For more than a decade, representatives from nine of the nation's top college sales programs have met together at the National Sales Conference to discuss the future of sales education.
Sunday, representatives from each of these colleges convened under the roof of the Alumni Center at Ball State's first national sales education summit.
Ramon Avila, marketing professor and director of Ball State's Professional Sales Institute, said the summit - which will run through Tuesday - will focus on four sales-related topics: standardizing sales education, offering research and databases for national companies, enhancing the image of sales, and developing a certification program.
"One of our main goals is to differentiate our students through certification to help our students have better jobs and more opportunities available," Avila said. "Top-name companies like Hershey Chocolate U.S.A. and Eli Lily are constantly searching for qualified people. These companies will be approaching the students."
Representatives at the summit will vote on formalizing a college sales center consortium and establishing membership standards for new members. A discussion will also be held on setting curriculum standards, center certification and ways to expand research opportunities.
As a forerunner in sales education, Ball State began its sales program in 1966 and today has about 100 students majoring in sales with 300 more as sales minors.
In 1996, the university opened its Professional Sales Institute. Now housed within the College of Business, the institute provides students with a research center focused on contemporary issues related to organizations, managers and salespeople in the university.
Avila said many other colleges currently offer sequences in sales management or marketing, but do not specialize in sales.
"Seventy percent of the students who graduate with a degree in marketing will go into sales," Avila said. "Today's sales staffs must be well-trained and highly educated."
Kim Klepfer, a 2002 graduate of Ball State's sales program and current employee of Eli Lily Corporation said she is surprised at the lack of college sales programs.
"It's amazing that more colleges aren't following the footsteps of these nine colleges," Klepfer said. "These new programs will only advance sales education and allow future students to obtain jobs at top corporations (like) I did."
Avila said he agrees.
"More and more majors should be requiring sales education classes," he said. "Anybody from accountants to architects need to be trained in sales techniques to market their services."
In addition to the representatives at the summit, 24 Ball State students in the advanced sales program will join the group today to listen to keynote speaker John Haack, senior vice-president for sales and marketing at Saint-Gobain, a multi-national manufacturing and marketing company.
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