An Examination of High Schools Students’ Perceptions of Sales as an Area to Study in College, and Factors Influencing their Interest in Sales as a Career to Pursue after College

In this article, we review the recent expansion within the sales education literature from five primary journals and the business literature at large. The five primary journals are the Journal of Marketing Education, Marketing Education Review, Journal for the Advancement of Marketing Education, Journal of Education for Business, and the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. Of the 119 identified articles published in the past 15 years, experiential learning, career development, and assessment were the three most prominent topics. Of these, 69% were published after the Cummins et al. review article “A Critical Review of the Literature for Sales Educator,” which was published in Journal of Marketing Education as a means of expanding sales education research. Future research opportunities in sales education are offered with suggested hypotheses for investigation. A reference table of classroom innovations is provided as an easy guide to instructors seeking vetted pedagogical enhancements.

Section: Discussion Of General Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

A Critical Review of the Literature for Sales Educators 2.0

Cummins

Nielson

Peltier

et al. 2020

“…Many students, especially those without a close role model have been exposed to only a limited range of sales roles (Inks & Avila, 2018). This limited exposure to professional salespeople increases the likelihood of holding negative perceptions about salespeople (Bahhouth et al, 2014).…”

Section: The Influence Of Social Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sales Education for Engineering Students: What Drives Interest and Choice?

Scott

Beuk

2020

Universities increasingly make their sales curriculum available for groups other than dedicated sales students. This study investigates engineering students’ drivers that predict interest in sales certification, as well as drivers that predict actual choice for a sales curriculum. We focus on engineering students ( n = 204) and contrast our findings with business students ( n = 179). Based on social cognitive theory, we investigate how personality (Big Five personality factors and Trait Competitiveness), ability (ACT, GPA, and Academic Self-Efficacy), and social factors (role models, and perception of salespersons) affect interest and choice. Our results indicate that although the regression models explain a reasonable amount of variance, models that work for business students do not work equally well for engineering students. Also, our analysis reveals that factors that explain interest do not explain actual choice, and vice versa. In addition, we uncover subtle gender difference when it comes to actual choice for a sales curriculum. Finally, the benefits that engineering students perceive of sales certification differ primarily based on whether students are taking sales classes, and not on degree sought.

“…As suggested by Peltier et al (2014), a student's perception of the sales profession is shaped throughout their entire lives, largely driven by their parents and environment. It is common that a traditional college student would have never interacted with business-to-business (B2B) salespeople in a professional environment (Inks & Avila, 2018), and unfortunately, personal interactions with business-toconsumer salespeople and/or media (which often portrays salespeople as unethical and incompetent) can lead to negative perceptions of the sales profession (Allen et al, 2014;Waldeck et al, 2010). The inclusion of local corporate partners in an intracollegiate sales competition allows students to interact with professional B2B salespeople via their competition roles as judges and buyers.…”

Section: Critical Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We propose that an intracollegiate sales competition is uniquely positioned to elevate the desirability of a career in sales for students while satisfying the four critical stakeholders as compared with intercollegiate sales competitions and in-class role-plays. Interestingly, despite growing opportunities in the field (Knight et al, 2014), Inks and Avila (2018) suggest that college students generally maintain a negative impression of the sales profession, which has a negative impact on their career intentions (unless otherwise exposed to professional selling via friends and family). We posit that after participating in an intracollegiate sales competition, students will have an increased intent to pursue a sales career.…”

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confidence: 99%

Everyone’s a Winner: The Initiation and Effectiveness of an Intracollegiate Sales Competition

Magnotta

Peev

Steffes

2020

Job opportunities in the field of professional sales are fast growing, with sales organizations striving to hire sales students who are prepared to embark on a sales career. Unfortunately, university business programs and faculty often lack the resources necessary to thoroughly prepare students for a sales career, or to expose them to career opportunities within their local market. This research posits an intracollegiate sales competition as a tool to benefit students, corporate partners, business schools, and faculty, and in doing so, provides considerations and best practices for initiating a competition. The findings of two additional studies provide empirical evidence suggesting that after competing in a sales competition, students have an increased perception of sales careers, an enhanced knowledge of the sales process, and an increased intent to pursue a sales career after graduation. Furthermore, student competitors’ perceived preparedness for a sales career fully mediates their intent to pursue one. Additionally, competitors had better learning outcomes than students completing a traditional in-class role-play activity.