As I travel around the country meeting and working with sales professionals I am constantly amazed at how few people in our industry ever planned a career in sales at a young age. I ask audiences with hundreds of people in them how many had planned on being a sales person when they were in high school. You can guess the answer, hardly any!

My son Scott is a recent graduate at Arizona State University and a couple of years ago he asked if I would come in and speak to his communications class on creating persuasive presentations. I asked this same question of this class of 50 students figuring a few would be thinking a career in sales would be a good idea. My answer: Zero, Not one student was thinking sales would be a career for them. Yet statistically 47% of those young adults I was speaking to would be in a sales job within 4 years. I find it fascinating that out of the 4,158 Colleges and Universities in the United States only 35 offer a course and degree in Sales. (more…)