The Role of Sales Stereotypes in Students’ Perception

The present work intends to explore sales and salespeople stereotype among university students; previous literature has already pointed out students’ lack of awareness, negative perception and stereotyping of sales and salespeople. Students in fact show to know little about sales and its evolution over the decades and the low propensity towards the possibility of working in sales has persisted for over 50 years. This exploratory analysis was conducted to analyze the perception of salespeople, in the context of university students, and understand the orientation of students to sales career. Data were collected and analyzed using qualitative research method. Results show that sales and salespeople stereotype is still present among students, and that selling as a process tends to be identified mainly as a single activity, as just direct interaction or negotiation. In addition, business (marketing) students tend to refer to the dichotomy between the transactional and the relational paradigm as a reference to define the stereotypical and the ideal selling approach. Findings suggest that a further exposition to sales issues could define and improve the students’ knowledge and perception of sales and foster students’ intention to pursue a career in sales.