University of Wisconsin­River Falls

UWRF Sales Program Research

Client: Dr. Ozcan Kilic

Ben Althoff, Caleb Oosten, Ben Schrock, Josiah White, Anne Towner, Mitch

Ronayne, Elisabeth Meier

12/10/2015

Table of Contents

Executive Summary………………………………………………………………….... 2

Introduction..………………………………………………………………………….... 5

Background…………………………………………………………………….. 5

Objectives………………………………………………………………………. 6

Methodology……………………………………………………………………………. 6

Research Design……………………………………………………………..... 6

Sample Design……………………………………………………………….... 6

Data Collection Procedures…………………………………………….…….. 7

Measurement Instrument…………………………………………………....... 8

Findings……………………………………………..………………………………...... 9

Conclusions and Recommendations……………………………………………..... 17

Limitations………………………………………...…………………………..……..... 18

Sampling Error......................................................................................... 18

Measurement Error.................................................................................. 18

Other Limitations...................................................................................... 19

Appendices………………………………………………………………...………..... 21

Data Collection Instrument....................................................................... 21

Sample of Verbatims................................................................................ 27

Acknowledgments............................................................................................... 28

References.......................................................................................................... 29

1

Executive Summary

Marketing Opportunity/Problem

It is a common perception that sales as a career is not a subject worth pursuing

let alone going to an institution of higher education for a formal education in the field

(Ditz, 1967; Ebey, 1957; Mason, 1965, Swenson, Swinyard, Langrehr, and Smith

(1993). Yet 70% of marketing/business majors will be placed in a sales position after

graduation (Kutscher, 1990; Michaels & Marshall, 2001; Simon, 2006; Weilbaker, 2001).

The lack of a formal education in sales leads to a lack of effectiveness and a negative

effect on profits and customer perception of the business (Karakaya, Quigley, and

Bingham 2011). What are student perceptions, attitudes, demographics and

expectations towards the sales profession and education to ultimately determine their

level of intention of participation? Dr. Kilic wants this information to improve the

marketing plan for the sales program. This will aid in positioning the sales program as a

valid option to pursue.

Research Objectives

The objectives we intend to achieve is finding what are their attitudes and

perceptions towards sales and salespeople. Then how that relates to their intention to

pursue a sales education. We will measure to find if there is any correlation between

having a parent in a sales position or the student being in a sales position when

compared to their intentions to pursue a sales education. Another question we will seek

to answer is if a student’s class standing has any determining factor in whether to enter

into a sales course. We will also ask, “Do you intend to enroll in the professional sales

program at UWRF?” The responses we receive from this open­ended question will help

us determine the intention and reason why or why not a student would enroll in the

professional sale program at UWRF.

2

Methodology

We will be using a Qualtrics­hosted survey as our data collection instrument. The

target population for our measurement instrument will be students enrolled in the

College of Business and Economics (CBE) at University Wisconsin­River Falls (UWRF).

This population will include students from all class standings. The sampling framing will

be a convenience sample indicative of a non­probability sampling technique.

The Qualtrics survey was designed as a noncomparative, balanced 7­point Likert

scale. This adequately measured respondent’s attitudes towards the research

objectives and offered a precise level of measurement. The questionnaire is 49 items

long, it contained two skip logic questions as well as two open ended questions to

further gauge respondent attitudes, perceptions, and feelings towards selling as a

career and allowed the research team to further identify rationale as to whether

respondents have intentions or no intention to pursuing sales education or a career in

sales, and why.

Major Findings

The total sample size was 121 students with forty­six percent of the students

being male and fifty­four percent were female. A majority of the respondents were 21

years or older and of a Junior or Senior standing. Fifteen percent of the students had

taken or are currently in a sales course. Thirty­two percent of respondents had indicated

that they been previously or are currently employed in a sales position. Forty­four

percent had or has a family member employed in a sales position.

Conclusions and Recommendations

People see sales as a challenging and rewarding career that offers room for

advancement. While the trend towards the career are positive the trend towards

salespeople is negative. Our subjects have a negative opinion of salespeople but a

positive opinion of the position.

3

This may be attributed to the fact that when asked if they had ever been a

salesperson or if they’re parents are or were they answered over 60%+ NO. These

findings show that the majority of respondents have no personal relationship with

someone in sales and only has contact with them during the act of business.

