Preface

The 21st-century business world will unquestionably be a dynamic and changing place. The rapid growth in technology, the globalization of business, and increasing competition make sales and relationship skills more important than ever. In the seventh edition of ABC's of Relationship Selling, my goal is to give students the information they need to compete in the 21st century. This edition has been updated to include more role-plays and experiential and www exercises, more information about the technology available to every salesperson, and most importantly, the ABC's of relationship selling.

ABC's is written by a salesperson turned teacher. For eight years I worked in sales with Colgate, Upjohn, and Ayerst. As an academic, I have taught selling to thousands of college students, businesspeople, and industry sales personnel, developing and using the strategies, practices, and techniques presented in this textbook. Moreover, each year I continue to spend time in field work with sales personnel. In my classes and programs, I stress "learning by doing" examples and exercises and videotape role-playing of selling situations. This book is the result of these experiences.

When students ask me why I moved out of sales, I always reply, "I really haven't. I'm just selling a different product in a different industry." We are all selling, whether it's a product, an idea, our parents, a friend, or ourselves-as when interviewing for a job.

ABC's Approach

ABC'swas conceived as a method of providing ample materials for readers to construct their own sales presentations after studying the text. This gives the instructor the flexibility of focusing on the "how-to-sell" approach within the classroom. Covering the basic foundations for understanding the concepts and practices of selling in a practical, straightforward, and readable manner, it provides students with a guide to use in preparing sales presentations and role-playing exercises.

The Philosophy behind This Text

The title should help you understand the philosophy of this book. A student of sales should understand the ABC's-the basics-of personal selling. All of them. I do not advocate one way of selling as the best route to success! There are many roads to reaching one's goals.

I dofeel a salesperson should have an assortment of selling skills and should be very knowledgeable, even an expert, in the field. Based on the situation faced, the salesperson determines the appropriate actions to take for a particular prospect or customer. No matter what situation is faced, however, the basic fundamentals of selling can be applied.

There is no place in our society for high-pressure, manipulative selling. The salesperson is a problem-solver, a helper, and an advisor to the customer. If the customer has no need, the salesperson should accept that and move on to help another person or firm. If the customer has a need, however, the salesperson should and must go for the sale. All successful salespeople I know feel that once they determine that the customer is going to buy someone's product-and that their product will satisfy that customer's needs-it is their job to muster all their energy, skill, and know-how to make that sale. That is what it's all about!

It is my sincere hope that after the reader has studied this book, he or she will say, "There's a lot more to selling than I ever imagined." I hope many people will feel that this material can help them earn a living and that selling is a great occupation and career.

At the end of the course, I hope all the students will have learned how to prepare and give a sales presentation by visually, verbally, and nonverbally communicating their message. I know of no other marketing course whose class project is so challenging and where so much learning takes place.

Finally, I hope each student realizes that these new communication skills can be applied to all aspects of life. Once learned and internalized, selling skills can help a person be a better communicator throughout life.

Basic Organization of the Text

The publisher and I worked hard to ensure that ABC's of Relationship Sellingwould provide students with the basic foundation-the fundamentals-for understanding all major aspects of selling. The 14 chapters in the text are divided into four parts:

• Selling as a Profession. Emphasizes the career, rewards, and duties of the professional salesperson and illustrates the importance of the sales function to the organization's success. It also examines the social, ethical, and legal issues in selling.
• Preparation for Relationship Selling. Presents the background information that salespeople use to develop their sales presentations.
• The Relationship Selling Process. At the heart of the text, this part covers the entire selling process from prospecting to follow-up. State-of-the-art selling strategies, practices, and techniques are presented in a "how-to" fashion.
• Time and Territory Management: Keys to Success. The importance of the proper use of managing one's time and sales territory is given thorough coverage.

What's New

Lots! But the basic core of our sales process remains because reviewers, users, and especially students love it. Added is more about

• Sales call role-plays
• World Wide Web exercises
• E-sales
• Customer relationship management
• ACT! Customer Contact
• Technology in selling
• Sales careers
• Relationship selling
• Total quality selling
• Global selling
• Ethics
• Small business
• Experiential exercises

The following features have been expanded or are new to this edition:

Sales Call Role-Plays. Actually used in my classes by hundreds of students, these role-plays are created from information used by today's top sales forces.

