Newsportal - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

You were voted Professor of the Year 2014. What does that mean for you?
This is truly amazing, even though the title is misleading, because it is absolutely obvious that our praxis-oriented syllabus is created by the entire team at our Department. People often address it when talking to us, and it motivates us to continuously optimise our academic content.

Your area of interest is sales, which doesn’t exactly have a good image. Does that bother you?
Yes and no. Yes, because it doesn’t do justice to most people who are doing a great job in sales. No, because it illustrates how important our work is. If we succeed to inspire students to work in sales, which in many enterprises is crucial for success, then we have truly accomplished something. This is why we are currently setting up the first university-based Master’s degree programme in “Sales Management”. Start in summer semester 2016.

Which research result baffled you most in the last year?
In our surveys, we see a dangerous evolution of two phenomena. In know-how-providing enterprises in particular, a strong sales team is gaining more and more importance as a success factor. On the other hand, enterprises find it increasingly more difficult to inspire qualified talents to accept a position in sales.