The Center for Sales Excellence prepares students for careers in professional selling and helps elevate the sales profession. Named a Top University for Professional Sales Education by the Sales Education Foundation (SEF) in 2015, 2016 and 2017, the program teaches students how to sell themselves to employers, pitch their ideas and enhance their communication skills.
Open to both business and non-business majors, students earn a certificate in professional selling after completing 13 credit hours of coursework. They can also earn an advanced certificate by completing an additional three credit hours. The first group of students enrolled in the sales program in spring of 2014.
Made possible by a major gift of $1.5 million from NRC Health in 2014, the center features a sales lab that allows students to practice selling while their pitches are videotaped and replayed to provide feedback.
“The Center for Sales Excellence provides the tools to give me an edge when competing for internship and jobs. The sales professionals who present in class share how they overcame adversities and arrived where they are now. They help us know what to expect in the real world of sales,” said Meggan Andrade, a sophomore marketing major from Grand Island, Nebraska.
Dr. Ravi Sohi, executive director of the Center for Sales Excellence, knows regardless of their career path students need a focused understanding of sales skills in today’s business environment.
“There is some form of selling in every aspect of daily life. Sales is more than just selling a product, it’s selling an idea or achieving buy-in from people,” Sohi said. “The sales center teaches students to look at things in a broader perspective and to communicate their ideas to people. Whether they want to be a partner in an accounting firm or run a successful business as a musician, students see the value of learning the different facets of sales and putting the theory they learn in class into practice in the new sales center.”
For more information about the Center for Sales Excellence, visit business.unl.edu/sales.