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Sales by the Schoolbook
June 04, 2007
A decade ago, 3M was trying to solve the problem of finding star talent. Its innovative solution? Teach sales in college classrooms
By Julia Chang
The first time 3M invited university representatives to its offices to discuss how to work together to teach sales and establish internship programs, the meeting didn't get very far. That's because most of the schools "didn't think sales could be taught," says Jimmiee Gaulden, talent management leader for the St. Paul, Minn.-based diversified technology company known for such products as Post-it notes and Scotch tape. "A dean of one of the business schools asked us, 'Do you really think you can teach someone to sell?'"
Representatives from two or three of those schools, however, checked with their faculty to see how many sales education courses they offered, and called back with some disappointing results. "There was probably less than ten percent sales education content in their curricula," Gaulden says. "Almost all of their marketing students were going into sales positions, so that concerned them." The poor makeup of sales classes prompted one of those schools, Tuskegee University in Alabama to host a symposium on sales education. It invited about 14 southeastern colleges to address how to teach sales, and about a dozen 3M employees attended to discuss exactly what meant to sell and how rewarding the career truly could be.
That was more than a decade ago. Today, 3M is a leader in the development of university-level sales education. It partners with 10 colleges on what it calls the Frontline Initiative, in which 3M helps sponsor sales education programs, develop curricula, and boost the visibility of sales as a career in those schools, as well as run a sales internship program. In return, the company gets access to the next generation of educated, trained and diverse young sales professionals—a demographic that many companies are hungry for, but have a hard time attracting and retaining. According to a survey of more than 300 businesses conducted by DePaul University's Sales Leadership Program, one of 3M's university partners, only 36 percent of firms provide sales leadership training, only 22 percent use systems to identify sales talent, and only 19 percent of firms match talented people to jobs.
"The skill level required in sales today is very different from what it was twenty years ago," says David Hoffmeister, co-director of DePaul's Sales Leadership Program in Chicago. "[Salespeople] are expected to be skilled at business acumen, critical thinking, understanding supply chain management, and a whole list of things that wouldn't have been on the list before. They are in fact business managers, and companies find it difficult to find people who not only understand what a sales career is, but who want to pursue a professional career in it." 3M foresaw that dilemma, and their solution was to raise up future sellers instead of waiting for the talent pool to run dry.
Defining a Sales Career
Last year, 3M hired more than 180 salespeople across the company, and the number of new sales hires continues to rise over time. The high demand for talent, as well as the impending exodus of baby boomers from the workforce, makes it easy to see why the company would be so invested in finding a pool of quality, young talent. Prior to its educational partnerships, 3M did recruit on campuses but quite frankly Gaulden says, "we had a big challenge convincing top students that sales was a rewarding profession. Most of them thought it was persuading people to buy things they didn't want to buy. They thought of the used-car salesperson as what selling was all about."
That's why a large part of the Frontline program is marketing the career of sales. 3M sales leaders visit classrooms to talk about their jobs, the level of skill that's required in business-to-business sales, what it's like to make calls to the corner office and how to handle key accounts. The efforts have attracted many of the participating schools' students to sales, a career they might not have considered it otherwise. Almost all freshmen coming into DePaul's College of Commerce say they are not considering sales as a career, but by the time they graduate, about 70 percent of the marketing majors end up taking a sales job. "It exposes them to the professional side of sales as opposed to the cultural side of sales," Hoffmeister says.
Likewise, most of the students who enroll in 3M's program say they are surprised they ended up considering sales, but they enter their 12-week internship well-trained and ready to sell. And sell they do; the interns, usually around 20 per year, spend at least half of their time working hands-on with customers. "The internship allows them to check sales out, to see what the real career is like," says Bob MacDonald, senior vice president of marketing and sales and the sponsor for the Frontline Initiative within 3M. "A lot of learning goes into great salesmanship. It's truly a profession; it includes a lot of electronic devices, time and territory management. Students require training in salesmanship, but also in the tools and technologies that enable salesmanship. The internship gives students a great opportunity to see if this is the career for them."
