Jon M. Huntsman School of Business to add professional sales major
This autumn, the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business is selling Utah State University on a brand new degree: profesional sales.
As confirmed in a recent interview with USUSA Business Senator J.J. Watts, the Huntsman plans to introduce a new professional sales major for the upcoming academic year. The four-year degree will take inspiration from Utah State University’s existing technical sales minor — as well as its ProSales program, a student-led sales program that connects students with professional opportunities — to design its curriculum.
While still pending approval from the Utah System of Higher Education at the time of publication, the business school hopes to unveil the program in time for the fall 2026 semester. It will be the eighth in the school’s lineup of available majors.
In Watts’ words, the professional sales major “takes sales bros and makes them into sales professionals.”
Culminating in a bachelor’s degree, the program will require 120 credits for graduation participation in a relevant internship. Possible career paths associated with this major will include sales managers, technical/scientific wholesale representatives and sales engineers.
According to Watts, the success of similar programs at Utah Valley University and Weber State University encouraged the Huntsman to bring the program to USU students, and he claims there’s no better time to introduce it.
“It’s not something that the school wanted to just throw out there,” Watts said. “It’s actually been brought because of demand in the market right now.”
Although it will be an entirely new major at USU, the professional sales major will take its framework and curriculum from ProSales, which has been running at USU for the past 11 years. The program was started by USU marketing professor Sterling Bone, who has also designed the curriculum for the new degree, according to ProSales co-president Tavo Estrada.
Described on its website as “a market-driven group that provides a connection between the best sales students at USU and business executives, managers and recruiters,” ProSales is open to students of any major, who regularly attend networking events and competitions related to sales.
“That program has 100% placement, meaning if you enter into that program, do their curriculum and search for a job within that realm, you’ll get a job,” Watts said.
Estrada, who is a senior in data analytics and marketing, said he believes this existing placement rate is good news for any student planning on starting the professional sales major.
“I anticipate that’s going to extend over to the sales major,” Estrada said. “Anyone who is in the sales major will have some of the best networking opportunities on campus.”
According to Watts and Estrada, the major will include both existing Huntsman classes and new classes specifically developed for the degree. Watts said there will be a heavy emphasis on “experiential courses,” which are designed to provide students with practical experience in the field by use of role-playing experiences and case studies.
While Watts anticipates a large number of recent high school graduates will be drawn to the program, he also claims a significant number of the program’s new participants will be current students coming from other majors in the business school.
“I know a lot of students here in the Huntsman who just chose some type of major that they would be ‘okay’ doing and then they do the sales minor. I think it’ll be nice for those students who know exactly that they want to do sales,” Watts said.
According to Watts, many students — particularly marketing majors — are only in their current major because a sales major doesn’t exist, and once the professional sales major takes off, their needs will be better met through that program.