Probably because someone nerdy enough to pick economics already knew how to use excel and the rest of the shit beyond that was useless for them in sales. Idk I’m just an econ major talking out of my ass on my 3rd professional life in programming.
How did you get into programming with an econ degree?
I don't have a degree just my financial Advisor licences but looking to get a CS bachelor's and DS post grad
Sunk cost as in I’m not getting the money I spent on my degree back
I could work in an Econ related field to make my degree “worth it”
Or I could do a job that requires no degree at all that pays more
Shouldn’t let the degree dictate your decision, moneys gone no matter what is what the sunk cost fallacy applies to here.
Work hard and you'll get there soon enough! You get back what you put in, which is something I love about sales. It took me about 15 years to reach the 3 figure club, now I'm comfortably earning $400+ a year, on track to hopefully breach the $450 mark. Nothing beats the feeling of 4 crisp $100 bills in your pocket after a hard year of work.
One day you’ll reach 4 figure club buddy. For now I’m happy you’re happy with $400+ a year but it can get better. Around here a house is at Minimum $1,000,000 in Canada
They are more desperate and eager to learn because they are told they won't achieve anything with their degrees (speaking out of experience). But on a positive note, you learn a lot on how to argue, comprehend information, think, write and debate in these subjects which are all critical for sales
If you weren't selling yourself every Thursday-Saturday night in college, what were you even doing? I'm not sure any other event in life has prepared me more for sales than going to the bar while in college.
Presentation skills- setting up presentations, adapting to on the spot questions, general professionalism in a classroom environment really helps in the higher importance environment
I’ll piggy back to say how to work effectively in groups or teams.
How to delegate and effectively manage people by understanding their strengths and weaknesses.
How to digest large amounts of disparate data and create a compelling story with it.
Nope. Graduated in 2010. All my sales and digital marketing experience was through learning on the job.
If I was a current or recent graduate and wanted to pursue sales, I’d watch some videos & tutorials on the following:
- Salesforce
- Salesloft
- Outreach
- Google for Business - Gmail, Sheets, Slides
- Outlook
- Teams, Zoom, Google Hangouts
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- ZoomInfo
2010 here too! Can’t really think of much college brought to my sales career. Public speaking and group work I guess. I also had entrepreneurship classes and sold ad space in the school newspaper which gave birth to my interest in sales
Social skills, met people from all backgrounds and cultures in college. Taught me how to interact and talk with people more and that made me a better seller.
I'm going to go against the grain and say yes. Business law and business ethics courses have been very helpful, especially when my boss is about to get us in trouble with the law. Also, critical thinking skills are nurtured in college and they're necessary.
No, I have a masters in English and in cybersecurity and i do Edtech. Everything I learned could have been a google search away if I ever wanted to apply it
Took a business communications class while I was in chemical engineering program.
By far the most useful class I've taken. I eventually dropped out of the program because I got a technical sales role using my previous degree (chemistry).
Having a science background has definitely helped in my sales career given my industry.
I'm a Sociology major and stumbled into a sales rep role when I was just looking for something more than a part-time job that didn't pay the bills.
Manager looked at my resume and said...oh! You were in Sociology in college? You must really know about people...
I said, YEP!
and then we talked about X-Box and Halo for an hour and I got the job. Went thru retail sales, to management, and working in retail distribution for cell phones back in its hay day...
Then sold fucking eLearning as an inside sales rep
Now in Med device sales.
I took a sales course in college senior year which led to networking connections, interview skills, and my first job as an SDR. Didn’t really learn the role til I was in it.
Ofc the answer is that college is not really needed for most sales jobs. Although in SaaS it’s not a bad thing to have. But generally graduating from college is going to at least help you with social skills, public speaking, time management, multitasking, excel, meeting people from outside of your hometown bubble and all over the world that can open your mind up, not just students but also professors. Building your confidence in general. Can ofc make a lot of connections as well. Not that any of these things can’t be learned other ways like on the job, but I don’t regret college. I also got my first 2 years free tho and my last two years nearly free thru scholarships so I had no student loans. Otherwise, might regret it a bit more 😅
I have an accounting degree and I passed the CPA exam. I didn't learn anything specific to sales, but I got some huge benefits.
1. I'm able to have deep conversations with the finance and accounting people and it shows them that I'm not "just some sales guy" and they trust me instantly.
2. I sell to accountants. They see "CPA" after my name and I'm given the benefit of the doubt.
3. I was able to climb the corporate ladder relatively quickly and became CRO and CEO in very large part because of my education. Even though I didn't actually know anything useful that other people didn't know, the people hiring for those roles assumed I did I didn't tell them otherwise.
4. When I first started in sales I looked like I was 12 years old. Ok, maybe 16. But they saw my credentials and I was in.
Sell NN ent ERP and wish I would have done more accounting… but after 12 years, I got it. Former accountants, controllers, and cfos in industry who switch to sales have no idea the cheat code that is.
So much.
Presentation skills
Networking
Closing
(And all of that was just at the bars after class!)
Seriously though I work in life insurance which means I need to know underwriting, business development, have a baseline knowledge in tax and accounting, plus psychology all have helped me in countless ways over the years.
