The ribbon is cut to open the Lear Corporation Career Services Center’s new sales lab.
Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business has some new options for teaching students consultative sales techniques, thanks to a corporate partnership with the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters.
On Friday, December 5, MSU’s Lear Corporation Career Services Center opened its new sales lab with a ribbon-cutting and appreciation ceremony.
Five rooms in the Lear Center have been equipped with videography technology enabling students to be recorded conducting sales role plays and presentations and to receive customized feedback on the videos to improve their personal selling competencies.
“This technology is a huge enhancement to the pedagogical capabilities of our sales program in that students now have the opportunity to see themselves in action and learn from their own observations as well as from the feedback provided by professors,” said Doug Hughes, associate professor of marketing and leader of the Strategic Sales Institute.
The ribbon cutting was followed by an appreciation reception at the Lear Center.
The renovation was funded by a $75,000 gift from Thomson Reuters, a long-time corporate partner of MSU’s sales program.
“With state support for universities shrinking, we increasingly rely on corporate and individual donations to fund important initiatives that allow us to stay on the cutting edge,” said Hughes. “We are grateful for Thomson Reuters’ support.”
“Thomson Reuters is excited and pleased to have funded the new sales lab,” said Rick Kursik, vice president of sales for the Professional segment within the Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters. “Our relationship with the university and specifically the sales specialization has been an extremely positive one, and the lab was a great way for us to expand that relationship and to provide further value to the students of MSU.”
While the lab technology offers particular benefits to students studying sales, it also provides students across the college with the opportunity to evaluate, reflect upon, and improve their personal presentation skills—vital to any business career.
“Our business has many former Spartans on our sales staff and we value greatly the contributions they provide on a daily basis,” said Kursik. “We hope that the sales lab and our ongoing work with MSU furthers this impact and enhances the working relationship we enjoy with MSU and its students.”
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