Campus Units

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Published Version

Publication Date

Spring 2017

Journal or Book Title

Advances in Engineering Education

Volume

6

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

19

Abstract

Sales engineering or technical sales programs bridge engineering and business to educate engineering students in sales specific to their discipline. Students develop business awareness through such programs, providing the sales workforce with technically knowledgeable salespeople. The following study analyzed cohorts of students enrolled in a technical sales for engineers course to assess the changing perceptions and attitudes of engineering students toward technical sales. Students reported statistically significant changes in perceptions regarding interest, need, and rank of current ability toward technical sales and social skills after completing the course. Student perceptions of sales skills being innate and ingrained decreased. Group analysis – enrollment in the sales minor or previous sales experience – revealed expected differences including higher ranked prior ability and initial interest in sales. A separate analysis of 20 technical sales skills at the end of the course was used to highlight the level students perceived they had achieved each skill.

Comments

This article is published as Carberry, Adam R., Daniel P. Bumblauskas, and David P. Sly. "Selling Technical Sales to Engineering Learners." Advances in Engineering Education 6, no. 1 (2017).

Copyright Owner

American Society for Engineering Education

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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