Professional Selling

Sales is at the heart of modern business.  Understanding and using aspects of sales in order to improve for-profit businesses, not-for-profit organizations, and students’ career prospects is a critical and relevant to all students, regardless of their major.  Career success for students will be determined in part by how well they tell their personal narrative and sell themselves to employers, investors, or graduate schools.   

Introducing Hunt/Deitz/Hansen: Professional Selling 1e , developed for today’s instructors to inspire and motivate tomorrow’s leaders, because everyone is a salesperson.

Three goals of this product are to:
• Provide up-to-date professional selling content that is high quality, socially responsible and right-sized for various course lengths and modalities settings
• Engage students with a highly readable narrative infused with modern and relevant examples  
• Integrate cutting-edge digital resources to enhance teaching and learning

Dr. C. Shane Hunt received his PhD in marketing from Oklahoma State University. Shane has won numerous awards for his teaching, including the 2010 National Inspire Integrity Award from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, the 2010 Lt. Col. Barney Smith Award as Professor of the Year at Arkansas State University, the 2011 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award, the 2015 Honors Professor of the Year Award, and the 2019 National Teaching Innovation Award presented by the Association of Collegiate Marketing Educators. Shane’s research has appeared in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, the Journal of Business Logistics, and other leading marketing journals. He has presented to numerous organizations including the American Marketing Association and the National Conference in Sales Management. After completing his MBA degree, Shane went to work for a Fortune 500 company in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and spent eight years working as a pricing analyst, product manager, and business development manager overseeing numerous strategic initiatives. In addition to his role as a professor, Shane also serves as a consultant, speaker, and board member for businesses and nonprofit organizations across the country. Shane is now the Dean of the College of Business and Michael C. Ruettgers Professor of Marketing at Idaho State University. He lives in Pocatello, ID, with his wife, Jenifer, and their two children, Andrew and Sarah.

Dr. Deitz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management and the Director of the Customer NeuroInsights Research Laboratory (CNRL) at The University of Memphis. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Alabama and hold Bachelors and Masters degrees from West Virginia University. Prior to beginning his academic career, he worked for more than 10 years as a sales and marketing executive for several leading software companies. Dr. Deitz substantive research involves strategic marketing issues, primarily in the context of services, retail, and creative industries (e.g., software development, film). In his role as Director of FCBEs new neuro lab, he also pursues research opportunities that emphasize the application of physiological and neurological measurement systems in studying the influence of attention and emotion upon decision making. His work has been published in a number of leading journals, including the Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Services Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Psychology and Marketing, and the Journal of Business Logistics. His research has been recognized at a number of international conferences, including the AMA Summer Educators and the Society of Marketing Science conferences. In addition, Dr. Deitz serves on the editorial review board for the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Supply Chain Management, and the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management.

Dr. George D. Deitz completed his PhD in marketing at the University of Alabama. He is currently the George Johnson Professor in Marketing at the University of Memphis. George has enjoyed the opportunity to teach a wide variety of face-to-face and online courses at the undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral levels. In 2013, George helped found the Consumer Neuroscience Research Laboratory (C-NRL) at Memphis, with the mission of advancing the use of physiological and neurological measurement systems to the study of marketing research questions. His research has been published in Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Business Logistics, and other leading marketing journals. He has presented at a number of different conferences, including the American Marketing Association and the Academy of Marketing Science. After obtaining his master’s degree at West Virginia University, George began his professional career working in college athletic administration at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Following that, he spent nearly a decade working in a variety of sales and sales management roles with several start-up ventures in the software industry. George currently lives in Germantown, Tennessee, with his wife, Kristine. They have three children, Luke, Mark, and Koren.

Dr. John D. Hansen is an associate professor of marketing and director of the Center for Sales Leadership at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He previously served on the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi and at Northern Illinois University, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama. Prior to entering academe, he held numerous positions in industry for a Fortune 500 company. John focuses on research issues related to salesperson and front line employee performance in the business and consumer contexts. His research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Services Marketing, and Industrial Marketing Management. His research has been included in several refereed conference proceedings, and his submissions to the National Conference in Sales Management and Society for Marketing Advances annual conferences were recognized as best papers. John received the Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Doctoral Student while at the University of Alabama and the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at UAB.


John lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and has two children, Samuel and Mary Elizabeth.