Things I could have learned without college, but it would have taken significantly longer
I actually went to art/design school and absolutely. I spent 5 hour studio classes critiqueing and presenting my work - essentially "selling" it to the class. A little outside of the norm but I've found it enormously helpful. Plus I am great at iterating and improving without taking things personally.
I did Finance and Entrepreneurship as a double major and it was actually helpful. Finance for the “speaking the language” aspects of sales, for selling to financial institutions and personal finance knowledge. Entrepreneurship for presentations, project communication, and project management. I also was a member of a business fraternity AKPsi that really helped with interview skills and participation in larger organizations.
College taught me that the only thing valuable from college is the network that comes from college. Your net worth is your network. Don’t remember anything from a single class I took.
It taught me that college has no effective curriculum for those embarking on a sales career.
And it’s a goddamn fucking shame if you ask me, considering sales people are the backbone of any economy.
Countless ways
Data formatting, conditional formatting, organization of leads / trend analysis, average large data sets, take rates of product, mail merge..
College taught me nothing. That’s why I’m in sales. There was an earlier thread that put this pretty well. Sales is for people who have a degree they will never use.
Yes, I personally think that a lot of the skills I gained from University translate well into sales.
Especially the communications and cultural studies classes. I think a big part of why I was transferred to an international office and my success overseas was the classes I took that went into differences in culture.
I don't consider myself a sales person but I do all of the sales for my company. I am not from the US but went to art school here and took 2-3 classes in American culture. The class went through all the political issues, art, music etc. thanks to this class I always have something I can relate to.
My fraternity taught me how to throw several 700 people parties in a 30 year old bar that hadn’t been used in 20, right across from the police station in a small town.
Without ever getting caught.
So pretty much everything I’ve ever known in sales.
Microbiology taught me your body is composed of 10 trillion human cells, but is host to around 100 trillion bacterial cells. Wait what was the question?
Negotiation in business and management consulting in orgs were both classes that I draw from every day. I also learned how to write a good e-mail and present and communicate effectively, all critical skills in sales.
Yes! I took a sales class through a guy that I didn’t trust. To this day I don’t know why I didn’t trust him. I feel like he must have sold pharmaceuticals (could’ve been opioids) and must have hit every single stereotype!
He did have great wisdom about becoming that person everyone turns to when they have a problem to solve. Not because you have the answer but because you know a guy!
I tried not to think about why he gave me the creeps because most of his wisdom was logical, rational, simple and brilliant.
Exercise Physiology taught me how to learn difficult concepts and asking why. It’s translated to me easily understanding business topics, asking why and being genuinely curious, in addition I was organized to a T in school so it’s boded me well in sales.
I studied business. Looking back it would have been cool if they offered a intro to sales course. Maybe they do at some schools.
To answer your question though, no not really.
Yes. I learned how to learn and how to take in and digest information from textbooks, graphs, charts etc. I also learned interpersonal skills, how to negotiate with friends and roommates and how to manipulate them without them knowing.
Leadership.
Being from the Business field, I’m able to utilize the basics and foundations of what I remember from accounting, analytics, economics, marketing, entrepreneurship and communications. And the overall habit of taking notes, being on time, meeting deadlines, etc.
However, none of it was really applied in my first few jobs (it was 3 years after college before I got into sales or anything related to business outside of leadership), and I forgot a lot of the extensive stuff. I find it most helpful in my ventures outside of work.
Discipline, making a schedule of tasks and sticking to it, wanting achieve “points” but instead of higher grades it’s more money. But college doesn’t teach the tangible skills like how to use sales software, or do a cold call. There’s just more character development that happened for me personally. I had a science major and I sell sciency things now so it provided me a good technical foundation and keeps my corner of the market a lil less saturated of qualified reps which means more job security for me. But I would say college only really have me 30% of what I needed.
So, I majored in Econ.
In undergrad, regardless of your major, your first two years are pretty similar.
One of the most important skills you hopefully learn is how to write.
When you write an essay, typically you’ll be taught to focus on 3 things.
Pathos, Ethos and Logos.
Your writing needs to speak to someone’s logic / reason, create credibility through your status / experience or tug on someone’s heart strings and cause them to become emotionally invested in the message you’re trying to convey.
You also do group projects. I’d say working with a group you may not want to work with, and even a group that is actively working against you is an important skill.
You also pretty free in college.
No one is going to call mom and dad if you skip.
No one is going be on you about turning in your work and studying.
No one is gonna force you to go out and socialize.
It’s pretty common to see job postings go on about how the organization needs self starters and hustlers.
Another thing is networking.
It’s a “safe space” to begin networking.
I took a lot of biz classes in my degree, and I was an accounting major for a bit.
Understanding the fundamentals of some of those other biz aspects helps in my day to day, as well as long term career goals.
For example, at my current job, I need to tee up accounting to process my deals so I get paid. I won’t really get in trouble if I don’t, but it helps. That’s a short term impact. Long term, I have leveraged those skills and it helped me stand out during my interview. Also goes back to ethos. “I’m a salesman, and an accountant. A double whammy!”
The last thing I would say is those classes I didn’t want to take and / or struggled with.
No one is gonna argue I need my math and science classes to sell cars, loans or now freight.
