Описание
Confirming Pages
PREFACE
To start the preface of the last edition, we wrote, “The
selling profession is at a critical time. For that past two
years, Manpower, the placement agency, has reported
that sales is the most difficult job to fill. Never in our 20
years of teaching sales have we seen the demand for
professional salespeople to be so great, which presents
you with a great opportunity. You have an opportunity
to participate in a period of rapid change for the sales
profession as you prepare young people for a career.”
Then the economic tsunami hit, and things changed rapidly. You know that even good salespeople were affected
by the economic tsunami of 2008 and 2009. But some
aspects haven’t changed. Finding good salespeople is
still difficult for most companies. And our sales students
are still in high demand. At the same time, more collegeeducated sales professionals are now in the field than
ever before, and they demand excellence from our students. Salespeople are being asked to do more because
they are a critical element in the value chain. Partnering skills, internal and external, are more important than
they’ve ever been.
As a result, we’ve remained faithful to the premises that
caused us to write the first edition almost 20 years ago:
• Partnering skills are critical skills for all businesspeople.
• Adaptive communication skills—probing, listening,
and presentation—are important in all areas of life,
but especially for salespeople.
• Students need to practice these skills through role
playing.
• Helping people make the right decisions is not only
the most ethical sales strategy but also the most effective strategy for long-term success.
At the same time, we’ve recognized that several factors
are changing the face of selling:
• Increased use of multichannel go-to-market strategies,
including inside sales.
• Changing roles for both technology and salespeople.
• Rapid economic change and the impact of the
recession.
• Changing trends in how organizations buy—
specifically continue increased use of technology, selfservice, and supplier relationship management.
As we’ve revised the text, faithful adopters will see that
we’ve held to the principles that made this book unique
when it was launched and kept it in a leadership position. While others may have tried to copy role playing,
partnering, or technology, none have truly captured the
essence that makes this book the leading text.
WHAT’S NEW IN THE EIGHTH EDITION
• “Selling Yourself”—a new feature at the end of
each chapter that relates the material in the chapter
to the student’s life right now. It’s more than just the
student’s job search process, however. Selling Yourself
helps students see the connections among the chapter
material and all aspects of their lives, such as how
a student can sell an organization to new members,
how to work with apartment managers to resolve
issues, how to improve interactions with friends and
family members, how to add value as a group member in a class team project, and so forth.
• Original examples written specifically for this
book, provided by current sales programs and salespeople, many of whom took the class and used
this book.
• New chapter-opening profiles—all chapters open
with a real salesperson or sales manager’s perspective on the chapter. Each profile is new and original to
this edition, and we’ve also integrated the profiles into
each chapter as a running example to increase this
feature’s functionality.
• All new “Building Partnerships”—boxed features that provide more detailed examples of chapter material and present chapter material in a slightly
different light.
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Детали
- Год издания
- 2010
- Format