30 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Recruiting New Salespeople From Universities:
University Sales Centers Offer a Better Alternative
By Dan C. Weilbaker and Michael Williams
Over the years many businesses have vacillated between hiring new salespeople from the pool of recent college
graduates and hiring salespeople with experience. Companies hiring new graduates have also debated over whether to
hire students with business degrees or those with a liberal arts degree. Recently another factor has been injected into
the decision. There are now eleven universities that have sales programs that offer employers graduates with business
degrees and also offer employers’ graduates who have prepared themselves to enter and excel in business to business
selling. This article provides some insight into the benefits associated with hiring graduates from a personal selling
specialization. This article also discusses the development of university sales programs along with the creation of the
University Sales Center Alliance (USCA). Finally, the article also provides a report on the benefits of hiring graduates
from any of the USCA schools.
Introduction
Personal Selling has long been viewed by most
academics and some practitioners as a trade
school profession. However, the growth of
business-to-business selling has produced
significant changes in attitudes about
professional selling as a career (Wotruba,
Simpson and Reed-Draznik 1989; Weeks and
Muehling 1987; Castlebery 1990a). In line with
this changing perception, there has been a recent
trend toward developing a personal selling
specialization within marketing departments
across the country. Several universities have
been ahead of the curve in pursuing professional
selling as a valuable academic curricular
component of a marketing program. This article
provides some insight into what prompted some
schools to pioneer and champion the sales
curriculum while others schools have taken a
wait and see attitude. In addition, the paper
provides the results of a study of the sales
centers comprising the University Sales Center
Alliance and how these findings could help
companies benefit by recruiting graduates from
these sales programs. This article is designed to
help corporations become more effective and
productive when hiring new salespeople from
the pool of new college graduates.
Northern Illinois University
The recent formation of the University Sales
Center Alliance (USCA), as well as increased
student interest in a sales career and increased
demand for sales program graduates, are all
indications that the sales focused programs are a
viable option to consider when hiring new
salespeople from colleges and universities. This
article will provide more detailed information on
the benefits of a sales curriculum as well as some
of the issues relevant to the quality of graduates.
Issues like: number of professors, number of
courses, class sizes, use of role playing, the cost
of development (faculty, equipment, teaching
loads, etc.) have a major impact on the quality of
the program and graduates. Information from a
recent survey of the USCA schools illustrates the
benefits when companies are interested in hiring
the best available talent for sales positions.
Historical Perspective
University level selling classes are nothing new.
There have been personal selling courses offered
at the university level for decades—Illinois State
University offered a course in Salesmanship as
early as 1914 as a required course in its
Department of Commercial Education.
However, most of the early sales courses were
single courses offered as electives and often
Application Article
avoided by students due to the unpopular
perceptions a career in sales held by many
students. These single sales course offerings
were traditionally a course that combined
personal selling and sales management. It
seemed that having management as a part of a
course provided some academic legitimacy to the
offering and allowed the sales course a foothold
into the curriculum.
As far back as 1911 there has been a specific
textbook for salesmanship classes (Sheldon
1911).
Today, the number of textbooks
developed specifically for personal selling has
expanded to include over 18 different academic
textbooks.
The personal selling process in both academic
research and the classroom has gone through
several phases over time that seem to mirror the
changes in the business environment. Initially
most of the personal selling academic literature
was focused on retail selling or business-toconsumer selling. This has given way to an
emphasis on business-to-business selling.
Business-to-business selling involves selling to a
company in which the decisions may or may not
be made by a group of people (depending of the
type of product or service being sold). The use
of buying centers shifted the selling process and
content of selling to a more logical rather than
emotional decision-making. The use of logic and
analysis in the business-to-business arena placed
a burden on the practicing salespeople to acquire
new and more complex skills in order to
effectively communicate and sell to the business
buyer. These new skills required a person who
was more educated than previously needed.
Thus, more and more companies required
salespeople to have a college education rather
than just a high school diploma (the norm in the
1950’s, 1960’s and in some industries into the
1970’s). This shift has been one of the drivers
influencing the growth in university sales courses
over the past 16 years.
Initially, corporations were happy to get new
college graduates (from any discipline). They
Summer 2006
31
would spend time and money training them on
product knowledge as well as some basic selling
skills. However, as training costs escalated and
customer demands on salespeople increased,
companies found that they needed better
educated salespeople in order to compete
effectively. One option was to continue hiring
the same type of people and spend much more
money training them. A second option was to
reduce training costs and time by hiring
graduates of sales programs who understand
selling and who have developed basic selling
skills. Even though both systems are in use
today, more and more companies are looking to
universities to prepare new hires by giving them
an initial understanding of the selling process,
developing basic selling skills, and teaching that
selling careers have many benefits as well as
challenges.
