女Book Ⅲ  Unit  7  Making a Living
Text A  Life of a Salesman
First Period
Ⅰ.Teaching Objectives:
  Students will be able to
1. Understand the main idea (Bill Porter the salesman will never give in) and the structure of the text (4 parts divided by the author with asterisks, flashbacks);
2. Appreciate the characteristics of journalistic writing;
3. Grasp the key language points and grammatical structures in the text;
4. Conduct a series of reading, listening, 预付and writing activities related to the theme of the unit.
Ⅱ. Pre-reading Task:
1. Background information
Tom Hallman Jr., the author is a senior reporter specializing in features at The Oregonian. He joined the paper in 1980 and covered the police beat for a decade, longer than any reporter since the 1950s. While covering cops, Hallman began writing feature stories -- at first off the beat, then the stories of everyday people. He was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in beat reporting in 1995 and in feature writing in 1999. He has won the Ernie Pyle Award for human-interest writing, the ASNE Distinguished Writing Award for nondeadline writing (twice), the feature-writing award from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.
Bill Porter, the salesman in the story is a 65-year-old Portlander with cerebral palsy. He speaks with great difficulty and is a cripple with one of his limbs useless. When he was a young man, the state considered him unemployable and suggested he collect disability payments. He refused. Eventually he applied for a job in Watkins to work as a sales repres
entative. He works on straight commission and gets no paid holiday. For several yeas he was Watkins’ top retail salesman and made much profit for the company. For more than 40 years he's earned a living selling Watkins products door-to-door in a territory. Bill Porter does rise above his limitation and gain dignity as a human being.
If you are interested in Bill Porter’s story, you can send letters for Mr. Porter to Tom Hallman
              c/o The Oregonian
              1320 S.W. Broadway
              Portland, OR 97201
2. Discussion: what will you do in college in order to make a living after graduation?
(1) Enrich yourself by soaking up knowledge as much as possible for knowledge is power.
(2) Master some skills essential for qualification for some jobs.
(3) Much practice is also needed and apply what you’ve learned in class into your work..
(4) Build up other necessary qualities: being persevering, having a good state of mind, hard-working, tolerant, enterprising, willing to learn new things, having group spirit.
2. Sales Promotion:
Sales promotion is the work of selling a product by all useful methods such as:
(1) powerful advertising;
3d综合版
(2) personal persuasion of possible customers by visit, phone or letter;
(3) exhibition;
(4) displays and demonstrations;
(5) competitions for prices;
(6) free samples;
Four stages in promoting a product:
(1) attract the attention of potential customers;
(2) arouse interest in the product;
(3) create desire for its benefits;
(4) encourage customers to take prompt action.
3. Make a dialogue:
Ask two pairs of students to make a dialogue. One acts as a salesman who sells electronic dictionary. The other acts as a potential customer, who should try every means not to buy. And the salesman must use all possible methods to persuade the customer to buy. Ten minutes later they should act before the class.
4. Role-play
One student will act as a salesperson. All other students will act as his/ her potential customers. He/She will have ten minutes to persuade other to buy his/ her goods. One of them can buy from the salesperson. All other must come up with an excuse not to buy.
Words or expressions available: This is our (model); it costs only (prices); it’s suitable for (purpose); we can deliver to your door; it’s available in (color) and (size); we can offer a discount of (％); we have a good after-sales service etc..
5. After the role-play, the following questions can be raised:
1) What are the basic qualities of a good salesperson? Which is essential? Why?
---courage; thick skin; physical fitness; imagination; pleasing tone of voice, nice facial expression; hard work, perseverance, endurance etc.
Some salesperson may work hard and intelligently, use their imaginations well until they m
eet a succession of refusal and turndowns. It is here that the salesman with stand in his soul, persistence in his backbone and courage in his heart, comes right back and whips the salesman who does not have those qualities.
The most successful salesmen in the world
Joe Girard(乔吉拉德): world's greatest salesperson, best selling author and motivational speaker - sales training, lectures, meetings, conventions!
Milton Kotler（弥尔顿·科特勒）: international well-known salesman, chairman of KMG, 25 years sales experience.