(EID-006) “FROM SALEMANSHIP TO ENTERPRENEURSHIP”

“One small step for a school, one giant step for our economy…” This is how I would describe a program that is now being developed by the University Consortium for Resource Networking (UNICORN) for a leading business school in Metro Manila. It is a two-stage program that would first train students in salesmanship, and then move them on towards entrepreneurship training.

Going back to the basics, it is really sales that is the heart and soul of marketing, even if marketing itself is the heart and soul of business. The goal of the program is to produce sales professionals for the marketing companies in our country, but with the option for them to put up their own companies if they are so compelled to become entrepreneurs. More basic than that is the fact that salesmanship is an excellent training ground for entrepreneurship.

Aptly called the Young Entrepreneurs and Salesmanship (YES) Program, it is also envisioned to become a scholarship program wherein the student participants would be able to fund their own education from their sales incomes, at the same time be able to raise funds for their student organizations.

From the standpoint of UNICORN member schools, it is a win-win solution to the problem of marketing their “downtime” and the problem of financing school tuitions, thus enabling them to shoot two birds with one stone.

From the standpoint of UNICORN employer partner schools, it is a win-win solution to the problem of recruiting good sales talent, and the problem of penetrating non-traditional markets through direct selling strategies.

The students participating in the YES program will be asked to sell specific products, to prepare sales forecasts, and to defend their sales performance just like a regular salesman would, under the guidance of actual sales supervisors.

A major distributor of Unilever and Kimberly-Clark products has already agreed to become the first employer partner, thus ensuring the immediate implementation of the program. UNICORN is the lead organization of the United National Integrated Development Alliance (UNIDA) for the education sector. UNIDA also has programs for the justice, health, agriculture and shelter sectors.