Campus Series: Adam Rapp – Setting Students Up For Success

Think of the last time you made a sale, chances are it was more recent than you think. From selling an idea for a new project to interviewing at a company, people are constantly using sales both personally and professionally, making it a great field to break into no matter what you specifically studied. 

In this episode of the Campus Series podcast, Adam Rapp, Associate Dean of External Affairs at Ohio University, shares the story of his professional growth in academia and sales, touches on the core values of sales, and explains why open communication is necessary for successful collaboration. 

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Adam Rapp

💡 What he does: Adam is the associate dean of external affairs at Ohio University.

💡 Company: Ohio University

💡 Noteworthy: Adam is an opportunity seeker. Even at the beginning of his professional journey, he knew what he wanted next — to grow and climb the ladder, one step at a time. As a result, he built a prolific career in sales and academia. He helped students recognize their strengths, learn as much as possible, and grow professionally. Adam is on a mission to teach students how to fulfill the purpose of sales, at least in the B2B space, which is to help customers deal with and overcome their unique challenges. 

💡 Where to find Adam: LinkedIn

Key Insights

⚡ The thing that made me fall in love with sales was the possibility of helping people. Like most successful sales professionals, Adam didn’t know he would end up in sales. But there was a situation where he had to take a sales call and talk to a prospect. So, instead of doing a usual hard sell (he didn’t know how, as he was not in sales then), he took a human approach and genuinely cared about that person’s needs, which led to a positive outcome. It was then that Adam recognized the beautiful part of sales: to be a partner to your customers and assisting them in resolving their unique challenges. ”My favorite part of the job is finding a solution and helping a customer, a client, a prospect — helping them improve their life, make more money, become more efficient, whatever it was that I was offering.”

⚡Every job, more or less, is sales. In fact, almost everything you do in life — every interaction, private or professional, depends on the skills and approaches salespeople take. ”Hey, no matter what you do, even if it’s not sales, you will have to do a job interview, which is sales. You’re going to have to communicate and sell your ideas and ask for a promotion and negotiate. So, even if you’re in accounting or finance, no matter what it is, we teach you conversational skills that are going to help you.”

⚡We position students; we don’t place them. What differentiates Adam and the College of Business at Ohio University from other teachers and sales programs is their approach toward students who are about to enter the job market. Instead of telling the students where they should go, they teach them how to recognize the opportunities that best fit them. ”My goal is to position you to be as successful as you can be and give you all the skills and the tools, but I’ll never place you in a job because that’s a decision you need to make. So when students ask me, ‘What job would you take?’ I’ll never answer that question because what drives me, as a Gen X-er motivated by money, is different from what’s important to a 21-year-old.”

Episode Highlights

We Must Fight the Stigma Around Sales and Show People That Our Profession Is About Helping 

”Most of us don’t have that business-to-business experience. Most of our experiences are business-to-consumer and transactional. So we don’t have a chance to build those relationships. 

When you’re picking out jeans or going to the retail store, there’s no chance to ask questions; even though we can, it doesn’t happen. And so I had that misconception when I started in sales. I thought it was ridiculous until I did it. I was like, ‘This is wonderful.’

But a lot of students come in, and I tell them my story, even when I’m recruiting them, and I tell them what sales is about: helping and impacting people. And if you can’t help, then you opt-out. And I explain that to families as well. 

And I try to explain the difference between business-to-consumer and business-to-business. And I talk about the differences, nuances, and ideas.

I always talk about it as servant leadership — a servant selling mindset. And we’re trying to help and serve that customer to give them a positive outcome. And if we can’t do that, it’s okay to shake their hand and thank them for their time.”

The Most Rewarding Thing About Being a Professor Is Seeing Your Students Grow Professionally

”Watching people move through the program, when they come in — especially first-year students, they can barely even find their classroom — to the point they’re graduating. They’ve had three internships across the country. They’ve got job offers. They carry themselves like business professionals. They’ve grown so much over that time frame.

I know that we haven’t done everything for them, but I know that we’ve impacted their lives. It’s so rewarding to see them at graduation and at our final end-of-the-year celebration when they’re moving into that next stage of their career. And it’s emotional to see those folks and what they’ve become and done.”

Be Information-Hungry. Learn as Much as Possible About What’s Out There to Find Your Dream Job 

”You don’t know what you don’t know. […] The best thing they can do is talk to as many companies as they can to start to get an idea, ‘Okay, here’s what’s out there, and here’s how these places are different.’

