Charles M. Futrell is a Professor of Marketing in the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M University has approximately 45,000 students with 5,000 business majors and 800 marketing majors. Dr. Futrell has a B.B.A., M.B.A., and Ph.D. in marketing. He is a former salesperson turned professor. Before beginning his academic career, Professor Futrell worked in sales and marketing capacities for eight years with the Colgate Company, The Upjohn Company, and Ayerst Laboratories.

Dr. Futrell’s research in personal selling, sales management, research methodology, and marketing management has appeared in numerous national and international journals, such as the Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Marketing Research. An article in the summer 1991 issue of the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management ranked Charles as one of the top three sales researchers in America. He was also recognized in Marketing Education, Summer 1997, as one of the top 100 best researchers in the marketing discipline. His work has earned him several research awards.

Presently Charles is conducting research on how faith relates to salespeople’s organizational behavior. He also is investigating how student’s faith helps them cope with the tremendous stresses experienced in college life. For his work, faith relates to any and all faiths of the world. Professor Futrell, as well as others, feels there is a mental health crisis on America’s college campuses as well as in America’s general population. Read the newspaper and watch television for proof of the stresses people are experiencing in their lives and the often devastating impact it has on their lives and the lives of others. Please contact him if you would like to work in either of these two areas. He would love to help you investigate these two under researched areas in your country and college, no matter what part of the world.

Professor Futrell served as the American Marketing Association’s Chair of the Sales and Sales Management Special Interest Group (SIG) for the 1996–97 academic year. He was the first person elected to this position. Charles was elected Finance Chair for the Sales SIG’s 1998–99 term. In 2005, this AMA group presented Charles with its Lifetime Achievement Award for commitment to excellence and service in the area of sales. In 1999, the Association of Former Students awarded him the Lowry Mays College and Graduate School of Business Distinguished Teaching Award. Mu Kappa Tau, the National Marketing Honor Society, recognized Charles for exceptional scholarly contributions to the sales profession in 2000. This is only the fourth time this recognition has been bestowed since its creation in 1988. Charles was the recipient of Sales & Marketing Executives International’s (SMEI) Educator of the Year in 2007. Among many other things, SMEI founded Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE), the only national, co-educational, professional fraternity in marketing, sales management, and selling. PSE has more than 45,000 members at 123 campuses. From January 1997 to August 2007, he was the Federated Professor in Marketing Studies at Texas A&M University.

In the spring of 2001, Dr. Futrell was chosen as a Fish Camp (Texas A&M University’s Freshman Orientation Camp) Namesake. Fish Camps are named after faculty members who have made a significant impact on Texas A&M, and nominations for the award are made by students, which makes it a very prestigious honor for instructors. He is an associate faculty adviser for Impact, a four-day Christian summer camp for entering freshmen involving 700 freshmen and 300 advisers. In the summer of 2005, Charles joined the leadership team of TAMU’s officially recognized Christian Faculty Network of over 250 scholars.

Dr. Futrell has written or co-written eight successful books for the college and professional audience. Two of the most popular books are Fundamentals of Selling: Customers for Life through Service, twelfth edition, and ABC’s of Relationship Selling through Service, eleventh edition, both published by McGraw-Hill/Irwin. These books are used in hundreds of American and international schools. Over 300,000 students worldwide have learned from Professor Futrell’s books.

In 1997 Dr. Futrell began using his Web site and group e-mails in his sales classes. Students sign up for both a lecture period and lab time. In each semester’s six labs, students are videotaped in activities such as making a joint sales call, panel interview, selling oneself on a job interview, product sales presentations, and various experiential exercises.

Professor Futrell’s books, research, and teaching are based on his extensive work with sales organizations of all types and sizes. This broad and rich background has resulted in his being invited to be a frequent speaker, researcher, and consultant to industry.