The University Sales Center Alliance (USCA)
The first two schools to adopt a collegerecognized specialization in professional sales
were Baylor University and Northern Illinois
University in 1988 (Castleberry 1990b). With the
success of these two programs, other schools
soon initiated their own sales programs. By the
end of 1996 there were six schools that had
recognized sales programs. They were: Ball State
University, University of Memphis, University of
Akron, and University of Toledo, Northern
Illinois University and Baylor University (Sales
and Marketing Magazine 1996). By 2002 this
number had increased to nine schools having
established sales programs. These schools were:
Ball State University, Baylor University,
Northern Illinois University, Illinois State
University, University of Toledo, University of
Akron, Kennesaw State University, and
University of Houston, and Ohio University.
The faculty from these schools would
consistently meet at conferences to discuss
situations at their universities and what their
programs were doing to improve the education
of their students. At the National Conference in
Sales Management (NCSM) in 2001, a special
Vol. 6, No. 3
32 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
students in the sales program, activities to assist
students, scholarly activities of faculty,
involvement in professional organizations,
operational budgets, fund raising, and use of
advisory boards.
session on “how sales centers had been
developed” was presented by three schools
(Northern Illinois University, University of
Akron, and University of Toledo). At the next
NCSM (2002) meeting, the nine schools that had
sales programs in place were invited to sit down
to discuss issues and how they might work
together to encourage other schools to develop
sales centers and how to move the sales
profession forward. This was the birth of the
University Sales Center Alliance (USCA). The
alliance members agreed upon the following
mission statement: The USCA mission is to
advance the sales profession through
academic leadership in research, teaching
and outreach. William Patterson University
became the tenth member in 2003 and Indiana
University the eleventh member in 2004.
Benefits of Recruiting at Sales Center
The two primary stakeholders related to sales
centers are: (1) the students (both current and
alumni) and (2) companies/recruiters. Each of
these two stakeholders will be discussed
separately.
Student Benefits
Findings support a number of benefits in terms
of job opportunities and placement, starting
salaries, training-to-job cycle time, and
promotability for students completing the
multiple courses comprising sales programs.
Responses documented a dramatic difference in
the percentages of students having accepted a
job at the time of graduation between three
categories (1) general marketing students, (2)
students completing only the basic sales class,
and (3) students completing the sales program
(multiple courses in a sales sequence or major).
As seen in Table 1, the students completing the
sales program had a substantially higher hiring
rate than those of the general marketing group
or those only completing a single, basic sales
class. In fact, both the current year and the
average yearly rate (due to fluctuations in the
economy, the average rate is probable a better
measure) both showed the students graduating
Sales Center Research
At the conclusion of an annual USCA meeting,
the authors took it upon themselves to survey
the existing sales centers to profile each of the
recognized programs and identify specific
characteristics about the programs that might be
of interest to companies considering or currently
using college new hire programs.
The questionnaire was developed by the authors
to obtain information on a variety of topics
related to a sales center. Specific coverage
included breadth of curriculum, number of role
plays used, faculty resources, funding, class sizes,
use of technology, student placement, number of
Table 1: Placement Rates at Sales Centers
Job Placement Rate
Current Year
Average in
Previous
Years
Student Category
%
Difference
%
68%
Difference
General Marketing
50%
Completing only Basic Sales Class
53%
+ 3%
72%
+4%
Completing Sales Program
82%
+29%
93%
+19%
Northern Illinois University
Application Article
33
Summer 2006
from the sales program with about a 20 percent
higher placement rate than students in the
comparative categories.
A second benefit for students is in terms of
significantly higher starting salaries. Similar to
the differences seen in the job placement rates,
the study found that starting salaries were much
higher for those who completed the sales
program than for students in the other two
categories. As illustrated in Table 2, average
starting salaries for general marketing majors
ranged from $29,750 to $38,000. This compares
to the average range of $30,250 to $39,750 for
students completing the first basic course in
selling and $33,750 to $49,250 for students
completing the sales program sequence. In
relative terms, this translates to students
completing a single, basic selling course receiving
starting salaries ranging from 1.7 to 4.6 percent
higher than general marketing students.
