Copywiter vs Personal Salesman

I was posed a question the other day that I wasn't quite sure about, so I'll ask you experts here.

Do good copywriters make good salesmen?
and
Does good salesmen make good copywriters?

Which is more true?
Any thoughts?

 

I think that if you want to be a copywriter you need to be at least a decent salesman. Writing sales copy is a different skill to writing general articles, though.

I don't think it works the other way round. Sure, there are some salesmen that are great at writing copy, but it isn't a requirement. One of the best door-to-door and telephone salespeople I've ever met couldn't even put a coherent email together, let alone a full page of text. Away from the internet, sales is about personality and rapport. Translating that to a web page is difficult for many people.

 

Well of course.

And a copywriter and a salesperson are the same thing.

We sell through written word.

 

I think good copywriters make good salesmen!

 

I would say it depends.

Copywriters have the advantage of time. We don't have someone on the phone or in front of us needing a quick answer. With writing sales copy, we can take our time, study the prospect and craft the right words. The disadvantage for a writer is that we get once chance to get it right since we can't change the words to fit the particular customer we are dealing with at the time.

Conversely, I've encountered more than a few salesman who would have trouble writing a coherent sentence but had very high closure rates.

Then there's the biggest variable - personality. Some writers are highly talented at what they do, but they have the personality of a dead fish.

 

Well selling yourself well will get you better work at higher rates but its not a neccessity to be in the trade- unless of course you want a sales copywriter in which case they are probably going to be a good salesperson themselves

 

I have to disagree with you. A good copywriter isn't necessarily a good salesman; the copywriter could feel anxious during face-to-face interactions with strangers, and may perform poorly at sales. Similarly, a good salesman isn't necessarily a good copywriter; the salesman could be a careless writer due to a lack of attention to detail. Both occupations require different skill sets, and I wouldn't be surprised if they tended to attract very different personality types.

 

This is true. Being a salesperson does not necessarily have to entail face-to-face selling or cold calling. So, a copywriter is, by definition, a salesperson. However, the converse is not true. A salesperson may be a copywriter but could also be a telemarketer, door-to-door seller, broadcaster etc.

 

I tend to agree with what everyone else is saying, yes a copywriter should be a good salesmen.. unless of course the copywriter is scared of speaking in public, it's easy to sell via written words, selling via the spoken language takes it to a completely different level, you need to have a higher level of confidence in yourself to be able to sell well face to face or over the phone.

 

Personally I think if you have a sales and marketing background it definately helps when writing content. Some writers do not understand how to "conclude" an article and close the sale.