Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, 16th edition

About our authors

Michael Ahearne is Professor of Marketing and C. T. Bauer Chair in Marketing at the University of Houston. He is also Research Director of the Steven Stagner Sales Excellence Institute (SEI). The SEI is widely recognized as the leading university-based sales institute in the world, training more than 2,000 sales students, placing PhD students at top research universities and working with more than 200 major corporations annually. He earned his PhD in marketing from Indiana University. He has also served on the faculty at Emory University, the University of Connecticut and Pennsylvania State University. In addition, he has lectured internationally about sales and sales management in countries such as Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia and Spain.

Dr. Ahearne’s research has focused primarily on improving the performance of salespeople and sales organizations. He has published more than 50 articles in leading journals such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Management Science, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. He was recently recognized by the American Marketing Association as one of the 10 most research-productive scholars in the field of marketing. His research has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Business 2.0, Investor’s Business Daily, Fox News, INC Magazine and many other news outlets.

Before entering academia, Mike played professional baseball for the Montreal Expos and worked in marketing research and sales operations for Eli Lilly and PCS Healthcare. He was also a partner at ZS Associates, the largest global sales and marketing consulting firm.

Gerald Manning is an international author, consultant, speaker and successful businessperson. Professor Manning’s book Selling Today: Partnering to Create Value, now in its 16th edition, is today’s international number-one-selling textbook on negotiations and partnering. With Chinese, Spanish, International English–Speaking, Canadian, Croatian and US editions, millions have profited from the strategies and tactics presented. He is the author of four additional books on management and sales, all published by large international publishing companies.

Gerald Manning also serves as a sales and marketing consultant to senior management and owners of more than 500 businesses, including both national and international companies. He appears regularly as a speaker at national sales and management conferences and is featured regularly in training videos on sales and management.

Professor Manning served as chair of the marketing/management department of one of the leading colleges in the country for over 30 years. In addition to his administrative duties, he has served as lead instructor in negotiations and sales. Mr. Manning received the “Outstanding Professor of the Year” award given annually by his college.

He has also applied numerous negotiation and personal selling principles and practices as owner of a very successful commercial and residential real estate investment, development and management company.

Professor Manning’s speaking and classroom experience, along with his consulting and the management of his company, have provided him with a unique opportunity to research, study, test, refine and write about personal selling. With this background, and a long-term partnership-type relationship with acclaimed training video producer Arthur Bauer, the Adaptive Selling Training Video Series was produced.

Mohsen Pourmasoudi is a faculty member at San Diego State University. Dr. Pourmasoudi earned his PhD in business administration with a focus on quantitative marketing and economics from the University of Houston. Dr. Pourmasoudi is an expert in the area of personal selling and sales force management, and his research has been published in prestigious journals such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of International Marketing. His research has also been recognized by his peers, bringing him several awards such as the James M. Comer Award for Best Contribution to Selling and Sales Management Theory.

Mohsen Pourmasoudi also serves as a trusted sales and marketing strategist, consultant and implementation specialist to senior leadership of national and multinational companies on market potentialization, sales force structure, sales force incentive design, sales territory design and so on.

Professor Pourmasoudi has been teaching marketing- and sales-related courses since 2018, and he has received multiple teaching awards such as the UH campuswide Teaching Excellence Award and multiple Teaching Commendations for Outstanding Performance.