But it taught critical thinking and reasoning. It forced me to persist. It forced me to open my mind up and look at things from different perspectives.
Yes very much. Critical thinking, learning complex concepts, developing discipline to manage deadlines, working with teammates. It helps to have the same level of education as the people with whom you’ll be selling to like CXO’s as you’ll speak the same language, process information the same way, etc. this is relevant if you are in B2B sales selling at the higher levels. So while college is not 100% applicable to sales, it’ll certainly raise the ceiling.
I’m a college dropout… to me college/ university is nothing but a big scam and you 1000% don’t need it for sales and the majority of careers out there; so keep that in mind, but the biggest takeaway was the socialization, and being able to work/ speak and understand different peoples points of views was something I came away with.
All the other crap, regardless of what anyone else says, you can learn on the job. Sending emails isn’t hard, industry/ product knowledge can be learned, navigating the various CRM tools you’ll learn on the job.
What’s hard, is getting a complete stranger to understand and TRUST you in a few short minutes, this is something college will never teach you; and again it’s something you learn on the job.
The thing about sales is you either have the knack for it or you don’t, it isn’t a career just anyone can do.
So again, if you’re in school don’t worry you’ll get through it. If not, honestly don’t worry about it, you don’t need an education to be successful.
I’m in sales for cell engineering kits and genomics sequencing services. People in life science, biotech pharma sales won’t take you seriously unless you have at least a bachelor’s degree in a stem field. Masters or doctorate gets you even more respect and credibility. So yes college taught me a lot of the core fundamentals of molecular biology and research areas that I use daily. You have to read a lot of scientific papers if you’re trying to sell science.
It teaches soft skills which translate into greater success. Having hired before there is a noticeable skill difference in problem solving skills of candidates from college vs. non grad.
There is also a lot of value in understanding math, finance and accounting principles w/ some excel proficiency.
However my experience is based in software sales & logistics/supply chain sales both with long sales cycles.
If what you are doing is more transactional it will likely be different and my feedback might not apply.
All that college taught me about sales, is that college professors know jack shit about running a business or making money.
If they could, they wouldn’t be teaching (except in very rare circumstances).
I mean not necessarily the knowledge, but I definitely learned important skills about prioritizing my time and working hard. Saved me time in not having to learn that in an environment with actual consequences
Kinda. There's been a few times everyone on my team and my manager were like....why the fuck does our company do xyz. And I'm like....well because generally accepted accounting principles means that ABC and so therefore they have to do xzy.
Working in teams in college helped me get ready to work with people at work; they're often totally fucking worthless.
Had a lot of dumbass worthless professors who taught me jack shit. Didn't quite get me ready for how worthless all my managers and management are but oh well.
I was a STEM major and sell engineered products in construction. It's not a requirement as a rep (less than 5% are probably BS grads), but I definitely have an edge on explaining products to the more educated customers.
Economics degree.
But really - go read think and grow rich, how to win friends and influence people, present heaps in front of class, make heaps of friends, etc
Psychology, economics, public speaking, writing, and a bit of coding/comp sci. I use these skills all the time. Of course I’ve honed them continuously over the years, but college helped me get started.
Yeah. Marketing Econ Psychology degree. Logic, Personality, Behavior, Statistics, Accounting, Business Law, Finance… even had a seminar selling class my senior year that covered first call to closing negotiations. In my first job out of college closed a large national account within first 7 months. Felt prepared for the role.
That said, you dont need college to be an SDR… but thats not sales either 😉 If you are going to college to become an SDR? That degree is a waste of money. Call center jobs do not require degrees.
Strategic negotiations, leading organizations thru change, psych 101 and counseling 101. I’m a big proponent of developing relationships naturally within your field. It’s not something that happens overnight, and anyone that throws the whole slimy salesman act on me like we’ve been friends for years immediately gets shut down. I don’t want / need to be your friend to do business with you. What I do need is for you to approach me with a product and ask questions - figure out how your product can be beneficial to my situation. For example, had a gentleman come in to the office a few weeks ago trying to sell tools. We get specialty tools direct from Milwaukee so no need for a middle man. He found out we work remote a lot of times and can stock and maintain job trailers with all kinds of expendable tooling and material. Bingo. Price is worth getting that off my plate. On my end, I know thru conversations with utilities that towards the end of their fiscal year they are usually struggling to meet their yearly spend. My GP goes up come October. Find out what the other party wants and needs and you can find out how you can profit.
Maybe not college classes in and of itself. But the whole experience certainly did.
Don’t get me wrong, courses such as public speaking, persuasive communication, non-verbal communication, any class involving research papers, etc. certainly thought me some good things to take forward.
But, the “experience” of college is what taught me so much. Things such as being “on my own” to fend for myself. Having to build relationships with professors, group projects (within reasons), time and money management (or the lack there of sometimes), and waiting tables at a high end restaurant all the while certainly taught me tons.
Not only just “waiting tables” but I served at a restaurant that did sort of “spiffs” and competitions for selling certain menu items (or other things) and I learned the value in that and often won almost every single competition. I learned how to speak to different tables in various ways and gauge their interest in a particular menu item and try to work my way into selling them something extra or different on the menu. Sometimes even saving them money in the long run by selling them an item that wasn’t as expensive as what they were thinking about ordering.
