Explaining the Appeal of Sales Careers: A Comparison of Black and White College Students

Abstract

As firms attempt to broaden the racial diversity of their corporate sales force through recruiting activities, the perceptions of sales careers held by college recruits is an important issue. Although both black and white college students rate sales careers as being less appealing, previous research suggests that students differ in how they reach this conclusion. The purpose of this investigation, therefore, is to examine the basis for the low appeal ratings normally ascribed to sales careers by black and white college students. The findings of this study suggest that black and white students attach a similar importance to the job attributes of starting salary, autonomy, and education when rating sales career options. These findings imply that educational efforts aimed at improving the perceptions of the salary and autonomy levels offered by a career in sales can be equally effective for both racial minority and majority students.

The Changing Role of Salespeople and the Unchanging Feeling Toward Selling: Implications for the HEI Programs

“…Cross-cultural and cross-racial research shows that although some differences do exist, students perceive the sales profession to be challenging, require creativity, and does offer a sense of accomplishment along with certain other positive outcomes (Lysonski & Durvasula, 1998). Findings from Honeycutt et al (1999), DelVecchio and Honeycutt (2000, 2002), Barat and Spillan (2009), Karakaya et al (2011), and Fournier et al (2014) reported substantial differences, but also similarities, across countries and races on the image of a salesperson, feelings felt in the presence of a salesperson, and the perception of having a career in sales. Therefore, cultural values seem to be an important factor as well.…”

“…Studies designed to identify which kind of students are more or less attracted to sales have focused primarily on demographic predictors and belong to the second stream of research on the topic. The variables most frequently considered are gender (Amin et al, 1995;Muehling & Weeks, 1988), nationality (Barat & Spillan, 2009;Honeycutt et al, 1999;Karakaya et al, 2011), and race (Cort, Honeycutt, & Rodriguez, 2012;DelVecchio & Honeycutt, 2002). Cook and Hartman (1986) determined that female students were significantly more reluctant to enter sales-related fields than their male counterparts were.…”

A Parsimonious Instrument for Predicting Students’ Intent to Pursue a Sales Career

“…Using stepwise regression (DelVecchio & Honeycutt, 2002) and between-group analysis of variance tests (Honeycutt et al, 1999), these studies explored the impact of personal characteristics (i.e., education, ambition, career desire) and job attributes (i.e., autonomy, salary, international nature) on intent to pursue. Both studies looked for differences in intent across groups, and both found much the same situation-students with low intent to pursue sales regardless of race (DelVecchio & Honeycutt, 2002) or nationality (Honeycutt et al, 1999). Donoho, Heinze, and Kondo (2012) identified gender differences among students' evaluations of personal selling ethics, specifically that students' ethical perceptions of sales and salespeople has been a continual topic of investigation as it relates to interest in selling careers (e.g., Stevenson & Bodkin, 1996).…”

A Cross-Cultural Investigation of the Stereotype for Salespeople

“…In the second group, studies investigated how individual variables may influence sales stereotypes. The variable most frequently considered was gender (Amin et al, 1995; Cook & Hartman, 1986; Muehling & Weeks, 1988) but nationality was also considered (e.g., Barat & Spillan, 2009; DelVecchio & Honeycutt, 2000, 2002; Karakaya, Quigley, & Bingham, 2011; Karakaya, Quigley, Bingham, Hari, & Nasir, 2014). Honeycutt et al (1999) measured students’ perceptions of the appeal for 17 possible career areas, including consumer product sales, international sales, and industrial sales.…”