Finding Future Sales Stars
Make no mistake; 3M's program isn't solely a philanthropic effort. 3M is upfront about the fact that their school partnerships were launched to help it meet the challenges of its own sales hiring. On top of finding smart, diverse salespeople who have great business acumen, the company also wanted to get sales talent up to speed quickly and reduce ramp-up times. And true to 3M, where innovation is a core value, the company decided to implement its own creative solution for filling the talent pipeline. "We're always trying to hire people who are ready to hit the ground running," MacDonald says. "People were coming out of school with business degrees, but nobody was doing a great job of teaching people to be successful in sales, which is your first business job, in many cases."
Schools apply to be a member of 3M's Frontline Education Partnership and must demonstrate a willingness to accept that "you can teach sales education and you can integrate sales curricula into your overall business education offers," Gaulden says. "They have to be very confident they can do a paradigm shift like this, and for some schools it's easier than others." If they are accepted, they develop much of their coursework based on what 3M looks for in its salespeople. "The universities do know what our competency requirements are and they shape curriculum based on the requirements 3M has," Gaulden says. "We're not academicians, they are, and they're very skilled at taking our competencies and formulating a curricula that's going to allow us to grow strategically." The company also holds symposiums with the partners to talk about possible changes in curriculum, benchmark strategies and trends in the profession.
In addition to funds, the schools are also assigned a team leader (a local 3M executive) who coordinates activities, visits classes to talk about sales, and keeps her eyes peeled for recruits. "Once you're in a classroom and you see the same students twice, you start to become familiar with them," says Margaret Smith, a Chicago-based team leader who is 3M's business director for the marine and specialty vehicle market. "Sometimes a professor sometimes tells me, 'Get to know that person better.' Then I tell the student, 'If you want this internship, get to know me.'"
The pre-training they receive in the schools has made a difference: 3M offers 85 percent of its interns jobs, and while some receive competing offers, most of them choose to come to work for 3M, according to Gaulden. When asked about their effectiveness versus non-intern sales hires, he jokes: "Well, that's the trade secret, right? Let's just say they are faster because they have the education and the internship, and the [benefits to] the corporation are enormous. They get up to speed faster because they already have business skills, so it does enhance our capacity to do more. A lot of our businesses are terribly excited about getting Frontline graduates."
With the war for talent constantly raging, 3M's efforts have brought to light the value behind sales education programs. Not only do students learn about sales as a skill, they study it as a discipline, and get some job prospects along the way. At DePaul, for instance, sales students are taught how to network and practice at a party for students and partner companies, which include the likes of Target, Kellogg's and State Farm, in addition to 3M. DePaul also works with its partners to match them with recruits.
"The benefit of the program is exposure to a variety of organizations and the demands of a sales career, and presenting to students what the career means, from relocation to the ethical considerations in sales to some of the technical applications required to sell today," says Daniel Strunk, an executive-in-residence who teaches sales and marketing courses at DePaul. "I think students coming in [to the workforce] from programs that focus on selling have a much better idea of where they are going, and they've chosen their profession."
With additional reporting by Maggie Rauch
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Sidebar: At A Glance
3M
Headquarters: St. Paul, Minn.
Chairman and CEO: George W. Buckley
2006 Sales: $22.9 billion
Employees: 75,333; 34,553 in the U.S.
Description: 3M is a global diversified technology company organized into the following six business units: consumer and office; display and graphics; electro and communications; health care; industrial and transportation; safety, security and protection services.
Sidebar: Will You Find Your Next Sales Star in B-School?
Possibly. But Bradford Thomas, manager of the sales talent practice for Development Dimensions International, a human resources consulting firm headquartered in Pittsburgh, says to keep your options open, do your homework—and please don't hire Willy Loman.
S&MM: Are business schools the best place to recruit
top salespeople?
Thomas: We're seeing a lot of organizations turn over every rock to find new salespeople. The talent crunch is real. I don’t think it's a question of whether b-school [students] are better. It's more a matter of individual skills than which school you come from.
S&MM: What are those skills?
Thomas: There are certain things you need to look for, like resiliency, learning agility and problem-solving skills. Those skills set you up to solve complex business problems. Learning agility, on the other hand, is probably more important now than it's ever been. It's not just learning a product. It's the Internet, 24-hour news cycles, the speed with which information travels these days—the challenge is to organize and make sense out of all that information.
S&MM: What about managing this next generation?
