With the demand for marketing jobs increasing, the E.J. Ourso College of Business launched the Professional Sales Institute under the marketing department Wednesday.
The kickoff event was attended by past and present faculty, graduated and current students, as well as members of the PSI team. More than 15 representatives from LSU’s corporate partners were present at the PSI.
Marketing Director Philip Greg Accardo said PSI at LSU will aid students committed to becoming a professional sales leader. It will teach students more about sales knowledge and help find internships and jobs while they attend LSU, Accardo said.
“Recent studies show that 68 percent of students who graduate from LSU in professional sales have a job immediately out of college,” said professional sales professor and Ourso Distinhguisghed Chair Alvin C. Burns. “This is something that we are extremely proud of because it means we are doing our jobs.”
The curriculum offers three classes: professional sales, sales management and sales practicum. In sales practicum, students receive real world experience, preparing them for professional sales competition.
“Five years ago this was just a dream,” said professional sales professor Carl B. Herrick. “Now this is just the start of what will be one of, if not the finest, Professional Sales Institute in the United States.”
The Sales Education Foundation recently announced LSU’s PSI as one of the top professional sale programs of 2015. This award is given to programs dedicated to developing students into sales professionals.
Herrick said the students drive the program.
“A new strategy of ours this year is to create more relationships with corporate partnerships,” said professional sales assistant professor James Mitchell Anduzlis. “We want to create more internships with corporate partnerships.” Over fifteen representatives from LSU’s corporate partners were present at the PSI kickoff.
Jim Parr and Laura Parr contributed financially to the creation of PSI. Jim also works as a part time professor at LSU’s College of Business, teaching marketing and professional sales classes.
“We were overwhelmed at the marketing majors that are at LSU.
More than 50 percent take sales positions after graduating,” Jim Parr said. “Our job is to prepare our marketing majors to be successful, and we know that PSI will greatly help those students to be prepared.”

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Haskell Whittington

Jim Parr, who is an adjunct faculty member for the LSU Department of Marketing and Professional Sales Institue, gives a speech on the launch of the Professional Sales Institute on Wednesday Sept. 30, 2015, at the LSU Buisness Education Complex.