单选题 Some people believe that you have to be a special kind of person to sell a product. But Though it is clear that a successful sales rep does need special talents and an outgoing personality, many of the skills he uses are used by us all; we build and (21) relationships with different kinds of people, we listen to and take note of what they tell us and don't just enjoy the sound of our own voices and we explain things to them and discuss ideas with them.
A firm may depend on their own sales team or on the salesmanship of their distributors, wholesalers or retailers. (22) any company needs to establish a personal relationship with its major clients ("key accounts") and potential customers ("prospects"). It is often said that "people do business with people", a firm doesn't just deal impersonally (23) another firm, but a person in the buying department receives personal visits from people representing the firm's suppliers on a regular basis, or in the case of department stores (24) chain stores, a team of buyers may travel around visiting suppliers.
Keeping sales people "on the road" is much more expensive (25) employing them to work in the office and much of their time is spent unproductively traveling. Telephone selling may use this time more productively (though in some countries this is illegal), but a face-to-face meeting and discussion is much more effective. Companies involved in the export trade often have a separate export sales force, (26) travel and accommodation expenses may be very high. Servicing overseas customers may consequently often be done (27) phone, telex or letter, and personal visits may be infrequent. Many firms appoint an overseas agent or distributor whose own sales force takes (28) responsibility for selling their products in another country.
A sales department consists of many people who are based (29) different parts of the country or the world, who don't have the day-to-day contact and opportunities for communicating with each other that office-based staff have. (30) this reason, firms hold regular sales conferences where their entire sales force can meet, receive information and ask questions about new products and receive training.