1. Sales technique

http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/sales/sales-techniques-and-negotiations/selling-technique-faqs

http://www.smarta.com/advice/sales-and-marketing/sales/cross-selling-10-ways-to-sell-more-to-your-customer/

http://www.smarta.com/advice/sales-and-marketing/sales/sophi-tranchell-on-getting-stocked-in-big-stores/

2. The selling process and sales strategy

http://www.redscommunications.co.za/resources/marketing-tips-blog/145-the-8-step-personal-selling-process.html.

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/use-planning-process-insurance-selling-business-18150.html

http://www.smarta.com/advice/sales-and-marketing/sales/lessons-in-sales-strategy-from-mands/

3. The Johari Window

http://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htm

http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/JohariWindow.htm

4. Sales training and successful selling

http://www.businessballs.com/salestraining.htm

http://www.businessballs.com/body-language.htm

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2013/05/03/10-essential-selling-principles-most-salespeople-get-wrong/

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/65984

Case 16 - Selling Coffee in Thailand

The first three articles have been provided open access. Some links require journal subscription access which may be available through your university.

Amir, I. and Qureshi, K. (2007), SBE (Pvt.) Ltd: The focussed selling approach, Asian Journal of Management Cases, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 143–159  http://ajc.sagepub.com/content/4/2/117.2  

The case study at the centre of this article is Unilever Pakistan Limited (UPL) and a Lahore distributor – SBE (Pvt.) Limited. UPL wanted better sales growth and in order to achieve it the multinational launched Project Ferrari in July 2002. The authors provide the reader with an account of UPL’s efforts to achieve double-digit distribution growth and SBE’s concerns about the efficacy of Project Ferrari.

Faulkner, S., Leaver, A., Vis, F. and Williams, K. (2008), Art for art’s sake or selling up, European Journal of Communication, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 295–317. http://ejc.sagepub.com/content/23/3/295

This article is both theoretical and empirical in its intent. It is based on discrepancy between the pursuit of art and the realities of the marketplace set in the television production context. At the theoretical level it deals with the idea of creative liberation yet on the empirical level it deals with the pragmatic nature of the market including slow growth, regulatory changes, external financial backers and the acquisition of small firms by what the authors call ‘acquisitive super-indies’. Ultimately this article is about creative people ‘selling up’, i.e. selling their assets for the ‘right’ price and therefore it is about exposing the tension between creativity and money-making.

Kara, A., Andaleeb, S.S., Turan, M. and Cabuk, S. (2013), An examination of the effects of adaptive selling behaviour and customer orientation on performance of pharmaceutical salespeople in an emerging market, Journal of Medical Marketing: Device, Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical Marketing, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 102–114.http://mmj.sagepub.com/content/13/2/102

This article is about customer orientation and adaptive selling behaviour and effects on sales performance. This topic has been researched in developed markets but less so in emerging markets. This article is about Turkish pharmaceutical salespeople and sales performance in relation to both customer orientation and satisfaction where it was found that customer orientation is a significant factor in terms of performance , satisfaction and adaptive selling  but that adaptive selling behaviour, while significantly related to sales performance and customer orientation,  is not so to satisfaction.

Lee, S., Su, H-J. and Dubinsky, A.J. (2005), Relationship selling in the meeting planner/hotel salesperson dyad, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, Vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 427–447.

http://jht.sagepub.com/content/29/4/427

The authors claim that meeting planners can be a substantial source of revenue and yet hotels and their salespeople are under-researched when it comes to this potentially key area of hotels’ business. The article distinguishes between transactional and relationship marketing and selling and puts forward a case for trust and satisfaction being achieved by the latter.

Mai, R. and Hoffmann, S. (2011), Four positive effects of a salesperson’s regional dialect in services selling, Journal of Service Research, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 460–474. http://jsr.sagepub.com/content/14/4/460

This article provides an account of how buyers react to salespeople with dialects. The results of the study show that buyers do not devalue salespersons with a dialect which may be contrary to popular belief. Rather, the quality of speech and associations with the regional dialect can improve satisfaction with the salesperson and the selling organisation and foster purchase intention. This is linked to expectations on the part of the buyer with respect to the quality of speech. The authors suggest that companies should consider training in speech quality rather than salespeople concealing regional dialects.