Wow. What a couple of weeks it has been! What I have seen is a showcase of some of the future sales leaders in America.
It started with the National Collegiate Sales Competition at Kennesaw State. 49 Teams sent two team members to compete in Dr. Loe’s 10th annual competition. I had the opportunity to be a judge at the event and see some very talented people. Terry Loe and Mary Foster, along with a host of others, have created an unbelievable event that produces more pressure than most experienced sales people find in ANY sales call.
The next week I went to Las Vegas and attended Gerhard Gschwandtner’s Selling Power Leadership Conference. Howard Stevens, CEO and Chairman of HR Chally, was there along with Jeanne Frawley, Chally’s University Programs director. It is always great to see the Stevie Award winning Howard. He has started the University Sales Education Foundation with a goal of professionalizing sales by starting at the collegiate level.
Howard explains that more college graduates will become salespeople than all other careers combined.
Think about that. Astounding. Yet only 35 or 36 schools have a program major or certificate. If anyone can get the job done in the next decade it will be Howard and the USEF.
As hard as this is to believe, some people still think that Sales people are “born” – not “taught”. I still hear “this person or that person is a ‘natural’ when it comes to sales”. I never hear that anyone is a “natural biologist” or “natural electrical engineer” or a “natural geologist”. But – natural salesperson is common nomenclature.
Huh. Right.
When is the last time you went to someone’s house who just had a baby and heard them say, “Looks like to me that little Mikey is going to be a salesman (or engineer or fireman or whatever)?
Last week I attended Pi Sigma Epsilon’s National Convention in Dallas. http://www.pse.org/pse-about.asp Ann Devine, Robb Carlson and the PSE staff have 12 balls juggling at once as there is competition for top sales presentation, top business plan award, top marketing plan award, as well as many other awards all happening simultaneously. With great speakers and a fabulous awards banquet on Saturday night (similar to the one at Kennesaw State with NCSC), I had a chance to look across the room and reminisce by thinking, “Those guys are WAY smarter than I was at their age!”
I judged a couple PSE events and gave a seminar on “The 10 Commandments of Your Job Search. The questions, the comments, the insights these students have is why I call this generation – Generation Wise.
Amazing.
It is time to forget the words “natural” or “born” anything. These students have worked very hard to get to the level of competing nationally for their schools and for themselves.
What I did learned in those couple of weeks is that there are dedicated Professors and Educators (yes, both deserve to be CAPITALIZED) who are developing our future sales leaders. I watched the interaction. I listened to the soon-to-be-grads describe how their lives have changed as they have been involved with NSCS or PSE and their Professor/coaches. I read and heard about the hundreds of thousands of dollars these students raise for charity. I witnessed a passion for live, for work, and for success.
Please don’t say, “She is a ‘natural’ when it comes to raising money.”
So how does all this happen? Let me introduce and thank just a few of the people I’ve met and talked to in the past month that are changing lives by giving their students ongoing lessons in professional sales. I got to know some of them up close and personal thanks to my friend at USF, Dr. Richard Plank, on Saturday morning at an event adjacent to the PSE convention. Most of these are PhD’s but I’ll just use their first names:
Jesse Moore and Gregory Pickett at Clemson
Mike Ahern and Justin Bremer at the University of Houston
Terry Loe at Kennesaw State with Mary Foster
Rob Peterson at William Paterson University
Michael Mallin at the University of Toledo
Nicole Howatt & Cindi Gundy at the University of Central Florida
Al Pelham at The College of New Jersey
Chris Pullig and Charles Fifield at Baylor
John Hansen and Northern Illinois University
Pat Pallentino at Florida State
Donald Norris and Terri Feldman Barr at Miami University (Ohio)
Mark Fish at Ohio University
Lucas Forbes at Western Kentucky
David Shepherd at Georgia Southern
Lois Smith at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater
Jack Rhodes and Michael Eguchi at the University of Washington
Joel Whalen at DePaul
Pat Petersen at U Conn
Linda Orr at University of Akron
Jim DeConinck at Western Carolina
Lenita Davis at Alabama
Vicki West at Texas State
Buddy LaForge at Louisville
Christine Seiler at Bowling Green
Lynnea Mallalieu at UNC – Wilmington
I know my friend, Steven Rothberg, at CollegeRecruiter.com has a great site for helping students find the best schools. http://jobs.collegerecruiter.com/Education/DegreeForm.asp
I’ll ask him if he can make sure that “Sales” is part of that selection and these schools are included.
I’ve never been more excited about recruiting! I’ve never believe more in the opportunities we provide as well as what the “Wise” provide us.
I don’t have my PhD. Nor my Masters. But I am smart enough to know that sales people are not born. Nor are they natural. They are taught, lead and coached by some outstanding people who are preparing them for a life of sales success.
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