There can be few people who are as passionate about sales as Steve Partridge. Or, indeed, about acronyms. STEEPL (a reminder of the factors that can affect business: social, technological, economic, envi-ronmental, political and legal) and SWOT (an analytical tool used to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) have both enriched his work as a salesman. Academic theories such as these are just as useful in sales as in other aspects of business, he says. “Gone are the days when you could give someone a sales bag, show them the door and expect them to get on with it. We’re in a global marketplace – companies do not have that luxury. There’s a skills gap which we’ve been very slow to address.”

Partridge left school with few qualifications. After a stint in the Merchant Navy he went into development engineering and, several years later, found his métier. “I knew I was a good communicator and my company suggested moving to a sales role. It felt as if that was where the real challenges lay.” After a while he felt that his lack of formal training was holding him back. “Coming from a technical background, I saw that there were plenty of training opportunities for engineers and technicians and thought, why not sales?”

What started as an introductory qualification has turned into a one-man crusade to improve the academic standing of sales. He questions why universities do not offer undergraduate degrees in sales, then offers his own answer: it’s a combination of stigma and the mistaken belief that salespeople are naturally good at what they do. “Salespeople are made, not born. High level sales requires extensive product knowledge and an understanding of business functions, management, markets and customers.” Being at the vanguard of a company can be stressful without the right knowledge base, he says. “The academic world needs to recognise this.”

Sandwiched between business, management and marketing, sales is sometimes seen as the poor relation. “Any business leader knows the functions have to work closely together. When we teach business, we should teach sales dimensions. It’s been missed off the educational map.” But this could be about to change. “Since 2000 there’s been more investment in sales education by the leading institutions.”

Partridge’s investment in his own sales education has been impressive. He began by earning a diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, but felt that his studies were still unfinished. “I’d brought a product to market, made it fit for purpose, but I wasn’t convinced I was performing at my best.” In 2001 he became one of the first six people in the UK to undertake a Masters in Sales Management at the University of Portsmouth. “The international focus of the course enabled me to sit at the senior table in the US and discuss the sales channels we were adopting on a worldwide basis.”

Then in 2004 he began a PhD in sales and marketing leadership selection at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He hopes that his research, which he expects to complete next year, will increase understanding of the profession and encourage young people to pursue a career in sales.

So, with a lengthy academic pedigree, is this his last qualification? “Yes, definitely,” he says, before reconsidering. “Actually, I probably shouldn’t say that.”

Sales Masters

MA in Sales Management, University of Portsmouth, www.port.ac.uk

MA in Sales Management, Huddersfield University Business School, www.hud.ac.uk

Sales directors’ programme and sales leadership programme, Ashridge Business School, www.ashridge.org.uk

Postgraduate programme in industrial sales and strategic marketing, Loughborough University, www.lboro.ac.uk

Masters in Sales and Marketing Management, ESADE Business School, Spain, www.esade.edu

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