1. Creating Value Through Selling
People in sales roles make up a large portion of the labor force, and professional selling skills are relevant to many more. In many companies, particularly B2B and professional services markets, a professional sales force is the dominant element of marketing expenses.
In this chapter, we focus on the role of professional sales forces in the “marketing mix” that you learned about in your introductory marketing class. You will learn about the changing scope and nature of sales, the challenge of asymmetric information to professional salespeople and their organizations, and how employees at best-practice companies create value for their customers and themselves through sales interactions.
Take a moment to review the chapter learning objectives, and consider returning to them to check your learning after you have completed the chapter content.
Learning Objectives
| By the end of this chapter you should be able to… | (covered in these activities) | |||
| A. Define the four stages in a sales strategy and describe selling activities in each stage | 1.1 | |||
| B. Evaluate Pink’s argument that non-sales selling is a critical ability for professional success | 1.2 | |||
| C. Evaluate the argument that the prevalent negative view of selling is outdated. | 1.1 | 1.2 | ||
| D. Explain Akerlof’s theory of why markets with information asymmetry may fail, and how signaling and screening strategies can be used to solve the asymmetry problem. | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | |
| E. Identify some strategies that marketers and salespeople use to address information asymmetry in their markets. | 1.4 | |||
Independent Learning Activities
- 1.1 Video: Hubspot “Inbound Sales Fundamentals”
- 1.2 Reading: Pink “Rebirth of a Salesman”
- 1.3 Reading: Economist (2016) “Secrets and Agents”
- 1.4 Video Lecture: How to be a Peach in a World Full of Lemons
Use these links or the menu at the top left of the page to go directly to one of the chapter activities. Use the links at the bottom of the page to move forward and backward between them.