Selling

Selling: Building Partnerships, 6/e, by Weitz, Castleberry, and Tanner is the first text to integrate the partnerships/relationship theme in the selling course. It presents selling theories and skills and encourages the students to practice applying them. Students will be presented with situations that occur in the field. This content will dovetail nicely into the training they receive from companies they go to work for.Feature : Sales Technology Box: Appearing at least once per chapter, these boxes apply concepts to current uses of technology. Since many students today are tech savvy, the material will be easily relatable. Feature : Ethics Problems: Each chapter contains a minimum of 2 ethical questions at the end of every chapter, preparing students to approach complicated selling situations with utmost character and integrity.Feature : Chapter Opening Vignettes: Each chapter opens with a description of a former student who is now successful in the world of sales. This feature gives current students a realistic sense of what it is like to be a sales person today. These first-person testimonials are especially compelling because it shows how concepts learned in the classroom can translate into the real world. Feature : Lifetime Customer Value: New material on Lifetime Customer Value has been woven into all the chapters. It emphasizes to students that the key to developing long-lasting, and profitable, relationships with buyers is through a customer-focused, services-approach.Feature : Role Play Exercises: A role play section utilizing the same companies mentioned in the text (as appropriate) has been added to the end of chapter material. These exercises lead toward the complete role play experience that typically occurs at the end of the semester. In a manageable fashion, students can build on the knowledge they have acquired throughout the course. Feature : Relationship Theme: In spite of the growth of the Internet, face-to-face meetings and personal relationships between sellers and buyers are more important than ever. The idea and importance of relationship marketing is highlighted throughout the text, emphasizing how crucial relationships are to a firmĹźs profitability and success. The use of technology to support face-to-face relationships is used to underscore its importance in selling.Feature : Thorough Coverage of the Technology and the Internet: The text outlines and analyzes technology and how it impacts the salespersonĹźs life. The authors discuss PDAĹźs, Cell Phones, the Internet and email as a source of leads (e.g. search engines, Banner ads, extranets, e-commerce, and problem of SPAMing), presentation software, and voice mail and ways to manage these technologies to achieve the highest level of success. Included in the technology discussion is coverage of SIC and newer NAICS as helpful tools when prospecting. The technology and Internet coverage helps students to see how the Internet is a valuable tool for planning and managing a sales territory. Feature : Selling Scenarios and Updated Building Partnership Scenarios: Featured in each chapter, the Selling Scenarios were written specifically for the text and reinforce the concepts and present applications of selling principles. Also featured in each chapter is a Building Partnerships Scenario that emphasizes and examines how salespeople build relationships. Both features highlight these skills which are crucial tools for a salesperson. Some of these are written from the buyers perspective.Feature : Lead Qualification and Management Systems: This coverage of lead qualification and management systems includes pre-qualifications systems and gives the students a glimpse into how salespeople qualify and manage leads in their territories. Companies now have more information available to them due to better systems and modeling. This information is being used and collected by sales organizations in the form of CRM, therefore contact management software has been more fully integrated throughout the chapters. Feature : Cross-Cultural Coverage: Current and continued emphasis on selling examples from Canada, Mexico, and all around the globe serve to reflect the reality of the global nature of selling and cultural differences within a culture. Feature : Coverage of Training Formats: Discussion about various training formats, including FAB (features, advantages, benefits), SPIN Selling, Social Style Matrix training, and FEBA (features, evidence, benefits, agreement). A majority of sales representatives will go through training programs and the text offers them early exposure to prepare them for such programs.