Students completing the sales program receive
starting salaries ranging from 11.6 to 23.9
percent higher than those students completing
only the basic course in sales and from 13 to 29
percent higher than general marketing students.
Anecdotally, some of the salary differences are
due to the level of position being accepted. The
students who completed the sales course work
typically obtained higher level jobs in b-t-b
selling while those general students seemed to
take sales positions in retail or transactional
selling situations.
Finally, respondents referenced anecdotal
comments from recruiters representing a variety
of companies that hire sales graduates from
USCA schools. These anecdotal comments
indicated that hiring companies report that
students completing multi-course selling
programs tend to learn quicker in their sales
training, have higher levels of sales skill
understanding and mastery, and are productive
faster than their counterparts from other areas of
study. Although not tested in this study, these
findings could logically be extended to conclude
that these students are likely to receive better
salary increases and faster promotions based on
performance in the future.
Company/Recruiter Benefits
Comments from companies that recruit and hire
sales students from the sales center universities
agree that they are able to reduce their training
costs due to the education and practical (handson) training the students received while in
college. The fact that students have already
covered much of the material in the companies’
training programs allows them to concentrate
more on developing and perfecting the skills and
not on initially acquiring the knowledge. This in
turn makes them more productive or faster to be
productive than other recent hires from nonsales center universities.
Another benefit for companies is that sales
students have realistic expectations regarding the
specific tasks and activities along with
responsibilities and challenges of selling jobs.
This means that there is less likelihood that they
will leave the position during the development
phase of the job. This assists the company in
reducing turnover and thus the cost of hiring
and training.
Considering the costs of
Table 2: Average Starting Salary Ranges
Average Dollar Range
Student Category
From
Difference
To
Difference
General Marketing Students
$29,750
$38,000
Completing only Basic Sales Class
$30,250
+$ 500
1.7%
$39,750
+$1,750
4.6%
Completing Sales Program
$33,750
+$3,500
11.6%
$49,250
+$9,500
23.9%
Vol. 6, No. 3
34 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
international business-to-business, or conflict
resolution classes.
salesperson turnover run from 1.5 to 2.5 times
the departing employee’s annual salary
(Hinchcliffe 2003; Bliss 2004) this is a significant
and tangible benefit for company stakeholders.
Finally, anecdotal information received from
sales graduates indicates that they are more
satisfied with their position which leads to higher
levels of motivation. All of which helps them be
better salespeople and generate more revenue for
the company.
A look at the number of students in the basic
sales course for the USCA schools found that
the range was from 24 to 100 students with a
median of 26 students. The number of sales
role-plays also varied in the basic sales class from
one to four with an average of 2.1 role-plays.
The small class size is particularly important
since the use of role-plays takes considerable a
large amount of class time and thus fewer
students can be accommodated than in a
traditional lecture format marketing class.
Issues Specific to Sales Centers
Curriculum
Schools with sales centers have placed a
considerable amount of emphasis on the sales
curriculum in that 75 percent of the schools
require marketing majors to take the basic sales
class while only 25 percent have it as an elective.
The practical nature of the education is evident
in that 100 percent of the schools have
practitioners actively involved in the classroom.
The number of different sales classes provided
ranged from 4 to 7 with an average of 5.5 (mode
was 4). Beyond the basic sales class, all of the
respondents offered a sales management class,
62 percent offer an advanced sales class, 25
percent offer both negotiations and purchasing
with 12.5 percent offering either key account
management, persuasion, technology,
Another issue that might be important for a sales
program is the number of sections offered in the
basic sales course. The range was from 3 to 12
sections per year with the average being 9. Thus,
the number of faculty needed to staff just the
basic course ranged from 1 to 2 full time
equivalents without consideration of the other
classes being offered. Thus, initiating and
supporting a sales program requires a significant
commitment to staffing.
Faculty
There are two ways to approach the staffing
issue. One is to use only academically qualified
professors and the other is to supplement the
academically qualified with adjunct faculty who
Table 3: Lead Sales Faculty Profile
Teaching Tenure
Range
(Years)
9-20
Average
15
Years Sales
Experience
Teaching Load
Different Courses
Taught
2-12
(% time teaching)
30-100%
7
82%
2.4
University
Committee
Academic Journal
Subscriptions
2-3
Table 4 Lead Sales Faculty Profile (Continued)
Refereed Journal
Publication
Refereed
Proceedings
Publications
Range
6-60
8-70
Per year
1-7
1-3
Average
21.1
25.8
4.6
1.1
Northern Illinois University
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35
Summer 2006
satisfy accreditation requirements with an
advanced degree and relevant sales experience.
