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Charles Cohon loves to sell. And he is pretty darn good at it. His independent rep agency, Prime Devices Corp., based in Morton Grove, Ill., just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Cohon recently nailed down one of his most satisfying sales — the printing rights and a 10,000-book order for his 153-page primer on sales force management, The Sales Force, from the Manufacturers Agents National Association (MANA), Lake Forest, Calif.

“I always expected that Prime Devices Corp. would have a 20th anniversary,” said Cohon. “But I never guessed that two weeks after I finished writing The Sales Force, MANA would buy the rights to print 10,000 copies, and that they would be in print so quickly.”

Inspiration for The Sales Force came from classes Cohon took as part of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business MBA program. “I saw a link between the Operations Management class and the Sales Force Management class, and just started writing,” he says. “The funny thing is that the book came out before I completed the MBA program, which really came as a surprise.

“There are a lot of great books written about being a part of a sales force or managing a sales force,” he says. “But when I read a textbook, my favorite parts are the anecdotes used to illustrate a point. That's why my book is written as the story of a semi-fictional character who makes all of the biggest mistakes I've ever made or heard that other salespeople made.”

More information about The Sales Force is available at www.cohon.com or by calling MANA at (877) 626-2776. The book is available to MANA members for $15, and MANA sister organizations for $20. Cost to nonmembers is $30.

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