The new Student Experiential Learning and Sales Lab is a place where students can practice real-life sales scenarios like pitching clients, cold calling, job interviews and negotiations. Mark Kubik is GVSU Marketing Department Chair.
He says so-called “soft skills” are standard classroom practice.
The sales lab will expand that.
“Our employers are telling us that students that have participated in that type of curriculum, they have a 50% faster ramp up rate when they're hired. They progress 50% faster than a lot of their peers that are coming from other schools.”
Fifth Wheel Freight, a logistics and transportation company, is sponsoring sales lab training.
“It's about being good relationship builders. It's about being good service providers.”
Vice President of Marketing and Communications Kelsey Orchard explains Fifth Wheel Freight hires a lot of college students, many from Grand Valley, and notes the skills learned are valuable in any industry.
“Some of those skills are things that we're teaching internally, especially to our entry-level employees: those negotiation skills, the ability to ask consultative questions, relationship building, trust building, just general sales and business skills that in my opinion can transfer to really any organization.”
GVSU leaders say there are opportunities for more sales lab sponsorships.
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