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The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate the impact of sales education on recent graduates' career preparedness and understand how sales programs might prepare students better for successful sales careers. We investigate the known competencies leading to sales success that were, or were not, adequately developed by their university sales programs.

The authors collected and analyzed qualitative data from in-depth interviews with a sample of 20 recent university sales graduates working in a sales career. Over 23 h of interviews were transcribed and analyzed via NVivo. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework was applied in this study to code the data.

The study identifies that while respondents are positive about their overall sales education and feel confident about their knowledge of the sales process, they are not always confident in their ability to deal with ambiguity and the unknown. This study revealed that constructs of self-leadership and career choice self-efficacy deserve further consideration as components of the university sales program curriculum.

As with all exploratory research, there are limits to generalizability; however, this study revealed that the constructs of goal setting, self-leadership and self-knowledge hold promise for further study as a means to increase sales-related self-efficacy and career readiness.

Respondents were positive about their overall sales education experience but identified a need for more effective sales education in cold calling, prospecting and the inherent level of rejection to be prepared for inside sales positions in which sales graduates increasingly start their careers.

Lower turnover and better educational preparedness of sales program graduates clearly will accrue socioeconomic benefits.

This is the first study to examine the impact of sales education on recent graduates’ career preparedness and the first study for this journal to focus on sales as an area of professional competency and related sales pedagogy. Further, the qualitative methodology, which is relatively unique in sales research, provides rich data that is particularly useful for exploratory research to help provide a structure for universities to strengthen their sales programs through targeted training to help students enhance self-leadership and career preparedness.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a foresight project supports institutional positioning efforts through joint sensemaking.

This paper describes a case study that investigated the design, implementation, and outcomes of a foresight project at a Finnish higher education institution that selected sales and services as its institutional focus areas. According to the institutional strategy, all students should have acquired solid sales and service skills before the completion of their studies. The foresight methods used in this study were e-Delphi, futures workshops, and futures narratives. The data gathered in this iterative foresight process resulted in the delineation of eight future sales and service roles and their related competences, which were subsequently used for redesigning curricula, new programme development, and personnel training.

With the careful choice of foresight methods, the organisation was not only able to define future competence needs based on the collective wisdom of its stakeholders, but also fostered the organisation’s strategic transformation process.

This paper gives insight into how to use a foresight process to foster institution-wide change.

This is one of only a few studies on how higher education institutions could implement their positioning strategies.

Examines the history of professionalism as an issue in British marketing. Investigates attempts made to establish professional attributes in British marketing and the model of professionalism adopted. Looks at limits placed on the progression of marketing with regard to professionalism. States that the ideal typical model of professionalism has never been a valid framework for marketing, in that the structural bases of the occupation are of a different order and require individual analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Australasian students’ current perception towards a sales career.

Data were collected through a self-administered survey from 431 students enrolled in a Sales Management unit in a large Australian university and its Asian campuses.

The study reveals a four-factor solution with factors labeled as “exciting,” “deceptive,” “taxing,” and “challenging,” with “exciting” being the only factor to significantly predict likelihood of pursuing a sales career. Although no differences of perception were found between males and females, Asian students were found to perceive sales career as more exciting, innovative and fun than Australian students.

Although significant difference was noted between Australian and Asian students’ perceptions towards sales as an exciting career, it is prudent to interpret and generalize the finding with caution as Asia is the largest continent with different cultures, religions and races.

The four factors that were found to influence students’ perception towards a sales career are novel, psychometrically sound, and are pertinent for businesses conducting graduate recruitment. This study indicates how sales education at university level assist in changing students’ views towards a sales career from negative to positive.

While previous research has reported negative perceptions about sales as a career, this study reveals that students consider sales to be an “exciting” career.

In recent years, the disparity of school capital outlays has received increasing attention as many schools are facing challenges to meet increasing capital needs. With data of Georgia county school districts during FY2003-2008, this study examines how the disparity of school capital outlays is affected by the mix of capital revenues. Using multiple methods including spatial data analysis, quartile analysis, and inequality decomposition, we find that (1) school capital outlays in Georgia counties are negatively associated with the percentage of black population and the poverty rate, (2) state capital grants do not play an equalization role in school capital outlays, and (3) the use of ESPLOST has some equalizing effects on the funding for school facilities, contrary to earlier findings in the literature.