Respondents to this study indicated that the
number of tenure track faculty (full time
equivalents) ranged from 1 to 3 with an average
of 2.3 tenure track faculty per program. The
profile of the lead faculty member for each
school (See Table 3 and Table 4) illustrates that
they do more than just teach (although this is a
major contribution). They have been teaching
sales for a considerable length of time (average
15 years) and have the business background
(average 7 years) to provide credibility in the
classroom. This is enhanced by the fact that
seven out of the eight (87 percent) faculty do
consulting outside of academic work. They also
publish many refereed journals and proceedings;
serve on several college and university
committees as well stay current with new
knowledge and trends in the academic journals.
All of this means those knowledgeable faculties
are important in providing top notch classroom
experiences for students.
Supportive Activities
The last area has to do with having a specific job
fair organized for sales. Sixty six percent of the
USCA schools that responded to this question
have a dedicated sales job fair. The earliest one
started in 1993 and the latest one started in 1997.
They attract between 20 and 75 companies to
attend with the average being 40 companies.
They also attract between 175 and 300 students
to attend the event with the average being 200.
Another major issue is the amount of resources
needed to run a quality sales program. This
seems to be one large barrier to entry for other
schools (even if they were interested in providing
sales education). These resources consist of
special rooms and equipment as well as the need
to have smaller class sizes to accommodate the
use of role-plays in the sales classes. In a
semester system it typically takes about eight
weeks to do one role- play of about 20 minutes
in length with some feedback for about 24
students per class. Thus, it is imperative that
classes be kept smaller than normal which means
that more sections may need to be offered. This
means that more faculty members are needed to
cover the classes.
The second resource issue deals with acquiring
the money to buy and install audio/video
equipment needed for student feedback. That
brings us to a facilities issue: electronic
equipment. The use of audio/video recording
and playback is essential in providing quality
education in the sales program. Neither the
classroom nor electronic equipment will be a
small investment. The electronic equipment,
although available, is relatively expensive.
Depending on the number of cameras and video
playback systems, the costs could range from as
little as $5,000- $8,000 to as much as $200,000.
It is important for the faculty in charge of the
development of the sales center to identify ways
to obtain the money needed. Is it to be from the
university or does it needs to be raised from
corporate sponsors?
The final obstacle to overcome is the student’s
attitude toward selecting a sales career and thus
sales courses. Even though there has been a
positive change in student attitudes towards sales
as a career (Murray and Robinson 2001;
Table 5: Financial Issues Related to Sales Center
Number (n)
Donation to Initiate Sales
Program
5
Annual Financial Support from
University
3
Range
$20,000-$550,000
$9,000-$20,000
Average
$182,000
$13,000
Vol. 6, No. 3
36 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Swenson, Swinyard, Langrehr and Smith 1993;
Castleberry 1990a; Bellenger, Bernhardt and
Wayman 1974; Wotruba, Simpson and ReedDraznik 1989; Weeks and Muehling 1987,
Weilbaker and Merritt 1992), even today there is
still resistance on the part of some students to
take sales classes. That is one reason that some
schools have started requiring one sales course
for all marketing majors and minors. It is evident
by the increase in the number of sales students
that this introductory class is a turning point for
many students.
Once some critical mass has completed the sales
course and found their attitude changed
regarding careers in sales, then they talk to others
and soon there is even a desire to take the sales
classes.
When students find out that
professional selling is not telemarketing, that
they can make a significant amount of money,
and that they can get jobs, they begin to take it
more seriously.
How to Obtain the Benefits of Recruiting
from USCA Schools
The first decision has to be where you want to
spend the resources to recruit new sales hires. If
that decision has universities as part or all of the
focus, then you need to decide how you will
approach the hiring process. Companies can
either cast a wide net (go to a large number of
schools) or they can be focused (select a few to
concentrate on) in their selection of schools.
Even if the choice is selected schools, most
recruiters and sales managers have an affinity for
their alma mater. If the decision is made on
results of previous hires and not just on school
loyalty, then the investment is worth while. An
advantage of using a focused recruiting strategy
is that the resources used can be more
effectively. That is, companies have finite
resources and what ever resources are used at
the selected schools can be larger than if spread
over many schools thus it can have an impact
and attract students to the company.
