From Selling Power’s Daddy, I Want to Be in Sales When I Grow Up:

Imagine a world in which sales was regarded on a professional level with engineering and medicine; a world in which your five-year-old said, €œDaddy, I want to be a salesman when I grow up.€ Sound like a dream? It is.

This topic has long been of interest to me.  Sales is often considered a lesser profession due mainly to the fact that there is a low barrier to entry.  If you have a smart phone and a briefcase you can be in sales.  The gentleman in this article, Howard Stevens, is out to change that fact.

Consider this, says Stevens: more than half of all students graduating from college who aren€™t going on to a graduate-level program will go into sales, regardless of their major. That translates into four to five million new sales people hired every year, of whom only 2,000 or so have a sales degree. That€™s because of the 4,158 institutions of higher learning in the U.S., fewer than 40 have a formal sales program, whether for a major, a minor, or a certificate.

€œCompanies are dying to hire the kids who have already been trained in sales because if they€™ve spent time getting the degree or the training, you know they want to be there,€ says Stevens. As a result, he adds, the turnover rate of sales graduates €œappears to be less than half the national average. And anecdotal evidence suggests their ramp-up time is almost three times faster. Most professional sales organizations won€™t hire someone without at least two years sales experience, but they€™re making exceptions for new graduates with sales degrees.€

I find it surprising that institutions do not aggressively establish a formal sales department.  Again, I think the profession is held in low regard through much of academia.  Hopefully that view is changing.

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Posted By Derrick Moe | Trends | |