Jerell Little
MAR3391.004
Joshua Michaels
04.28.14
Course Recap: A fellow student approaches you and lets you know they are going to be taking
Professional Selling next semester. They were super lucky and got Michaels as their instructor. You
would like to help this student get a really great grade, so you decide that you're going to tell them
about the three most important concepts you learned about in class. For the sake of this assignment,
you only have a couple of minutes to explain things and not hours like we had in class. Therefore, list
the three concepts and then give a brief description as if you were teaching the material (but in your
own words). Make sure you let your fellow student know how these will help them in the real world.
Hey Josh, you made a great choice in registering for Professional Selling with Prof. Michaels. The
class is really good and will help you in the future to sell yourself even if you don’t pursue sales as a
career. Here are the three most important concepts you will lean in that class, SPIN selling, personality
types, and when to shut up!
First things first, SPIN selling. Get to know this acronym early and you will excel in this class. It
stands for Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need. When you do your first role-play remember to
address their current situation, then poke holes in it by telling them about problems they didn’t realize
they had doing it their way. Next, you take it all away by having them tell you the implications of not
buying what you’re selling. Finally you give it all back to them based the need to fill all those holes you
poked in the beginning! It’s a pretty universal concept and can be applied later on when you go on your
first job interview. It is one of the best ways to answer those behavioral questions they give because you
are already given the situation, you just need to state the problems you faced, the implications resulting
from those problems, and sum it up nicely with your need to overcome the situation.
Now the next concept I want you to wrap your head around is, understanding personality types.
Prof. Michaels does a great job in explaining the various types of buyers you will run into as a sales
person and how to recognize them. I am going to cut to the chase and tell you that the four personality
types are Driver, Expressive, Analytical, and Amiable personalities. I will leave the details to Prof.
Michaels but here is the gist of it. Drivers have really assertive and direct type personalities, just think
Donald Trump. Expressive people are very outgoing and enthusiastic, just think Richard Simmons.
Analytical style people are neat freaks and well organized. They love to talk numbers and approach
things very cautiously and for them, I want you to think Martha Stewart. Last but not least you have the
amiable personality types. These are the really, really nice people that don’t want to offend anyone so
they will agree with everything. They’re friends to everyone, are very relaxed, and considerate, which
make me think of Charlie Brown. Now if you can’t remember the personality type just think of those
four people I mentioned before. Once you complete the class, Prof. Michaels would have taught you
how to deal with each personality type thus giving you the skills to interact with future Donald Trump
style bosses that you may not like.
Last but not least, one of the most important takeaway concepts I learned in that class is when
to shut up! You will learn about the “80/20” rule. It’s all about listening and not talking. As a great sales
person, you should only talk for 20% of the time whereas the client should be talking 80% of the time.
Many sales people actually talk themselves right out of a sale by overstating their solution and not
listening to the customers actual needs. This is a truly important concept for you to learn because I have
seen the way you talk to girls. Just use the “80/20” rule and let them talk about themselves. The more
they talk about themselves the more you learn about them and what is important to them, thus making
it easier for you to “close the sale”.
Remember we are always selling ourselves so this class will definitely help you in the long run.
Hopefully you can take the three concepts of SPIN selling, personality types, and the 80/20 Rule
seriously, and do well in the class. Prof. Michaels will fill in all the blanks for you throughout the
semester. Just relax and enjoy the class, it will be fun.