Marketing Insights From a to Z: 80 Concepts Every Manager Needs to Know

“There are worse things in life than death. Have you ever spent
an evening with an insurance salesman?”
Salespeople must get used to being rejected. Dennis Tamcsin of
Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance observed: 
“We have some-
thing in this industry called the 10-3-1 ratio. This means that
for every 10 calls a salesperson makes, he will only get to make a
presentation to three, and if he’s got a good success rate, he’ll
make one sale. We need people who won’t shrink from that kind
of rejection.”
IBM trains its salespeople to act as if they are always on the
verge of losing every customer.
What makes a successful salesperson? To succeed, a salesperson
must recognize that the first person he or she has to sell to is himself
or herself. His job is to get in touch with the buyer within himself.
And his motto should be: “I develop clients, not sales.”
The comedian George Burns had his own opinion about what
makes a successful salesperson: