sales trap 5:

Academic Studies Arent Helpful in Real-World Sales

Heres the mistaken belief: Academic studies arent helpful in the real world of sales. ( Academic studies here refers to both formal college sales classes and academically validated research.) Practitioners will often say, What do academics know about selling? Many of them havent ever sold.

But this prejudice is wrong and usually comes from lack of familiarity with whats going on in academic institutions today and with the published sales research. Academic studies (with some caveats) can help in getting the most out of the best.

THE DIFFICULTY OF STUDYING SALES

Over lunch one day, Jim, a first-line sales manager who was recruiting at the Kelley School of Business, asked me, Do you believe that college sales courses help students sell better once we hire them? And, he went on, do you think that the students who do best in your sales classes will be the ones who will do the best in the field?

Since I was a teacher, it was hard for me not to just say, Yes, of course, to both ofJims questions. But I didnt.

The Institute for Global Sales Studies at Indiana University, where I work, had not set up any metrics or research methodology to effectively measure the impact of college sales courses on real-life sales. Nor did I know of any other academic institution that had researched this.

Even if we wanted to measure the success of students who did take college sales classes against the success of those who didnt,

there would be worrisome questions. First of all, how would we define success? Do we define it in terms of sales revenues, and if so, how do we factor in the different prices of products and services across different industries? And once we defined success in sales, it wouldnt be easy to draw a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sales classes in college and sales performance in the business world. How would we take into account such factors as raw talent and the issue of recruiting top people who are right off the bat more likely to succeed than others? How would we factor in questions relating to the students industry, the students territory, and the success of the product being sold relative to the marketplace competition? And what about the students knowledge of the product, attitude, passion for the job, manager, on-the-job training, competition from other sales reps on staff, and so forth? These troublesome questions could have a serious impact on the truth.

DO SALES COURSES HELP?

Formal studies at the college level do help in sales. It is just difficult to know whether they help a little or a lot. Such studies may or may not be high on the list of attributes that help a student succeed- attributes such as a methodical thought process, creative thinking, capacity to listen, degree of curiosity, and the desire to understand and make a contribution. These other attributes may be more important than studying sales formally in college.

REDUCED RISK IN HIRING STUDENTS WHO STUDIED SALES

College recruits who have studied sales may be less risky as new hires because they have chosen sales. They are more likely to be well suited to sales as a career and to stay in it long enough for their employers to see the return on the companys investment in training them. R. R. Donnelley & Sons, for example, is narrowing its

salesperson recruiting effort to schools that offer sales courses. This way, the company can be more certain that it hires people who actually want to sell.6

Bridget Momcilovich, a senior manager with the Xerox Corporation, agrees. Students who have taken sales courses at a college level may not be more equipped to do the job better here at Xerox than students who have not taken sales classes, but at least they have a better idea of what they are getting themselves into. In my opinion, this helps us reduce our hiring risks.

SALES COURSES AS A SCREENING METHOD

According to Dr. Frank Acito, chairman of the marketing department at Indiana University, A high percentage-more than 50 percent-of our marketing graduates end up taking a sales position of one type or another. Sales courses are helpful to them in the sense that they give the students an opportunity to more fully understand what they will be expected to do once they start their job.

Another reason that it is helpful to hire graduates who have degrees in sales is that they have often learned what not to do based upon the latest research. One former student at Indiana University hadnt intended to go into sales. Even though she had the aptitude for sales, Kristin Johnson, like many students, was reluctant to pursue a sales career because she thought it would require her to be aggressive toward other people in order to succeed. Fortunately, the classes at Indiana University are structured around the latest research, which shows that in todays modern sales world, a person doesnt have to be aggressive in order to succeed. (See also Sales Trap 1, You Must Be Aggressive to Succeed in Sales. )

After graduating, Kristin took a sales position with a market-dominant news media company and performed well. She is now working for an international pharmaceutical corporation, a blue-chip company that is very selective in its hiring.