Editorial: Sell It!
Slava Leykind, BBA2, Managing Editor
Issue date: 11/10/03 Section: Opinions
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I came to this realization as I shuttled over Lake Superior returning from yet another of a series of interviews, that similar to most is becoming an annoying and many times frustrating routine. Over the past year and a half, BBA2s have engrossed themselves in NPVs, the 4Ps, the 3Cs, contract theory, Little's Law, and a multitude of other concepts and formulas which have quickly faded from our memories. Some have excelled, others less so, yet each must now prove their individual worth within a thirty-minute duration allocated by companies of their choosing. As most have now realized, interviews are a whole different ball of wax, where your perfect grade in accounting may have helped you get the interview, but surely won't be of any assistance in getting the job.
What is then of importance is the ability to sing your own and the company's praises the loudest, and strike a chord with your interviewer. Ultimately, one must be able to understand one's audience and adapt to their needs, personality, and most importantly their mood. One must be calculating yet spontaneous, confident yet modest, assertive yet not overbearing, and intellectually commanding yet not to the point where the interviewer realizes you're smarter than they are. Herein, of course, lies the difficulty, which only few among us, not counting those with stints as car salesmen, have truly mastered.
The need is surely apparent. The Business School currently trains excellent analysts, not salesman, a core competency which may equate an MBS graduate with an HBS graduate, and hence may assist in getting the same interview, but who is then ill-equipped to "close the deal." As most have progressed through the interviewing process, each has been forced, by necessity, to identify their own method of sales, which puts many at a disadvantage. Yet leaving a Business School without a fundamental knowledge in sales is quite unfortunate, and indicates a flaw in understanding the proper ingredients in ensuring one's professional success.
Any position one assumes upon entry into the "real world" will require a form of sales. While one may not be directly selling a product, as evidenced by our current situations, one is always selling oneself and one's work. Both getting the job, and then proceeding up the ladder, one realizes will not be simply be a function of merit, but equally, if not more importantly, be based on one's ability to put the best "spin" on packaging and communicating one's skills and accomplishments. Each, surely, can draw multiple examples both from their personal and professional experiences to support this argument.
I thus propose that a course in sales be part of the current core. The need is apparent and the benefit tangible. In an increasingly competitive environment a sales competency will undoubtedly best equip students to best succeed in any functional expertise and make landing that job a breeze.
