College Students’ Perceptions of Personal Selling: An Empirical Investigation

Abstract

College students’ perceptions of sales as a career is a very important factor to the success of sales recruiting. Many negative perceptions concerning sales jobs have been in existence for some time. While these perceptions are becoming more positive, it must be remembered that much work has to be done in order to convince college students that sales is a desirable and respected profession. The findings of this study indicated that British students do not seem enthusiastic about entering sales as a career. This somewhat negative attitude reinforces past findings which indicated that American students consider sales to be a low-status job with little recognition. However, unlike previous studies that were done on American students, the British students in this study expressed more positive attitudes toward sales as a career.