A recommendation would be to have a low level introductory class with an

emphasis on sales offered to Freshmen and Sophomores in order to introduce them to

the material. Freshmen show an ‘indifferent’ response rate of 38% when asked about

their intentions to pursue a sales education. This shows that there is nearly 40% of the

Freshmen student body that could be persuaded to enroll in the professional sales

program at UWRF.

4

Introduction

The definition of a sales career is defined as promoting a company's product or

service and persuading wholesale, retail buyers, or purchasing agents to choose them

over their competitors. There are many different kinds of products and marketing

opportunities in sales. Sale professionals constantly face new interpersonal situations

and are involved in yearly trainings. Each organization offers a different career path in

sales. There are many sales firms that are interested in college graduates to fill their

needs for salespeople. Approximately 70% of students receiving a marketing degree will

choose sales as their first career.

It is a common perception that sales as a career is not a subject worth pursuing

let alone going to an institution of higher education for a formal education in the field

(Ditz, 1967; Ebey, 1957; Mason, 1965, Swenson, Swinyard, Langrehr, and Smith

(1993). The lack of a formal education in sales leads to a lack of effectiveness and a

negative effect on profits and customer perception of the business (Karakaya, Quigley,

and Bingham 2011).

Prof. Kilic is leading the setup of a professional sales program at the University of

Wisconsin­River Falls (UWRF). There is an increase in demand for prepared and

knowledgeable graduates by international and local businesses the College of Business

and Economics has opted to offer a Sales Emphasis in direct response to business

organizations needs. Our research team put together a Qualtrics survey and delivered it

to students for research findings for a potential sales program. It was sent to all college

students in the College of Business and Economics at UWRF. The overall goal of the

survey was to collect students perceptions, attitudes, demographics, and expectations

towards the sales profession and education. This research will ultimately help determine

the level of intention for participation in the program. Dr. Kilic hopes this information will

improve the marketing plan for the sales program. This will aid in positioning the sales

program as a valid option to pursue.

5

Research Objectives 1. To gather attitudes from UWRF College of Business and Economic (CBE)

students towards the position of sales.

2. To collect UWRF CBE students’ perceptions towards salespeople.

3. To perceive UWRF CBE students’ feelings and expectations towards selling.

4. To find the intentions of UWRF CBE students deciding to pursue a sales

education/career.

5. To gather demographics from the UWRF CBE students who participate.

Figure 1: Research Objectives

Methodology

Research Design

The primary data collected came solely from our measurement instrument in the

form of an on­line survey hosted by Qualtrics. The only source for secondary data was

gleaned from the literary review.

Sample Design

The target population for our measurement instrument were students enrolled in

the College of Business and Economics (CBE) at University Wisconsin­River Falls

(UWRF). This population included students from all class standings for a total of 1,026.

The sampling framing was a convenience sample indicative of a non­probability

sampling technique. The sample that was obtained included a percentage of students

from each grade level.

6

Table 1: Class standing participation rate

Freshmen 12%

Sophomore 17%

Junior 32%

Senior 39%

From the population of 1,026 that the survey was emailed to we had 384

students open the survey, 169 begin the survey, and 122 complete the survey. This

means that we had about a 12% response rate and 904 students who did not complete

the survey which resulted in an 84% non­response rate.

Figure 2: Email Distributions from Qualtrics

Data Collection Procedures

The survey was emailed out on November 20th, 2015 to understand three

questions that are common with standard survey research

Who is answering our questions?

Who played an influencing role in the decision making process, from a

demographic or lifestyle perspective?

How they are answering them?

How did they make their decision, what they examine or consider, when

the decision was made and what do they plan next after sharing their

thoughts and feelings regarding sales?

Why they are answering them in this way?

7

What did they like or dislike about sales attitudes, jobs, or careers?

The survey was accessible online and was an essential research tool because it

offered capabilities beyond other types of self administered questionnaires available, we

also allowed for mobile devices to take the survey because it is becoming an

increasingly popular method for data collection. The initial deadline for the survey was

going to be November 30th, 2015, but a lack of responses from students over the

holiday break, which then prompted our research team to extend the deadline to

December 8th, 2015. This yielded some success as we saw the number of respondents

increase by 40% over the coming days until the deadline. There were two different

software programs used to analyze the data: on a simple basis was Microsoft Excel to

organize the data and perform simple computations that would allow for some

analyzation. The second was IBM SPSS to further break down and analyze important

qualitative and quantitative data.

