How to Be the Best Salesman: Lessons From the Record Holders

Who is the best salesman of all time?

No title like that can be settled for good, but Joe Girard has the strongest documented claim in car sales. He sold 13,001 cars between 1963 and 1978, including 1,425 in 1973 alone, per Guinness World Records, according to F&I and Showroom magazine. He worked at Merollis Chevrolet in Eastpointe, Michigan, starting at age 34, and retired at 49 to become a speaker and author.

Jalopnik reported that he was the top car salesman in the world for 11 straight years, from 1966 to 1977. It also reported that every year he mailed a copy of his W-2 to the boss who had once fired him, with a note: "You fired the wrong guy."

He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001, according to Wikipedia, and wrote books including How to Sell Anything to Anybody. He died in 2019 at 90.

Other names belong in the conversation for the best salesman of all time, depending on what you sell. In direct sales, Mary Kay Ash built a company with $1.7 billion in sales by 1994. In sales training, Zig Ziglar went from struggling cookware rep to the author of a book that sold more than 250,000 copies. We cover both below.

Why is Joe Girard called the best salesman in the world?

Because Guinness said so, for decades. Girard held the Guinness record for most cars sold by a salesman in a calendar year, 1,425 in 1973. In 2018, a Michigan salesman challenged the record with a claim backed by General Motors. Guinness looked for an independent institution to verify car sales figures, and its spokeswoman said, "it appears that no such institution exists," Jalopnik reported. Guinness dropped the category instead of naming a new holder.

So the honest version is this: Girard is the last salesman Guinness recognized for the title, and nobody has been officially recognized since.

People searching for the best salesman in the world also find a book. Og Mandino's The Greatest Salesman in the World, first published in 1968, tells the story of Hafid, a poor camel boy who becomes wealthy, through ten scrolls about habits and success, per Wikipedia. It is a parable, not a biography, but it still sits on plenty of reps' shelves. Our list of great sales books covers more titles worth your time.

What did Zig Ziglar teach about becoming a top salesman?

Zig Ziglar started as a struggling cookware salesman. Born in 1926 in Coffee County, Alabama, he dropped out of college in 1947 to sell WearEver cookware in Lancaster, South Carolina, according to Entrepreneur's timeline.

In 1949, a WearEver divisional supervisor named P.C. Merrell encouraged him and gave him advice that stuck. Ziglar later wrote that Merrell "changed the way I saw myself." After a 1950 move to Florence, South Carolina, he excelled and was promoted to field manager and then divisional supervisor.

His first book, See You at the Top, was rejected by 30 publishers before a small house, Pelican, released it in 1975. It went on to sell more than 250,000 copies.

His most famous selling idea is one line. In Secrets of Closing the Sale (1984), as sourced on Wikiquote, he wrote: "You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." That is the whole philosophy of a servant seller. For more lines like it, see our collection of sales motivation quotes.

What did Mary Kay Ash prove about selling?

Mary Kay Ash spent decades selling for other people first. She joined Stanley Home Products as a salesperson in 1939, then was hired away by World Gifts in 1952, according to Biography.com. She quit in protest after watching yet another man she had trained get promoted above her at a much higher salary.

In 1963, at 45, she started her own company with $5,000. With her son, Richard Rogers, she opened a small store in Dallas. The company turned a profit in its first year and sold close to $1 million in products by the end of its second.

By 1994 it had become the country's second-largest direct-sales cosmetics company, with $1.7 billion in sales, according to Women in Texas History. Top sellers earned prizes including the pink Cadillacs that became the company's best-known emblem. Her motto: "God first, family second, career third."

Her lesson for anyone learning how to become a best salesman: rejection by the system is not the end of the story. She used it to build her own.

What are the best salesman skills?

Researchers have tried to pin this down for decades. In a well-known Harvard Business Review article, "What Makes a Good Salesman," David Mayer and Herbert M. Greenberg argued that two qualities matter most. As summarized by Kurlan & Associates, which dates the article to 1964:

• Empathy: "the ability to sense the reactions of other people and to notice their subtle clues and cues."
• Ego drive: "the need to have a prospect or customer say yes."

Look at the three legends through that lens. Girard read people and wanted the yes badly enough to sell 1,425 cars in a year. Ziglar's whole message was empathy: help others get what they want. Mary Kay paired both with a drive strong enough to start over at 45.

The other best salesman skills we see in every top performer:

• Asking sharp questions, then actually listening to the answers.
• Following up long after other reps give up.
• Handling rejection without taking it personally.
• Managing time around the activities that create revenue.
• Asking for the business clearly, every time.

How to be the best salesman: 9 habits of the greats

Here is how to be the best salesman, broken into habits you can start today. Each one traces back to the people above.

1. Treat every customer like 250 customers

Girard's best-known idea came from a funeral director. In his own words, "everyone you ever meet knows at least 250 other people somewhere." He called it Girard's Law of 250. Treat one buyer badly and you can lose a crowd. Treat one well and you gain one.

2. Stay in touch after the sale

Repeat and referral business is built after the contract is signed. Put every customer on a follow-up schedule. Our guide to the follow-up email after a sales call has templates you can adapt.

3. Help people get what they want

Ziglar's line is a test you can run on every call: am I helping this person get what they want, or am I trying to get what I want? Buyers can feel the difference.

4. Fix how you see yourself

Ziglar credited a supervisor with changing the way he saw himself. Find your Merrell, a manager or mentor who believes in you, and listen to them more than you listen to your last bad day.

5. Use rejection as fuel

Ziglar's first book was rejected 30 times. Mary Kay was passed over again and again. Girard was fired. All three kept going, and all three are remembered for what came next.

6. Keep your priorities straight

Mary Kay's motto put career third, behind faith and family, and she still built a giant. Selling hard and living well are not opposites. The family you provide for is the reason the work matters.

7. Celebrate wins in public

Pink Cadillacs were recognition you could see from the street. If you lead a team, make your top performers visible. If you are a rep, celebrate small wins so you keep going through the slow weeks.

8. Read the buyer

Empathy is a skill, not a personality type. Watch for hesitation, notice what the buyer keeps coming back to, and ask about it.

9. Want the yes, and ask for it

Ego drive without a close is just energy. Ask for the business clearly. Our list of closing questions examples gives you the words.

What best salesman tips can you use this week?

Habits beat inspiration. Here is a simple plan that turns the lessons above into best salesman tips for the next seven days.

Selling cars? Our guide to how much car salesmen make shows how these habits turn into commission. Knocking doors? Read our profile of the door-to-door salesman, from Fuller Brush to today's summer teams.

What separates a good salesman from the best?

Good salespeople have talent. The best have habits that hold up on bad days. None of the three legends started with an advantage. Girard was broke. Ziglar was struggling. Mary Kay was passed over.

What they shared was a system: serve the customer, stay in touch, take the hits, and ask for the business. Anyone carrying a quota can copy that system starting Monday.

Back to that Detroit dealership in January 1963. The man who walked in desperate to feed his family became the last salesman Guinness ever recognized for most cars sold in a year, and he mailed his W-2 to the boss who fired him every year to prove it. That is how to be the best salesman: start where you are, serve the person in front of you, and keep showing up until the numbers speak for you. For more profiles of the people who wrote the playbook, visit our Featured Closers section.