Assessing Sport-Sales Training Effectiveness: To Enhance Sales Performance of Prospective Sales Employees

The majority of entry-level positions within the sport industry fall in the area of sales. Yet, only recently have sport-management programs begun to offer courses devoted to sales education and training. The discipline of sales provides an ideal opportunity to incorporate experiential-based learning. While several recent articles have examined the application of experiential-learning to courses focused on ticket sales, this article presents the results of the first systematic assessment of such courses’ effectiveness. Specifically, this paper presents the results of an evaluation of sales-training programs that incorporate Southall, Nagel, LeGrande, and Han’s (2003) metadiscrete experiential learning model and the application of this model to a sport-sales specific curriculum as presented by Irwin, Southall and Sutton (2007). Among sampled students (N = 261), survey results revealed significant differences in all assessed categories related to students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes related to sport sales. This article discusses study findings and significance of conclusions for future sport-management program development.