Dr. David Gilliam, assistant professor of marketing and assistant director of the Center for Professional Selling, recently participated in the 2013 American Marketing Association (AMA) Faculty Consortium held June 12-14. The AMA consortium, just the fifth sales consortium held in the last 30 years, was a launching pad for collaboration among international scholars to produce premier selling and sales management research. Dr. Gilliam was one of approximately 110 researchers selected to attend.
Participants were exposed to cutting-edge presentations by leading scholars on issues of theory, method and analytics. One such presenter was Neil Rackham, author of SPIN Selling, who discussed the research traditions, training, and issues in the U.S. and Globally. However, the true value of the event was realized when Consortium Fellows interacted with each other and formed successful collaborative research teams.
Dr. Gilliam was most taken with the concepts explored in the “Natural Experiments/Field Experiments/Experimental Simulations” session lead by Dr. Florian Kraus (Mannheim) and Dr. Jan Wieseke (Bochum). Dr. Gilliam noted, “Field experiments, though difficult to conduct, are particularly suited to sales research because lab experiments lose the context so critical to sales encounters. Doing the studies in situ helps capture the nuances that make or break the sales effort. Discussing field experiments with preeminent scholars from around the world proved very valuable for my research.”
The Center for Professional Selling is committed to both advancing sales practices and supporting the developmental insights into principles and theories that serve to increase the understanding of those same practices. Dr. Gilliam’s time spent building relationships with Consortium Fellows from around the world and participating in the ongoing dialogue surrounding key research issues will aid in the development of new insights into teaching and learning so Professional Selling students achieve more through their education at UALR.
For more information about UALR’s sales program, visit https://ualr.edu/selling/. For information about the Department of Marketing and Advertising at UALR, visit ualr.edu/marketing/.