Quote

The worst fault a salesman can commit is to be a bore...... Pretend to be vastly interested in any subject the prospects shows an interest in.

David Ogilvy

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

David Ogilvy
Age: 88 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 23
Died: 1999
Died: July 21
Businessman
Businessperson
Economist
Writer
West Horsley
Surrey
David MacKenzie Ogilvy
Interest
Fault
Shows
Pretend
Commit
Faults
Vastly
Subject
Prospects
Subjects
Salesman
Interested
Bore
Worst
Bores

More quotes by David Ogilvy

Image
We exist to build the business of our clients. The recommendations we make to them should be the recommendations we would make if we owned their companies, without regard to our own short-term interest. This earns their respect, which is the greatest asset we can have.
David Ogilvy
Image
The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short-sighted opportunist who siphons off all his advertising dollars for short-term promotions.
David Ogilvy
Image
In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.
David Ogilvy
Image
I don't believe in tricky advertising, I don't believe in cute advertising, I don't believe in comic advertising. The people who perpetrate that kind of advertising never had to sell anything in their lives
David Ogilvy
Image
Many manufacturers secretly question whether advertising really sells their product, but are vaguely afraid that their competitors might steal a march on them if they stopped.
David Ogilvy
Image
Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.
David Ogilvy
Image
Much of the messy advertising you see on television today is the product of committees. Committees can criticize advertisements, but they should never be allowed to create them.
David Ogilvy
Image
Encourage innovation. Change is our lifeblood, stagnation our death knell.
David Ogilvy
Image
Creativity needs discipline and freedom.
David Ogilvy
Image
Training should not be confined to trainees. It should be a continuous process, and should include the entire professional staff of the agency. The more our people learn, the more useful they can be to our clients.
David Ogilvy
Image
I figure that my staff will be less reluctant to work overtime if I work longer hours than they do.
David Ogilvy
Image
If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don't let it worry you nobody has ever built a brand by imitating somebody else's advertising.
David Ogilvy
Image
I know of a brewer who sells more of his beer to the people who never see his advertising than to the people who see it every week. Bad advertising can unsell a product.
David Ogilvy
Image
People don't buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night.
David Ogilvy
Image
I prefer the discipline of knowledge to the anarchy of ignorance.
David Ogilvy
Image
Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think and they don't do what they say.
David Ogilvy
Image
I never tell one client that I cannot attend his sales convention because I have a previous engagement with another client successful polygamy depends upon pretending to each spouse that she is the only pebble on your beach.
David Ogilvy
Image
My motto has always been: Only first class business and that in a first class way
David Ogilvy
Image
If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
David Ogilvy
Image
The mission of a great school is not to cram you with facts so that you can regurgitate them...This gives many boys such a distaste for learning that they never read another book as long as they live. No, the mission is to inspire you with a taste for scholarship - a taste which will last you all your life.
David Ogilvy