GSSI delegates including Beth Rogers (centre).

Portsmouth Business School’s Beth Rogers reports from the Global Sales Science Institute conference.

Sales 3.0: modern sales & sales management in an interconnected world was the theme of the 3rd Global Sales Science Institute conference held this month at ESC Clermont, an FT Top 50 business school based in the capital city of the Auvergne district of France.

Attended by over 100 sales managers, consultants, academics and students interested in the latest research in the sales field, the event was organised by Pascal Brassier of ESC and Dan Weilbaker of Northern Illinois University in the USA. 

Sales education pioneers

GSSI was established in 2007 by pioneers of sales education from Europe and the USA, including academics from Helsinki, Poznan, Clermont, Vienna, Athens and Portsmouth. This year’s event was attended by delegates from the USA, Europe and even as far afield as Australia, while some Chinese managers from the host organisation’s executive programme also participated.

Bringing academics and managers together

However, this is not an organisation obsessed with robustness of methodology over and above managerial usefulness. The focus of GSSI is bringing academics and sales managers together. The founders believe that academic sales research should positively influence the practice of professional selling. They also promote quality education for students seeking sales careers and encourage international student and faculty exchange.

MSSSB

The opening speaker at this year’s conference was chief executive of the UK’s Marketing and Sales Standards Setting Body, Chahid Fourali (www.msssb.org) and the programme included:

• Piotr Kwiatek of Poznan University of Economics on assessing bias in sales forecasts;
• Nick Panagopoulos of Athens University of Economics and Business on how the business environment affects sales leadership behaviours;
• Robert Nadeau of Plymouth State University in New Hampshire on recruiting sales representative in hard times; and
  John Wilkinson of University of South Australia on account managers’ understanding of relationship-selling principles.

Cross-cultural and cross-functional themes were common with a number of panel sessions including consultants and sales managers.

Exchanging experiences

Session chair Beth Rogers, principal lecturer in sales management at Portsmouth Business School, explained that it was critical to best practice in sales teaching and research for academics to be able to meet to exchange experiences and knowledge.

‘And it is even more critical to the value of that teaching and knowledge creation that we engage with sales managers and account managers to understand the topics and issues that we should be addressing,’ she said.

Those interested in keeping up to date with sales research are encouraged to join as individual members; research sponsorship from organisations is also welcome. See www.gssi2009.org.

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