Indiana State University Newsroom

The Indiana State University College of Business is carving out a niche with the hiring of a faculty member to focus on sales education. Certified sales executive, southern Indiana native and Indiana State alumnus Jon M. Hawes has joined the faculty as professor of marketing.

Hawes comes to ISU from the University of Akron where he was a distinguished professor of marketing and founder of the Fisher Institute for Professional Selling.
At Indiana State, he will serve as professor of marketing and will teach a new course in negotiations this fall. He will also build a training laboratory for video-recording of sales, negotiations and other business communications as he works toward developing a new Sales and Negotiations Center. The center would engage business and other community members in the ISU program, while providing consulting and specialized training to organizations.

While approximately 3,000 U.S. colleges and universities have marketing programs, only about 30 institutions offer a significant focus on sales education, Hawes said.

"The irony is that most graduates of marketing programs go to work, at least initially, in sales. What we hope to do at Indiana State is to develop a strong focus on sales education so that our students are exceptionally well prepared to work in business-to-business selling," he said.

Thousands of employers around the country are looking to hire persons with the education, interest and aptitude to work in business-to-business sales, Hawes said.

"Ultimately the goal is to prepare our students for a great career. By providing them with specialized training in sales they will have a huge advantage over students at other universities who don't develop that skill set," he said.

Hawes plans to bring ISU and the proposed Sales and Negotiations Center into the nationwide University Sales Center Alliance.

"Once we accomplish that, we will see a significant increase in employers coming to our placement center to hire our graduates," he said.

An award-winning educator, Hawes brings more than three decades of teaching, research and leadership excellence to Indiana State, said Nancy J. Merritt, dean of the College of Business.

"At the same time," Merritt said, "Dr. Hawes brings energy and commitment to ISU in advancing student education and involving the business community in our programs and the Sales and Negotiations Center."
In August, Hawes will receive the McGraw Hill/Irwin Sales Teacher of the Year Award from the American Marketing Association. He received the 2006 Prentice Hall Solomon-Marshall-Stuart Award for Innovative Excellence in Marketing Education; the 2005 Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education; the 2005 Outstanding Teacher/Scholar Award from the University of Akron; the 2005 Distinguished Sales Educator Award from the University Sales Center Alliance; and the 2004 Hormel Master Teacher Award from the Marketing Management Association.

Hawes received the Outstanding Service Award at the National Conference in Sales Management in 2000, 2001 and 2002 and was selected by the University of Akron Alumni Association as the 1991 winner of the Outstanding Researcher Award for a lifetime of exceptional achievements in research.

Under his leadership, the Fisher Institute for Professional Selling received donations including $500,000 for the endowment and more than $630,000 in cash and gifts-in-kind; sold and provided more than $814,000 worth of training and consulting; and created an executive advisory board and faculty advisory board.

The appointment by Indiana State brings Hawes back to his alma mater. He earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics in 1973 and a master of business administration in 1975. He holds a doctorate in marketing from the University of Arkansas. A native of Wheatland, Ind., he is a graduate of South Knox High School.

Photo: http://isuphoto.smugmug.com/photos/585492083_pwN26-L.jpg

Contact: Jon M. Hawes, professor of marketing, College of Business, Indiana State University, 812-237-2286 or jon.hawes@indstate.edu

Writer: Dave Taylor, media relations director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-3743 or dave.taylor@indstate.edu