World Wide Web. At the end of the book, these Web exercises introduce prospective salespeople to the use of the World Wide Web.

ACT! Customer Contact. Using software for keeping in contact with customers and prospects is a necessity in the 21st century.

Student Application Learning Exercises (SALE). Chapters directly related to creating the role-play have SALEs that aid students in better understanding how to construct this popular class project. These were first used in Professor Futrell's classes in the fall of 1997. Students unanimously felt they were great in helping them correctly construct their role-plays.

Selling Experiential Exercises. These end-of-chapter exercises help students better understand themselves and/or the text material. Many can be done within class or completed outside and discussed within class.

Selling Globally. Many of these new box items were written by friends and colleagues from countries around the world.

Technology in Selling. A central theme within each chapter shows the use of technology and automation in selling and servicing prospects and customers.

Text and Chapter Pedagogy

Many reality-based features are included in the seventh edition to stimulate learning. One major goal of this book is to offer better ways of using it to convey sales knowledge to the reader. To do this, the book includes numerous special features:

Photo Essays. The book features many photographs accompanied by captions that describe sales events and how they relate to chapter materials.

Chapter Topics and Objectives. Each chapter begins with a clear statement of learning objectives and an outline of major chapter topics. These devices provide an overview of what is to come and can also be used by students to see whether they understand and have retained important points.

Sales Challenge/Solution. The text portion of each chapter begins with a real-life challenge faced by sales professionals. The challenge pertains to the topic of the chapter and will heighten students' interest in the chapter concepts. The challenge is resolved at the end of the chapter, where chapter concepts guiding the salesperson's actions are highlighted.

Making the Sale. These boxed items explore how salespeople, when faced with challenges, use innovative ideas to sell.

Selling Tips. These boxes offer the reader additional selling tips for use in developing their role-plays.

Artwork. Many aspects of selling tend to be confusing at first. "What should I do?" and "How should I do it?" are two questions frequently asked by students in developing their role-plays. To enhance students' awareness and understanding, many exhibits have been included throughout the book. These exhibits consolidate key points, indicate relationships, and visually illustrate selling techniques. They also make effective use of color to enhance their imagery and appeal.

Chapter Summary and Application Questions. Each chapter closes with a summary of key points to be retained. The application questions are a complementary learning tool that enables students to check their understanding of key issues, to think beyond basic concepts, and to determine areas that require further study. The summary and application questions help students discriminate between main and supporting points and provide mechanisms for self-teaching.

Key Terms for Selling/Glossary. Learning the selling vocabulary is essential to understanding today's sales world. This is facilitated in three ways. First, key concepts are boldfaced and completely defined where they first appear in the text. Second, each key term, followed by the page number where it was first introduced and defined, is listed at the end of each chapter. Third, a glossary summarizing all key terms and definitions appears at the end of the book for handy reference.

Ethical Dilemma. These challenging exercises give students an opportunity to experience ethical dilemmas faced in the selling job. Students should review Chapter 2's definition and explanation of ethical behavior before discussing the ethical dilemmas.

Further Exploring the Sales World. These projects ask students to go beyond the textbook and classroom to explore what's happening in the real world. Projects can be altered or adapted to the instructor's school location and the learning objectives for the class.

Cases for Analysis. Each chapter ends with several brief but substantive cases for student analysis and class discussion. These cases provide an opportunity to students to apply concepts to real events and to sharpen their diagnostic skills for sales problem solving.

As you see, the publisher and I have thoroughly considered how best to present the material to readers to maximize their interest and learning. Teacher, reviewer, and student response to this revision has been fantastic. They are pleased with the readability, reasonable length, depth, and breadth of the material. You will like this edition better than the last one.

Teaching and Learning Supplements

McGraw-Hill/Irwin has spared no expense to make ABC'sthe premier text in the market today. Many instructors face classes with limited resources, and supplementary materials provide a way to expand and improve students' learning experience. Our learning package was specifically designed to meet the needs of instructors facing a variety of teaching conditions and for both the first-time and the veteran instructor.

Tutor Software. This Windows program allows students to test themselves. It is organized by chapter and offers true/false, multiple-choice, and matching questions.