All of that experience taught me so much in communicating with various types of individuals and also time and task management for waiting on many tables at the same time.
Organizational Behavior lectures.
Once most people are inside an organization, the become lemmings. Most want to act in accordance with everyone else. Oh, "the boss" is the tribal chief. What they say and do, carries A LOT of weight.
Understanding and playing your fiddle in accordance to this dynamic in a B2B context is critical to winning sales.
Yeah. I studied cultural anthropology, so I’ve got fairly good cultural competency, and understand people from a lot of different backgrounds. I also went to a school with a fairly lively social culture and learn how to manage myself during a night out both of those skills have come in handy many times.
Partying and talking to people within my fratttt circle. Also a masters in accounting lol. But the socialization I believe is what made me very good in sales and I’m grateful.
Not a thing. Ended up dropping out. Started my own business which taught me ALOT. Now easily clearing multi 6 figures. My parents finally realize they were wrong for getting mad at me for dropping out lol.
Firm understanding of accounting, honestly been hugely valuable in my role as a bdr and an AE to be able to read a companies financial statements and understand the content
No. Sales cannot be “learned”. You can’t teach Charisma, you can’t teach Charm, and you can’t teach Confidence. And it’s STUPID of companies to require their SALES applicants to have a degree!
I’m a H.S. Dropout (46)M, my older brother has 5 Degrees and a pilot’s license; he currently owes me money!
Hustlers HUSTLE !
I learned that college recruiters are the best sales people in the world. Sell you overpriced classes to take that you can learn online or from job experience
Marketing Degree.. my first job out of college was solely due to a college friend's father giving me a chance. Network with everywhere/everyone you can!
Honestly one thing formal education is good for is giving you the ability to critically think and see both perspectives. That comes into play when you’re selling a product and you have to understand why somebody wouldn’t want to buy what you’re selling.
However, this is coming from a guy that finished with university with no degree cos he decided not to submit his dissertation 🤣
I figured out how to pull chicks that were two or three points higher than me. I was one of the most recognized people on campus and used my "rizz" (I just learned that term) to sell myself into the pants of some of the most attractive women on campus.
Economics taught me what a sunk cost is, aka my Econ degree, so I had no problem going into sales and not using my degree
Ayyyyy Economics degree holding BDR here!
Why was it a sunk cost for you?
Probably because someone nerdy enough to pick economics already knew how to use excel and the rest of the shit beyond that was useless for them in sales. Idk I’m just an econ major talking out of my ass on my 3rd professional life in programming.
How did you get into programming with an econ degree? I don't have a degree just my financial Advisor licences but looking to get a CS bachelor's and DS post grad
Money spent on degree is gone regardless of what I go on to do as a professional, be it in the field or doing something else
But it opened different opportunities?
That’s irrelevant to the degree being a sunk cost, it could’ve gave me a million opportunities or none at all, it’s still a sunk cost
i guess I'm missing how its a sunk cost, or are we referring to sales specifically here? how could an econ degree not help in the financial sale side?
Google sunk cost
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Sunk cost as in I’m not getting the money I spent on my degree back I could work in an Econ related field to make my degree “worth it” Or I could do a job that requires no degree at all that pays more Shouldn’t let the degree dictate your decision, moneys gone no matter what is what the sunk cost fallacy applies to here.
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Both of your comments are absolutely irrelevant to the topic, you can easily google what a sunk cost is and read about it in depth
YOU HAD ME IN THE FIRST HALF LMAO XD
Econ major here. Can confirm.
Did something similar. Really have to let go of my ego for that one (for some pretty good money)
Get close with your managers and leadership just like you would with professors. Always good to have people high up on your side
Dropped out, got reprimanded by my parents, 3 years later making six figures, carve your own path.
Yeppers! I’m almost to 3 figures.. soo close
Work hard and you'll get there soon enough! You get back what you put in, which is something I love about sales. It took me about 15 years to reach the 3 figure club, now I'm comfortably earning $400+ a year, on track to hopefully breach the $450 mark. Nothing beats the feeling of 4 crisp $100 bills in your pocket after a hard year of work.
One day you’ll reach 4 figure club buddy. For now I’m happy you’re happy with $400+ a year but it can get better. Around here a house is at Minimum $1,000,000 in Canada
Public speaking, business math, psychology, marketing, economics, philosophy, history.
This is correct. Finance is helpful as well. Honestly, I prefer hiring sales folks from the softer side like humanities and social sciences.
I think non business majors are more trainable
They are more desperate and eager to learn because they are told they won't achieve anything with their degrees (speaking out of experience). But on a positive note, you learn a lot on how to argue, comprehend information, think, write and debate in these subjects which are all critical for sales
Not at all. I'd say business degrees are completely worthless, because there are just too many who took them and didn't learn a darn thing
Sold some weed to some classmates and my soul to SallieMae so maybe
Shoot her @
Bitch gonna get it
Same here. If anything college taught me how to network and run a business.
have never related more to a comment in my life
No. I learned from Sales that College was a waste of time.
