{"id":65393,"date":"2022-02-11T10:34:29","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T17:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=65393"},"modified":"2022-02-15T08:44:55","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T15:44:55","slug":"professional-selling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/professional-selling\/","title":{"rendered":"Selling experience: How an NAU alum is helping students prepare for day-one success in the business world"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mission of The W.A. Franke College of Business is to prepare students to be ready for the business world on day one of their careers, and given that about 80 percent of marketing majors and 50 percent of other business majors start their careers in sales, sales experience can make a world of difference.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A 7-year-old program designed to help students get to that level got an infusion of support last month from an alumnus with 30 years of experience who\u2019s now an executive with a major company.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Professional Selling Program, which began with three classes, gives students knowledge of sales, focuses on career readiness and includes a sales club that sponsors a speaker series and local, statewide and national sales competitions. The program, <\/span>which has been recognized as one of the top sales programs nationally by <\/span>the Sales Education Foundation, also includes the <\/span>Sales Advisory Council<\/span>, which is comprised of alumni, corporate executives and faculty members. The latest member of the council and newest supporter of the program is 1992 alumnus <\/span>Dan Pe\u00f1a<\/span><\/b>, who graduated with a degree in business in 1992 and is executive vice president of national joint ventures loanDepot, the nation\u2019s second-largest non-bank retail lender.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pe\u00f1a is contributing his expertise as a visiting classroom lecturer and on the council, which provides industry feedback and insight about how the curriculum and other learning experiences can prepare students for success in sales and marketing careers.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many sales skills that can only be honed through practice and experience,\u201d he said. \u201cI know this was true for me, as I found my way into<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ProSell
NAU’s ProSell Club met in early February with the Boys and Girls Club executive team for a service project\u2014building bikes for kids. Top photo: A blindfolded NAU student works with a Boys and Girls Club participant to build a bike, which was donated to the organization.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the business naturally and built a career in mortgage sales after graduating from NAU. The remarkable set of curricular and co-curricular experiences these students receive is a true differentiator and really propels them to the top of the candidate list when they\u2019re competing for their first jobs. I look back on my own college career and wish I\u2019d had something like this, so it\u2019s a real joy for me to be able to engage with these hungry and talented students as they embark on building their careers.\u201d\u202f\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jana Carpenter<\/span><\/b>, the coordinator of the sales program, said this kind of training is critical for new graduates who are hitting the job market. The collaboration with the industry helps in both directions; students get the kind of experience they need to succeed early, and companies get motivated, intelligent salespeople that they don\u2019t have to teach how to be effective. This program helps students gain confidence, gives them experience in selling to senior decision-makers and provides an understanding of the dynamics of persuasion and influence.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great partnership,\u201d she said of the relationship between FCB and their corporate partners. \u201cWe get input from companies on the skills they want in students to help us with curriculum. That input assists us in making them business-ready, and the sponsors give our students amazing opportunities. Our students are business-ready professionals and desired by employers.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more about the Franke College of Business\u2019 Professional Selling Program.<\/span>
\n<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mission of The W.A. Franke College of Business is to prepare students to be ready for the business world on day one of their careers, and given that about 80 percent of marketing majors and 50 percent of other business majors start their careers in sales, sales experience can make a world of difference.\u00a0\u00a0…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":65399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}