INTEREST CATEGORY: SELLING AND SALES MAN
POSTING TYPE: Awards

Author: Marty Holmes

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Announcing the 2022 SEF Call for Proposals

Sales Education Foundation Annual Research Grant Program Submission Deadline July 15, 2022

The Sales Education Foundation (SEF) supports the funding of high-quality research that addresses topics of importance to sales practitioners and researchers alike.

Overview

The Sales Education Foundation Research Grant Program recognizes sales-specific research with the potential for application by sales executives, sales managers, and/or the salesforce. However more basic or exploratory work may be considered as well. No one approach or method is favored over another; proposed research may be conceptual or empirical and may involve field surveys, field or laboratory experiments, model building, or theory development. However, SEF strongly endorses using actual salespeople, sales managers and executives, and customers rather than students as participants in research projects.

Eligibility and Amount of Financial Support

Faculty members, or doctoral students working collaboratively with faculty advisors, can apply for financial support from this program. Practitioners may apply, but must meet the standards for academic research. SEF grants cover researchers’ out-of-pocket expenses for data collection, respondent fees, research assistants, and similar expenses. Grants are $5,000 each. Note that SEF does not provide salary supplements for the principal researcher(s), funds for the purchase of equipment or software, university/organization overhead, tuition, or funds for travel to conferences.

Proposal Evaluation The proposals will be evaluated by an independent selection committee on the bases of three criteria:

1. Innovation – Is the research addressing an innovative solution to a business challenge? Does it offernew concepts or methods for studying and understanding problems facing salespeople and salesexecutives? Does it develop new approaches and /or methods for enhancing sales productivity?
2. Practicality – What is the potential application and utility of the research? Will the results of theproposed research be of interest and useful to sales executives as well as researchers? Does theresearch provide solutions and insights into common challenges faced by industry?
3. Dissemination – Will the results of the research likely be widely disseminated in a variety of outlets(e.g., articles in refereed journals, scholarly monographs, working papers posted on web sites,practitioner publications, university sales centers, and conference presentations)? Will the researchhave the potential for viral messaging?

Grant Recipient Responsibilities

Important: The grant recipient(s) will be expected to provide the results of their research in the form of a report or Executive Summary to SEF, as well as demonstrated potential for the research to be published in a leading academic journal. Details on the required document will be provided upon request.

Proposal Submission

For consideration, the proposals should include the following information:

• One page summary of the research.
• A statement of expected contributions, such as a better understanding of how key variables affect the sales process, new information to assist mangers in improving sales productivity, or new frameworks and methods for studying the sales process. Authors need to be specific about how this research makes a real contribution to academic literature.
• A very brief section that reviews the literature that is directly relevant to the research.
• A description of the research questions, hypotheses, and/or model to be tested with appropriate rationale forproposed relationships.
• A detailed description of the research design and methodology. The description should include qualifications forrespondents, sample sizes, recruiting protocols, proposed analytical methods, etc.
• A timetable, including key process completion dates as well as a completion date, and a reportdeliverable date.
• Vita(e) of the researcher(s).
• A detailed budget showing how the financial support will be used to support the proposed design.

Please note that SEF is not responsible for either overhead taken for university processing or tracking for individual tax purposes. Please keep records for your accounting purposes and factor in any costs for processing.

The proposal should not exceed 15 double spaced pages of text. However the proposal may include greater detail in appendices, such as questionnaires, pretest results, description of data bases, and/or detailed explanation of statistical analyses and/or modeling (an additional 5 pages maximum). The proposal should not exceed 20 pages including all references, figures, appendices, and tables.

Proposal Deadline: July 15, 2022

Proposals should be emailed to: Research@salesfoundation.org

Any questions concerning the program may be directed to the email address above beginning March 10, 2022.

Proposal Evaluation and Decisions

The research proposals will be evaluated by an independent Selection Committee consisting of a balance of respected academic researchers and accomplished practitioners. Decisions of the Committee are final. Recipients will be notified and decisions will be announced. Initial funds ($2,500) should be distributed by the end of 2022.

Expenditure Requirements

NOTE: Grant recipients must arrange for the deposit of funds to a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit institution, into a specified account dedicated for “the research purposes of the recipient.” Please consult with your university’s office of grants and contracts or grant administration.

Contact SEF at info@salesfoundation.org