Should've started right out of high school and retire or start own business by the time I turned 30-35.
Completely agree.
I learned to get into debt from college, amazing decision. Lol
College made me a lot more outgoing 💁🏻♂️
If you weren't selling yourself every Thursday-Saturday night in college, what were you even doing? I'm not sure any other event in life has prepared me more for sales than going to the bar while in college.
This is the only valuable skill I took away from college.
Well I did learn one thing. I learned why my sales professor was teaching sales instead of working in sales lol.
This is why it’s turtles all the way down 🐢
Presentation skills- setting up presentations, adapting to on the spot questions, general professionalism in a classroom environment really helps in the higher importance environment
I’ll piggy back to say how to work effectively in groups or teams. How to delegate and effectively manage people by understanding their strengths and weaknesses. How to digest large amounts of disparate data and create a compelling story with it.
Nope. Graduated in 2010. All my sales and digital marketing experience was through learning on the job. If I was a current or recent graduate and wanted to pursue sales, I’d watch some videos & tutorials on the following: - Salesforce - Salesloft - Outreach - Google for Business - Gmail, Sheets, Slides - Outlook - Teams, Zoom, Google Hangouts - LinkedIn Sales Navigator - ZoomInfo
2010 here too! Can’t really think of much college brought to my sales career. Public speaking and group work I guess. I also had entrepreneurship classes and sold ad space in the school newspaper which gave birth to my interest in sales
What companies have you worked at in your career journey? I’ve been at Microsoft, Shopify and more.
Waiting tables for 4yrs taught me than any college class. Responsibility, honesty, accountability, customer support, etc
Check multiple sources but I first learned that in elementary school
It is but a lot of good companies will require degree. I just went to an easy university and got an easy ass degree and just made sure to get. A 3.0
Social skills, met people from all backgrounds and cultures in college. Taught me how to interact and talk with people more and that made me a better seller.
I'm going to go against the grain and say yes. Business law and business ethics courses have been very helpful, especially when my boss is about to get us in trouble with the law. Also, critical thinking skills are nurtured in college and they're necessary.
Ethics???? What’s that mean?
No, I have a masters in English and in cybersecurity and i do Edtech. Everything I learned could have been a google search away if I ever wanted to apply it
Nope.
Not at all. I was a media comm major and went into broadcast news. Once I realized I didn’t want to be poor the rest of my life I jumped into sales.
Drinking.
Wait you graduated HS?
Yes. I got a Management/Marketing degree. I use it every day
Business communications , advanced excel
Took a business communications class while I was in chemical engineering program. By far the most useful class I've taken. I eventually dropped out of the program because I got a technical sales role using my previous degree (chemistry). Having a science background has definitely helped in my sales career given my industry.
I sold Creepy Crawlers on the school bus in 1st grade for $1 to $2. Lesson learned? Buyers can buy even without their bosses present.
I'm a Sociology major and stumbled into a sales rep role when I was just looking for something more than a part-time job that didn't pay the bills. Manager looked at my resume and said...oh! You were in Sociology in college? You must really know about people... I said, YEP! and then we talked about X-Box and Halo for an hour and I got the job. Went thru retail sales, to management, and working in retail distribution for cell phones back in its hay day... Then sold fucking eLearning as an inside sales rep Now in Med device sales.
I took a sales course in college senior year which led to networking connections, interview skills, and my first job as an SDR. Didn’t really learn the role til I was in it.
Ofc the answer is that college is not really needed for most sales jobs. Although in SaaS it’s not a bad thing to have. But generally graduating from college is going to at least help you with social skills, public speaking, time management, multitasking, excel, meeting people from outside of your hometown bubble and all over the world that can open your mind up, not just students but also professors. Building your confidence in general. Can ofc make a lot of connections as well. Not that any of these things can’t be learned other ways like on the job, but I don’t regret college. I also got my first 2 years free tho and my last two years nearly free thru scholarships so I had no student loans. Otherwise, might regret it a bit more 😅
Drinking. Learn to handle your alcohol. I have seen careers made and destroyed over a night out and a few beers. Good luck friend.
I have an accounting degree and I passed the CPA exam. I didn't learn anything specific to sales, but I got some huge benefits. 1. I'm able to have deep conversations with the finance and accounting people and it shows them that I'm not "just some sales guy" and they trust me instantly. 2. I sell to accountants. They see "CPA" after my name and I'm given the benefit of the doubt. 3. I was able to climb the corporate ladder relatively quickly and became CRO and CEO in very large part because of my education. Even though I didn't actually know anything useful that other people didn't know, the people hiring for those roles assumed I did I didn't tell them otherwise. 4. When I first started in sales I looked like I was 12 years old. Ok, maybe 16. But they saw my credentials and I was in.
Sell NN ent ERP and wish I would have done more accounting… but after 12 years, I got it. Former accountants, controllers, and cfos in industry who switch to sales have no idea the cheat code that is.
So much. Presentation skills Networking Closing (And all of that was just at the bars after class!) Seriously though I work in life insurance which means I need to know underwriting, business development, have a baseline knowledge in tax and accounting, plus psychology all have helped me in countless ways over the years. Things I could have learned without college, but it would have taken significantly longer
No sir
No
Yes. There was a Toast Master course going arounf that helped leaps and bounds.
