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The philosophy of selling

Questions
1 Given that many sales managers now accept that good salespeople are ‘made’ rather than ‘born’,
does this mean personality and physical characteristics are no longer important in the type of
salesperson employed?
2 Interview one (or more) salespeople to assess the characteristics they perceive to be important for
their particular job.
3 What are the reasons for selling not being considered a more prestigious occupation?
4 Why might role clarity be a problem in selling jobs?
5 If your company is selling technical products to industrial markets, would you recruit engineers
and train them to sell, or recruit those with proven selling skills and teach them technical expertise
and product knowledge?

Case study Clerical Medical

Clerical Medical (www.clericalmedical.co.uk), now part of the HBOS group, is one of the
leading pension and investment companies in the financial services sector, arranging
investment plans on behalf of their clients. As part of their evaluation of salespeople and in
preparation for the training and managerial development of staff, they use a self-report
questionnaire to be completed by new and existing staff. As a result of this a profile chart is
compiled on the basis of the following:

Category Dimensions (rated on a 1–10 scale)

Assertive Persuasive Controlling Independent

Gregarious Outgoing Affilitative Socially confident

Empathy Modest Democratic Caring

Problem-solving Practical Data rational Artistic Behavioural

Radical Traditional Change-oriented Conceptual Innovative

Analytical Forward planning Detail-conscious Conscientious

Anxieties Relaxed Worrying

Controls Tough-minded Emotional control Optimistic Critical

Energies Active Competitive Achieving Decisive

1 Critically appraise the elements in this questionnaire in terms of the characteristics and
abilities that you feel are desirable in this selling job.
2 Which of the above dimensions do you feel a salesperson in this industry should score
highly on?
3 What other information would you like to know if you were asked to select someone suit-
able for this type of job?

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