Attracting Students to Sales Positions: The Case of Effective Salesperson Recruitment Ads

Abstract

<jats:p> Given the recent proliferation in sales programs, business colleges face a new set of challenges. Sales competencies are changing rapidly, and firms struggle with identifying and attracting sales candidates on campus. Therefore, it is important that we understand needed competencies and how the content of job advertisements may differentially appeal to various student populations. To do so, we develop a conceptual model, based on signaling theory, that focuses on how students formulate their intention to pursue a given sales position. Our research utilizes a two-study approach. First, we explore the desired entry-level sales skills communicated by employers through job advertisements. Next, we examine both student and advertisement characteristics and their distinct relationships with the satisfaction with the job ad and the intention to apply for a sales position. Our study is unique, as we examine distinct undergraduate groups’ (sales, marketing, other business, and nonbusiness students) responses to sales job advertisements. Our findings demonstrate that differences in job ad clusters and student group characteristics influence the intention to pursue a sales position. Specifically, different student majors perceive job characteristics communicated within job ads differently. As such, our research provides insight into academic programs as well as corporate sales recruiters. </jats:p>

A Critical Review of the Literature for Sales Educators 2.0

“…A sizable increase in the articles related to the perception of sales as a career path is evident in the sample. Recent articles survey student populations across the globe to explore the impact on student intent to pursue a sales career based on student traits including culture across seven nations (Fournier et al, 2014; Karakaya et al, 2014), school major (Deeter-Schmelz et al, 2018) and ethical control (Bush et al, 2014). The literature also investigates the impact of classroom interventions on student perception of sales.…”

Signalling new opportunities? An analysis of UK job adverts for degree apprenticeships

“…Job adverts can signal organisational commitment in developing the young inexperienced workforce (Moore and Khan, 2020). However, adverts can also deter applicants through the language used and the focus of the advert (Deeter-Schmelz et al , 2020; Protsch, 2017; Wofford and Smith, 2022). An illustration of the importance of ethical recruitment processes is highlighted in a qualitative study of apprenticeships in Switzerland by Goastellec and Ruiz (2015) who found that the criteria used to identify candidates tend to reproduce inequalities by using a “hidden curriculum” during the recruitment process, based on soft skills, used to identify the “right apprentice”.…”

The Structural Relationship among Students’ Perceptions of Sales-Related Skills, Sales Careers, and Views of Others and the Intention to Pursue Sales Careers in Malaysia: The Mediating Effect of Feelings towards Selling

“…Sales professions can be a good opportunity to many graduating students because of the high request from the industry. As a result, it is the responsibility of business educators to enlighten students about job prospects in sales (Deeter-Schmelz et al 2020).…”