Some twenty years ago Ray C. Brewster[1] made a strong plea to revitalise the concept of salesmanship by incorporating the most up-to-date psychological knowledge then available. Five years later in the same journal Edward C. Bursk[2] pointed to the danger of relying upon ‘scientific’ techniques and forgetting to go out and sell. The major intention of this paper is to provide some theoretical legitimation for this latter view and in the process to present a sociological critique of psychological theory as applied to the practical field of personal selling. A final section will concern itself with the practical implications of the critique.