Sales Education beyond the classroom: Building participative learning experiences in Sales Management through the CMGS Method (Case Method with Guest Speakers)

José Luis Ruizalba Robledo,María Vallespín Arán,Estefanía Almenta López

doi:10.3926/jotse.125

José Luis Ruizalba Robledo, María Vallespín Arán + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.125

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Abstract

The overarching goal of working through the CMGSMethod (Case Method with GuestSpeakers) in Sales Management courses is toprovide Marketing students with practical knowledge about how a sales managercan deal with a wide variety of possible professional scenarios. Even when thecase method itself is an excellent way to equip students for their prospectiveemployment, the potential of this method can be enhanced with innovativepedagogical tools. Firstly, eight sales managers were invited to the SalesManagement Course as guest speakers. Students were required to prepare forthese sessions, gathering information about the speaker’s sector andidentifying areas of special interest. Each speaker shared their hands-onexperience and offered an overview of their field in a workshop, whileanswering the students’ questions. These sessions increased the interaction ofstudents with sales professionals, who presented their insights into a careerin sales management. The learning experiences built through these workshopswere narrated by the students in the course blog. Secondly, students were askedto present a scientific paper with the aim of bridging the gap between highereducation and cutting-edge research. This article portrays the reasoning behindthe course as well as the different steps followed during the process. Thecourse finished with encouraging results, suggesting the desirability ofincorporating PL (participative learning) experiences into any marketingcourse.

Highlights

Higher educaton has traditonally been very dependent on lecturing (Barnes, Christensen & Hansen, 1994) and both users and producers are demanding a greater use of actve, student-involved teaching methods (Astv, 1985)
The main result has been the learning opportunity for undergraduate Sales students to learn from the interacton with experienced professionals with a successful career in Sales Management
They presented ten scientfc papers, run a blog on the subject, partcipated in ten forums on the virtual campus (LMS) to discuss issues related to the course and analyzed eight practcal cases presented by guest speakers from the Sales world

Summary

Introduction

Higher educaton has traditonally been very dependent on lecturing (Barnes, Christensen & Hansen, 1994) and both users (students) and producers (teachers) are demanding a greater use of actve, student-involved teaching methods (Astv, 1985). It is clear that the demand for Sales professionals is immense and high quality Sales educaton will be essental to enhance the employability of Sales students, as well as to create a great advantage for companies In this regard, higher educaton insttutons can play an important role and using case study as a Journal of Technology and Science Educaton. The aim of this paper is to present a pilot project which has been carried out at the University of Málaga (Spain) with undergraduate students of the discipline of Sales Management This project contributes directly to the improvement of Sales Management educaton, since it provides Pedagogical Tools - such as integratng informaton and communicaton technologies in the teaching and learning process- as well as research with a Sales student Populaton

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