The more comparisons they can make, the more they can start to determine, ‘Ooh, this is what I want to do.’ If they’re only comparing one or two companies, they often don’t even know some things exist. 

Once you learn it, you can start to build your dream job and say, ‘Okay, this is where I wanna be.’ And if you had that mindset before you even talk to a company about what you want, it’s easier to say, ‘Okay, yes, they have this,’ or ‘No, they don’t.’ […] And so that’s how we position students and try to get them the best opportunities that are the best fits for them.”

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Adam Rapp: We never place students, and it’s a little bit of a different mindset because my goal is to position you to be as successful as you can be and give you all the skills and the tools, but I’ll never place you in a job because that’s a decision that you need to make.

[00:00:13] So, when students ask me, “What job would you take?” I’ll never answer that question. Our goal is to let them get as many opportunities as they can. 

[00:00:21] Kristen Wisdorf: Welcome back, hustlers, to another episode of Tech Sales is for Hustlers: Minicampus Series. I am your host, Kristin Wisdorf. Today I’m joined by my co-host, Jeremy Wood. Hey, Jeremy!

[00:01:19] Jeremy Wood: Hey, Kristen, how’s it going?

[00:01:21] Kristen Wisdorf: Good, welcome back to the podcast, Jeremy. Today we are super thrilled to have Adam Rapp from Ohio University. He’s the Executive Director of the Sales Center. Welcome to the podcast, Adam.

[00:01:32] Adam Rapp: Hey, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

[00:01:34] Kristen Wisdorf: We are super excited to have you, we love all of our sales professor guests, and especially I have a place in my heart for the ones from the Midwest. So, welcome to the, welcome to the podcast, Adam, we just wanna get to know you a little bit better.

[00:01:47] Talk about your journey in sales and specifically how you are helping the next generation of sales professionals. So, if you’ve been here before you know the drill, but we like to start our podcast the same way we actually start a lot of our interviews here with the college students we interview for our role.

[00:02:05] Adam, if you could take 60 seconds and just give us your highlight reel, tell us about you. Who is, I think it’s Dr. Adam Rapp?

[00:02:15] Adam Rapp: Okay. So, Adam Rapp from the Midwest, from a small town, uh, North of Pittsburgh. So, Oil City, Pennsylvania. Went to Penn State, graduated, like many young folks, had no idea what I was gonna do. Worked for a few years, realized that didn’t have much of a career trajectory, went and earned an MBA Villanova.

[00:02:33] Got my first taste of market research and professional selling, didn’t look back from there, unfortunately, the company that I worked for was bought, and I can tell that story later, so had to pursue another career path, and being in market research, and in sales, somebody pointed me in the right direction of, of getting a Ph.D.

[00:02:51] Adam Rapp: So, went to University of Connecticut. Started there and got hooked up with my advisor, Michael Ahern, who was teaching sales and started building sales programs and sales centers, which was brand new. Once I realized I could pursue my passion of selling and sales while teaching and interacting and researching, I just went from there, had a chance to work at University of Houston, which had a ma, massive program at the time, to learn what they did, and then moved around the country a little bit.

[00:03:17] Did at Kent State, before moving to Clemson and starting their program, to University of Alabama, to work in their, their program and college football recruiting, and then moved to Ohio University about eight years ago, working in the Schey Sales Center here, and grew it from a 100 students to 600 students, and have a chance to work with corporate partners, research, et cetera.

[00:03:38] So, that’s my 60 seconds.

[00:03:40] Kristen Wisdorf: That was very tight. Good job. Um, okay, there’s a lot to unpack there. First and foremost, you’ve lived a lot of places, you know, starting, growing up in Pennsylvania, moving then to the east side of Pennsylvania, Villanova, Connecticut, and the South, like, you’ve been a lot of places, like, walk us through your experiences living in different parts of the country, and how that’s impacted who you are, who you are as a sales professional and sales profess.

[00:04:08] Adam Rapp: Sure. So, I pursued opportunity, for me, it was about chasing what was next and that next, uh, you know, kind of step on the ladder, or whatever you wanna call it, I would see an opportunity, and, and I made a deal with my wife, my partner, and we said, “Okay, what, we’re gonna chase this career where our kids, before we had kids, while they’re still young, until we get settled down.