Measurement Instrument

The Qualtrics survey was designed as a noncomparative, balanced 7­point Likert

scale. This adequately measured respondent’s attitudes towards the research

objectives and offered a precise level of measurement. The questionnaire was 49 items

long, it contained two skip logic questions as well as two open ended questions to

further gauge respondent attitudes, perceptions, and feelings towards selling as a

career and allowed the research team to further identify rationale as to whether

respondents have intentions or no intention to pursuing sales education or a career in

sales, and why. There were no uncommon measurement techniques used in the setup

of the questionnaire or the analyzing of the data.

8

Findings

The total sample size was 121 students with forty­six percent of the students

being male and fifty­four percent were female. A majority of the respondents were 21

years or older and of a Junior or Senior standing. Fifteen percent of the students had

taken or are currently in a sales course. Thirty­two percent of respondents had indicated

that they been previously or are currently employed in a sales position. Forty­four

percent had or has a family member employed in a sales position.

Table 2: Perception towards selling as a profession

Perception towards selling as a profession Mean Standard Deviation

Selling is personally satisfying 4.57 1.75

Selling is interesting 4.83 1.53

Selling is exciting 4.67 1.6

Selling is doing something worthwhile on the job 4.97 1.5

Selling gives a sense of accomplishment 5.39 1.42

Selling is a way to advance in your career 5.17 1.43

Selling provides financial security 4.7 1.57

Selling is challenging 5.68 1.37

Table 2 shows respondents perceptions of sales as a profession. The mean

value on each table is on a scale of 1 to 7, 1 being strongly disagree and 7 being

strongly agree. As shown by the table, on average respondents somewhat agree or

agree with positive attributes of sales as a profession. Respondents felt especially

strong about sales being difficult and that it gives a sense of accomplishment.

9

Table 3: Perception towards salespeople

Perception towards salespeople Mean Standard Deviation

Salespeople often inflate the benefits of the product they

sell

5.55 1.02

Salespeople often stretch the truth to make a sale 5.29 1.15

Salespeople routinely take advantage of uneducated

buyers

5.19 1.3

Salespeople often make up something

rather than admit they do not know the

answer to a buyer's question

4.65

1.32

Salespeople commonly sell products that people do not

need

4.93 1.31

Salespeople often misrepresent guarantees or

warranties

of the products/services they sell

4.38

1.47

The personal relations involved in selling are disgusting 2.92 1.39

Salespeople lead an undignified life because they must

be pretending all the time

2.26

1.24

Salespeople sell against their personal values for money 2.85 1.42

Salespeople are low status individuals 2.12 1.19

Salespeople are confident individuals 5.75 0.83

10

Salespeople recognize the importance of understanding

customer needs

5.52 1

Salespeople are perceived favorably by others 3.78 1.21

Salespeople are admired and respected by others 3.57 1.19

Table 3 reveals that respondents have an overall slightly negative view on

salespeople. While they acknowledge that many salespeople have positive attributes

such as recognizing people’s needs and are confident, they also perceive them as not

being respectable or admired and that they will willingly misrepresent information for

sales. The strongest feeling they had towards salespeople is that they inflate the truth

about benefits of the products they sell.

Table 4: Perception towards a sales career

Perception towards a sales career Mean Standard Deviation

A sales job provides freedom to use your own judgement 4.64 1.35

A sales job is a high status job 3.92 1.24

A sales job offers career growth opportunities 5.08 1.15

A sales job provides substantial income 4.56 1.2

A sales job is not a job for a person with talent 2.64 1.11

A sales job offers no intellectual challenges 2.36 1.08

A sales job offers very few chances for advancement 2.71 1.25

Selling is a job, not a career 2.84 1.46

11

Table 4 echos Table 2 and respondents perceptions of sales as a career. While

they do not feel sales is a high status job(true to their perceptions as salespeople being

unrespectable), they do feel that it has many growth opportunities and provides

intellectual challenges.

Table 5: Attitude towards sales education

Attitude towards sales education Mean Standard Deviation

Sales Education is important 5.29 1.32

Going into selling would be a complete waste of a college

education

2.8 1.51

Sales Education is necessary for me to succeed at a future

job

4.53 1.61

Sales Education would be beneficial in achieving a better

job

4.96 1.48

Sales education would help acclimate me to the economy 4.7 1.48

Each of these questions relate specifically to the marketing problem: the intention

of UWRF CBE students to participate in the sales program. Interestingly enough, the

numbers above indicate a slightly positive attitude towards sales education. The

question asking if sales education is important received a significantly high mean with a

small standard deviation. This number follows through all of the following four questions.

