Our Research Philosophy

One of the main reasons that academic sales research has become irrelevant for today’s sales leaders is the way that this research is conducted.  Typically, academic researchers identify a topic area that they think is interesting and relevant, lay the ground work for a research project in this area, develop the methodology for carrying out the project, and then they approach a company to sponsor the research or to allow access to potential study participants.  In short, the current process obtains very little input from managers on the front end of the project resulting in research that may be completely irrelevant to the audience for which the research was intended.

The FSU Sales Institute’s research philosophy is to work collaboratively with managers from the beginning of research projects so that ideas about relevant studies can be discussed prior to conducting the research.  The end result is that the research projects conducted by the FSU research team hold much more significance for sales managers.  Also, we are committed to producing two documents for every research project conducted in the FSU Sales Institute: one for publication in academic journals and one that highlights the implications the research findings have for sales representatives and managers.  We believe that with this approach and FSU’s national research reputation we can become the preeminent sales research program for both academics and for managers.