Kristin believes the sales classes helped her tremendously in her sales career, and we can probably conclude that Kristin would not have taken a sales position if she had not taken her two sales classes. According to Kristin, Those sales classes were instrumental in helping me select a career and valuable in helping me do well once on the job. Certainly in this sense sales classes help screen for those who have an aptitude and are interested in sales as a career, factors that are likely to help lead to greater efficiency on the job.

SALES RESEARCH

Published sales research is also controversial. Many people routinely dismiss validated sales research by saying that its not useful to practitioners. What have sales researchers who use academic methods or validated research been able to contribute to the sales field or to sales courses?

One eminent sales researcher who made it to the top of the sales profession is Neil Rackham, who observed 35,000 sales calls in 23 countries over 12 years, looking for what made salespeople successful. Rackham performed his postgraduate work in behavioral psychology at the University of Sheffield in England. He is an example of a research academician whose strategies have greatly benefited the sales profession. Companies such as AT&T, IBM, Xerox, Microsoft, and UPS have used his research findings to help them mold their own field sales forces into a formidable marketing tool.7

Dr. Rosann Spiro, former chairperson of the American Marketing Association and currently a full professor at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, has conducted studies that show that salespeople who are more adaptive to different types of people tend to be more successful. Dr. Barton Weitz, professor of marketing at the University of Florida, has performed similar research in the field of adaptive selling and the role it plays in successful sales call outcomes.8 There are several programs that use this method, including Wilson Learning, Inc., and DISC.

There are different research methodologies used by todays leading researchers. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. Three popular methods follow.

behavior-based. Behavior-based researchers observe the verbal behaviors used by the salesperson and track the outcome of the sales call. This method is expensive and takes a long time, but it is probably the most accurate.

customer-based. This method involves interviewing customers to identify what characteristics they prefer in salespeople. It is a relatively quick way to gather information. Unfortunately, customers talk in generalities, such as, I want a salesperson who is concerned about me or Follow-up is important.

expert-based. This method involves interviewing top-performing salespeople and asking them why they have been successful. It appears to have the most credibility and is also relatively fast. Unfortunately, what appears to be its strength is really its drawback: Top performers dont always know what makes them successful, and their opinions may run contrary to scientific research findings. For example, for over fifty years-from 1925 to 1980- successful trainers and salespeople believed that open-ended questions led to sales call success more than closed-ended questions. This belief was refuted by original research undertaken by Neil Rackham in the 1970s.9

COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES OFFERING COURSES IN SALES

Historically, sales has been treated as a second-class citizen at academic institutions. But thats beginning to change. More and more leading academic institutions are offering undergraduate sales courses, and companies are seeing the benefit of hiring graduates who have studied sales.10 The University of Akron is one of the very

few institutions offering a major in sales.11 The following list shows some of the institutions that offer sales courses:

Partial List of Colleges and Universities Offering Sales Courses12

Ball State University

Baylor University

Brigham Young University

Butler University

California State University, Sacramento Central Michigan University College of St. Catherine Colorado State University Cornell

Curtin University of Technology Florida Gulf Coast University Indiana University Illinois State University Mankato State University Northern Illinois University Ohio University Purdue University St. Cloud State University Texas A & M University Tuskegee University University of Akron