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"I am an entrepreneur with an education in accounting and absolutely no sales experience. I've read several books and attended a few 'sales' seminars always looking for, but never having, that 'ah ha' moment.
I attended "A Successful Sales Path" on February 6 with Dr. Selden. This seminar was EXACTLY what I have been waiting for. Dr. Selden provided an overall template that had guidelines and rules to follow. By providing executable steps, I finally had the 'take-away' I needed to finally feel comfortable selling. The instructor also approached the session in an interactive manner (non-intimidating) and I learned quite a bit from the other participants.
Great seminar; I would highly recommend it and look forward to other classes in the series."
- Allison G. Halron, Chief Executive Officer, Paradigm Business Solutions
“During these difficult economic times, everyone is interested in business development. This workshop [Successful Sales Path] was extremely practical. The professor was well informed about proven sales and business techniques and the Coles College has a refreshing emphasis on sales unlike most business schools.”
- Douglas L. Griest, Ph.D., Management Psychology Group
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” Ralph Waldo Emerson may be regarded as one of America’s most influential authors, poets, and philosophers. However, judging by this saying (commonly attributed to him), he never truly experienced being an entrepreneur.
For most entrepreneurs it isn’t enough to just come up with a superior product or service. You have to be able to identify, approach, and persuade people or organizations to buy your product as well. More products have failed not because of inherent flaws in their design or superiority to existing products but because of a failure of the entrepreneur to find customers. Perhaps a better quote for entrepreneurs is given by Henry Ford who said, “Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets.”
The goal of the Sales Strategy program, provided by the Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw State University and the Technology Association of Georgia, is to teach you to scratch like a chicken in order to grow you business. The first two sessions of this program will help you hone your skills in prospecting, needs identification, persuasion, presentation, handling objections, and closing for the sale. The third session is designed to sharpen your skills in business negotiations to gain the most long-term benefit for your business. The fourth session helps you retain your best customers – your sales force – by keeping them trained, motivated, and compensated through their profitable customers. These sessions can be taken in any order. However, we recommend that they be taken in the order presented below for maximum benefit. This combination of skills will result in an increase in your business and success.
The Sessions
March 30: Successful Sales Path
April 27: Beyond the Basics of Successful Selling: Mental and Practical Approach to Realizing Sales Success
SAs this overview module will show, sales are the lifeblood for any business. Everyone in the organization should be a good salesperson. However many of us are not successful at it, and many more just don’t like it. Why? Perhaps it is a misunderstanding of what the process really should be. The Art of Selling is all about satisfying needs, and with that comes the responsibility of understanding your customer’s needs. This session will focus on the sales process and how to make it work more effectively in your business. How can you build relationships, increase sales, and feel good about it. This workshop is for those new to selling, wanting to re-enter the sales force, non-salespeople who need to understand the process, or experienced salespeople looking to brush up on the basics.
Topics that will be touched upon include:
Cost: $395-Members, $445-Non-Members, $385-Premier Members. (Contact Amanda Shook at (404)920-2023) for group rates)
Highly successful salespeople perceive themselves in a fundamentally different way from those who are mediocre or average. Great salespeople understand both the "Art" and the "Science" of selling and understand that they must "live life - on purpose" and that being highly successful requires a strategic approach to selling as well as to their career. Highly successful salespeople approach sales "on purpose." This session will focus on the strategic components of successfully developing relationships, developing and managing larger accounts, and increasing the profitability of new and current accounts.
This workshop is designed to help new and veteran salespeople:
Attendees will:
Terry Loe, PhD, is the director of Kennesaw State University's internationally renowned Center for Professional Selling, as well as, the Founder and Director of the National Collegiate Sales Competition (NCSC). The NCSC brings together every spring, over 300 students, faculty and corporate executives to participate in this sales role-play competition to discover the best sales students from over 50 universities from around the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The NCSC has been recognized as the top competition of its kind by leading business publications.
Dr. Loe's teaching and research specialty is in the area of ethics and sales leadership. He has over 30 research publications in some of the top academic and practitioner sales journals and has been recognized by several sales and marketing associations and journals for his distinguished contributions in the area of sales research. He has taught international marketing and marketing courses in France and England. Dr. Loe has developed advanced selling courses at two different universities, co-developed a business ethics course and has been recognized by several student groups for outstanding teaching in marketing. Dr. Loe has also been recognized by the American Marketing Association for his contribution to the sales discipline and sales education for his development of the National Collegiate Sales Competition.
Dr. Selden is Associate Professor of Marketing and Professional Sales at the Coles College of Business¸ Kennesaw State University. His teaching responsibilities lie with the Human Side of Enterprises. This includes Marketing¸ Sales¸ Organizational Learning¸ Creativity and Innovation, and Team Development. He is Assistant Director of the Center for Professional Selling and Co-Director of the Center for Business Innovation and Creativity. He is also a partner in a consulting firm that provides advice and training around being more creative and innovative regarding business processes.
Selden came to Kennesaw State after 18 years of marketing and sales experience, mostly with Fortune 500 companies in the dental industry. He has worked for and consulted with many companies including Syntex Pharmaceuticals, Yoshida x-ray, Royal Manufacturing, Patterson Dental Supply, Shaw Industries, Post Properties, DuPont, Allied Chemical, Mohawk Flooring, Worldspan, Kroger and others.
Dr. Selden teaches and researches in the field of innovation and creativity and their impact on organizational performance. In addition, he researches the impact of executive programs on knowledge performance and financial performance in organizations. Dr. Selden has a BA in Mathematics from Ithaca College, a Masters in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University, and a Doctor of Education from The University of Georgia in Human Resource Development and Adult Education.
"The Center for Professional Selling at Kennesaw State University combines theory and practice in a hands-on way that prepares students for the real world of sales. The graduates of the Center's program have a competitive edge that will last a lifetime." -Harry Maziar, Retire President and CEO of Zep Manufacturing Company
The Coles College of Business Center for Professional Selling (CPS) is an non-profit division of Kennesaw State University within the Coles College of Business. The mission of the Center for Professional Selling is:
To positively impact and enhance the practice and professionalism of selling and sales management by:
The stakeholders of the Center for Professional Selling include students with a desire to enter the sales profession and businesses in Georgia and throughout the United States that have a need to acquire qualified candidates for positions on their sales force and have the need to outsource fundamental sales skills training for their current sales force. Stakeholders also include organizations and entities that need answers to questions regarding improvement of sales related strategies, concepts and activities.
Documented Success of the Center for Professional Selling:
Not many people local to Atlanta realize it, but that "little community college up north" has grown into a nationally recognized academic powerhouse: