salesperson
Americannoun
Usage
What does salesperson mean? A salesperson is a person whose job is to sell products or services. Another term for salesperson is sales rep (or sales representative). The terms salesman and saleswoman are still commonly used, but salesperson and sales rep are often used in their place. The plural of salesperson can be salespeople or salespersons. A salesperson is often said to “work in sales”—in which sales refers to the type of occupation or the division or department within the company. A salesperson can sell directly to customers or to other businesses or organizations. Sometimes, salespersons sell things in person, such as at a retail store or dealership. They also commonly sell things over the phone or by communicating with people online. In the past, it was common for some salespersons to travel door-to-door to make sales to people at home. A salesperson who has to travel as part of their job can be called a traveling salesperson. The word salesperson is sometimes used in a somewhat figurative way to refer to someone who’s skilled at persuading people, especially in a business or professional setting, as if they are selling them a product. Example: The salesperson told me that this was the best deal he could give me.
Gender
See -person.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of salesperson
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A candidate like Jack Schlossberg, now running for Congress in Manhattan’s 12th District, is at least more self-aware of his role as salesperson than most.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
“The boss is pretty compassionate,” said Nicole Luk, a salesperson at Julei.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026
To be a great philosophical mind — that is, someone who can convince others of their beliefs about the human mind and our larger nature — one must also be a salesperson.
From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026
Coumarianos adds: “I’ve walked a few clients through all the expenses they’re paying on insurance products for retirement savings, and they’ve been astounded, negatively, at how much their salesperson has extracted from them.”
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 20, 2026
As luck would have it, no salesperson pounced on me the minute I entered.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
He also commanded an army of dozens of commission-hungry salespeople, including agents with little investing knowledge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
But proceed with caution: Insurance salespeople may praise this strategy as a “Roth on steroids,” but there are downsides.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
But those cases all involved human decisions -- executives, salespeople or engineers who made choices and cut corners.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
Palantir CEO Alex Karp touted the company’s “ staggering growth” despite “a hiring discipline that is too rare in the software industry today,” highlighting that it only has 70 salespeople.
From MarketWatch ● May 5, 2026
I’ve been wanting to visit Anarkali Bazaar despite Zohra’s warnings about pushy salespeople and pickpockets.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
At that business, higher wages and the hiring of additional specialized salespersons in preparation for the spinoff are taking a toll.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 18, 2025
I also interviewed more than 100 current and former engineers, privacy professionals, product managers, salespersons, and lawyers from the largest Silicon Valley tech companies.
From Slate ● Dec. 2, 2021
It also would carve out a roster of professions from the test, including doctors, real estate salespersons, securities and insurance brokers and hairstylists who rent their booths from salon owners.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2019
Sixty-five randomly selected car salespersons were asked the number of cars they generally sell in one week.
From Textbooks ● Sep. 19, 2013
He seldom approves of the occasional frivolous purchases I make, and never makes any attempt to conceal his opinion from salespersons, customers, passersby, and whomever else it doesn't concern in the least.
From Four and Twenty Beds by Vogel, Nancy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
