Perceptions of the sales job: How students compare with industrial salespeople

Past research on student's attitudes toward personal selling have generally concluded that students have misconceptions about sales. An interesting issue, but one that has not yet been explored, is whether students' perceptions of selling are different from salespeople's perceptions. This paper reports the results of a study that examined the differences between salespeople's and students' perceptions of a sales job. In addition, several managerial implications for developing sales recruiting messages are discussed. The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge an anonymous reviewer for his/her helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this article and the Sales and Marketing Executives Club of Dallas for its personal support of this project.