[00:04:27] And so, we made the moves, and it was difficult and challenging, but it put us in a position with kind of, you know, learning about different schools and institutions to be where we are today. Having moved from the, you know, New England to the East Coast, to the Midwest, to the Deep South, I learned that people are very different in different parts of the world.

[00:04:46] The fast-paced in New England, and New York, and Philadelphia, and, and, you know, words that some people use that other people don’t use, and the South was a little bit more slower, and more relationship-focused, and, and I really learned to adapt and flex my style, not just based on social styles and communication styles, but also regions of the country and parts of the world.

[00:05:07] Adam Rapp: And, you know, I also learned not to take for granted just because I’m working in Alabama, or Mississippi, or Louisiana, not to think that it’s gonna be a slower pace, or anything like that, because there may be transplants who move from the North down to the South and vice versa. So, it really forced me to understand, you know, who I was talking to and working with, and adapt to this style and move it to speed that they wanted to.

[00:05:30] Jeremy Wood: So, I wanna go back to something you said, where you said you pursued opportunity, you would see an opportunity. Walk us through what you were looking for that created that opportunity.

[00:05:40] Adam Rapp: Sure. So, even from my first job, graduating from Penn State, working in a nonprofit organization, I realized that seeing the company, seeing the organization, you know, nonprofit was wonderful, it was impactful, and I loved what I did, but the opportunity for growth and kind of development, even at a young age, I realized there wasn’t much there just because there weren’t many opportunities in the organization.

[00:06:03] And so, I wanted to see, okay, what’s gonna get me to that next step? What’s gonna get me to those, some of those career goals that I have? Which led me to the master’s degree in Academia when I started my job at Kent State University, and it was close to my family, so, you know, I, I loved that fact about it, but they didn’t have an emphasis on sales.

[00:06:21] I was teaching marketing channels and logistics and supply chain, which it was good, but I knew that that’s not where I wanted to be. So, I looked for that opportunity, “Okay, where can I go that has a stronger brand name?” So, kind of a, a stronger image that’s gonna help my personal brand, as well as get me in the space, or closer to the space I wanted to be in, which was professional selling sales programs.

[00:06:41] And so, when Clemson University became available, I said, “Okay, that’s that opportunity.” And, and that, that, that worked out well for me because that put me on a radar screen to even more and bigger opportunities. So, when University of Alabama was looking, they called me, which I said, “Okay, great.” That was working in their pos, their sales center, working with their graduate students.

[00:07:01] And as well as, you know, doing some different things for, you know, the athletic departments and schools there, so made that move. And then, it was at that time that I was really well positioned as a chaired professor at a young age to make the next step when my, my wife was ready to come back to work with a Ph.D., our two kids were entering kindergarten.

[00:07:19] We said, “Okay, now our next move is, it’s not our forever home, but it’s gonna be our long-term home.” And so, we were really well positioned then to look at a place where it had jobs for both of us, and we could leverage the experience and the success we had to do that.

[00:07:32] Kristen Wisdorf: I think that’s great. You really talked about growth and how you wanted to put yourself in a position to get that development that you were looking for, and you also mentioned, I think it was when you were at Kent State that they didn’t have an emphasis in sales. How did you know you wanted to be in sales and sales curriculum?

[00:07:49] Like, what about sales has you drawn toward it.

[00:07:53] Adam Rapp: Well, there’s two pieces to it. The first piece was my experience at the University of Connecticut, helping my advisor build a sales program, and then moving to University of Houston in a post-doctoral type role and working directly in their program. I absolutely fell in love with it. I love every aspect of what they did.

[00:08:10] So, I said, “Okay, this is what I wanna do.” The other piece of it is just by personal, like getting involved in sales in the late nineties, early two thousands, the ability to help people. My favorite part of the job is finding a solution, helping a customer, a client, a prospect, helping them improve their life, help them make more money, become more efficient, whatever it was I was offering,

[00:08:32] and it’s a time it was market research services, helping them improve their brand, and, and move their business along. And so, from that standpoint, I wanted to couple the two because now what I do is I help students find jobs, I help companies find talent, and I get to talk about and work in sales every single day of my life, which I just absolutely love.

[00:08:52] Kristen Wisdorf: Yeah, you know, it’s interesting in every conversation we have on this podcast, there’s a common theme, and that is that sales is about helping people, but I think there’s still a misconception that that’s not what sales is. And so, talk to us a little bit about that, or do you find that misconception with students, or maybe even their parents as you, you know, grow your program, and how do you fight that misconception about sales?

