Why Universities Have Not Gotten on the Bandwagon of Offering a Business Sales Degree

By Frank Visgatis, President & Chief operating officer of CustomerCentric Systems

Offering Bachelor Degrees in Sales Could Be a Path for Colleges to Improve Their Job Placement Percentages for Graduates

(Boston, MA, Wednesday, July 9, 2015) – Over the last decade Americans have seen the devastating effect of unemployment. Menial tasks are being done with Do-It-Yourself (DIY) enabling technologies (ATM’s, kiosks, online purchases, etc.) rather than employees. The C-Suite continues to get tighter and smaller, and employees at all levels are challenged to do more with less.

So what’s an up and coming business student to do? The challenge for our schools at all levels is providing students the requisite skills that meet the hiring needs of today’s employers. Companies have an insatiable need for competent sellers that deliver revenue.

We are constantly inundated with marketing and sales messages from a variety of sources every day. Sales, which remains the backbone of the American economy, no longer is as simple as it used to be. Over the last two decades the numbers of schools offering bachelor degrees in Sales has increased, but at a fairly slow rate. Why aren’t more universities getting on the bandwagon when it could be a path for them to improve their job placement percentages for graduates (and the American business bottom line)?

There are five reasons why universities have not gotten on the bandwagon of offering a Business Sales degree, including:

  • A pervasive negative stereotype of the salesperson exists
  • Selling is viewed as convincing, persuading and overcoming objections with the ultimate goal of making people spend money
  • Selling skills are difficult to transfer
  • Selling is situational and personal
  • Sellers are told what to do either by their managers, or in books they read

The solution: Universities would serve their students and businesses well by offering courses with specific offerings to sell, teaching students how to make calls on the different titles within buying committees and having students walk through numerous buying cycles to gain competence. Graduates would then be better prepared to apply what they had learned in the classroom to what they need to do when carrying a quota and representing a vendor’s business-to-business offerings. And businesses benefit.

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