Pro-Selling Video. Several hours of student role-plays, exercises, examples of selling techniques, and industry sales training programs show students how to prepare their role-plays and how course content relates to the sales world.

Inc. Business Resources Video Package. A new feature from Inc. demonstrating key features of relationship selling.

Instructor's Manual. Loaded with ideas on teaching the course, chapter outlines, commentaries on cases, answers to everything-plus much more-the Instructor's Manualis a large, comprehensive time-saver for teachers.

Test Bank. The most important part of the teaching package is the Test Bank. The Test Bank was given special attention during the preparation of the seventh edition because instructors desire test questions that accurately and fairly assess student competence in subject material. Prepared by Dr. Thomas K. Pritchett, Dr. Betty M. Pritchett of Kennesaw State University, and myself, the Test Bankprovides hundreds of multiple-choice and true/false questions. Professor Tom Pritchett also uses the book for his selling classes. The test items have been reviewed and analyzed by Texas A&M University's Measurement and Testing Center and class tested to ensure the highest quality. Each question is keyed to chapter learning objectives, has been rated for level of difficulty, and is designated as either factual or application so that instructors can provide a balanced set of questions for student exams.

Computerized Test Bank. A Computerized Test Bank for the IBM PC is available free to adopters. The Computerized Test Bank allows instructors to select and edit test items from the printed Test Bankand to add their own questions. Various versions of each test can be custom printed.

TeleTest. A favorite of the author, TeleTestallows the instructor to select test questions, call McGraw-Hill/Irwin, and have the test typed out and mailed (or E-mailed) to the instructor. Irwin/ McGraw-Hill can supply various versions of the same questions and can randomly select questions for a chapter by difficulty level.

Transparency Masters. The Instructor's Manualcontains masters of materials within and outside of the book to create transparencies for overhead projection or photocopies for distribution to students.

Instructor CD-Rom. A course preparation CD including:

• A PowerPoint Presentation. A brand new program offering over 200 lecture slides. These slides can be customized for any course.
• Computerized Test Bank. The Computerized Test Bank allows instructors to select and edit test items from the printed Test Bank and to add their own questions. Various versions of each test can be custom printed.
• Electronic Version of the Instructor's Manual.

Course Website. At http://www.mhhe.com/futrell,you can access downloadable versions of instructor support materials, as well as a student tutorial and student self-assessment quizzes.

New! ACT!™ Express Software. For many businesspeople, staying in touch with prospects, customers, clients, vendors, and suppliers-people outside the company-is critical to a businessperson's success. And that success depends on managing those contacts for highly productive business relationships.

Included with this textbook is ACT!™ Express, a tool that will help students entering the business world. Based on the best-selling ACT! contact management system, ACT! Express shows students how to become more productive-resulting in better business relationships and greater business opportunities.

Whether in sales, a small or start-up company, a consulting practice, a professional services firm, and more, students will become more proficient at effectively managing their contacts.

But what is a contact manager?

A contact manager will help the students manage all the tasks and information critical to building effective business relationships, such as:

• Finding and contacting prospects.
• Following up with prospects and clients.
• Sending product information, proposals, and quotes.
• Scheduling meetings.
• Generating correspondence.
• Managing customers' postsales activities and requests.
• Keeping a history of previous customer interactions.
• Generating reports of activities and client/account status.

Effective contact management means making the most of contacts with prospects, customers, clients, vendors, and suppliers.

ACT! Express includes the following features:

• Complete contact and calendar management. Seventy predefined fields for contact information, notes, tasks, schedules, history, and more.
• Search capabilities.Quickly locate any information in the database by name, ZIP code, phone number, or keyword.
• Groups. Sort contacts into groups by company, interests, or other commonalities.
• Activity reminders.Set alarms for upcoming activity reminders.
• Basic E-mail functions.Send and track E-mail correspondence-and attach E-mails directly to specific contact records.
• Basic contact reporting.Easily generate basic reports such as Activity History, Task List, Source of Referrals, and more.
• Built-in word processor.Includes prewritten letters that can be easily personalized.
• Data synchronization with Palm Powered™ Handhelds.Take contact information, notes, and history anywhere.