[00:09:16] Sure, it’s, it’s very common, and it should be because most of us don’t have that true business-to-business experience, most of our experiences are business-to-consumer, and they’re transactional in nature, so we don’t have a chance to build those relationships, and, and really when, you know, when you’re picking out jeans, or you’re going to the retail store, there’s not that chance to really ask questions, even though we could, that doesn’t really exist.

[00:09:38] Adam Rapp: And so, I had that misconception. My story, when I started in sales, I thought it was ridiculous until I actually did it, and I was like, “This is wonderful,” but a lot of students come in, and I tell ’em my story, even when I’m recruiting them, I tell them my story, and I tell ’em it’s about helping and impacting people.

[00:09:55] And if you can’t help, then you opt-out. And I explained that to families, as well. And I really try to explain the difference between the business to consumer and the transactional versus the business-to-business and relational. And I talk about the differences and the nuances and the idea that it’s about.

[00:10:12] I always talk about it as a, a servant leadership, a servant selling mindset. And the fact that we’re trying to help and serve that customer to give them a positive outcome, and if we can’t do that, it’s okay to shake their hand and thank them for their time, or fist bump, or whatever it might be today.

[00:10:28] And then, walk away and say, “Hey, you know what, if I could ever help, please reach out.” And I think with that mindset, people become a lot more comfortable working in the space.

[00:10:38] Kristen Wisdorf: I think you’re absolutely right. Okay. So, I wanna pull that thread a little and not let you off the hook, you said in your first sales role you also had that misconception. Can you walk through a little bit more about what that first sales role experience was like for you, how you grew and changed, and what you were, what your day-to-day was like, maybe some pivotal learnings or moments in that first sales role?

[00:10:57] Adam Rapp: Sure. So, my first sales call, first real, I would say real sales interaction, I was working in a market research firm outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and we were about a, a hundred-person firm, and I was doing market research services, project manager, et cetera. So, I was building slides and presentations, crunching numbers, pulling survey data, et cetera.

[00:11:20] One day, one of the executives came and said, “Hey, Adam, we would like you to go on a sales call.” And I said, “I don’t know anything about sales, I’m not a sales guy, I don’t like, why are you coming to me?” And he was pretty clear, he’s like, “Well, everybody else in the sales office is out on calls, and they said you really like to talk a lot, so we’re gonna send you on a call.”

[00:11:38] And so, I said, “Okay, great.” And honestly, you know, looking back on it, it was a chance to get outta the cubicle to get outta the office. And so, I said, “Okay, I’m gonna jump on the train and go on to Philadelphia, this will be fine.” Got on the train to ride in, and there was about a 30, 40-minute ride, and then, I realized, I said, “I have no idea how to sell,

[00:11:56] I don’t know what I’m doing, but I knew, and, and this is for those listening, that might be younger, this is pre-internet, so this is ’99, 2000, so I couldn’t just google how to sell. And so, I realized that I knew that, that people like to talk about themselves the most, and I, I knew that the best way to get people to do that is to ask them questions.

[00:12:14] So, on that train ride, I wrote down in my little padfolio notebook every question I could think of. And I was meeting with a, it was a television station, it was a Fox News affiliate, and they were interested in who was watching the five o’clock news, so they could sell ad space, and so I said, “Okay, you know, in my mind, I’m like, ‘Well, I need to know what their budget is, what their goals are, what their target is, what their timeline is, etcetera.'”

[00:12:38] And so, I went down, and, and I sat with this woman, and she was wonderful because she sat with me, and answered every single redundant question, no questioning strategy that I had, but she answered every one of them. And then when we were done, she said to me, she’s like, I said, “Okay, great. I’m gonna go back to the office, build a proposal, and I’ll get back to you.”

[00:12:57] And she said to me, and I’ll never forget, she said, “Aren’t you gonna give me the hard sell?” At the time, if I knew what the hard sell was, maybe I would have, but I didn’t even know what that meant. And I told her, I said, “No, I said, I, I can’t sell you anything because I don’t really know what it is that, that you needed,

[00:13:14] and so I need to figure this out.” And she said, “You know, it’s so refreshing to have a salesperson that cares about me.” And I just, I thought about that, and to this day, I think about that. And when I got back to the sales department, I told the true traditional salespeople that story, and they said, “Hey, Adam, if you really care about the customers, and if you really want to help them, then they love to talk to you, and they wanna partner with you.”

