CHAPTER 1
SELLING AND SALESPEOPLE
Outline of Chapter
I. Why Learn About Personal Selling?
A. Everyone Sells
II. Creating Value: The Role of Salespeople in A Business
III. What Do Salespeople Do?
A. Client Relationship Manager
B. Account Team Manager
C. Supply Chain Logistics and Channel Manager
D. Information Provider to their Firm
IV. Types of Salespeople
A. Selling and Distribution Channels
1. Business-to-Business Channels
2. Consumer Channels
B. Describing Sales Jobs
1. Stage of Buyer–Seller Relationship: New or Continuing?
2. Salesperson’s Role: Taking Orders or Creating New Solutions
3. Importance of the Purchase to the Customer
4. Location of Salesperson-Customer Contact: Field or Inside Sales
5. The Nature of the Offering Sold by the Salesperson: Products or Services
6. Salesperson’s Role in Securing Customer Commitment: Information or Placing an Order
C. The Sales Jobs Continuum
D. Examples of Sales Jobs
V. Characteristics of Successful Salespeople
A. Self- Motivated
B. Dependability and Trustworthiness
C. Integrity and Ethical Sales Behavior
D. Customer and Product Knowledge
E. Analytical Skills and the Ability to Use Information Technology
F. Communication Skills
G. Flexibility and Agility
H. Creativity
I. Confidence and Optimism
J. Emotional Intelligence
K. Are Salespeople Born or Made?
VI. Rewards in Selling
A. Independence and Responsibility
B. Financial Rewards
C. Management Opportunities
VII. The Building Partnerships Model
VIII. Selling Yourself
IX. Summary
Teaching Suggestions
An alternative would be to use the PowerPoint slides provided with the text.
1. Begin the first class by asking students “Why are you enrolled in this course?” and write
their answers on the board. You will probably find that the students will offer several
reasons for enrolling in this class, but most of their answers will fall into several
categories, including: vocational interest – they plan to go into selling as a career or as a
first job after graduation; management interest – plan to use the information in this
in to a discussion of how learning selling skills is really useful for everyone.
2. You can continue this discussion about why the information in this course is valuable for
everyone, even students that do not plan to go into sales by posing the following
question: “Should a production manager have a basic knowledge of selling? Why or why
not?” This question provides an opportunity to discuss the importance of selling
principles to everyone. Production managers need to have a basic knowledge of the
selling principles for two reasons. First, to do their job effectively, production managers
3. You can begin the discussion of advantages and disadvantages of sales jobs by asking
those students who expressed an interest in taking a job in selling, “Why are you
4. Having discussed the benefits and drawbacks of a sales career, you are now ready to
discuss the role of salespeople in businesses. You may start this discussion by talking
about the different methods firms use to communicate with their customers. You can
stimulate class discussion by telling your students that the cost of a face-to face customer
contact with a salesperson is around $400, almost 10,000 times more expensive than
some other methods (radio, newspaper). Why is personal selling so expensive? The
5. You can begin the discussion about the activities of salespeople by mentioning that how
salespeople spend their time depends upon the type of selling job they perform, but
certain basic activities are common to all types of selling. In addition to reviewing how
the average salesperson spends his or her time, you could also discuss differences by
asking students how they would expect the allocation of time to be different for various
sales jobs, including:
Procter & Gamble or Frito Lay salesperson calling on supermarkets.
Finally, Part III looks at the salesperson as a manager and focuses on improving
efficiency by reducing waiting time, by using the telephone effectively, by dealing
effectively with other people in your company and by managing your career.
6. Here, you can emphasize that there are many different types of selling jobs. You may
want to emphasize that retail salespeople, the salespeople consumers have most contact
7. Next, we want to talk a little about the creative aspect of selling. Tell your students that
the amount of vision that they can apply to their sales career is limited only by their
8. This last discussion about creativity flows nicely into the Characteristics of Successful
Salespeople. As you present each of the characteristics, you might ask if these
9. To conclude this class, you might want to ask students why they think building
partnerships are becoming more important in business. Also ask them, “What do buyers
Suggested Answers to Ethics Problems
1. Let’s assume that as a salesperson for a logistics management company, you are a key
channel manager and work with a number of supply chain vendors to help make sure
your client, Home Depot, gets excellent value. While working closely with one channel
member, Effective Inventory Management, Inc., you learned exactly how it completes an
2. As a salesperson, two traits you have been trained to display are confidence and
optimism. Let’s say that one of your clients asked you, “I’m getting a little worried about
your new model, the X15J. I thought we were going to see prototypes of it by January,
and here it is late February and we’ve not seen anything. I’m about to hire some
additional workers to help with installing those models this summer. Is it going to be
released on time?” As the salesperson, you know that the X15J has hit some significant
Suggested Answers to Questions and Problems
1. There are many different go-to-market strategies. For which of the following
products/services do you think a sales- force intensive strategy would probably not be
used? Why? Make any assumptions needed and list your assumptions in your answer.
2. In Building Partnerships 1.1 you read how a salesperson’s sales manager helped the
salesperson avoid making a mistake that would have resulted in the company making less
money. Identify two key lessons you learned from reading that story.
3. Comment on each of the following statements:
Salespeople are a thing of the past because buyers can learn all they need from the
Internet.
Salespeople do serve a useful role in society. They increase the benefits that customers
get out of products by providing information on how to use the products. They also
develop programs with distributors and customers to make products available at
A good salesperson can sell anything to anybody.
Some skills possessed by good salespeople such as working hard, working smart,
dependability, and emotional maturity are useful when selling all products to all types of
customers. However, salespeople need technical product knowledge and knowledge
about customers to be effective. Thus, the effectiveness of salespeople in different
4. Jacob Grapentine has been working as a retail clerk at a greenhouse for three years and
is considering taking a selling job with Scotts (see www.scotts.com). The job involves
calling on greenhouses and retailers selling the benefits of the firm’s products (mulches,
bagged soils, fertilizers, weed killers, etc.). What are the similarities and differences
between his retail clerk job and the selling job he is considering?
5. Declan Pederson worked his way through college by selling cable television
subscriptions door to door. He has done well on the job and is one of the top salespeople
at the cable company. Last week Guardianship Services offered him a job selling guard
dog services to industrial warehouses. Explain the differences between selling door to
door to consumers and the Guardianship Services sales job.
6. Poll at least five students who are not taking your selling course (and who, better yet, are
outside the business school or program). What are their opinions about salespeople?
How accurate are their opinions based on what you’ve read in this chapter?
7. Think about what you want in your first job out of college. Based on what you know so
far from this chapter, how well does selling match your desires in a job?
8. According to the text, some sales jobs are located as inside sales instead of field sales.
List five advantages that inside salespeople could experience over field salespeople.
9. Sales Technology 1.1 introduced how sales force automation (SFA) systems can help
salespeople. Identify two reasons why salespeople might be reluctant to adopt new
technologies like an SFA system.
10. Assume you are a sales manager and you need to recruit someone for the following sales
positions. For each position, list the qualities you would want in the recruit:
a. Salesperson selling graffiti-preventive coatings to subway operators.
Someone who understands how subways work, and what issues graffiti can pose to
riders.