Robert M. Peterson is the White Lodging Professor of Sales and Director of the Sales Program at
Northern Illinois University. He holds degrees from Indiana University, George Washington
University and the University of Memphis. He was a salesperson for many years selling printing
and financial data prior to earning his doctorate. Dr. Peterson earned the American Marketing
Association 2002 Innovative Teacher Award, the Innovative Sales Educator Award from the
University Sales Center Alliance 2006, the 2010 Hormel Meritorious Teaching Award from the
Marketing Management Association, and the most recently the 2011 Excellence in Teaching
Award by the Sales Special Interest Group of the American Marketing Association.
Dr. Peterson earned several teaching awards at the University of Portland and three Best Session
awards at the US Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference. He was chair
of the sales department at William Paterson University in New Jersey. Rob served on the board
of the National Conference in Sales Management for seven years and is a current board member
of the Sales Education Foundation.
Dr. Peterson is the Editor of the Journal of Selling, an applied research journal. He has published
several manuscripts, including articles appearing in Industrial Marketing Management, Journal
of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Business Horizons, Journal of World Business,
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and the Journal of Marketing Education. When not
teaching sales courses, Rob enjoys being an Assistant Scoutmaster of a local scouting troop, Tae
Kwon Do, wine making, and traveling with his wife and twins.