Sales

A sale is the exchange of a commodity or money as the price of a good or a service.

There is no evil that is not fostered and encouraged for the sake of making money. ~ Thomas Merton

It is impossible to understand the American public without taking into account the tremendous psychological effect of bringing up a generation of people in a daily environment of advertising. ... From morning till night, in the midst of our work as in our recreation, we live constantly in an atmosphere of intellectual shoddiness. Every popular prejudice and vulgar conceit is played upon and pandered to in the interests of salesmanship. ~ Everett Dean Martin

CONTENT : A - F , G - L , M - R , S - Z , See also , External links

Quotes

Quotes are arranged alphabetically by author

A - F

• Elizabeth is smart, ruthless, and emotionally damaged; that is, she is a sales representative.
  • Max Barry, Company (2006), p. 2

• On level 14, Elizabeth is falling in love. This is what makes her such a good sales rep, and an emotional basket case: she falls in love with her customers. It is hard to convey just how wretchedly, boot-lickingly draining it is to be a salesperson. Sales is a business of relationships, and you must cultivate customers with tenderness and love, like cabbages in winter, even if the customer is an egomaniacal asshole you want to hit with a shovel. There is something wrong with the kind of person who becomes a sales rep, or if not, there is something wrong after six months.
  • Max Barry, Company (2006), p. 11

• The ascetic Gotama … avoids watching dancing, singing, music and shows. He abstains from using garlands, perfumes, cosmetics, ornaments and adornments. … He refrains from running errands, from buying and selling.
  • Gautama Buddha, Digha Nikaya, M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 1.10, p. 69

• We find it meaningful when an owner cares about whom he sells to. We like to do business with someone who loves his company, not just the money that a sale will bring him (though we certainly understand why he likes that as well). When this emotional attachment exists, it signals that important qualities will likely be found within the business: honest accounting, pride of product, respect for customers, and a loyal group of associates having a strong sense of direction. The reverse is apt to be true, also. When an owner auctions off his business, exhibiting a total lack of interest in what follows, you will frequently find that it has been dressed up for sale, particularly when the seller is a “financial owner.” And if owners behave with little regard for their business and its people, their conduct will often contaminate attitudes and practices throughout the company.
  • Warren Buffett, Chairman's Letter - 2000. Berkshire Hathaway (February 28, 2001).

• We like to buy things where no one makes a dime selling them to us.
  • Warren Buffett, (May 6, 2019)"Watch CNBC's full interview with Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Bill Gates". CNBC Television, YouTube. (quote at 1:15:01 of 2:06:06)

• Love and admiration are drowned in these astronomical figures.
  • Georges Duhamel, In Defense of Letters (1937), E. Bozman, trans. (1939), p. 110

G - L

• In so far as words are not used obviously to calculate technically relevant probabilities or for other practical purposes, … they are in danger of being suspect as sales talk of some kind.
  • Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason (1947), p. 22

• The sales department isn't the whole company, but the whole company had better be the sales department.
  • Philip Kotler cited in: Michael R. Czinkota (1999), Marketing: Best Practices. p. 11

• The music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value counts. On it centers the rationality of the status quo, and all alien rationality is bent to It.
  • Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (1964), p. 57

• It is impossible to understand the American public without taking into account the tremendous psychological effect of bringing up a generation of people in a daily environment of advertising. It is impossible to escape the advertising man; his sales talk assaults us in the morning newspaper, in the street car, with billboards along the highways, and in his shameless use of the radio. This means that from morning till night, in the midst of our work as in our recreation, we live constantly in an atmosphere of intellectual shoddiness. Every popular prejudice and vulgar conceit is played upon and pandered to in the interests of salesmanship. Everywhere material interests and herd opinion are strengthened to the loss of personal independence. The tendency is to think and speak for effect rather than out of one's inner life. There is a marked decline the ability to play with ideas, or to live the spiritual life for its own sake. Hence a decline in civilization of interest, humor and urbanity. Advertising tends to make mechanized barbarians of us all.
  • Everett Dean Martin, The Conflict of the Individual and the Mass in the Modern World (1932), pp. 29-30

M - R

• There is no evil that is not fostered and encouraged for the sake of making money.
  • Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948)

• For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall

Concert hall

And echoes with the sound of salesmen.

• Rush, "The Spirit of Radio"

See also

• Commodity
• Currency
• Money
• Profit
• Price