[00:13:36] And it was that moment, I never looked back from that moment on, I said, “This is what I wanna do.” And so, I’ve, I’ve always done that. And so, then I moved into selling market research services, which was, you know, a wonderful opportunity, and, and got me to travel, you know, all through North America because we worked through Canada, through Mexico, as well, and it was, it was just absolutely tremendous.

[00:13:55] Jeremy Wood: Wow. That’s, that’s such a great first story, and, and a, and a, a great win to look back on. Where did that mindset come from, to instinctually think about, okay, this is what they care about, this is what they need, this is what I need to ask about before you went into that, that sales meeting?

[00:14:11] Adam Rapp: Sure. So, I think, you know, I don’t really know, but I would, if I were to guess, I was in a college fraternity, and I was always really good at recruiting new members, and, and, you know, talking to people, and I was always very comfortable doing that, and I knew that the best way to do that was, “Hey, where are you from?

[00:14:29] What do you do? What are you interested in?” Be, rather than me telling somebody, a, a freshman, or sophomore about myself, asking them to try to find that connection. And I was always very good at saying, “Okay, where are you from?” And if I could find out they’re from the Pittsburgh area, or if they were in the same, you know, sports as I was in High School, or something, if I could make that connection, all of a sudden, we were friends, and we were pals, and then the conversation just came easily.

[00:14:52] And so, I think, instinctually, it was just that mindset of like, “Okay, well, I’ve gotta find a connection, I need to understand something.” And, you know, honestly, I was nervous, I was scared because it was the first time I did it, so I, I knew I couldn’t go out and just fake it till I make it, and I couldn’t give a big presentation.

[00:15:08] So, I, I think it just, it came about from that.

[00:15:11] Jeremy Wood: Yeah. So, it, was it that recruiting experience that got you into that college football recruiting for a brief period of time?

[00:15:18] Adam Rapp: Yes. I think it was the exact same reason, right? Because once I got to University of Alabama, and I started working with, the athletic department found out I was in the sales program, and I sat down, and I talked to some of the folks in the, the academics portion, and they said, “Hey, you know, we’d love to have you sit down with, you know, some of the recruits.”

[00:15:35] And it was interesting because, and this is a big mistake, a big miss for me is I assumed I would be meeting with the players, and then I realized, after my first little snafu, I wasn’t there to talk to players, I was there to talk to the buying centre. So, mother, father, High School coach, significant other, I was there to talk about the academics.

[00:15:57] I was there to talk about the support networks, the courses because it was, I didn’t realize, it was just like a business-to-business sale. It’s a complex buying center with 4, 5, 6 people involved, helping them make the decision. So, I wasn’t there to talk to, you know, that young five-star recruit about, you know, X’s and O’s,

[00:16:16] I was there to talk to mother about the education and graduation opportunities. I was there to talk to whoever else might be with that group, that entourage about what they were interested about the University of Alabama. And so, I think it was the exact same reason. And then, and they did a great job, you know, I’m not to give trade secret.

[00:16:34] They did a very nice job partnering me with people from, you know, my part of the world, and the recruit comes in from Pittsburgh, and all of a sudden, we have the same accent and the same slang and lingo, and there’s that connection point.

[00:16:45] Kristen Wisdorf: Some, throwing out some yins, and things like that. 

[00:16:50] Adam Rapp: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:16:51] Yeah, I think that’s incredible. First of all, obviously, they did a good job. You said it was University of Alabama, I think we all know they did a good job recruiting. But it’s also a great example and a great reminder that sales is kind of in everything, and a lot of what we do, in what people do in their day-to-day, and, and how they touch,

[00:17:09] how they can kind of make it part of their career. Even though going back to that misconception about what sales is, you can be a college football recruiter, and that is sales, it’s a, in fact it’s quite complex? So, knowing kind of what you have, in terms of a background, you stumbled into sales ’cause they asked you to go on a sales call, and you grew in your career.

[00:18:25] Kristen Wisdorf: How have you now taken that your experience and applied it to Ohio? And you, I think you said early on, you’ve grown the program from 100 to 600, I mean, that is wildly successful and a huge program. Walk us through how you’ve been able to do that, and how you’ve used your past to grow the program at Ohio.

