Title: Teaching sport sponsorship sales through experiential learning

Authors: Steve McKelvey, Richard M. Southall

Addresses: Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 121 Presidents Drive, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. ' College Sport Research Institute, Sport and Leisure Commerce, The University of Memphis, USA

Abstract: The majority of entry-level positions within the sport industry fall in the area of sales. Numerous sport practitioners have lamented the lack of sales training (Dolich, 2004; Helyar, 2006). Yet, only recently have sport management programmes begun to offer courses devoted to sales education and training (Southall et al., 2006a; Irwin et al., 2007). The discipline of sales provides an ideal opportunity to incorporate an experiential learning course. While several recent articles have examined the application of experiential learning to courses focused on sport ticket sales, this article extends previous research to a course focused on sport sponsorship sales. Specifically, this paper applies Southall et al.|s (2003) metadiscrete experiential learning model and Irwin et al. (2007) Pentagon of Sport Sales Training to a sport management course designed to sell sponsorship packages for a local team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.

Keywords: sport sponsorship sales; experiential learning; sales training; relationship selling; customer-focused selling; sport marketing; sport management education; sport management courses; sport management curriculum; baseball; United States; USA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2008.018650

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2008 Vol.4 No.2/3, pp.225 - 254

Published online: 04 Jun 2008 *

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