W.Clement Stone, who rose from being a poor boy selling newspapers to becoming a billionaire insurance company owner, believed that "Sales are contingent upon the attitude of the salesman, not the attitude of the prospect." Unequivocally, that quote's premise on where the focus should be is indisputably great advice, whether you're trained in the craft, naturally born to it, or an inexperienced novice. Stone's words in that succinct sentence is a great launching pad for this article because, ultimately, selling -as those contributing to this article tell us - begins with the sales person's attitude and approach to the prospective customer.(...)

Have you heard of Groupon? Two years ago, or maybe even as recently as a year ago, it's possible that you hadn't. Or if you had, maybe you weren't entirely sure what it was or how it worked. Like so many dot-com sensations, Groupon popped up seemingly overnight, evolving from a small Internet start-up to a worldwide phenomenon that eventually went public in November 2011.(...)