The National Conference in Sales Management (NCSM) exists to create a premier conference and disseminate knowledge in the areas of sales management and personal selling.

The NCSM meeting is held each year in conjunction with the national convention of Pi Sigma Epsilon, and many PSE faculty advisors find it possible to participate in both meetings. The NCSM program normally begins with a welcoming reception on Wednesday and continues through Saturday afternoon. Registration includes admittance to the awards brunch where the award for best paper at the conference is announced.

The NCSM is a collegial gathering. Starting with the 1998 conference, "corporate casual" attire has been the norm for all sessions, although those wishing to wear a tie are welcome to do so. The emphasis during paper presentations is on helping the presenter improve their concepts. Papers normally include a mixture of conceptual, empirical, and education-oriented pieces. Because the number of papers accepted is limited, there are no concurrent sessions at NCSM, meaning that there are always many people in the audience for every session. In addition to paper presentations, NCSM normally includes a session devoted to hearing from industry executives. In this way, academic attendees have an opportunity to learn about new directions in personal selling and sales management directly from those involved.

NCSM in recent years has become an important place to learn about future directions in sales. The awards for best JPSSM article and best JPSSM reviewers during the previous year are announced annually at NCSM. In 1994, Dr. Tom Ingram presented the salesperson certification process adopted by the Sales and Management Executives International organization. This was the first public exposure of the ADAPT process as an extension of the SPIN selling process. In 1998, Dr. Terry Loe presented plans for a national student sales role play competition. In 2005, Gerard Edwards, SMEI Director of Education, presented an update on the SMEI certification process, and Adam Rapp presented details of the use of HLM in a sales context.

NCSM has become an important venue to support doctoral students in early and late stages of their programs. In 2004 Adam Rapp and Keith Richards met each other at NCSM, and returned in 2005 to present a paper they had worked on together. The format of NCSM, where a lot of time is available for networking, is particularly valuable to doctoral students with interests in the sales area. Up to three one-thousand dollar Doctoral Research Grants are available to support doctoral student research.

We hope you'll make plans to attend the next National Conference in Sales Management. Be sure to read the Call for Papers and fill out the Conference Registration Form. We look forward to seeing you there!

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National Conference in Sales Management

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