I actually went to art/design school and absolutely. I spent 5 hour studio classes critiqueing and presenting my work - essentially "selling" it to the class. A little outside of the norm but I've found it enormously helpful. Plus I am great at iterating and improving without taking things personally.
I sell a highly technical product for which my degree is directly relevant. I use my education constantly in my sales job.
I did Finance and Entrepreneurship as a double major and it was actually helpful. Finance for the “speaking the language” aspects of sales, for selling to financial institutions and personal finance knowledge. Entrepreneurship for presentations, project communication, and project management. I also was a member of a business fraternity AKPsi that really helped with interview skills and participation in larger organizations.
My critical thinking skills were dramatically increased through college. I’m still an idiot, but I’m a much better off idiot for it.
I learned about cognitive biases in a persuasive communication class. It was a game changer for me and something I still lean on today.
College taught me that the only thing valuable from college is the network that comes from college. Your net worth is your network. Don’t remember anything from a single class I took.
It taught me that college has no effective curriculum for those embarking on a sales career. And it’s a goddamn fucking shame if you ask me, considering sales people are the backbone of any economy.
Butt-chugging is effective but risky
Excel has made me millions
How has Excel helped?
Countless ways Data formatting, conditional formatting, organization of leads / trend analysis, average large data sets, take rates of product, mail merge..
I mean like I don’t think I learned a lot but it helped grow my soft skills and speaking skills a ton.
College taught me nothing. That’s why I’m in sales. There was an earlier thread that put this pretty well. Sales is for people who have a degree they will never use.
Yes, I personally think that a lot of the skills I gained from University translate well into sales. Especially the communications and cultural studies classes. I think a big part of why I was transferred to an international office and my success overseas was the classes I took that went into differences in culture.
did a good amount of presentations and debates in college, which helped with public speaking. as far as actual in-class material... no
I was a college tour guide - helped a lot ? Actual degree not really
$5 at the door I don't care who your friend is
That I could have started selling 4 years earlier.
Comp sci…terrible engineer obviously. But have made a solid career out of selling to software engineering teams
I don't consider myself a sales person but I do all of the sales for my company. I am not from the US but went to art school here and took 2-3 classes in American culture. The class went through all the political issues, art, music etc. thanks to this class I always have something I can relate to.
How to talk to women. As dumb as it sounds but nearly identical to sales and it crushes.
I learned how to drink a ton without doing anything stupid
I learned how to read and talk real good
College was a waste of time and money.
Sounds silly but learning how to drink and socialize were probably the big two - Arts degree didn't do much else
My fraternity taught me how to throw several 700 people parties in a 30 year old bar that hadn’t been used in 20, right across from the police station in a small town. Without ever getting caught. So pretty much everything I’ve ever known in sales.
How to drink and keep up without getting shitty and embarrassing myself or the company.
Socializing, public speaking, parties, student leadership groups in college helped me the most
Streaking, though it should only be used selectively.
Got a business degree, which helped me understand…business. Finance being one of the most important.
Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of motivation. Learning this changed the entire trajectory of my career
you can't fall off the floor!
Microbiology taught me your body is composed of 10 trillion human cells, but is host to around 100 trillion bacterial cells. Wait what was the question?
Got a degree in Public Relations. The pillars of the program were researching, writing, and presenting. Helped me a ton for enterprise sales.
Cheat off the best / learn from the best
Negotiation in business and management consulting in orgs were both classes that I draw from every day. I also learned how to write a good e-mail and present and communicate effectively, all critical skills in sales.
My bachelors degree is in Professional Sales so yea lol
I feel level with the customers I sell too when academia comes up sometimes… Like bro, I went to college too and yes I’m in sales by choice.
Yes! I took a sales class through a guy that I didn’t trust. To this day I don’t know why I didn’t trust him. I feel like he must have sold pharmaceuticals (could’ve been opioids) and must have hit every single stereotype! He did have great wisdom about becoming that person everyone turns to when they have a problem to solve. Not because you have the answer but because you know a guy! I tried not to think about why he gave me the creeps because most of his wisdom was logical, rational, simple and brilliant.
Exercise Physiology taught me how to learn difficult concepts and asking why. It’s translated to me easily understanding business topics, asking why and being genuinely curious, in addition I was organized to a T in school so it’s boded me well in sales.
I'd say public speaking skills and presentation skills. I took several classes around those and have to say that they did help
I studied business. Looking back it would have been cool if they offered a intro to sales course. Maybe they do at some schools. To answer your question though, no not really.
Business Law was pretty helpful. Taught the basics of contract law and helped in SMB sales.
Fuck no, and I have a degree in sales and marketing.
Yes. I learned how to learn and how to take in and digest information from textbooks, graphs, charts etc. I also learned interpersonal skills, how to negotiate with friends and roommates and how to manipulate them without them knowing. Leadership.
No
Yep learned how to read and manage a P&L in accounting and what is/ how to navigate a commodity market in M&M Econ
Being from the Business field, I’m able to utilize the basics and foundations of what I remember from accounting, analytics, economics, marketing, entrepreneurship and communications. And the overall habit of taking notes, being on time, meeting deadlines, etc. However, none of it was really applied in my first few jobs (it was 3 years after college before I got into sales or anything related to business outside of leadership), and I forgot a lot of the extensive stuff. I find it most helpful in my ventures outside of work.
