The purpose of this paper is to provide an historical analysis of an important early contribution to the history of marketing thought literature – the six-book series titled The Knack of Selling – which was published in 1913 and intended as an early training course for salesmanship.,This research utilized a close, systematic reading of The Knack of Selling series and places it in the professional and intellectual context of the early twentieth century. Books published about marketing are primary source materials for any study of the history of marketing thought. In this case, The Knack series constitutes significant primary source material for a study of early thinking about personal selling.,Echoing A.W. Shaw, Watson offers a more sophisticated interpretation of the “one best way” approach associated with Frederick Taylor. Watson’s advice did not entail the repetition of canned sales talks to each customer. His vision of practice was more complicated. Sales presentations were temporally and locationally relative. They were subject to ongoing evolution. As the marketplace changed, as customer needs and interests shifted, so did organizational and salesperson performances. To keep sales talks relevant to the consumer, personnel were encouraged to undertake rudimentary ethnographic research and interviews. Unusually, there is oscillation in the way power relations between marketer and customer were described. While relational themes are present, so are military metaphors.,This is the first systematic reading of The Knack of Selling that has been produced. It is an important contribution to the literature inasmuch as this book set is not in wide circulation. The material itself was significant as an input into scholarship subsequently hailed as seminal within sales management.

中文翻译：

---

销售诀窍：科学的销售技巧，相关主题和早期营销思想中的军事隐喻

本文的目的是提供对市场营销思想文学史上重要的早期贡献的历史分析-六本书系列，名为“销售的诀窍”，于1913年出版，旨在作为销售技巧的早期培训课程。 ，这项研究利用对“销售诀窍”系列的密切而系统的阅读，并将其置于20世纪初的专业和知识背景下。有关营销的书籍是任何有关营销思想史的研究的主要原始资料。在这种情况下，The Knack系列构成了研究个人销售早期思考的重要主要资源。与Watson呼应AW Shaw一样，Watson对与Frederick Taylor相关的“最佳方式”方法提供了更为复杂的解释。沃森的建议并不意味着重复向每个客户进行固定的销售谈判。他的实践视野更加复杂。销售演示在时间和地点上都是相对的。它们正在不断发展。随着市场的变化，客户需求和利益的变化，组织和销售人员的业绩也发生了变化。为了保持与消费者相关的销售谈话，鼓励人员进行基本的人种学研究和访谈。通常，描述营销商和客户之间的权力关系的方式会发生振荡。尽管存在关系主题，但军事隐喻也存在。这是对“销售诀窍”的首次系统性解读。这是对文学的重要贡献，因为这本书没有广泛发行。