Sales education is favorable with the students surveyed. The low standard deviation

indicates that most respondents were responding with the same answer.

12

Table 6: Intention for selecting a sales career

Intention for selecting a sales career Mean Standard Deviation

I am interested in pursuing a professional sales related

career

3.08 1.86

Obtaining a position in sales is a priority for me after

graduation

2.63 1.76

At some point during my career, I will probably hold a

position in professional sales

3.58

1.95

This final section is a set of critical questions. We can see from each question

that the mean is less than four. This indicates a disagreement to the statements in some

fashion. Although the means may be low, there is a significant standard deviation

because the likert scales allowed for seven possible answers. With a larger population

size, the standard deviation would hopefully be reduced. Combing through results, we

found that selecting a sales career is not a priority or interest for a majority of students.

Many students did not intend to select sales as a career after college.

13

Figure 3: Majors of participating students

Located above is the majors of the students surveyed which can have a

significant impact on their intentions to pursue the sales degree at UWRF. The

percentages add up to more than 100% because this question allowed for more than

one response. Students could be minoring in business or have a double major. The

chart shows that the largest individual major represented is Business

Administration­Management with Marketing and Business Administration coming in a

close second at 19%.

14

Figure 4: Interest in pursuing sales against class standing

In accordance with the graph above, we have found that as a student advances

in their career at UWRF, they become less interested in pursuing sales as a major. The

percentage of students interested remains fairly constant throughout each class

standing, but we do see a significant difference in the indifferent column. Juniors and

seniors are approximately 67% uninterested in pursuing a sales related career, whereas

30% and 52% of freshman and sophomores respectively are uninterested.

Figure 5: Participation in sales against intention to enroll in a sales program

15

Above is a cross­tabulation between respondent’s exposure to sales positions by

either their own employment or a family member’s employment and the respondent’s

interest and intent to enroll in the UWRF sales program. As you can see, there is a

direct correlation between student’s exposure to sales positions and their interest and

intent to the sales program. The overwhelming amount of respondents who showed no

interest or intent in the program also had not been previously employed in a sales

position nor did they have an immediate family member hold a position in sales.

Below is a graphical representation of the classification of answers we received

when asked, “Do you intend to enroll in the professional sales program at UWRF?”.

These classifications were subjective and organized as qualitative data by one of the

researchers.

Figure 6: Classifications of responses to the intention to enroll

16

Conclusions

There was not a very high percentage of students interested in sales as a career.

Of freshmen only 30% of them were interested, with sophomores it was 26%, and

among juniors it was even less. According to our findings, business and economics

students at River Falls seemed to have an overall good perception of sales as a career.

However people did not have a very high opinion about Salespeople themselves. This

probably leads people to be wary of becoming salespeople because they do not want to

others have negative opinions about them.

Our open ended questions mirrored the results we received from the survey

question that skewed negatively when it came to people’s perceptions of salesmen.

There were several people who wrote in the open ended questions saying they would

not want to go into a career in selling because they felt that salespeople were

“dishonest” or “pushy”. Other reasons people in the open ended questions gave for not

joining the sales program included not believing themselves to be a good fit for the

career thinking it would be difficult.

People who participated in our study were largely unaware of the sales program

at UWRF and many people did not know what a career in sales involved. The biggest

reason that students gave in the open ended for not enrolling in the sales program was

that they already had made their choices for a major and had no intention to change it.

Recommendations

From the results of our study we have discovered that we have several main

issues when it comes to people being interested in getting a degree in sales at the

University of Wisconsin River Falls. People have a poor opinion of salespeople, they

think sales is too difficult as a career, they are unaware of the program at River falls,

and the majority students are not willing to change their major.

A solution for getting people interested in the sales program at UWRF could be

good promotional programs to prospective students, and also to freshmen and

sophomores. After this, there is not all that much point in promoting the program to

17

juniors and seniors because the majority of them already have made up their mind on a

major. They are unlikely to change their minds and switch their majors after their

sophomore year. Promoting the sales program to high schoolers and freshmen and

sophomores might improve their perceptions about salesmen and sales as a career.

Some ways of promoting Sales as a career option to these demographics might

include having someone from the university visit high schools and promote the program,

promote it through online venues, and have a table on campus. Since many people

choose their major after taking a few classes at UWRF, another option would be to offer

an introductory sales class where people learn about the profession so they can make

an informed decision. In the CBE 100 class at the University, professors come in and

promote career choices. This has an influence on students, they might make their

decision to join the sales program due to that.