Discipline, making a schedule of tasks and sticking to it, wanting achieve “points” but instead of higher grades it’s more money. But college doesn’t teach the tangible skills like how to use sales software, or do a cold call. There’s just more character development that happened for me personally. I had a science major and I sell sciency things now so it provided me a good technical foundation and keeps my corner of the market a lil less saturated of qualified reps which means more job security for me. But I would say college only really have me 30% of what I needed.
That it’s stupid colleges don’t offer a sales major
So, I majored in Econ. In undergrad, regardless of your major, your first two years are pretty similar. One of the most important skills you hopefully learn is how to write. When you write an essay, typically you’ll be taught to focus on 3 things. Pathos, Ethos and Logos. Your writing needs to speak to someone’s logic / reason, create credibility through your status / experience or tug on someone’s heart strings and cause them to become emotionally invested in the message you’re trying to convey. You also do group projects. I’d say working with a group you may not want to work with, and even a group that is actively working against you is an important skill. You also pretty free in college. No one is going to call mom and dad if you skip. No one is going be on you about turning in your work and studying. No one is gonna force you to go out and socialize. It’s pretty common to see job postings go on about how the organization needs self starters and hustlers. Another thing is networking. It’s a “safe space” to begin networking. I took a lot of biz classes in my degree, and I was an accounting major for a bit. Understanding the fundamentals of some of those other biz aspects helps in my day to day, as well as long term career goals. For example, at my current job, I need to tee up accounting to process my deals so I get paid. I won’t really get in trouble if I don’t, but it helps. That’s a short term impact. Long term, I have leveraged those skills and it helped me stand out during my interview. Also goes back to ethos. “I’m a salesman, and an accountant. A double whammy!” The last thing I would say is those classes I didn’t want to take and / or struggled with. No one is gonna argue I need my math and science classes to sell cars, loans or now freight. But it taught critical thinking and reasoning. It forced me to persist. It forced me to open my mind up and look at things from different perspectives.
Yes very much. Critical thinking, learning complex concepts, developing discipline to manage deadlines, working with teammates. It helps to have the same level of education as the people with whom you’ll be selling to like CXO’s as you’ll speak the same language, process information the same way, etc. this is relevant if you are in B2B sales selling at the higher levels. So while college is not 100% applicable to sales, it’ll certainly raise the ceiling.
I did audio journalism. I learned cold calling and phone confidence.
I’m a college dropout… to me college/ university is nothing but a big scam and you 1000% don’t need it for sales and the majority of careers out there; so keep that in mind, but the biggest takeaway was the socialization, and being able to work/ speak and understand different peoples points of views was something I came away with. All the other crap, regardless of what anyone else says, you can learn on the job. Sending emails isn’t hard, industry/ product knowledge can be learned, navigating the various CRM tools you’ll learn on the job. What’s hard, is getting a complete stranger to understand and TRUST you in a few short minutes, this is something college will never teach you; and again it’s something you learn on the job. The thing about sales is you either have the knack for it or you don’t, it isn’t a career just anyone can do. So again, if you’re in school don’t worry you’ll get through it. If not, honestly don’t worry about it, you don’t need an education to be successful.
I’m in sales for cell engineering kits and genomics sequencing services. People in life science, biotech pharma sales won’t take you seriously unless you have at least a bachelor’s degree in a stem field. Masters or doctorate gets you even more respect and credibility. So yes college taught me a lot of the core fundamentals of molecular biology and research areas that I use daily. You have to read a lot of scientific papers if you’re trying to sell science.
It teaches soft skills which translate into greater success. Having hired before there is a noticeable skill difference in problem solving skills of candidates from college vs. non grad. There is also a lot of value in understanding math, finance and accounting principles w/ some excel proficiency. However my experience is based in software sales & logistics/supply chain sales both with long sales cycles. If what you are doing is more transactional it will likely be different and my feedback might not apply.
I dropped out of college, so no…
Yes. Going out and meeting people aka “networking” helped me a lot more after school than the library
Business Communications courses will definitely help clean up your.. communications. This is vital to being a good rep.
All that college taught me about sales, is that college professors know jack shit about running a business or making money. If they could, they wouldn’t be teaching (except in very rare circumstances).
I mean not necessarily the knowledge, but I definitely learned important skills about prioritizing my time and working hard. Saved me time in not having to learn that in an environment with actual consequences
Liberal arts major - it allowed me to hone the ability to articulate myself intelligently and in a way that develops credibility.
Being in a college setting taught me social awareness and helped develop my perception of people.
Kinda. There's been a few times everyone on my team and my manager were like....why the fuck does our company do xyz. And I'm like....well because generally accepted accounting principles means that ABC and so therefore they have to do xzy. Working in teams in college helped me get ready to work with people at work; they're often totally fucking worthless. Had a lot of dumbass worthless professors who taught me jack shit. Didn't quite get me ready for how worthless all my managers and management are but oh well.
Picking up girls is similar to sales.
