Selling Sales; Managing the Professional Sales Program as a Brand

As two students who have benefitted immensely through engagement in the ASU Professional Sales Program, Emily Herring and Lauren Coles attempt to address the ASU Professional Sales Program as a brand. This is accomplished through an extensive investigation into the current brand in terms of brand inventory and positioning, integrated marketing communications and digital brand strategy, landscape data collection and consumer brand perceptions, and brand development strategies. For this investigation, primary and secondary research via online resources, including competitor websites, articles, etc., was used to analyze the brand and competitors. We collected primary research for the landscape data and consumer brand perceptions via a survey of sales students and coaches from other schools as well as a survey of incumbent participants of the various parts of the program. From this analysis of these data using brand management theory sourced from academic texts, we concluded that there are issues with our brand awareness and consistency. In order to mitigate this, we recommend many changes, the most pertinent and current of which are amalgamated within a holistic 3-pronged positioning campaign. The rest are included in considerations for the future. Within the holistic 3-pronged positioning campaign, the internal and external positioning drive, the customer-driven communications, and the various co-branding initiatives include strong and decisive changes, like changing the name of SPARK, the general student sales club at ASU, and using recaps of events to drive engagement on social media. We hope these changes will engage more students with the ASU Professional Sales Program earlier in their career, with increased dedication to and interaction with the various program offerings.