ABCs of Relationship Selling

About the Author

Charles Futrell

Charles M. Futrell is the federated professor of marketingat Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Hehas a B.B.A., M.B.A., and Ph.D. in marketing. Dr. Futrell is a former salesperson turned professor. Before beginning his academic career, he worked in sales and marketing capacities for eight years with the Colgate Company, the Upjohn Company, and Ayerst Laboratories.Dr. Futrell serves as a frequent reviewer for several academic journals. He is on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. His research in personal selling, sales management, research methodology, and marketing management has appeared in numerous national and international journals, such as the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Marketing Research. An article in the summer 1991 issue of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management ranked Charles as one of the top three sales researchers in America. He was also recognized in Marketing Education, Summer 1997, as one of the top 100 best researchersin the marketing discipline.Professor Futrell served as the American Marketing Association as Chair of the Sales and Sales Management Special Interest Group (SIG) for the 1996–97 academic year. He was the first person elected to this position. Charles was elected Finance Chair for the Sales SIG's 1998–99 term. In 2005, this AMA group presented Charles with its Lifetime Achievement Award for commitment to excellence and service in the area of sales. Mu Kappa Tau, the National Marketing Honor Society, recognized Charles for exceptional scholarly contributions to the sales profession in 2000. This is only the fourth time this recognition has been bestowed since its creation in 1988.Dr. Futrell has written or cowritten eight successful booksfor the college and professional audience. Two of the mostpopular books are Fundamentals of Selling: Customers forLife, Sixth Edition, and ABC's of Relationship Selling through Service, Ninth Edition, both published by McGraw Hill LLC. These books are used in hundreds of U.S. and international schools. More than 300,000 students worldwide have benefited from Professor Futrell's books. In 1997 Dr. Futrell began using his website and group e-mails in his sales classes, which often have 100 students in each section. Students sign up for both a lecture period and lab time. In each semester's six labs, students are videotaped in activities such as making a joint sales call, panel interview, selling oneself on a job interview, product sales presentations, and various experiential exercises. TAMU's College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Business is one of the largest business programs in the U.S., with more than 6,000 full-time business majors. Approximately 50 percent of the marketing department's 800 majors are in Charles's personal selling and/or sales management classes at various times. He has worked with close to 10,000 students in sales-related classes.Professor Futrell's books, research, and teaching are basedon his extensive work with sales organizations of all types and sizes. This broad and rich background has resulted in his being invited to be a frequent speaker, researcher, and consultant to industry.

Raj Agnihotri

Mike Krush, PhD

Mike Krush, PhD (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) serves  on  the  College of Business Administration faculty at Kansas State University and is associated with its National Strategic Selling Institute (NSSI).

Dr. Krush has taught sales and a range of marketing classes at the undergraduate and graduate level at multiple universities including North Dakota State University, St. Cloud State University, and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
In terms of sales education, Dr. Krush championed and initiated the Center    for Professional Selling Sales Technology at North Dakota State University—the only academic center dedicated to developing the sales skills of college students within the North Dakota University System. The Sales Education Foundation consistently recognized NDSU on its list of  top  universities  for  sales  education. When serving as its director, Dr. Krush championed the application of The Center for Professional Selling and Sales Technology for full membership within the University Sales Center Alliance, a consortium of sales centers dedicated to advancing the sales profession via teaching, research, and outreach.

Prior to his academic career, Dr. Krush served as a brand manager at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, one of America’s largest publicly  held  corporations. His responsibilities included areas of strategic marketing for a $600 mil-    lion brand. In addition, he has conducted marketing and sales operations in the financial services domain, consulted with start-up and existing firms, and written   a  book  on  career preparation.

From a research perspective, Dr. Krush was one of three national award winners of the Institute for the Study of Business Market’s Doctoral Support Award  for his dissertation in business-to-business marketing. Dr. Agnihotri, Dr.  Krush, and their colleagues were also recognized by Industrial Marketing Management in 2016 for the Best Article Award.
Dr. Krush’s research has been published in a variety of journals, including the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of  Personal  Selling  and  Sales  Management,  the  European  Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, The Journal of Business Ethics, and the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing.