Now that you have read chapter 6, you should have a good understanding of what it takes to plan a sales dialogue, and now you will get the chance to see how it works in the real world.

For this assignment, you are required to interview a salesperson. This should be someone who works in a professional/ technical/ industrial (etc.) sales position, not retail or home-based businesses. This interview should help you better understand what it takes to be successful in professional selling.

Ask the following questions anddevelop 2-3 additional questions of your own.

1. What are the key skills required in your job?
2. What do you need to know about your products/services in order to succeed?
3. How has professional selling changed in the past few years?
4. How do you prepare for sales calls with new customers? Do you have a template that you use?
5. How do you feel about working on a 100% commission basis? Is that motivating for you or would it be too risky of a scenario?

Conduct your interview and then write up a summary of your interview and what you learned. How did the salesperson's answers match up to what we've been covering in this course? Did anything surprise you?