The failure of management to recognize frustration in sales personnel can result in salespersons engaging in counterproductive behaviors that may result in low sales productivity. Sales objectives may not be achieved and customer ill-will may be a side effect. Frustration can be avoided, however, by managing the situations which frequently cause it. The personal selling process (PSP) is a series of steps a salesperson may pass through when making a sale, and out of a list of 84 selling techniques in the PSP, the most applicable in frustrating sales situations can be identified.The sample used was comprised of 42 sales trainers, 42 sales managers, and 181 salespeople from 42 mediumto-large companies in 15 industries. The majority of respondents were from manufacturing and service related firms. The survey instrument centered on 2 kinds of information: 1. the relative importance of the 84 selling techniques in the PSP, and 2. the related demographic characteristics of the respondents. Four commonly frustrating situations were identified as: 1. failure to consummate a sale, 2. failure to obtain prospects, 3. inability to grant prospects’ requests, and 4. failure to circumvent ”closeddoor” tactics. For each of these frustrations, there is a series of techniques for remediation.

Keywords: Employee attitude, Motivation, Sales, Salespeople, Studies, Techniques