Evaluating Educational Practices for Positively Affecting Student Perceptions of a Sales Career

Abstract

There is clear and pervasive evidence of a global shortage of professionally trained salespeople. This shortage is expected to grow dramatically through 2020 across a wide swath of business sectors (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). In response, universities have increased their offerings of sales courses and curricular options. As evidence, since 2003, the number of higher education institutions offering at least one sales course grew from 44 to 101, with 32 having some sort of sales major, minor, or degree concentration (DePaul University Center for Sales Leadership, 2012). Over this same time horizon, the number of member schools in the University Sales Center Alliance increased from 9 to 37 universities (University Sales Center Alliance, 2014). Despite this shortage, sales is still the most common first job for marketing students, employing 32% of new graduates. Additionally, sales is the second or third most common career entry point for graduates majoring in management, economics, general business, international business, finance, operations management, human resources, and management information systems (Carnevale, Strohl, & Melton, 2011). Even with these promising career entry statistics, interest in pursuing a sales career is surprisingly low; especially for those just beginning their business coursework (Bush, Bush, Oakley, & Cicala, 2014; Karakaya, Quigley, & Bingham, 2011). For many students, taking a sales position is more about needing to take a job on graduation rather than wanting to pursue sales as a career (Cummins, Peltier, Erffmeyer, & Whalen, 2013). As such, research is needed to better explain student reticence toward sales and how students can become better informed about whether or not sales is right for them (Bush et al., 2014; Peltier & Dixon, 2014). While sales will not be the chosen or right path for all students, the persistent misconceptions about sales as a career among the student population prematurely removes it from serious consideration. From a broader perspective, students' negative perception of the sales role may hamper their academic investigation and understanding of sales as a part of the promotion mix. The role of different selling processes, sales management structures, and the strategic use of personal selling within the broader promotion mix is critical in a robust and complete marketing plan (Loe & Inks, 2014). If students' negative perceptions of a selling career prevent full exploration of the complimentary role sales can play in the broader marketing 568431J MDXXX10.

Sales Education in the United States: Perspectives on Curriculum and Teaching Practices

“…Previously published literature clearly supports that educators seeking to better prepare their students for the workplace should seriously contemplate investing in a sales curriculum (Allen, Kumar, Tarasi, & Wilson, 2014;Bolander et al, 2014;Bush, Bush, Oakley, & Cicala, 2014;Cespedes & Weinfurter, 2016;Cummins et al, 2013;Cummins et al, 2015;Delpechitre & Baker, 2017). More important, with the business realm of sales rapidly expanding, universities that are teaching sales are seeing continued positive returns on their investment in sales education (Bolander et al, 2014;Leisen et al, 2004;Lilly & Stanley, 2016;Loe & Inks, 2014).…”

“…Although the Journal of Education for Business was included in the Cummins et al (2013) investigation, it was not included in the present study due to the fact that there were no published articles on sales education during the recent 5-year period. 2017Negotiation skill development exercise Billups and Poddar (2018) Recruitment and resume screening simulation Bussiére 2017Selling newspaper advertising space project Castleberry 2014Interactive sales ethics computer simulation Chapman, Schetzsle, and Wahlers 2016Local community organization sales project Cummins, Loe, and Peltier (2016) Student sales competition video presentation Cummins, Peltier, Pomirleanu, Cross, and Simon (2015) Sales career lectures, sales management and selling process lectures, sales expert panel discussion, sales alumni presentation, lecture-demonstration hybrid, mini-sales trade show competition Fleming and Hawes (2016) Negotiation scoreboard planning tool Herlache, Renkema, Cummins, and Scovotti 2018Cross-cultural negotiation role-play exercise Jones, Vijayalakshmi, and Lin 2016Behavioral assessments of sales candidates project Koponen and Julkunen (2015) Sales theater workshop and drama education Lastner, Rast, and Andzulis 2016Immersive learning sales project Lee (2016) Sales marketplace exercise Lilly and Stanley (2016) Constructivist learning curriculum design Magnotta 2018Inside sales short-term role-play module Marcos-Cuevas, Critten, Squire, and Speakman 2014Work-based pedagogies McDonald and Derby 2015Pecha Kucha ("chit chat") presentations Mullen and Larson (2016) Sales shadowing project Nielson and Border (2016) Real-world negotiation experience Nielson and Cummins (2019) In-class presentation on employment opportunities by a sales organization representative O'Reilly 2015Sales coaching model Paden, Stell, Trainor, and Mushro (2016) Professional selling workshop Pelletier and Hopkins (2018) Videoconferencing technology role-play Rippé (2015) Show and sell project Rippé, Weisfeld-Spolter, Cummins, and Dastoor (2016) Teaching online sales (TONS) Rocco and Whalen (2014) Improvisional (Improv) comedy technique Rocco and Whalen (2016) Student sales managers proj...…”

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

“…Similarly, Sojka et al (2000) find that students having taken two or more sales classes have a more positive view of a career in sales, and Honeycutt et al (1999) find in their U.S. sample a correlation between having completed a sales course or having actual sales experience and the appeal of a sales career. More recent work by Cummins et al (2015) and Nielson and Cummins (2019) show that even small interventions in a principle of marketing class can positively affect students' Perception of Salespeople and sales as a career. We therefore expect that there is a positive effect of sales education on the Perception of Salespeople, and that this effect will be stronger for students that have been exposed to more sales classes.…”

A Critical Review of the Literature for Sales Educators 2.0

“…The literature also investigates the impact of classroom interventions on student perception of sales. Examples include the effects of taking a sales course (Harris et al, 2014), exposure to professional salespeople within the classroom (Cummins et al, 2015), exposure to online teaching modules (Paden et al, 2016), and the role of sales faculty as knowledge brokers between students and recruiters when considering a sales career (Weeks et al, 2014).…”