Career Salary Research Articles

Has everything changed or has nothing changed? Students’ perception on sales professionals after the storm

BACKGROUND: The sales stereotype has been studied since the beginning of the last century; in particular, the perceptions held by university students are relevant, because they may be reluctant to consider a career in sales due to common misconceptions about the profession. This is even more relevant as the role of the salesperson has evolved over the years, and companies are interested in hiring this profile from HEI. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the change in sales, and new skills, activities and paradigms are challenging the profession. OBJECTIVE: Aiming to address a potential gap in sales education, this paper examines the perceptions of salespeople among university students, and students’ orientation toward sales careers in a changing sales environment. METHOD: Focus group methodology using a special technique of animal metaphors was used to examine how the most noticeable characteristics of animals are mapped onto salespeople. RESULTS: The pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods seems to confirm the persistence of the overall students’ perceptions of the salesperson but at the same time new competences and skills emerge for a new generation of salespersons. CONCLUSIONS: These findings update and enrich the existing literature with a new work on sales stereotypes that sheds light on students’ perceptions of salespeople after the pandemic.

Ready, Set, Fly! Preparedness of Sales Graduates for Entry Roles

Several studies show that while collegiate sales programs effectively prepare students for sales careers, there are various opportunities to improve. In this research, we look at how sales education impacts the career preparedness of recent 4-year college graduates. We focus specifically on the development of self-leadership and sales-related self-efficacy to explore how sales programs can better prepare undergraduates for successful careers in sales. This study uses a multistage process to consider key latent constructs that positively influence sales performance and intention to stay with current employers among recent college graduates. Results reveal how experiential education methods and college experiences positively influence early-stage sales performance and intent to stay and reduce employee turnover. Findings provide insights into recent graduates’ perceptions of preparedness for critical sales tasks provided by their college education and provide practical guidelines to university and business sales educators to enhance the sales education of university sales graduates.

Evaluating the Impact of Economic Variables on the Decision to Obtain a Real Estate License in California

We provide first evidence of the economic factors that motivate individuals to obtain a real estate license to potentially pursue a career in real estate sales. We focus on four key housing indicators: median house price, median days on the market, housing affordability, and housing sales performance. Our results indicate that house price is the main driving force for individuals to take the California real estate salesperson license exam as well as for those real estate salespersons wanting to upgrade to the broker license.

The Structural Relationship among Students’ Perceptions of Sales-Related Skills, Sales Careers, and Views of Others and the Intention to Pursue Sales Careers in Malaysia: The Mediating Effect of Feelings towards Selling

The Structural Relationship among Students’ Perceptions of Sales-Related Skills, Sales Careers, and Views of Others and the Intention to Pursue Sales Careers in Malaysia: The Mediating Effect of Feelings towards Selling

The influence of job characteristics toward intention to pursue sales career mediated by feelings.

The sales profession has suffered from negative perception and misconception. Despite a huge opportunity in this industry, several reasons have been highlighted as deterrents to job applicants from applying for a career in sales including the unethical practices, low prestige, and uncertainty of the job. This study examines the influence of job characteristics and feelings on intention to pursue a sales career among undergraduate and postgraduate students. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 251 questionnaires analyzed using Partial-Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings suggest that job characteristics and feelings have a favorable impact on intention. Job characteristics, on the other hand, influence feelings, and feelings mediate the relationship between job characteristics and intention. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by examining feelings as one of the constructs influencing sales career intention, and provides several implications to employers and business instructors to develop effective strategies to spark student interest in sales-related careers.

Masking the Role or Masking the Toll? The Effects of Career Fit on Salesperson Burnout

Masking the Role or Masking the Toll? The Effects of Career Fit on Salesperson Burnout

Vishma's story: a mystery solved.