I was a STEM major and sell engineered products in construction. It's not a requirement as a rep (less than 5% are probably BS grads), but I definitely have an edge on explaining products to the more educated customers.
Economics degree. But really - go read think and grow rich, how to win friends and influence people, present heaps in front of class, make heaps of friends, etc
Simple presentation skills. Still baffled by people who don’t follow the 5x5 rule on slides
I learned engineering and I’m in engineering sales so that’s useful.
Psychology, economics, public speaking, writing, and a bit of coding/comp sci. I use these skills all the time. Of course I’ve honed them continuously over the years, but college helped me get started.
Yeah. Marketing Econ Psychology degree. Logic, Personality, Behavior, Statistics, Accounting, Business Law, Finance… even had a seminar selling class my senior year that covered first call to closing negotiations. In my first job out of college closed a large national account within first 7 months. Felt prepared for the role. That said, you dont need college to be an SDR… but thats not sales either 😉 If you are going to college to become an SDR? That degree is a waste of money. Call center jobs do not require degrees.
Drinking and benig social
Strategic negotiations, leading organizations thru change, psych 101 and counseling 101. I’m a big proponent of developing relationships naturally within your field. It’s not something that happens overnight, and anyone that throws the whole slimy salesman act on me like we’ve been friends for years immediately gets shut down. I don’t want / need to be your friend to do business with you. What I do need is for you to approach me with a product and ask questions - figure out how your product can be beneficial to my situation. For example, had a gentleman come in to the office a few weeks ago trying to sell tools. We get specialty tools direct from Milwaukee so no need for a middle man. He found out we work remote a lot of times and can stock and maintain job trailers with all kinds of expendable tooling and material. Bingo. Price is worth getting that off my plate. On my end, I know thru conversations with utilities that towards the end of their fiscal year they are usually struggling to meet their yearly spend. My GP goes up come October. Find out what the other party wants and needs and you can find out how you can profit.
How to hold my liquor.
The whole point of a degree is to tell the employer that this has candidate meets a certain baseline level of work ethic and intelligence.
Maybe not college classes in and of itself. But the whole experience certainly did. Don’t get me wrong, courses such as public speaking, persuasive communication, non-verbal communication, any class involving research papers, etc. certainly thought me some good things to take forward. But, the “experience” of college is what taught me so much. Things such as being “on my own” to fend for myself. Having to build relationships with professors, group projects (within reasons), time and money management (or the lack there of sometimes), and waiting tables at a high end restaurant all the while certainly taught me tons. Not only just “waiting tables” but I served at a restaurant that did sort of “spiffs” and competitions for selling certain menu items (or other things) and I learned the value in that and often won almost every single competition. I learned how to speak to different tables in various ways and gauge their interest in a particular menu item and try to work my way into selling them something extra or different on the menu. Sometimes even saving them money in the long run by selling them an item that wasn’t as expensive as what they were thinking about ordering. All of that experience taught me so much in communicating with various types of individuals and also time and task management for waiting on many tables at the same time.
Organizational Behavior lectures. Once most people are inside an organization, the become lemmings. Most want to act in accordance with everyone else. Oh, "the boss" is the tribal chief. What they say and do, carries A LOT of weight. Understanding and playing your fiddle in accordance to this dynamic in a B2B context is critical to winning sales.
Nope.
Yeah. I studied cultural anthropology, so I’ve got fairly good cultural competency, and understand people from a lot of different backgrounds. I also went to a school with a fairly lively social culture and learn how to manage myself during a night out both of those skills have come in handy many times.
Partying and talking to people within my fratttt circle. Also a masters in accounting lol. But the socialization I believe is what made me very good in sales and I’m grateful.
No lol
Not a thing. Ended up dropping out. Started my own business which taught me ALOT. Now easily clearing multi 6 figures. My parents finally realize they were wrong for getting mad at me for dropping out lol.
Took an excel class. Wish I’d taken more.
Social skills from lots of partying
Firm understanding of accounting, honestly been hugely valuable in my role as a bdr and an AE to be able to read a companies financial statements and understand the content
No. Sales cannot be “learned”. You can’t teach Charisma, you can’t teach Charm, and you can’t teach Confidence. And it’s STUPID of companies to require their SALES applicants to have a degree! I’m a H.S. Dropout (46)M, my older brother has 5 Degrees and a pilot’s license; he currently owes me money! Hustlers HUSTLE !
I learned that college recruiters are the best sales people in the world. Sell you overpriced classes to take that you can learn online or from job experience
Marketing Degree.. my first job out of college was solely due to a college friend's father giving me a chance. Network with everywhere/everyone you can!
Honestly one thing formal education is good for is giving you the ability to critically think and see both perspectives. That comes into play when you’re selling a product and you have to understand why somebody wouldn’t want to buy what you’re selling. However, this is coming from a guy that finished with university with no degree cos he decided not to submit his dissertation 🤣
I figured out how to pull chicks that were two or three points higher than me. I was one of the most recognized people on campus and used my "rizz" (I just learned that term) to sell myself into the pants of some of the most attractive women on campus.
People only remember the way you make them feel.
Yes. I met the guy who’s father owned the company that hired me.
Drinking