Partners sold on NIU sales program

by Joe King

Already considered one of the best programs of its kind in the country, the Professional Sales Program (PSP) continues to make improvements, lining up corporate sponsorships, publishing a journal and adding named professorships.

Created in 1989, the PSP answered a need identified by the NIU College of Business Board of Executive Advisors: to provide better trained entry level salespeople. Under the leadership of sales professors Dan C. Weilbaker and Rick Ridnour, the program quickly gained a reputation for excellence, with dozens of top-flight companies lined up each year to hire graduates.

Ranked for many years in the top tier of sales training programs, the PSP attained elite status in 2002 when it moved into its high-tech facilities in Barsema Hall and became the first collegiate sales program in the nation to be certified by the Professional Society for Sales and Marketing Training.

Rather than rest on those laurels, the program has continued looking for ways to improve. An instrumental part of that effort was a campaign launched this past semester to secure corporate support for the program.

Companies had long provided some financial support to the program, but more was needed. Practicing what they preach in their classes, the faculty honed their sales pitch and began approaching likely partners, hoping to find 15 interested businesses. Within a few months, 13 of the 15 were snapped up, including the three top-tier “Presidential” partnerships, each of which cost $25,000 a year for three years.

That quick success came as no surprise to Weilbaker, who says the quality of the program's graduates made the proposal an easy sell.

“Our students are our best advertising,” Weilbaker says, noting that this semester, 30 of 32 students enrolled in the class had jobs before graduation, and the remaining two had declined offers.

In return for their investment, participating companies attain preferred recruiter status, increasing their access to the students enrolled in the program. That access includes priority consideration to provide guest lecturers, opportunities to sponsor events (such as the program's annual Business Golf 101 golf outing), and invitations to an exclusive reception following the department's Meet the Firm Night.

Participating companies are already seeing a return on their investment.

“Representatives from McKesson Pharmaceutical Group (a Presidential level sponsor) told me they felt like they had already gotten their money's worth after just three months,” Weilbaker says.

This year the partnership program generated $122,000, and that amount will grow to nearly $200,000 in the third year of the program as fees at the three lower levels of sponsorship gradually increase. That money will be used to help keep the program's technology up to date and to offset some other ongoing costs. However, it also has allowed the program to do some exciting things, including the creation of two new named professorships.

As part of their commitment, each of the three Presidential level partners sponsors a professorship. Weilbaker has held a named professorship in the program for several years and his current sponsor, Phillip Morris USA, was quick to snap up a Presidential level sponsorship to continue that relationship and Ridnour is now the Enterprise Professor of Sales, sponsored by Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

The third named professorship, sponsored by the McKesson Pharmaceutical Group, will help fund a new full-time professorship within the program.

“We will be looking for a top-flight academic with sales experience to fill that position, and being able to offer a named professorship like this should help us attract some outstanding applicants,” says Chair of Marketing Denise Schoenbachler.

Having so many named professorships in such a small program is unusual, Weilbaker says.

“Most other sales programs around the country are lucky if they have one named professorship, so to have three is really quite a compliment for our program,” he says.

The funding generated by the corporate partnerships also will help the department pay for the publication of the Journal of Selling and Major Account Management.

One of only two journals in the world dedicated to the topic of sales, the publication had been produced in England for its first five years of existence. Weilbaker, who served on the board of directors for the publication, noted that it seemed to be losing steam. He stepped in, made some inquiries, and negotiated a deal to transfer the journal to NIU.

The journal features academic articles (selected through a double blind refereed process), as well as pieces written by sales practitioners.

NIU will take ownership of the journal in July, and Weilbaker, who will serve as editor, hopes to have an edition published by January, with subsequent editions being published quarterly.

“We're delighted to be publishing this journal,” says Schoenbahler. “Bringing this publication in-house speaks to our dedication to the academic discipline dedicated to the study of sales.”

5-23-05