Tuesday, July 7th, 2020
What are sales apprenticeships?
In the UK, sales apprenticeships are programmes that allow people to study for a professional qualification while being paid and receiving on-the-job training. Sometimes, off-site classroom training is also involved. Apprenticeships typically last one to three years. They’re open to anyone over the age of 16 and not in full-time education. As there’s no upper age limit, apprenticeships can be…
Monday, July 6th, 2020
Test yourself with sales competitions
Sales competitions are attracting the attention of students from around the world because they are a great way for sales course participants to showcase themselves in front of prospective employers. Equally, many corporate employers have embraced sales competitions as a convenient way of checking out the best of the new crop of sales talent. Competitors who perform well are likely…
Tuesday, June 25th, 2019
Debunking the myths about the future of sales
A Harvard Business School professor’s insights into the science of sales. In this interview with Deirdre Coleman, Frank Cespedes, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, dispels the myths surrounding technology’s impact on the future of sales and why the need to rethink sales also means rethinking sales leadership. He considers the social and financial impact of sales productivity, and stresses…
Tuesday, June 25th, 2019
Student sales stars are real deal
Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University recently hosted rising sales stars from both sides of the Atlantic at a two-day sales contest. A team from the University of Texas Dallas jetted in to take on talent from Coventry, Sheffield Hallam and the home university at the UK University Sales Competition, sponsored by Textron Aviation. Edinburgh Napier third-year student Max Hampapa emerged as…
Thursday, March 21st, 2019
Sales shame holding back the profession
Shame and stigma surrounding sales is a key contributor to poor UK productivity, according to a poll conducted by Censuswide. Nearly a third (31.1%) of UK managers believe that “sales shame” is negatively impacting their business growth, the survey of 1,000 managers found. In addition, more than a quarter (27%) of managers also believe that this sales shame is holding…
Thursday, September 21st, 2017
APS “Sales in a Box” a hit in schools
Association of Professional Sales fellows are inspiring the next generation of salespeople via the “APS Sales in a Box student initiative to promote professional sales as a career in secondary schools. The programme provides guidance for anyone to promote professional sales as a career and is especially important in the context of employers admitting their first intake of B2B Sales…
Saturday, April 22nd, 2017
SEF accolade for Edinbugh Napier
Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University’s sales programme has received international recognition from the US-based Sales Education Foundation (SEF). Its Craiglockhart-based business school has been included as one of the “Top universities for Professional Sales Education” in the organisation’s 2017 magazine. The SEF, which recognises universities that prepare students for successful careers in professional selling and help to raise the status of…
Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
More universities need to teach sales
More universities need to teach sales – that’s according to Frank Cespedes and Daniel Weinfurter writing in the Harvard Business Review. “For decades, Sales and Academia remained worlds apart and the business world did fine. But Sales is changing, Academia is out of touch, and this is bad for business and the academy,” the authors write. The argue that more…
Thursday, January 28th, 2016
New qualification option
Sales professionals now have a new option to gain a high-status sales qualification. This year, Middlesex University – in conjunction with global sales transformation company Consalia – is making its award-winning Masters programmes available to individuals and small groups for the first time. Consalia marketing director Phil Linter tells the Journal: “Previously we’ve only been able to offer professional sales…
Saturday, October 31st, 2015
The challenge of sales competitions
Tony Douglas investigates the role and relevance of university sales competitions to sales education from the perspective of business school students. Professional or personal selling has not been regarded by academics in general – nor indeed practitioners – as a profession that can be (or should be) taught at university (Douglas, 2011; Rutterford, 2011; McCourt, 2011). Though this may well…
Thursday, October 1st, 2015
Notes from Japan
Roger Byatt offers his personal reflections on…
Saturday, July 4th, 2015
No plans for sales in schools despite demands for more vocational education
Industry leaders are calling for a comprehensive shake-up of the UK’s educational system to reflect the needs of employers. This includes delivering a mix of academic and vocational options for 14-18-year-olds. However, there is no mention of how sales might fit into these plans. In a recent speech at the Sunday Times Festival of Education at Wellington College, John Cridland,…
Wednesday, July 1st, 2015
Top 3 sales issues
We asked business thought-leaders from different sectors…
Sunday, April 12th, 2015
Is sales performance simply down to luck?
Dr Beth Rogers reports from the 8th…
Tuesday, April 7th, 2015
Bridging the gulf between professors and practitioners
As sales continues to develop at breakneck pace, business and academics need to open channels of communication. For well over a century, there have been organised attempts to increase sales professionalism. The case for doing so is nowhere more engagingly expressed than in an editorial appearing in 1884 in the magazine of the Society of Commercial Travelers: “If we do…