Welcome back to Out of the Blue. I’m Andrew Oppmann. The Jennings A. Jones College of Business is known for its innovative and market-driven academic programs that respond to the needs of employers. One great example of this innovation is the IGA Office of Professional Sales- a unique focus on building skills in this important area of commerce. Joining us to tell us more about this program is Professor (-of-Practice) Thom Coats, the Director of the IGA Office of Professional Sales (now known as Center for Professional Selling). Thom, welcome to the program. We’re glad to have you on Out of the Blue. Absolutely. Thank you. So, let’s talk about the IGA Office of Professional Sales. This is probably the first time many of our viewers have heard of this enterprise at the Jones College of Business. What is it and why is it a great valuable resource for students? Oh my goodness. And you’re absolutely right. So few people actually know about this and when I get to tell the story to the to the sales community, they go, “Oh, I wish we had that when I was in college.” The professional selling concentration is a set of classes that they take if-the students can take if they are a marketing major. And so if they’re a marketing major, they take professional selling, advanced selling, a couple other classes, and they earn a certificate of professional selling. The significance of that, why is that important? Is that when I went into sales and the vast majority of us that went into sales a thousand years ago, we were salespeople by default. Mhm. Half the people that graduate from college, their first sales, first job is in sales. It just happens. And several of us like it and stick with it. So these students that we’re producing, they are by choice and they walk out of the door knowing what sales is, knowing the processes, knowing the expectations. So their turnover rate is lower and their ramp up and productive time is faster. You know, I Thom, I before I joined the university, I was publisher of a of a couple of newspapers, hired salespeople, and you know, oftentimes we’d have entry-level sales positions, exactly what you described, where they thought that maybe sales was right for them, but they didn’t have that uh, that initial training coming in to ask the question, ask for the sale, right? And having the uh, uh, experience to understand the emotional highs and lows of sales. They’re great highs, but they’re also great lows. What I understand about your practical program is you’re really putting them through their paces during this so they understand what uh you know what-what to expect, what to prepare for, and how they should conduct themselves to be a success. Oh, absolutely. The-the neat thing is after 30 years of sales, I’d have the wherewithal to be able to go, you need to know this, but you’ll never use it, but you need to know this as foundation. Mhm. But here’s how we apply that in the real world. And when I say something like that, the students lean in. They want to know what is real. They want to know that part of the life. You know, most people think that sales is, you know, something transactional. You know, you have a pen, sell me the pen. Sales, the way we train it is talk about solutions, helping you find the best choice, the best solution for your needs. It’s not about trying to talk you into anything or helping you make decisions. And once they understand that, they’re all in. I mentioned the IGA um, office of uh, professional sales. What is IGA? IGA is the our named partner. They, um, they write a big check and so that’s a very good thing. Jamie No is the, the president founder of IGA. And what does stand for? Insurance Group of America. Okay. So they’re very much interested in making sure that we produce qualified salespeople that that know not just how to sell but have the right heart for the sale. Right? You can understand processes but having the heart to go behind that process is crucial. Uh, at graduation, we have the stole ceremony. If you go through the concentration you earn a-a professional selling stole. Okay. Well, there’s this book out there called Go-Giver. The Go-Giver premise of that is that that if you help others achieve, your goals are set. It’s a very much a giving type environment that that we teach. So, there’s five laws to the go-giver mentality. We have that on a-a big um piece of art in the sales lab. Uh, at the graduation stole ceremony, I give them their stole, put it over their shoulders, and would go through the True Blue Promise of following the five laws of the go-giver. And I explained to them that prior to the University, their families just poured love into them. At the University, their professors poured knowledge into their brains. It’s now time to take that heart and that knowledge and be that full professional that they have been trained to do and go out there and be successful. That’s great. Thom, tell-talk to me about the sales lab. It is the only one in the state of Tennessee. What does it offer and why is it important? It’s actually the, um, Mel Adams Professional Sales Lab (now the Center for Professional Selling). We’re very fortunate to have it. It it’s set up as two, two different rooms. The first room my general, uh, my GA (graduate assistant) sits there and acts as the gatekeeper. The-the salespeople come in and they get to sit and wait. The second room is an executive office. So the students actually get to go in and, and, and simulate an actual sales appointment and the entire semester they, they take the first different parts of it during the professional selling class. They’ll, they’ll, um, come in and do part of it and then we’ll, we’ll videotape it. I actually get to watch that with them and coach them. Hey, you did this well. You really did a good job there. Next time, let’s change this. And the that’s the whole semester we’re going through that. They get nervous, but then as they progress and understand more, man, they’re rock stars this past semester. Let me tell you this very quickly. We’ve been doing this this competition for a little while as is the, uh, the Enterprise Rental Car uh fleet management competition. And during this whole time, there’s two sales that they can make. They preferred customer sale and then the, uh, actually the fleet management sale, which is a big deal. No student in the history of the school has ever earned that second sale until this semester. Wow. And I had students back-to-back earn that second sale and it was amazing. I’m so proud of them. Well, Thom Coats, Professor-of-Practice in the Jones College of Business, Director of the IGA Office of Professional Sales. Thom, thanks for joining us on the program. Thank you.