A Sales
Pitch for Sales
By J. FERGUSON
Arizona Daily Sun Staff Reporter
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Sharpening sales
skills can launch a career in
marketing, a Business Week columnist
told Northern Arizona University
business students Wednesday.
The visit from Michelle Nichols,
the popular "Savvy Selling"
sales columnist for BusinessWeek.com,
was part of the College of Business'
Sales Career Day Wednesday.
Nichols was part of four lectures
on Wednesday, essentially selling
a career in sales to marketing
and business majors.
Casey Donohom, a professor
of marketing at NAU, said a
career in sales is much-maligned
by many of his students, who
equate a typical job in sales
with working at Circuit City
or cold-calling telemarketer
jobs.
He cites research indicating
80 percent of marketing majors
and 50 percent of business majors
will be in a sales-related career,
but few ever consider sharpening
their sales skills before entering
the marketplace.
"Sales has an image problem,"
says Nichols, who said she specifically
tailored her presentations to
students reluctant to embrace
a career in sales.
When Nichols graduated from
college, she admits her parents
had a similar reaction to her
first post college job: Becoming
a saleswoman.
"They were not thrilled,"
Nichols said, noting she would
work for five companies in sales,
and eventually starting three
companies of her own.
For students, Nichols says
it is simple.
"You have to open them
up to other possibilities they
had not considered before,"
Nichols said. "You have
to start from reality, show
them why it is fun."
At
the end of Nichols' one-hour
lecture... students were clearly
riveted.
BUILD CONNECTIONS
Nichols' second lecture to
a room full of students focused
on how to build connections
in the business world, suggesting
universal themes to build relationships
with clients.
In a effort to bond with the
men in the room, Nichols invited
the young men in the room to
share stories about duct tape,
eventually having students tell
tales about being taped to a
ceiling and the virtues of owning
a wallet made out of duct tape.
With women, Nichols would rely
on the age-old love affair with
chocolate.
"We will try chocolate-covered
anything," Nichols told
the crowd.
One female student, with a
bit of prompting from the columnist,
would admit she had ate a chocolate
covered cricket.
While advising students to
be "bold in sharing who
you really are" she cautioned
students not to discuss two
topics until a strong relationship
had been established -- don't
ask about their family or kids.
MORE GUEST LECTURES
TO COME
At the end of Nichols' one-hour
lecture, which included acting
out an improvised scene from
"A Few Good Men,"
students were clearly riveted.
The Sales Career Day, paid
for with a grant from a private
businessman, is expected to
become a regular event at NAU,
said Donohom.
He expects to bring in NAU
alumni to talk to students about
a career in sales and eventually
hopes to offer a second, advanced
class in sales which would likely
offer internships with local
companies.
Donohom says to offer the class,
the university would likely
have to recruit a professor
specifically to teach an advanced
course in sales and manage internships.
--- J. Ferguson can be reached
at 556-2253 or jferguson@azdailysun.com.
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