salesmanship

[ seylz-muh n-ship ]

/ ˈseɪlz mənˌʃɪp /

noun

the technique of selling a product: They used a promotional gimmick that was the last word in salesmanship.

adeptness at creating interest in new ideas, products, methods, etc.: The only ingredient lacking in the system was salesmanship.

Nearby words

Origin of salesmanship

1875–80; salesman + -ship; cf. -manship

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for salesmanship

This is salesmanship, and of the most ingeniously manipulative kind.
David's Book Club: The Souls of Black Folk|David Frum|May 5, 2013|DAILY BEAST
It is an unconvincing bit of salesmanship that betrays little perspective on himself, let alone the presence of core convictions.
GOP Primary Results: A Suicidal Cage Match|John Avlon|February 29, 2012|DAILY BEAST
But it was WMD, of course, that was the principal tool in the administration's salesmanship of the war.
Rumsfeld, Still Defiant|Howard Kurtz|February 2, 2011|DAILY BEAST
Did you ever see a school of salesmanship for department-store women employees?
The Women of Tomorrow|William Hard

Of course you did have a chance to buy: but salesmanship was not obtrusive.
Riviera Towns|Herbert Adams Gibbons
But he watched him as he took evening courses in business psychology and salesmanship.
The Book of Courage|John Thomson Faris
The one supremely difficult thing in business is salesmanship.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 11 (of 14)|Elbert Hubbard
Hence be prepared to adapt your salesmanship to the characteristics of the various kinds of men you are likely to meet.
Certain Success|Norval A. Hawkins

British Dictionary definitions for salesmanship

salesmanship

/ (ˈseɪlzmənʃɪp) /

noun

the technique, skill, or ability of selling

the work of a salesman

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for salesmanship

salesmanship

1853, from salesman + -ship.

The modern system of salesmanship has become so much like persecution reduced to a science, that it is quite a luxury to be allowed the use of your own discretion, without being dragooned, by a shopkeeper's deputy, into looking at what you do not care to see, or buying what you would not have. A man in his sane mind, with the usual organs of speech, has a right to be treated as if he knows what he wants, and is able to ask for it. ["The Literary World," Feb. 26, 1853]