When I was a young boy, I remember my Mom telling me to keep quiet and don’t answer the doorbell because it was another high pressure door to door salesman. I pretty much started out life with negative connotations of sales people, driven by television stereotypes and my Mom hiding behind the couch from sales people at our front door. Selling was generally something you ended up doing when your real career didn’t pan out the way you thought it would. How times have changed!
In the new millennium, the sales profession has truly become a career and there are more $100K plus earners in that profession than any other! This makes sense on several levels. Not only do sales people typically earn some of the highest wages in many companies, but over 10% of the U.S. workforce is employed as sales professionals! So if sales has become a truly respected profession as well as the home of some truly amazing paychecks, why aren’t colleges turning out students with newly minted degrees in sales? Actually, they are starting to do just that.
My company, Carew International, has realized the rapidly emerging need for sales skills to be taught inside the halls of higher education and has partnered with Central Michigan University to offer a sales minor program though Central’s College of Business Administration. CMU isn’t alone as other progressive and forward looking colleges across the country are beginning to follow suit.
We conduct sales training and consulting in numerous industries where the process of selling requires them to hire employees with highly technical degrees. The products and services these companies offer are often extremely complex, difficult to understand, and even more difficult to explain in the compelling manner required for closing sales deals. We frequently see people in sales classes within these types of industries that had no idea that sales would be where they could best leverage the degree they obtained. With this in mind, students pursuing degrees in engineering, medicine and other technical fields can greatly expand their marketability by adding a sales minor to their degree.
I saw a commercial on television just last night that featured a doctor telling his patient that he was very concerned about the dark mass in his chest. The patient replied, “Isn’t that my heart, doctor?” The doctor responded by saying that since he was a used car salesman he obviously didn’t have a heart; hence his concern about the mass (the only thing missing was a drum rim shot). The patient proceeded to tell the doctor that he worked for XYZ car sales and only sold certified used cars so the mass was indeed a heart in this instance. Are you kidding me? I just described an actual ad from a real car dealer in the major city where I live. I wanted to pick up the phone and chastise them for furthering an antiquated stereo type that was doing nothing to help their business let alone the sales profession. Instead, I decided to never buy a car from that dealer.
It is truly amazing how far the sales profession has come in a relatively short time. From the cliché of the door to door salesman to the addition of sales curriculum at major universities across the country, the profession of selling is taking major steps forward in the areas of prestige and respect. It really is pretty cool for a profession that once had my Mom hiding behind the couch!
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
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