Creating Thoughtful Salespeople: Experiential Learning to Improve Critical Thinking Skills in Traditional and Online Sales Education

Abstract

Most undergraduate marketing majors will spend at least some time in a sales role, and employers are requiring greater professionalism and more varied skill sets from their sales hires. In addition, there is an increasing demand for online and higher order learning in sales education. In response, this article proposes that sales courses using structured learning activities can increase critical thinking skills, irrespective of the learning environment. To test these propositions, a pre- and post-test interventional research study was conducted. Results show that students’ objective critical thinking scores showed some improvement over a semester for both face-to-face and fully online courses. Moreover, a control group of students did not experience a similar increase in their critical thinking skills.

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