B.J. Allen is an assistant professor of marketing at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Prior to moving to Brigham Young University, B.J. worked as an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Arkansas. B.J. earned his bachelor's in business management from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Texas-San Antonio. His research interests include marketing strategy, new product innovation, professional selling, and marketing strategies in networked markets. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and Journal of Cultural Economics. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Product Innovation Management.
The popularity and demand for education in professional sales has skyrocketed. Thousands of students want to take sales classes, and companies are donating millions of dollars to universities’ sales programs in hopes of recruiting top talent. However, despite its popularity, sales education is still emergent — about 50% of universities with a full sales curriculum have launched their programs within the last 10 years! We are still learning much about how to build a sales program. How can professors capitalize on this growing movement, excite students, gain administration support, and increase funding from outside companies? This presentation will talk about how professors can jump on the sales bandwagon by covering three topics: one, where does sales education fit within a business school? Two, how can professors develop partnerships with outside companies? And three, what are the up-and-coming trends that companies want students to learn from a sales education?