Marketing professors place as finalists in teaching innovation competition

Marketing Associate Professor Dr. David Baker and former Assistant Professor Dr. Duleep Delpechitre recently placed among the top five finalists in the National Conference in Sales Management Teaching Innovation Competition. Drs. Baker and Delpechitre competed with a manuscript they co-authored on the topic of a teaching process for building Cultural Selling Intelligence. Dr. Baker will present the method and compete during the conference in March for the 2016 grand prize.

The teaching innovation applies a structured platform to build Cultural Selling Intelligence (CSIQ) within a traditional professional selling or sales management course. The process has been successfully applied as part of the preparation of the UL Lafayette collegiate sales teams who have placed in the top five at team and individual levels at national and international competitions such as the Florida State University's International Collegiate Sales Competition.

The process is applied in developmental tiers which form a foundation of cultural knowledge within the selling process and then develop adaptive abilities to apply that knowledge within the field selling context. It builds on individual awareness through an initial structured self-assessment, proceeds to build foundational cross-cultural and sales process knowledge, and concludes with a closing the loop learning outcome re-assessment. Ultimately, the process requires active application of motivational and behavioral cross-cultural selling skills that can continue to be developed at an individual level after course completion.

The National Conference in Sales Management (NCSM) is the premier international gathering of scholars, instructors, and practitioners interested in professional selling and sales management research and teaching. It exists to create a premier conference and disseminate knowledge in the areas of sales management and personal selling.  The best teaching innovation out of the top 5 finalists presented at the conference will receive a $1,000 grand prize sponsored by The University Sales Center Alliance (USCA).