It is difficult to change people’s attitudes and perceptions, which is why one must

promote sales as a viable career option earlier on, such as in high school or in people’s

freshman year of college.

Limitations

Sampling Error

Although we were able to draw conclusions based on the results of our sampling,

there was still error both randomly and systematically. The first possible error in our

sampling process was random sampling error. Since our survey was a convenience sample and not a probability sample, we can not calculate the sampling error. We can

conclude however that since our sample size was small, the error must have been

large. This error was caused by our sample size and cannot be totally eliminated, only

reduced by increasing the sample size.

Measurement Error

Systematic error was evident in our sample results. Although random sampling

error can not be entirely avoided, systematic error or nonsampling error can eliminated.

One of the measurement errors that had the largest implication on our results was

18

nonresponse bias. As stated before, our sample frame consisted of CBE students which

was a total population sample of 1,026 students. Of the 1,026 students, only 122

respondents completed the survey. At about 12% response rate, we can only speculate

that the other 88% of those who did not respond to the survey systematically differ in

some way. This nonresponse rate includes students who could not be reached at a

particular time or unable to respond in some capacity. Since a total of 1,026 students

were sent the survey email and 122 completed the survey, we can conclude that 904

students did not take the survey. Our largest form of nonresponse bias was the item

nonresponse bias that eradicated our results greatly. Since the survey did not force the

respondent to respond to each question in order to complete the survey, our results and

conclusions drawn could be skewed. This could have been minimized by making the

survey shorter in length, making the survey more respondent friendly, providing an

incentive to the respondents, as well as conducting the survey at a better time when

people were available (e.g. not over a holiday break from school).

Another measurement error that could have limited or caused bias in our results

is measurement instrument bias. We used a Likert scale in our survey, which is widely

used and highly reliable. However, since our Likert scale had a neutral selection option,

respondents were given an easy and neutral way to avoid the questionnaire. This could

have given us limitations and bias in our results. This error could have been avoided by

a more careful and vigorous questionnaire design and pretest process.

Other Limitations

Another systematic error that is a form of sample design error that limited our

results was selection error in our survey. Since we used the entire College of Business

and Economics, graduate students were included in the survey when they were later

determined that they were not to be included in the survey. If the graduate students that

were supposed to be excluded were significantly different in regard to the variables of

interest, our sample results and conclusions could be biased. Since the appropriate

selection was not properly followed, it likely had an impact on the results of the survey.

19

Although we committed selection error, we later removed them from our results which

helped us reduce selection bias. This could have been minimized by developing

selection procedures that will ensure complete randomness and nonbias as well as by

developing quality control checks to make sure that the procedures were properly

followed. This could have been accomplished in the questionnaire design and pretesting

process.

20

Appendices

Appendix 1: Data Collection Instrument

21

22

23

24

25

26

Appendix 2: Sample of Verbatims

Our survey included the following open­ended question:

“If you answered No or Not Sure to the previous question, please explain why”

“I worked in retail/sales for almost a decade, and currently work in a role that

supports sales. It is not something I am interested in pursuing as a profession

nor do I feel additional training in the field is beneficial to me, personally.”

“I don't know what the program is and have never heard of it.”

“I am not wanting to go into sales. I am wanting to take my business degree into

a different field”

“I will only be at UWRF for so long, and want to make sure I make the best use of

that time. Although sales training would likely be beneficial, I feel that other

courses would serve me better.”

“I'm already a junior and am only a few credits away from graduating with a

business administration and marketing degree.“

As you can see, a good portion of the open­ended responses have to do with

their interest in another profession and/or have already decided on a different major. As

shown earlier in the report, students who have already committed to a different major

was the most popular response to the open­ended njquestion. This further reinforces

the importance of exposing students to the UWRF sales program early in their

education.

27

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Ozcan Kilic for dedicating his time and effort into this project.

Also to Dr. Darryl Miller for his input and direction, as this project would not be possible

without them. We hope this information will be a valuable resource for the future

direction of the University of Wisconsin­River Falls professional sales program.

28

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–27.

Kutscher, R. E. (1990). Outlook 2000: The major trends. Occupational Outlook

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Simon, B. (2006, July/August). The paper (money) chase. Sales & Marketing

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Swenson, M. J., Swinyard, W. R., Langrehr, F. W., & Smith, S. M. (1993). The appeal of

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