Students who become proficient with ACT! Express may want to explore more advanced functions available in the full ACT! contact management system.

Students desiring more information about either ACT! Express or ACT! are encouraged to visit www.act.com/students.

Acknowledgments

Working with the dedicated team of professionals at McGraw-Hill/Irwin, who were determined to produce the best personal selling book ever, was a gratifying experience.

In overseeing this revision, Developmental Editor Scott Becker worked enthusiastically to ensure a quality product. Judy Kausal, as Photo Research Coordinator, oversaw the selection of appropriate new photographs for this edition. Project Manager Destiny Rynne ably guided the manuscript and page proof through the production process.

Another group of people who made a major contribution to this text were the sales experts who provided advice, reviews, answers to questions, and suggestions for changes, insertions, and clarifications. I want to thank all of these colleagues for their valuable feedback and suggestions:

• Deborah Mowery - James Madison University
• LeRoy Robinson, Jr. - University of South Florida
• Craig Kelley - Cal State Sacramento
• Albert Taylor - Austin Peay State University
• Eric Soares - Cal State Hayward
• Norm Humble - Kirkwood Community College
• Frances DePaul - Westmoreland County Community College
• Andrew Yap - Florida International University
• Brian Tietje - California Polytechnic University

I would also like to thank the many Texas A&M students who have used the book in their classes and provided feedback. Thanks also to the many instructors who call me each year to discuss the book and what they do in their classes. While we have never met face to face, I feel I know you. Your positive comments, encouragement, and ideas have been inspirational to me.

Additionally, salespeople and sales managers have provided photographs, selling techniques, answers to end-of-chapter exercises and cases, and other industry materials that enrich the reader's learning experience. they are:

Kim Allen, McNeil Consumer Products Company; Alan Baker, Noxell Corporation; Michael Bevan, Parbron International of Canada; Richard Ciotti, JC Penney Company; John Croley, The Gates Rubber Company; Terry and Paul Fingerhut, Steamboat Party Sales, Inc., Tupperware; Bill Frost, AT&T Communications; Steve Gibson, Smith Barney; Gary Grant, NCR; Jerry Griffin, Sewell Village Cadillac-Sterling, Dallas; Martha Hill, Hanes Corporation; Debra Hutchins, Sunwest Bank of Albuquerque; Mike Impink, Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA); Bob James, American Hospital Supply Corporation; Morgan Jennings, Richard D. Irwin, Inc.; Patrick Kamlowsky, Hughes Tool Company; Cindy Kerns, Xerox Corporation; Alan Killingworth, FMC Corporation; Santo LaQuatra, SmithKline Beecham; Stanley Marcus; Gerald Mentor, Richard D. Irwin, Inc.; Jim Mobley, General Mills, Inc.; George Morris, The Prudential Insurance Company of America; Vikki Morrison, First Team Walk-In Realty, California; Greg Munoz, The Dow Chemical Company; Kathleen Paynter, Campbell Sales Company; Bruce Powell, Richard D. Irwin, Inc.; Jack Pruett, Bailey Banks & Biddle; Emmett Reagan, Xerox Corporation; Bruce Scagel, Scott Paper Company; Linda Slaby-Baker, The Quaker Oats Company; Sandra Snow, The Upjohn Company; Matt Suffoletto, International Business Machines (IBM); Ed Tucker, Cannon Financial Group, Georgia.

For the use of their selling exercises and sales management cases, I am especially grateful to

• Gerald Crawford, Keith Absher, Bill Stewart - University of North Alabama
• Dick Nordstrom - California State University-Fresno
• James L. Taylor - University of Alabama
• George Wynn - James Madison University

A special thanks goes to Crystal Goodman for helping with all aspects of the textbook.

Finally, I wish to thank the sales trainers, salespeople, and sales managers who helped teach me the art of selling when I carried the sales bag full time. I hope I have done justice to their great profession of selling.

I hope you learn from and enjoy the book. I enjoyed preparing it for you. Readers are urged to forward their comments on this text to me. I wish you great success in your selling efforts. Remember, it's the salesperson who gets the customer's orders who keeps the wheels of industry turning. America cannot do without you.

Charles M. Futrell

c-futrell@tamu.edu

http://futrell-www.tamu.edu