Faculty Advisors Educate Reps at National Sales Meeting

A short meeting this summer, Pearson’s National Sales Meeting took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from August 1-4.  With lots of activity packed into a brief amount of time, reps were appreciative of the opportunity to hear directly from a small collection of our Faculty Advisors. 

Chris Hess, a MasteringBiology and MasteringA&P Faculty Advisor from Butler University (IN) teamed up with Brian Buckley, Pearson’s Executive Manager for Mastering Faculty Programs to show the math and science sales force what strategies work best in sharing data tracking and data collection strategies with faculty.  A best practice list* included tips for reps to share with faculty like, “Require Mastering for a minimum of 10% of the final course grade,” and, “use the one-click diagnostics”. Hess also shared how he analyzes student data in the Mastering gradebook to figure out where the wear points are in his course and how to remedy them so that his students achieve the greatest level of success.

*the full best practices guide can be found within any of the Mastering portals under the ‘Tours and Training’ tab. 

Bill Hanna, a MasteringA&P Faculty Advisor from Massasoit Community College (MA) served double-duty by presenting the features of MasteringA&P in one session and preparing the reps to compete against Connect in another session.  Hanna walked through parts of MasteringA&P from a user’s perspective, focusing on how using it can save you time and money while providing students with instant help.  He really drove his point home by showing two photos – one of a cluttered and overflowing “typical” professor’s bookshelf and the other of his own bookshelves, neatly organized with plenty of room to spare thanks to all the activities students can do within Mastering.  At the request of one of our regional managers, Hanna helped reps prepare for fall by walking them through a competitive review between Mastering and Connect.  Provided with enough background and detail, reps will be ready to address specific concerns that Connect users might have about switching over to Mastering. 

Nancy Eschen, a MyMathLab Faculty Advisor from Florida State College at Jacksonville applied her knowledge as a past ALEKS user to teach reps all the ins and outs of the program.  As Hanna did with Connect, Eschen gave reps the tools they need to ease the transition of any current ALEKS users into MyMathLab for next semester.

Brian Zimmerman, a MyMathLab Faculty Advisor from University of Mississippi completed the collection of competitive reviewers by sharing what he learned using Hawkes.  While he didn’t attend the meeting in person, Zimmerman prepared and sent along presentation materials for Jordan Enzor and Meredith Kolaski, two Pearson technology specialists to use to prepare reps for campus this fall. 



Chris Hess and Brian Buckley

Being a Pearson sales rep is about partnering with faculty to match them up with the products that are best for them and their students. Having faculty advisors share their first-hand knowledge makes them even more effective as peer coaches and counselors.  Thank you to all the faculty advisors who shared their time with us at the National Sales Meeting.  It was greatly appreciated.