Internationally Known Sales Pundit Brings Expertise to UC Classroom

Neil Rackham, best-selling author of “SPIN Selling” and a world-renown expert in sales, will bring his extensive marketing and sales experience to the Carl H. Lindner College of Business. He joins the faculty as Executive Professor of Professional Selling effective February 2012.

Rackham will be a part of the UC Sales Center that recently named Jane Sojka, associate professor-educator, as its director. The center offers a professional sales-minor with courses in professional selling and sales management.

David M. Szymanski, dean of the Lindner College of Business, says, “Having Neil join our faculty is a tremendous win for our sales program.”

“Neil is an internationally renowned expert in the sales field and the author of what inarguably is the most widely read book ever published on personal selling,” Szymanski says.  “His presence brings instant national and international prestige to our program.  Neil’s contributions will ensure that the academic and professional programs at the Lindner College of Business will continue to produce our next generation of sales leaders.”

Rackham has served as a visiting professor at Cranfield School of Management and the University of Portsmouth in England, as well as a guest lecturer at the Lindner College of Business, Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Darden, Kelly, Ohio University and Purdue.

He first gained international recognition in the 1970s, when he led a comprehensive research study of successful selling and sales effectiveness. The project, supported by corporate giants such as Xerox and IBM, involved a team of 30 researchers who studied 35,000 sales calls in more than 20 countries. The groundbreaking research took 12 years and resulted in prominent published books.

Rackham is the author of 10 books and more than 150 articles and papers in publications such as the Harvard Business Review, McKinsey Quarterly and Strategy and Leadership.

Published in 35 languages, his books on sales and management have been on the New York Times best-seller list, including his top-selling “SPIN Selling” (MacGraw-Hill 1998).

He served as a sales and marketing consultant to more than 40 Fortune 500 companies, including Xerox, IBM, General Electric, Microsoft and others. Many Fortune 100 companies, including Citicorp and AT&T, have used Rackham as an advisor on sales performance, and more than half of the Fortune 500 train their salespeople using sales models derived from his research.

Sojka says the college is excited to have Rackham on as faculty because of his world-renowned reputation as the leading expert in the sales discipline and his ability as a teacher to connect with students.

“I have watched Neil teach undergraduate classes, doctoral seminars and workshops for sales professionals,” she says. “He is equally adept at engaging undergraduates and corporate executives with his expertise, global examples and forward-thinking strategies.”

He was chairman at the Sales Strategy Institute from 2000 to 2003, and held the same title at Huthwaite, Inc. and Huthwaite Research Group Ltd. from 1974 until 2001.

His teaching methods and noteworthy career earned him many accolades, including a Lifetime Achievement Award (The Stevie Awards “The Business Oscars”) in 2010 for his unique contributions to the sales profession and a Lifetime Contribution Award in 2010 from the University Sales Education Foundation for outstanding contributions to professional selling.

Jeanne Frawley, director of the University Sales Education Foundation, a national organization promoting university-level educational sales programs, says Rackham “is a true champion of sales education and an incredibly engaging global leader in sales research.”

“His presence is sure to be an asset to both the sales center and greater UC community,” she says.

Born in England, Rackham received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Sheffield University. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws in 2009 from Portsmouth University in England for his distinguished contributions to methodology, research and writing that have “transformed our understanding of sales.”

Visit the UC Sales Center in the Lindner College of Business to learn more.