Purpose: This study aims at investigating emotional intelligence based on competencies for sales and IT people. Design/methodology/approach: A study was conducted on 111 employees of 12 firms from four different sectors in which firms benefited extensively from IT and sales activities. Findings: Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI, 2.0) was used…

An intervention consisting of task clarification, visual prompts, and graphic feedback was evaluated to increase customer greeting and up-selling in a restaurant. A combination multiple baseline and reversal design was used to evaluate intervention effects. Although all interventions improved performance over baseline, the delivery of graphic…

The authors describe the multiple benefits a university selling center offers to students, faculty members, administrators, and the general business community. The seven essential steps in first establishing a university selling center are addressed: find a champion, obtain the support of administration, find a white knight, establish a board of…

This article follows the development of a sales management in-basket exercise for use in the classroom. The authors have computerized the exercise and added features to allow for additional and more quantitative input from the students. The exercise has evolved and been tested in numerous classroom situations. The computerized in-basket exercise…

Providing students with an education that employers view as relevant and valuable is an ever-increasing challenge for universities. The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework that university professors can use to examine their own program offerings against competencies deemed important by the U.S. Department of Labor. This paper focuses…

Communities across the nation have become increasingly concerned about inhalant use and use of harmful legal products among youth because of increasing prevalence rates and deleterious health consequences from abusing these products. The increasing concern of communities about inhaling and ingesting legal products has been coupled with increasing…

Describes sales engineers--also called manufacturers' agents, sales representatives, or technical sales support workers--who work with customers and the production department to help design or modify products to meet customers' needs. Includes information about earnings, education and training, job outlook, and working conditions as well as…

Current approaches to workplace learning emphasize designing communities of practice that are intended to support both formal and informal knowledge acquisition. This article presents the design and research of a knowledge-based community of practice for Subaru, based on principles outlined by Scardamalia (2002) and Zhang, Scardamalia, Lamon,…

Provides a description of telemarketers and includes information on the nature of the work, employment and working conditions, job outlook, earnings, qualifications and training, and related occupations. (JOW)

Discusses the state of sales training where it was, where it's going, and what companies are doing to ensure that their salespeople have the skills necessary to excel. Highlights electronic learning and emotional experience. (JOW)

Medtronic, Inc., a medical technology company that specializes in implantable and invasive heart-related devices, uses multimedia to train its sales force. The trainers had to overcome some resistance to multimedia as a learning tool, although it increases learning efficiency and reduces training time. (JOW)

Discusses learning in organizations, competitiveness, and training effectiveness. Describes a study that was conducted to determine if it is possible to link sales production to participation in classroom sales training, and if so, what elements seem to be most useful in enhancing employee performance and sales performance. (Author/LRW)

Structural equation modeling was used to test the discriminant validity of three cognitions--thinking of quitting, intent to search, and intent to leave--in 242 sales workers. Results demonstrating a different relationship among the three cognitions were used to revise a 1977 model. (SK)

The example of introduction of a new pharmaceutical product is used to explain methods of presenting complex sales information by programed instruction. (MF)

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a retail store image scale based on the work of Zimmer and Golden and others. Responses of 720 adult shoppers support a model with image dimensions of general store attributes; appearance; and salespeople and service. (SLD)