For decades, (going back to the 1950s) the negative attitudes students hold towards salespeople and sales careers have been of concern to university educators and to employers seeking to recruit well-trained sales people. While the increasing demand for university educated salespeople continues to grow, employers are struggling to meet that…

The purpose of this research is to investigate the image of salespeople and of the selling function as perceived by business students across cultures. Of the several empirical investigations that exist in the sales literature, most are based on a single-country sample. This study extends previous knowledge on single-country perception of…

In an application of experiential learning, assessment, and career development, this article reports a field experiment of teaching sales students adaptive selling skills via an "Improvisational (Improv) Comedy" technique: "Yes, And." Students learn this well-established theatrical improv method via classroom lecture,…

Sales engineering or technical sales programs bridge engineering and business to educate engineering students in sales specific to their discipline. Students develop business awareness through such programs, providing the sales workforce with technically knowledgeable salespeople. The following study analyzed cohorts of students enrolled in a…

Despite demand for new graduates seeking a sales position, student reticence toward pursuing a sales career remains. While all students will not choose a sales career, diminishing the existence of sales-related misconceptions among the student population should establish sales as a viable career path for a larger number of students. We test six…

Substantial theoretical and empirical literature indicates inconsistent performance implications of intrinsic motivation, suggesting the possibility of some explanatory mechanisms. However, little is known about the factors that might explain intrinsic motivation and sales force performance relation, particularly in highly competitive and…

Workers who make a living in sales are paid to persuade others to buy goods and services. Just about anything, from apricots to zip-line tours, needs an intermediary to move from producer to buyer. That go-between person is the sales worker. Sales jobs are numerous. In May 2010, there were over 13 million wage and salary sales workers in the…

This paper examines whether the subjective beliefs on their competences of 409 trainees in machinery, sales, and logistics constitute a reliable and valid way to measure transferable competences. The analysis of results attributes satisfactory to good reliability values to the assessment procedure. Furthermore, it could be shown that young people…

The authors report a case study conducted with over 8,000 Samsung salespeople in the Chinese market. Using research-oriented, evidence-based, and systematic approaches, training professionals contributed to Samsung's business outcomes at multiple levels. The case highlights the valuable impacts of training on salespeople's behaviors and new…

Important as training the sales force is, mobile training apps are being used for much more. Visual Eyes Inc., for example, has developed training apps for the U.S. military's combat medical teams that detail specific medical procedures, such as controlling hemorrhaging. Other apps, developed for corporations and government agencies, pass along…

The purpose of this study was to assess the performance outcomes of a sales training program. This study is unique in a number of ways. First, it focuses on an under-studied area (sales training effectiveness). Second, it is directed at the evaluation of sales training programs completed by Realtors within the housing industry. Finally, it…

Clients present for career counseling with an array of career concerns. A single career theory may prove necessary, but insufficient, in addressing these concerns. Career construction theory (CCT; Savickas, 2005) assists individuals with career decision making by integrating 3 different viewpoints of vocational behavior. This article explains how…

This article explores the effect that the use of e-portfolios initiated and organized by apprenticeship training offices has had on the learning processes and assessment practices of apprentices in Norwegian vocational education and training. Although these intermediate structures have the potential to bridge the gap between work and education,…

This article explores the effect that the use of e-portfolios initiated and organized by apprenticeship training offices has had on the learning processes and assessment practices of apprentices in Norwegian vocational education and training. Although these intermediate structures have the potential to bridge the gap between work and education,…

This study tested the mediating role of violation in the relationship between breach and both affective and continuance commitment and the extent to which this mediating role is moderated by exchange imbalance amongst a sample of 103 sales personnel. Results suggest that violation mediated the relationship between breach and commitment. Also,…