UW College of Business Introduces Major, Minor in Professional Sales

The University of Wyoming College of Business will launch this fall a Bachelor of Science in business degree with a major in professional sales, and a business minor in professional and technical selling.

These degree programs complement the College of Business mission by offering a multifaceted instructional environment with experiential learning opportunities. The curriculum within the major and minor will focus on four critical and valued areas: persuasive communication; selling within complex situations; navigating selling organizations; and customer pipeline management.

Both the sales major and technical selling minor prepare students to effectively engage and manage business clients from profit and nonprofit organizations.

“In today’s business environment, assessing business opportunities and managing customer relationships are critical,” says Mark Leach, the Mendicino Chair in Sales and Salesmanship in the UW College of Business. “These new offerings provide students essential knowledge and skills required to begin professional careers in sales while expanding career opportunities to students across the university.”

Through collaboration with the UW Center for Professional Selling, these new programs create opportunities for sales organizations to get involved and enhance classroom learning. Students in the programs can expect amplified classroom experiences paired with unique industry engagement opportunities designed to develop the knowledge and practical skills needed to succeed in today’s workforce, says Chris Haller, UW’s Timothy M. Miles Center for Professional Selling director.

“We are thrilled to launch this new major and minor this fall,” Haller says. “We are enabling our students to receive industry-leading experience that corresponds with our corporate partnership engagements. We are striving to ensure that our graduates have a competitive advantage when they enter the job market.”

The two new degrees are built on UW’s established and growing sales program.

Leach joined UW in 2017 to create a sales curriculum that would be the foundation for a nationally recognized sales program at UW. The sales program has grown to more than 150 UW students enrolled in sales classes each academic year.

Haller joined the sales program last spring to lead the corporate partnership program, and Molly Burchett was recently hired to broaden the output of sales-related scholarship and deliver sales curriculum.

UW’s sales program has gained national attention with its recognition as a “Top University Sales Program” by the Sales Education Foundation and its status as an associate member of the University Sales Center Alliance.

For more information about the program, email the College of Business at salesctr@uwyo.edu. Sales organizations wishing to learn more about the Center for Professional Selling can call Haller at (307) 766-4157 or email chris.haller@uwyo.edu.

For more information about UW’s Center for Professional Selling, visit www.uwyo.edu/mgtmkt/sales.