All of the USCA schools use practitioners in
parts of the classroom experience. With many
Northern Illinois University
companies recognizing that classroom exposure
is critical to attracting the right candidates, when
focused recruiting is used it is more likely that
the faculty will allow your people into the
classroom.
Another way to gain access to sales center
schools is through involvement on a sales
advisory board. This board would be comprised
of sales managers/sales directors/ sales VP’s, or
even owners. The make up of the board is
ideally weighted toward alumni from the school
who have been successful in their sales career. It
is also important to ensure that diversity within
the types of industries selected along with
diversity in the people selected to participate on
the board. Another valuable opportunity
provided by the sales advisory board is the input
they provide on the curriculum and other
activities provided by the sales center. These
sales professionals have access to information
about successful salespeople within their own
organization and can share best practices in
training that can be applied within the sales
center.
The sales advisory board can be instrumental in
helping graduates gain sales positions. The
board members can provide a valuable link to a
company’s recruiting and hiring practices. If the
board has a number of high visibility companies,
then this will also help attract high quality
students to enroll in the sales program.
Finally, participating in the sales specific job fairs
hosted by the USCA schools will also help
improve the return on investment for recruiting.
The fact that students know that the companies
are there to hire sales professionals allows for a
self selection process for students. That is, only
those students interested in sales will attend and
thus reduce the necessity to screen students’
interest in sales.
Conclusions
In a highly competitive marketplace, it is
important to find key suppliers for the raw
material needed for success. In this case we are
Application Article
talking about key human resources for
salespeople. Just as a company would not
consider buying raw material that need extra
processing when other sources are available that
do not require extra processing, companies need
to consider the same for hiring new salespeople
from universities. We are saying that if a
company is serious about hiring the best people
that can become productive faster, be more
satisfied with their sales position, have lower
turnover and be the future leadership of the sales
organization, then recruiting new sales hires
from University Sales Center Alliance schools is
an obvious choice. The various sales centers
across the country are not viewed as competitors
but rather as allies in the struggle to make
professional sales a valued area of study with a
marketing degree. A list of the schools and their
main contact person is listed below.
University Sales Centers
Richard Canada
Business 428C / IUB
Executive Director of Center for Sales Studies
and Market Intelligence
Lecturer of Marketing
Indiana University
1309 East Tenth Street,
Bloomington, IN 47405
rcanada@indiana.edu
Kenneth L. Hartung
Executive Director, The Sales Centre
Marketing Department
Copeland 630
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
hartlung@ohio.edu
Jon M. Hawes
Professor of Marketing
Director, Fisher Institute for Professional Selling
CBA 310
University of Akron
Akron, OH 44325
37
Summer 2006
jhawes@uakron.edu
William A. Weeks
Professor of Marketing
Director, Center for Professional Selling
One Bear Place 98007
Waco, TX 76798
Bill_Weeks@baylor.edu
Eli Jones
Professor of Marketing
Director, Sales Excellence Institute
C. T. Bauer College of Business
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-6021
eli-jones@uh.edu
Ramon Avila
Professor of Marketing
Director, H.H. Gregg Center for Professional
Selling
Miller College of Business
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306-0355
ravila@bsu.edu
Michael Williams
Professor of Marketing
Director, Professional Sales Institute
College of Business
Illinois State University
Campus Box 5590
Normal, IL 61790-5590
mrwilli@ilstu.edu
Terry W. Loe
Associate Professor
Director, Center for Professional Selling
Kennesaw State University
1000 Chastain Rd. #0406
Kennesaw, GA 30144
terry_loe@coles2.kennesaw.edu
Vol. 6, No. 3
38 Journal of Selling & Major Account Management
Richard Buehrer
Professor of Sales and Marketing
Director, Edward H. Schmidt School of
Professional Sales
College of Business Administration
The University of Toledo
Toledo, OH 43606
richard.buehrer@utoledo.edu
David Reid
Director, Russ Berrie Institute for Professional
Sales
William Paterson University
P.O. Box 920
Wayne, NJ 07474-0920
reidd@wpunj.edu
Dan C. Weilbaker
McKesson Pharmaceutical Group Professor of
Sales
Director, Office for Selling Effectivenes
Department of Marketing
Northern Illinois University
Barsema Hall 128 R
DeKalb, IL 60115
dweilbak@niu.edu
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Dan C. Weilbaker is McKesson Professor of Sales
at Northern Illinois University.
E-mail: dweilbak@niu.edu
Michael Williams is a Professor of Marketing at
Illinois State University.
E-mail: mrwilli@ilstu.edu