Vishma was born in Toronto to parents who had immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago. Her childhood was filled with family, friends and fun. When she was 19 years old, she had a daughter and graduated from high school. She subsequently got her undergraduate degree and began her career in sales and

Influencing students into sales careers through a speed selling event

ABSTRACT Even though employers constantly solicit new sales professionals at numerous universities, students remain reluctant to pursue this career path. One intervening approach to alter the attitudes of students towards sales careers is to include a speed selling event in the introductory sales class, or perhaps even in the introductory course to overcome misperceptions about sales. One hundred sixty-two professional selling students from a southeastern public university participated in a pre- and post-event survey that assessed their attitudes toward sales careers and grit (courage & resolve to continue). Self-reflection papers from these students were a component of the evaluation. At the same time, eight participating employers completed a post-event survey of the speed selling event. Results indicate improved attitudes towards sales careers and higher levels of grit after the event. Students also frequently commented about increased confidence and job opportunities because of their participation. These results showcase how interventions such as the speed selling event can positively impact students’ attitudes towards sales careers and; therefore, increase the likelihood that they would pursue a career in sales.

Extending the Validity and Reliability of the Intent to Pursue a Sales Career Scale

This research is one of the first Intent to Pursue a Sales Career (ITPSC) studies to link intent to actual student behavior. In addition, this study systematically revisits the validity and reliability of the ITPSC-scale and its associated antecedents. Based on partial least square analysis, we find support for the validity and reliability of the four-item ITPSC-scale, but notice room for improvement on the ITPSC-Ethics and ITPSC-Knowledge antecedents. We extend prior work by investigating how ITPSC performs differently for women, students with a sales role model, and students who are more advanced in their academic career. We also observe differences in the antecedent structure compared with earlier work. Of the ITPSC-antecedents, the Perceptions of the Sales Profession construct dominates when it comes to predicting intent to pursue a sales career, something that calls into question the recent grounding of the ITPSC in the Theory of Planned Behavior.

The Effects of Sales Services and Organizational Member Relationships of Fashion Brand Salesperson on Job Performance and Job Satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to reveal the effects of sales services and organizational member relationships of fashion brand salespersons on job performance and job satisfaction, as well as how job performance, job satisfaction, salesperson services, and organizational member relationships differ according to the sales career and job position. The data were collected by administering a questionnaire to fashion brand salespeople in Gwangju from September to October 2020. Using 235 responses, the data were analyzed with SPSS 27.0 for frequency analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, factor analysis, and regression analysis. The research results were as follows. First, the basic services of the salesperson comprised factors such as ‘consideration and convenience’, ‘appearance and dress’, and ‘kindness and greeting’, which are considered better variables to explain job performance than job satisfaction. Second, the salesperson’s professional service consisted of ‘fashion product knowledge’, ‘professional self-management’, and ‘store display technology’ factors, which are good variables to predict job performance. Third, the relationship between the members of a salesperson’s organization consists of factors such as ‘headquarters relations’, ‘colleague relations’, and ‘emotional labor’, which was better for explaining job satisfaction than job performance. Fourth, depending on the position, professional salespeople exhibited significantly higher values in job performance, basic and professional services of salespersons, and ‘headquarters relations’ factors, whereas there were no significant differences in job satisfaction, ‘colleague relations’ and ‘emotional labor’. Lastly, the more sales career, the higher the job performance, and the basic services, professional services, and ‘headquarters relations’ factors of salespeople were also good.