Thomas: The old tricks don't necessarily work anymore. [The next generation] is looking for a creative and fun work culture, a compatible workforce and team, and opportunities to grow. It's the first job for many of them, and they're not looking to join a company and stay for 20 years. You have to sell the job to the candidates. Salary alone probably won't do it any more.
S&MM: Is there a tried-and-true way to finding future
stars on campus?
Thomas: Sales departments are twice as likely to rely on personality tests to find their sellers than other parts of the operation. Personality tests are wonderful to help you find a match for your sales culture. But what you really should do is put your top salespeople under a microscope, and you'll discover that they will probably be an even match of extrovert and introvert. Stick to those core competencies—resiliency, learning agility and problem-solving skills—and you'll be fine. Personality testing is most effective when it gets at the motivational aspects. You can teach people about your products or what your sales process is, but can you really teach them how to pick themselves up after a rejection? You can't really train for that; that's hardwiring. Finally, don't hire Willy Lomans. Sales strategies shift extremely fast. The Willy Loman type of sales job doesn't exist today. Sales leaders are always telling me that their sales are nothing like they were three years ago. You need to find what will drive success and have your hiring process move with it.
S&MM: If you were hiring a salesperson would you be looking at b-schools or elsewhere?
Thomas: I think you need to keep all of your options open. That being said, if you’re hunting big game you need to know where your watering holes are. Keep track of where your best hires are coming from. Once you know where, you need to own that watering hole. Building relationships with your best schools is essential. The faculty will steer the cream-of-the-crop candidates your way.
S&MM: What about bringing the talent onboard?
Thomas: The best way is to get them placed as an intern between their first and second year in school. That's ideal. They’re trying you on, and you’re trying them on. If it works now, the odds are pretty good it’ll work when they graduate.
—Joseph Kornik
Sidebar: School is in Session
Not sure what to expect from a college sales education program? Here's a sampling of what you’ll find at three other universities with extensive sales curricula:
Russ Berrie Institute for Professional Sales
William Patterson University
Wayne, N.J.
Founded: 2003
Enrollment: 126 students
Classes: Basic Selling, Negotiation, Global Issues in Sales, Sales Management, Customer Relationship Building, Advanced Sales
Where students end up: "Our biggest problem is meeting the demand of the recruiters," says David Reid, executive director of
the program. All graduating students have found jobs well before graduation at different sales organizations in a range of industries.
Unique programs: The students practice sales in a behavior lab, do field work and have quotas to meet for many of their projects.
The results: "The students are coming out with a clean slate. They have the basic skills sets, and they're able to ramp up faster than someone who has no sales background," Reid says.
Center for Professional Selling
Coles College of Business
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, Ga.
Founded: Major was created in 1989
Enrollment: Approximately 100 students
Classes: Professional Selling, Market Analysis, Sales Management, Advanced Selling, International Marketing, Business to Business Marketing
Where students end up: The school has ties with more than 50 companies, including Liberty Mutual and ADP.
Unique programs: Host of the National Collegiate Sales Competition, a contest for college students from across America
The results: "Our students have a great desire to pursue sales as a career, not just a stepping stone," says Terry W. Loe, associate professor and director of the Center for Professional Selling.
Fisher Institute of Professional Selling
University of Akron
Akron, Ohio
Founded: 1989
Enrollment: 107 sales majors
Classes: Professional Selling, Sales Management, Business Negotiation, Supply Chain Management, Persuasion, Interpersonal Communications
Where students end up: Pharmaceutical sales, financial services, business-to-business sales
Unique programs: Operates a seven-room sales practice set that allows students to practice their pitch in professional environments
The results: "Our program is a lot more hands-on, a lot more selling and a lot less listening to professors," says John Hawes, director of the institute.
—Rebecca Aronauer
Sidebar: On the Front Lines
3M's Frontline Education Partnership is an initiative in which 3M helps fund and shape sales programs and curricula at the college level. Not only do schools get 3M's insight and resources, the company gets interns and a crack at tomorrow's top sales talent. Here is a list of schools that currently partner with 3M:
Baylor University
Waco, Texas
College of St. Catherine
St. Paul, Minn.
DePaul University
Chicago
University of Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
University of Houston
Houston
Indiana University
Bloomington, Ind.
North Carolina A&T University
Greensboro, N.C.
Southern University and A&M College
Baton Rouge, La.
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee, Ala.
Xavier University
New Orleans
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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