UC Center for Professional Selling Named Top Sales Program

UC’s Center for Professional Selling in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business has been named a Top University Sales Program for 2012 by the

Sales Education Foundation

(SEF).

The SEF, a non-profit entity dedicated to the advancement of sales education, selected UC’s program for its strong curriculum, university recognition and support and experiential learning opportunities through internships and sales competitions.

The recognition appears in the foundation’s publication

Sales Education Annual

that profiles 67 university programs around the country and abroad.

Two program components that set UC apart, says Jane Sojka, director of UC’s Center for Professional Selling and associate professor-educator of marketing, are “the caliber of our sales faculty and experiential education.”

“Our sales faculty is composed of sales professionals with an incredibly wide range of academic and business experience,” Sojka says.

Global sales consultant, NY Times best-selling author and leading sales expert Neil

Rackham joined the center in February as Executive Professor of Professional Selling and will bring his extensive marketing and sales experience to the Lindner College of Business.

“This balance of sales theory from academic researchers and sales practice from our teaching faculty sales practitioners provide students with a balanced approach to understanding professional selling and sales management,” Sojka says.

Experiential learning is another program staple. Sales, like basketball, is perfected through practice, Sojka says.

“In our sales program, we teach much the same way a basketball coach prepares his/her team for a game,” she says.  “We break down the entire sales process—from prospecting to closing and ultimately servicing—into teachable segments.  After students have mastered various components of the sales process, we put it all together in sales role plays, where students call on "customers" to uncover needs, engage them in a dynamic presentation, and close the deal.”

The SEF publication notes that the number of universities and colleges offering sales education programs throughout the country has increased by 25 percent.

Company recruiters seeking to hire sales professionals to their workforce note that sales students are better prepared than general college graduates.

Feedback from companies report that UC sales students are ready to “hit the ground running” when hired for their first sales job, Sojka says.