[00:18:45] Adam Rapp: Sure. So, I would say there’s, there’s three or four different areas, realistically, first of all, the student growth, the big part is getting the message out to students, increasing brand awareness, and telling my story. The one of the great things is being from Western Pennsylvania, a lot of the students at Ohio University are from Western Pennsylvania,

[00:19:05] they’re from this part of the world. So, I’m able to tell my story that I’m first generation, I’m from Western PA, and my big goal was I didn’t wanna move back to Oil City, and a lot of folks that resonates with them. And so, when I tell them what sales is, and I tell them my first sales story, and the idea that we’re here to help people, and if we can’t help, then we move on. That really, it hits home with them.

[00:19:29] And so, I also, to your point, I tell them, “Hey, no matter what you do, even if it’s not sales, you’re gonna have to do a job interview, which is sales, you’re gonna have to communicate, and sell your ideas, and ask for a promotion, and negotiate, so even if you’re in accounting, or finance, or script school of communication, no matter what it is, we teach you conversational skills,

[00:19:50] they’re gonna help you.” So, I think there’s a student component, corporate partners. So, we have 48 corporate partners, and our program is completely self-funded, which means I have to raise money, so I still work under a quota, which terrifies a lot of people, and there’s not many faculty that do, but I work under a quota because we have to raise, you know, 400 to $500,000 annually to support the program.

[00:20:14] So, I’m still using my sales skills every single day with companies and partners that we talk to. Also, alumni, I mean, I’m actively involved with advancement development meeting with alumni, and really honing our value propositions. Why should alumni think about donating, you know, wealth, or time, or whatever it might be to help support the program?

[00:20:35] And a big piece of that is asking them what they were passionate about when they were in college, what’s important to them, and then articulating what we’re doing, the features and the benefits of our program, and then how they can participate in, in asking them to get involved in some way or the other.

[00:20:51] So, those are the, some of the big pieces. And then, the final piece, the fourth piece is the university, and the college uses the sales program for recruiting high school students, and at, and most of the country you’ll see that numbers are dropping off because there’s fewer and fewer students. Last year, the college of business at Ohio University set a record with 550 incoming students.

[00:21:13] This year, we set another record, it was 750 incoming freshmen for the College of Business. And I attributed to the fact that we trained up young students ambassadors, we gave them the tools to ask questions, to identify what these kids and what parents are looking for, and then talk about the value of the universities in ways that matters to them.

[00:21:32] So, I’d say it’s kind of those four areas that, that this has translated to what I do.

[00:21:37] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s amazing. I’m really glad you touched on the younger generation, the High School generation, because that is how we ultimately kind of switch that misconception of sales is by letting people know earlier, and, you know, a lot of parents when they send their, um, you know, college student off to college,

[00:21:53] they wanna make sure that they’re gonna get something out of it. They’re gonna get a job, and it’s gonna be a good job, and they’ll be able to, you know, take that college degree and do something with it. And there’s nothing, I think most sales programs have like between a 98% and a 100% placement rate for jobs.

[00:22:08] So, what a smart move, and not only that you’re advancing, obviously, people’s careers, but you’re advancing the profession of sales at a younger age, which is great. So, let me ask you this. What is the most rewarding part now that you’ve built up the program and your study records, the business school is, and your program’s bigger than it’s been at Ohio University, what’s the most rewarding part of what you do?

[00:22:35] Great question. I, I absolutely love, we have a recruitment dinner where, ’cause we’re a selection-based program, so students have to interview to get in. I love our, our selection dinner, our recruitment dinner, we’ll have, and this is pre-COVID, but we’re, it’s coming back into place now, we would have 400 to 500 students come out for a dinner.

[00:22:56] Adam Rapp: We’d have companies sit at tables, and, you know, we’d throw out ideas. How do you impress it an interview? What kind of questions do you ask? And it was so, there’s so much energy and excitement to watch the companies excited to see this new talent coming in, and then all of this new talent in the room,

[00:23:13] and they, they’ve never had this experience before, but it’s a safe zone for them, so they can ask questions and engage, and I just feed off that energy and I love it, and it was exciting for me because there’s people in that room that will be the next President of my organization, that will be the next Vice President.

