{"id":12096,"date":"2021-12-01T21:00:39","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T05:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/?p=12096"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:42:36","slug":"sales-program-expands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.wsu.edu\/edividend\/2021\/12\/01\/sales-program-expands\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Explore Professional Sales Careers as Program Expands to Pullman Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Quincy
<\/a>
Quincy Thuma, a senior majoring in marketing, practices her elevator speech with Assistant Professor Alec Pappas at the WSU Career Fair.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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\"Andrew
Andrew Parker listens to feedback on his elevator speech.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Mac Ladd<\/a> pictured himself working in advertising until he signed up for an Introduction to Professional Sales class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time he completed the class and took part in two collegiate sales competitions, Ladd (\u201918 Mktg.) was fielding calls from job recruiters. He was still a junior at WSU Vancouver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really put sales on the map for me as a serious profession to consider,\u201d says Ladd, now a midmarket account executive for MongoDB, a database company. \u201cIf you are the type of person who goes all in, sales gives you the opportunity to earn so much more than most people coming out of college.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Carson College of Business\u2019s sales program<\/a> recently expanded, allowing more WSU students to explore sales as a potential career. The program got its start at the WSU Vancouver campus in 2006 and is now offered in Pullman, where about 125 students took sales classes during the fall semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur industry partners throughout the Northwest want to hire more of our graduates, so we\u2019re excited to bring the sales program to the Pullman campus,\u201d said Ron Pimentel, director of the Professional Sales Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students from all majors are welcome in the program, which teaches highly marketable skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an incredibly tight labor market right now in sales, and demand for good people is reflected in salaries,\u201d says Kevin Chase<\/a>, assistant professor in the Department of Marketing and International Business<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students often think they\u2019ll earn $100,000 after they graduate, Chase notes. For someone with a few years of sales experience, that\u2019s a realistic annual wage, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite abundant professional opportunities, many students shy away from sales, says Bitty Balducci<\/a>, an assistant marketing professor, who was hired with Chase and faculty member Alec Pappas<\/a> to grow the Pullman sales program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of our job is to tear down the stereotypes of working in sales,\u201d Balducci says.<\/p>\n\n\n