Combating QC challenges and special needs of cell and gene therapy production

<div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://cdn.insights.bio/uploads/Félix Montero copy.JPG" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"> <b>Félix Montero-Julian</b> is the Scientific Director for the Healthcare Business of bioMérieux (Lyon, France). Felix has over 25 years of experience in industrial and clinical diagnostics, and previously served as the Chemunex Ivry-sur-Seine site &amp; R&amp;D Director in bioMérieux. Felix is a member of different scientific organizations, such as the Parenteral Drug Association (MD, USA), and served as an expert in a panel for the Development of Compendial Rapid Sterility Tests for the US Pharmacopeia (MD, USA). Félix has been, and continues to be, extensively involved in the implementation and acceptance of rapid and alternative microbiological methods. He is a prominent speaker at congresses and conferences and a regular contributor to bioMérieux scientific white papers. Félix has extensive technical experience that includes the development of in vitro diagnostic and research use reagents and applications, cell and tissue culture systems, alternative and rapid microbiological methods, sterility testing, Mycoplasma detection, compendia methods, and cell and gene therapy processes. </div></div></div><div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://cdn.insights.bio/uploads/Rey Mali copy.png" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"> <b>Rey Mali </b>joined Accellix as its Vice President Sales and Marketing on July 2019. She has served as a Product Development and Marketing leader for the prior 14 years in both hi-tech and biotech companies. Rey has a graduate degree in Medical Research and a MBA from The University of California, Berkeley and started her career in pharmaceutical sales at Merck Pharmaceuticals. She then joined a biotech startup that was acquired by Life Technologies (Thermo Fisher) as a Field Applications Scientist (FAS) increasing customer acquisition and retention and later was promoted to a Global Product Manager role at Life Technologies, where she launched and managed products in the molecular biology space. She then transitioned to a Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Illumina, where she launched and managed products in the sequencing space, and later served as the Product Marketing Director at Twist Bioscience leading the global marketing team towards commercial product launches and a successful IPO. Recently, she has been working at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) leading the Product Marketing efforts of free technological tools to advance medical research. </div></div></div>

Student Anxiety, Preparation, and Learning Framework for Responding to External Crises: The Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy as a Coping Mechanism

In response to the Journal of Marketing Education special issue on teaching turmoil and triumphs in times of crisis, we develop and test a student anxiety, preparation and learning framework for responding to external crises. We use structural equation modeling to assess how COVID-19 anxiety impacts classrelated anxiety, class preparation, and class learning, and how these then affect class satisfaction and intent to pursue a sales career. Using three sequential virtual sales competitions, we test our model in the immediate aftermath of the transition from live in-class learning to virtual learning brought on by COVID-19, offering an ideal setting for investigating marketing education in a time of crisis. The findings are unique, and show that how crises are managed impacts the deleterious effects of anxiety on education and learning. While anxiety had the greatest influence on class preparation, class preparation in turn was not related to class learning, class satisfaction, nor intent to pursue a sales career. However, when digital self-efficacy was considered as a moderator, the expected effects of class preparation emerged. Our findings contribute to multiple theoretical contexts, including anxiety, crisis management, self-efficacy, marketing education, and virtual sales role-plays.

The development of self-efficacy and self-leadership within USA accredited sales programs: an exploratory study on sales career preparedness

PurposeThe 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.Design/methodology/approachThe 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.FindingsThe 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.Research limitations/implicationsAs 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.Practical implicationsRespondents 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.Social implicationsLower turnover and better educational preparedness of sales program graduates clearly will accrue socioeconomic benefits.Originality/valueThis 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 MANDATORY INTERNAL ROLE-PLAY SALES COMPETITION: EFFECTS ON CLASSROOM EFFICIENCY AND SALES CAREER INTENT

ABSTRACT The role-play is a valued experiential tool used by university sales programs to engage students and better prepare them for a potential career in sales. However, in-class role-play activities have the potential to create scheduling dilemmas. Mandatory, internal role-play competitions are proposed as a solution to these logistical issues while providing additional professional development benefits to all participants. Results of a repeated-measures study also support that a role-play is more than a tool to refine sales presentation skills, but when administered as an internal competition it not only improves in-class logistics but also positively influence students’ intent to pursue a sales career.

REMOVING RETICENCE LEADING TO TRANSFORMATION IN NEGATIVE PERCEPTION THROUGH EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

The high demand in salesforce could not generate business students' shift towards this profession despite prevailing global unemployment. Removing students' reticence about sales careers can help motivate them to espouse sales careers, meet this demand-driven profession's challenges, and help eradicate unemployment. This study examines the impact of role-playing and guest speaker expert presentation through experimental research design by using a randomized trial method in changing students' negative perceptions about a sales career with the intent to pursue it. This study used the t-test analysis that depicted the students' perception regarding sales career and the regression analysis that elucidate a direct impact of student' perception on their intent to pursue a sales career. The results show that role-play and presentation by guest speaker interventions significantly impact the changing students' negative perceptions about sales careers. The regression analysis shows that all sales perception subscales directly impact students' intent to pursue a sales career. The study is useful for policymakers, sales experts, researchers, and practitioners.

