouse of Horror III’” [season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992], The A.V. Club, TV Reviews, 29 April, 2012, The idea of a merchant selling both totems of pure evil and frozen yogurt (he calls it frogu...
Korine wants to throw up the MTV-advertising world of perfect, chic imagery and fluent salesmanship.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

With his skill in persuading people, his blank was the best in the company.

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Nearby

Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

[…] this man worked at his business all the harder, with the brightness of the home-joys fading. But it went very hard with him, more than once, when he made a good stroke of salesmanship, to have to put the money in the bottom of his pocket, without even rubbing a bright half-crown, and saying to himself, “I have a’most a mind to give this to Mary.”
1880, R. D. Blackmore, chapter 9, in Mary Anerley, volume 2, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, page 162
Babbitt’s spectacles had huge, circular, frameless lenses of the very best glass; the ear-pieces were thin bars of gold. In them he was the modern business man; one who gave orders to clerks and drove a car and played occasional golf and was scholarly in regard to Salesmanship.
1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter I, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC
High-pressure salesmanship on the part of the Electro-Motive subsidiary of the General Motors Corporation, which has built by far the largest proportion of the American diesels to date, there certainly has been - to such an extent, indeed, as to compel the old-established builders of steam locomotives, such as Baldwins, the American Locomotive Company and the Lima Locomotive Company, either to follow suit or go out of the locomotive building business altogether - [...].
1961 February, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Trains Illustrated, page 85
It is in the nature of all party systems that the authentically political talents can assert themselves only in rare cases, and it is even rarer that the specifically political qualifications survive the petty maneuvers of party politics with its demands for plain salesmanship.
1963, Hannah Arendt, On Revolution, New York: Viking, published 1965, Chapter 6, section 4, p. 282
Korine wants to throw up the MTV-advertising world of perfect, chic imagery and fluent salesmanship.
1997, David Denby, “Clawless”, in New York Magazine, volume 30, number 42, page 52

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Origin

noun

From salesman + -ship.

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Quick test

With his skill in persuading people, his blank— was the best in the company.

Nearby

Origin

noun

With his skill in persuading people, his blank was the best in the company.