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Professional Selling Minor
To provide TCNJ students with a competitive edge the Marketing Department offers a Professional Selling Minor, which is especially recommended for non-business students who may seek careers in business firms.
If you would like to learn more about the possibilities of a professional selling career please e-mail Dr. Pelham (pelham@tcnj.edu) or Dr. Tucci (ltucci@tcnj.edu) and set up an appointment to discuss the opportunity. There are three selling and sales management courses that you may be able to take to enhance your communication, interpersonal, and selling skills. Business majors, Marketing minors, and Professional Selling minors will receive priority for these courses. Acceptance into the Professional Selling minor program requires an interview with and approval by the Marketing Department Chairperson, Dr. John McCarty (mccarty@tcnj.edu).
Course Requirements for Professional Selling Minor
The minor in professional selling requires 5 ½ course units:
Required Courses
- MKT 201 Marketing Principles (½ course unit)
- MKT 371 Professional Selling
- MKT 372 Advanced Professional Selling
- MKT 375 Sales Management
Course Options (Choose 2)
- COM 242 Interpersonal Communication
- PSY 202 Making Decisions and Evaluating Claims
- PSY 267 Organizational Psychology
- PSY 265 Psychology of Business and Industry
- MKT 220 Consumer Behavior
- MGT 317 The Art and Science of Negotiation
Additional information is available for:
View video clips of student elevator speeches and role play for Professional Selling here.
Student Quotes
Why take a Professional Selling Class?
“I truly consider myself lucky to have taken Professional Selling, because this class, along with your teachings, have helped me determine exactly which career path I shall follow in life. For the last two and a half years, I have bounced between several concentrations within business in an attempt to hopefully discover something to ignite a passion within me, all failing to do so. However, the opportunities offered with a sales career, such as job security, performance-oriented compensation, promotability and acting as a consultant for customers and aiding them in finding solutions to their problems, have sparked that fire that went missing for so long. Thank you very much for that. It's funny how the team at USAINTERN, LLC, made their decision to accept me. Before I went to my interview, I completed a portfolio that included a cover letter, my resume, references, and all of the work that I completed throughout your class. They also watched the video of my sales call role-plays. Originally, after the interview, they want to see examples of written work as well as a second interview with the partners of the firm. However, they were so pleased with my interview and portfolio that they chose to wave the rest of the requirements and offered me the position before anyone else. I definitely would not have been able to achieve something like that without the work and experience gained by taking your class, including your guidance as a professor! Thank you again!”
~Michael Lynn, 2007; Intern, USAINTERN
“The role play scenarios in professional selling are probably the single most important classroom experience I had at TCNJ. The communication & conversation skills that I learned through role plays came in very useful to me in my professional career whether I was the interviewee, interviewer or selling.”
~Brian Mulvihill, TCNJ '05
Why Should I Attend the National Collegiate Sales Competition?
“As for the National Collegiate Sales Competition, there is no other way to truly prepare yourself and get experience into outside sales other than by going to NCSC. By being selected to represent TCNJ at the NCSC it has opened up doors that have been previously closed to recent college graduates. Coming out of college it is hard to get an outside sales job unless you have a great resume and can sell yourself. I was surprised how many companies wanted to interview me just because of the NCSC. In the end it wasn't one of the companies I applied to or started interviewing with after the competition but rather a company from the competition, Hewlett Packard. One of their recruiting managers worked with me through 4 to 5 different jobs that became available over a 4 month period to make sure that I either found a position at HP or somewhere I was happy with. When I asked why a company would do this for a recent college graduate he said 'anyone who can make it to the NCSC from a college such as TCNJ deserves a chance to prove themselves at HP.' The competition does not guarantee a job but it will guarantee an opening of doors. One of these doors that I can not stress enough is the connections you build with the employers that support the program. At the competition you have the opportunity to meet and interviewwith over 30 companies; HP, IBM, Cisco, Liberty Mutual, Standard Register, and Edward Jones to name a few. These contacts can range from recently hired sales reps to even a CEO or VP of Marketing. They are valued contacts and who knows what may come of shaking their hands and exchanging/holding on to their business card. I know I stress the contacts and the job opportunities but no matter how great the job you walk away with or how many people you meet you are there to focus on the material and to gain experience in outside sales. Many companies see this and ask in depth questions about thecompetition. I didn't think about how much I got out of this until I was asked in an interview, but I can honestly say a lot. Not only do I know what true outside sales is like and can figure out whether or not I like it, but I also learned how to sell myself and the product/company I am working with. This is extremely helpful in your interviews since you will be selling yourself to the company. It doesn't come easy and I will tell you it is a lot of work if you want to do well, but it is worth it. In the end the real reason you attend something this big is to build your resume and/or get a job. Whatever your reasons will be for attending the competition, if you work hard and take advantage of the resources at the competition you will not regret attending.”
~Jeff Walsh, TCNJ 2006
"To advance a career in marketing to levels of higher management, you absolutely, 100% need sales experience. Some of the activities that you do in marketing require you to interface directly with the customer and "sell" them something. I created a global program called the Factiva Partners in Publicity Program that is a reference/endorsement program that seeks to "partner" with our customers on co-promotional activities. I needed to create materials/tools to sell this idea to the customer and convince them to be our publicity partner [as opposed to just giving us an endorsement]. Every type of marketing communication is an attempt to sell something to someone. In PR, I need to sell my company/thought leadership to the press. My CEO was global vice president of sales for Dow Jones, global vice president of marketing and sales for Factiva, and director of product management, before she was appointed CEO at the age of 38."
~ a recent TCNJ marketing graduate
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