National policy appears to be supportive of part‐time management education, but many researchers have observed difficult challenges in this type of skills development. This paper seeks to discuss how academic assessments that are also work‐based projects could benefit all stakeholders in management education.

This premise is based on prior literature sources together with an example from the author's own teaching practice – a part‐time Master's programme focused on sales managers.

It is possible for company sponsors and their employees to achieve considerable benefits from management education when assignments are used to address their change projects.

This paper demonstrates how, even in the most outcome‐oriented of management functions, part‐time education can provide mutual value for all stakeholders.

For the past several decades women have been moving into the United States workforce in greater numbers and they have been gaining access to the types of jobs that were, traditionally, performed exclusively by men. Despite this progress, they are still having difficulty penetrating the so‐called “glass ceiling” into upper management positions (Alimo‐Metcalfe 1993; Tavakolian 1993). Many reasons have been advanced, but the most compelling of these concerns the “glass walls” that support the “glass ceiling”. The “glass walls” refer to those invisible barriers that limit the ability of women and minorities to gain access to the type of job that would place them in a position to break through the “glass ceiling” (Townsend 1996). If women are to gain parity with men in the workforce, they need to succeed in the positions that lie inside the “glass walls” that will enable them to rise through the “glass ceiling” to upper management.

A literature review has revealed that a sales manager's transformational leadership has a positive impact on the job satisfaction of salespeople, while job satisfaction has significant influence on salespeople's work behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the transformational leadership of sales managers and the job satisfaction of salespeople.

The research was designed as a quantitative study, and the population was identified as salespeople in the consumer product industry in Taiwan, resulting in 123 individual surveys for analysis.

The findings supported the hypothesis that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between sales managers' transformational leadership and sales associates' job satisfaction. The result identified the predictors of sales managers' transformational leadership on the sales associates' job satisfaction through regression analysis.

The balanced scorecard (BSC) was originally intended to solve problems related to the historical nature of financial measures in accounting approaches. The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to this literature by focusing on a major issue that has been less investigated, namely, the linking of the BSC perspective to the empirical investigation of leadership behaviors using statistical and technical tools and to predict employee satisfaction. The paper suggests applying Kaplan and Norton's BSC, which includes the perspectives of financial, customer, internal business, and innovation and learning measures to consider the effects of leadership behaviors on employee job satisfaction.

Examines the effect of relationship selling activities on salesperson performance. It further explores the link between demographic selection criteria and the propensity of a salesperson to perform relationship selling behaviors. Relationship selling behaviors as examined in this study include interaction intensity, mutual disclosure, and cooperative intentions. The study was based on a sample of 487 business‐to‐business insurance salespeople. Findings indicate that interaction intensity and mutual disclosure have a significant effect on salesperson performance. Cooperative intentions do not influence performance. Results further demonstrate that some demographic criteria appear to be related to a salesperson’s likelihood of engaging in relationship selling.

Determining the skills required for salespersons to maximize their effectiveness was the main driver for conducting the present study. In order to identify those necessary skills, this study aims to review various research techniques drawn from multiple disciplines and applied that knowledge to salespersons.

This study used a mixed-method methodology. This study began by conducting a literature review and then interviewed experienced salespersons with varied backgrounds to develop a comprehensive list of sales skills and themes and categorize them into competency categories. This study then conducted a quantitative analysis to determine the respective importance of the skills and themes by surveying a sample of internal stakeholders of a multinational company. Finally, this study calculated the reliability and validity of the themes.

A total of 206 relevant skills (later reduced to 110) and 28 themes were identified and grouped into three competency categories: conceptual, human/interpersonal and technical. Survey respondents rated the skills and themes higher than the “somewhat important” score of 3 out of 5, with the overall mean importance for skills being in the “important” range (score of 4.27 out of 5). All identified skills were believed to be important to a salesperson’s success.

This study’s expanded list of sales skills will improve employability, reduce turnover among employees and build better groundwork for fostering learning through work, resulting in better performance. These skills represent a 2020 updated list that could be used for future academic research and training and research in the business world.