For years, salespeople learned how to sell on the job. PNW is focused on training them by the time they graduate.
The White Lodging Professional Selling Lab in Hammond provides real-world sales experience to students pursuing general sales or sales engineering minors. The goal is to give them the skills necessary for workplace success.
Students learn through simulated interviews and role-playing sales scenarios with peers and representatives from area businesses.
“The benefit to the student is students get a real product and oftentimes sell to the reps [who sell those products] for the buyer role-play,” said Claudia Mich, Associate Dean of the College of Business.
“Our primary vision is to train the next generation of sales and business leaders,” she said. “To do that, we are partnering with businesses to develop students into professionals of integrity who will reinvest in Northwest Indiana, the Chicagoland region, and beyond.”
Some companies use the sessions as opportunities to recruit PNW talent, Mich said.
Using virtual tools, including third-party visual feedback systems and pitch rooms equipped with cameras, students receive peer-to-peer evaluations, feedback, and guidance to enhance their selling techniques.
“A lot of the learning curve I see is students getting over some fear hurdles of what the business world looks like,” said Mich. “There are certain skills that you need to be challenged to do.”
The program gives students the opportunity to build skills, such as networking, crafting pitches, and embracing core values encapsulated in the Selling Lab’s slogan, which is IRISE: integrity, relationship building, initiative, service, and excellence.
“There’s a lot to navigate when it comes to the relational aspect,” said Mich. “It’s a matter of not knowing what to expect, not knowing what to do if you have to call someone on the phone, send an email to a client … or navigate how to have a business meeting over a meal.”
Marko Kolundzija, a May College of Business graduate, was a Professional Selling student in the spring.
“I used the lab a lot during my last semester,” he said. “Having to pick a product and drafting and delivering a pitch to a ‘buyer’ was extremely fun and helped build my sales skills, most of which I use today in my current job.”
The program has been effective. Selling Lab students placed in the top 2.5% of competitors at the RNMKRS College Sales Skills Competition in 2021. In the spring, the lab will send students to more international sales competitions, where they can continue to get comfortable with the sales process.
“Whatever students do, they are going to be selling something,” said Mich. “They’re going to have to convince someone to hire them, to adopt their product or idea.”
“Everything is about persuasion and negotiation to some degree and people skills,” she said.
