Journal of Marketing Education
Special Issue Call for Papers:

Sales Education and Training
Submission Deadline: November 1, 2013

Few would be surprised to learn that “sales” is the most common career entry point for marketing graduates. What might be more surprising are the findings of a 2010 Georgetown University study: Sales was a top-ranked career for a number of other disciplines outside of marketing. Sales ranked second for students majoring in general business, economics, international business, and management. Sales ranked third for students majoring in finance, operations management, HR and management information systems. Across campus, sales was ranked second/third for students in the social, natural and physical sciences, liberal arts, and communications. According to DePaul’s bi-annual Universities and Colleges Sales Education Landscape Survey, sales curricula grew from 44 U.S. programs in 2007, to 67 in 2009, to 101 programs in 2011. In response to the increasing growth in sales education, the Journal of Marketing Education will publish a ‘Special Issue on Sales Education and Training’ in August 2014. This initiative is in partnership with the University Sales Center Alliance, which is offering a $1,000 Best Paper Award.

Clearly the demand for sales-ready graduates is large and growing. Given the un- and underemployment rate of many college graduates, universities have an imperative to equip students for promising areas of post-graduation employment. Institutions of higher education are trying to meet this demand by expanding curricular offerings, opening sales centers, and hiring sales faculty. Despite these efforts, the marketing education literature has been relatively slow in responding to changes in sales education and training. Specific to the Journal of Marketing Education (JME), of the over 800 articles published since its inception, only 27 papers have focused on sales education. Thus, the overall objective of this JME special issue is to bring together scholarship that addresses how educators can expand our knowledge concerning how to prepare students for a career in sales. Manuscripts for this special issue are likely to follow one four formats: 1) Pedagogical Tools, 2) Framework for Marketing Curriculum, 3) Research with a Student Population, and 4) Cross-Functional Partnerships.

Pedagogical Tools

Papers in this area will focus upon how sales-related topics can be incorporated into the classroom. Of particular interest are pedagogical tools and innovative best practices that have sparked interest within the student population or external relationships with businesses or outside organizations which support student learning in a skill, process, and/or experiential context.

Framework for Marketing Curriculum

Papers in this area provide direction for departments, programs, courses, etc., in which sales education and skill development is a priority. Ultimately, the goal of the special issue is to seek ways to develop curricula and activities for teaching and developing the conceptual and applied skills of graduates entering the selling profession. Programmatic efforts to bring such issues to the forefront of educational planning are highly encouraged. Examples include issues relevant to programmatic expansion and assessment, effective sales centers/institutes, and the development of a professional selling curriculum. This work could be related to the AACSB accreditation/reaccreditation process.

Sales Research within a Student Population

Papers in this area focus on educational research involving data collected from students designed to address a wide variety of related issues. Examples that could be addressed with student samples include assessment and measures of learning and skill development, career development opportunities, experiential learning activities, technology usage, ethical considerations, role-playing and other behavioral activities, among many others.

Cross-Functional Partnerships

Manuscripts are encouraged that extend beyond the classroom/student and focus on opportunities for building learning experiences that also provide benefit to outside partners.

Potential contributors should feel free to contact the co-editors with any questions. All manuscripts will be judged on their scholarly merits and ability to advance the marketing education literature. See Cummins et al. in the spring 2013 issue of JME for a review of the sales education literature. Authors should follow the general submission guidelines of the JME from recent issues or online at

http://jmd.sagepub.com/.

Co-editors:

Professor Andrea Dixon, Baylor University,
andrea_dixon@baylor.edu

Professor James (Jimmy) Peltier, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater,
peltierj@uww.edu

 

---

The Hardware and Software Behind ELMAR Is Paid for with AMA Dues Please Support ELMAR by joining the AMA or renewing your membership