Understanding students’ decision-making process when considering a sales career: a comparison of models pre- and post-exposure to sales professionals in the classroom

Businesses face a challenge recruiting and maintaining a high-quality salesforce. Increasingly, recruiting focus for entry-level sales positions has turned to university business students and sales centers. Unfortunately, research shows that most students have persistent negative misconceptions about professional sales careers and there is little research examining comprehensive and structured decision-making frameworks used by students when evaluating a sales career. This paper develops and tests an integrative framework that maps students’ decision-making process to their intention to pursue a sales career. Specifically, we examine how perceived sales knowledge, perceptions of selling ethics, perceptions of salespeople, and perceptions of the selling profession impact their intent to pursue a sales career both pre- and post-exposure to sales professionals in the classroom. Utilizing structural equation modeling, we investigate the interactive relationships of these four areas (sales knowledge, selling ethics, salespeople, and the selling profession) on intent to pursue. Results show empirical evidence of how sales professionals affect the structural orientation of students’ intent to pursue a sales career and constructs hypothesized to impact this intent after only one interaction. The findings offer an opportunity for how businesses may increase student interest in both sales and their organization.

Everyone’s a Winner: The Initiation and Effectiveness of an Intracollegiate Sales Competition

Job opportunities in the field of professional sales are fast growing, with sales organizations striving to hire sales students who are prepared to embark on a sales career. Unfortunately, university business programs and faculty often lack the resources necessary to thoroughly prepare students for a sales career, or to expose them to career opportunities within their local market. This research posits an intracollegiate sales competition as a tool to benefit students, corporate partners, business schools, and faculty, and in doing so, provides considerations and best practices for initiating a competition. The findings of two additional studies provide empirical evidence suggesting that after competing in a sales competition, students have an increased perception of sales careers, an enhanced knowledge of the sales process, and an increased intent to pursue a sales career after graduation. Furthermore, student competitors’ perceived preparedness for a sales career fully mediates their intent to pursue one. Additionally, competitors had better learning outcomes than students completing a traditional in-class role-play activity.

Relationship of Collegiate Resiliency to Early Career Success in Professional Sales

This research examines selection and training factors that influence the success of recent college graduates in professional sales careers. The outcomes of this research are positioned within the use of personality traits in the selection process when hiring sales professionals. The results suggest that for recent college graduates, indicators of resiliency are better predictors of early career success. Using comparisons between business and non-business majors, the outcomes show that early career success depends on indications of resiliency and extraversion.

Sales Student Preconceptions and a Novel Approach to Sales Curriculum Mapping: Insights, Implications, and Application for Sales Educators

It is widely known that students have preconceptions regarding salespeople and that these preconceptions are modified by participation in sales classes. It is also known that experiential sales class activities are more effective at increasing student interest in pursuing a sales career than traditional lecture style lessons. Less explored is the source of student preconceptions regarding sales and an associated model to explain the observed classroom pedagogy phenomena. Moreover, despite the focus on measuring student attitudes toward sales, there is limited research that presents practical methods for sales educators to introduce sales concepts to students. To address this knowledge gap, this article presents the findings from a quantitative analysis of student experiences regarding sales, a model for interpreting these experiences as it relates to sales career interest, and a novel process for developing the introductory and advanced sales classes at a large metropolitan university.

INDICATIONS THAT A COURSE IN SALES LEADERSHIP ENHANCES EARLY SALES CAREER SUCCESS

ABSTRACT Professional sales as a subject in the university curriculum now faces rapid adoption. There appears to be a corresponding decline in teaching sales management or leadership. The Sales Leadership course presented in this paper combines concepts of sales management with experiential learning activities to the sales curriculum. Beyond this curriculum development, indications from this research suggest students participating in the course see positive impacts on their early sales careers. Using an electronic survey, the population of students that completed the Sales Leadership course and their supervisors respond to measures of sales performance. Results support that teaching sales improves sales skills.