2008 Woodie Awards
Program designed to be true-to-life
By: Brooke Adams
Issue date: 3/21/08 Section: News
Central Michigan University students soon will be able to gain another advantage over their future business competitors.
A concentration in professional sales will be offered to marketing students through the opening of the CMU Professional Sales Institute in the fall, while a sales minor will be available for students of all other majors.
Several faculty and staff members from the College of Business Administration designed the program as well as Jeff Seeley, CMU alumnus and president and CEO of Carew International, one of the world's leading sales force training and consulting firms.
"It's a cutting-edge, real-world program," said Mike Fields, dean of the College of Business Administration. "Certainly, it's going to have traditional sales theory included, but we also incorporated real-world selling techniques."
The program, which consists of 21 credit hours of various business and marketing classes, will give students "a good philosophical perspective on how to sell in a business to business selling market," said Richard Divine, chair of the Department of Marketing and Hospitality Services Administration.
The program will enforce the importance of selling in the business world through hands-on, true-to-life examples.
Topics that will be covered include negotiation, time management, planning of customer meetings and even basics such as creating Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
"The goal of this new sales program is to develop an innovative program that adds value to our students regardless of their major," Fields said.
In turn, the end result of the program will be students that have a skill set attractive to industry, Fields said.
In addition to professors already hired, Divine said he is 99 percent certain a new person will be brought on board to work.
After hearing about the new program, DeWitt freshman and Business major Monica Lee is highly considering the soon-to-be implemented minor.
"It interests me because in business selling is extremely important," Lee said.
news@cm-life.com
A concentration in professional sales will be offered to marketing students through the opening of the CMU Professional Sales Institute in the fall, while a sales minor will be available for students of all other majors.
Several faculty and staff members from the College of Business Administration designed the program as well as Jeff Seeley, CMU alumnus and president and CEO of Carew International, one of the world's leading sales force training and consulting firms.
"It's a cutting-edge, real-world program," said Mike Fields, dean of the College of Business Administration. "Certainly, it's going to have traditional sales theory included, but we also incorporated real-world selling techniques."
The program, which consists of 21 credit hours of various business and marketing classes, will give students "a good philosophical perspective on how to sell in a business to business selling market," said Richard Divine, chair of the Department of Marketing and Hospitality Services Administration.
The program will enforce the importance of selling in the business world through hands-on, true-to-life examples.
Topics that will be covered include negotiation, time management, planning of customer meetings and even basics such as creating Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
"The goal of this new sales program is to develop an innovative program that adds value to our students regardless of their major," Fields said.
In turn, the end result of the program will be students that have a skill set attractive to industry, Fields said.
In addition to professors already hired, Divine said he is 99 percent certain a new person will be brought on board to work.
After hearing about the new program, DeWitt freshman and Business major Monica Lee is highly considering the soon-to-be implemented minor.
"It interests me because in business selling is extremely important," Lee said.
news@cm-life.com
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