[00:23:30] And I don’t know who it is and it’s just, but I know that they’re in that room and it’s so, it’s exciting for me. And then, the other piece is watching people move through the program, when they come in, especially freshmen that come in that, you know, they, they can barely even find their classroom to the point they’re graduating,

[00:23:46] they’ve had three internships across the country, they’ve got job offers, they carry themselves, like, I mean like a business professional, they’ve grown so much over that timeframe, and I know that we haven’t done everything for them, but I know that we’ve impacted their lives. And so, it’s so rewarding to see them at graduation and see them at kind of our, our final end of the year celebration when they’re moving into that next stage of their career.

[00:24:09] And it just, it’s really kind of emotional to see those folks really move through, and what they’ve become, and what they’ve done.

[00:24:15] Jeremy Wood: Yeah. To see them develop over the course of their, their tenure with you, it has to be a great feeling. What are some of the things that the, the traits that you typically see in the folks that do tend to rise to the top from when they first enter the program?

[00:24:30] The number one thing is drive. They’re hungry, they wanna work, there’s so much of it at this, it, I mean, 18, 19, most of us have no idea what we’re doing, we don’t know how to sell, it’s about work and those that are willing to put the work in because that’s where you learn, everybody’s gonna make mistakes,

[00:24:48] Adam Rapp: that’s okay, you gotta take the risks. And, and you put the work in, and you’re gonna figure these things out. It’s about, you know, students that, that are around the office, that are coming to the meetings, that are engaging, that are putting themself out there, and, you know, they’re showing up to the events they don’t have to, they’re volunteering to do some of these things.

[00:25:06] They’re taking these leadership roles. And for many of these individuals, you know, I know that they have a four, full course load, and they, they might be doing other activities, and they might be working part-times, but they’re still putting in that work and that grind, and that’s, for me, those are the ones who are having the most success because they take their internships and they do these things.

[00:25:27] And so, by the time they graduate from Ohio University, they can do anything because they put that time in. And so, when they take that first job, it’s for many of ’em they say their first job is easier than what they did in the program because they worked so hard and did so much.

[00:25:41] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s good.

[00:25:42] Adam Rapp: Yeah. 

[00:25:42] Kristen Wisdorf: Yeah, that’s really preparing them then, right? And I, I like that you said the hunger, the drive, and putting in the work, the same things that help them rise, you know, from when they first get introduced to your program, and through the end, is the exact same thing that’s gonna help them in their first job out of college.

[00:25:57] Is that drive putting in the work. You know, it’s interesting, you talked about the recruitment dinner and how you have, you know, 40 partners, and you’re constantly connecting students with organizations, companies that might be good fit for them and help jumpstart their career when they graduate. How do you guide students in picking the right opportunity for them after graduation and the right company for them?

[00:26:20] Are there certain attributes? Is there something you do in your classrooms? Like, how do you guide and help your students figure out the best first job out of school for them?

[00:26:30] Adam Rapp: So, there’s a couple roles that, that we live by, the first role is that we position students, we never place students, and it’s a little bit of a different mindset because my goal is to position you to be as successful as you can be, and give you all the skills and the tools, but I’ll never place you in a job because that’s a decision that you need to make.

[00:26:49] So, when students ask me, “What job would you take?” I’ll never answer that question because what’s important, and what drives me as a gen Xer motivated by money, what’s important to me is different than what’s important to a 21-year-old who’s just had a different life experience. So, our goal is to let them get as many opportunities as they can. 

[00:27:09] The second thing we do, and I preach this, is I say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” When we have a career fair, and there’s 40, 45 companies that you need to talk to every single one because you don’t know what Quicken Loans does, you don’t know what Dell does, you don’t know what Trek Stacking does.

[00:27:25] You may think you do, but until you talk to them, and what their business-to-business sale is, and their process, and their culture, and their organization, you have no idea. So, I tell them the best thing they can do is, is build up that toolkit and then talk to as many companies as they can to start to get an idea.

[00:27:41] Okay, here’s what’s out there, and here’s how these places are different, and the more comparisons they can make, the more they can start to determine, “Ooh, this is what I wanna do.” Because if they’re only comparing one or two companies, a lot of times they didn’t even know some things that exist out there, and I say, once you start to learn it, then you can start to build your dream job and say, “Okay, this is where I wanna be.”

[00:28:02] And if you had that mindset before you even talk to a company of what you really, really want, then all of a sudden, it’s easier to say, “Okay, yes, they have this, or no, they don’t.” Whereas if you don’t have those goals and you’re just skewed to what’s ever in front of you. And so, that’s, that’s how we really position students, and, and try to get them those best opportunities that are best fits for them.

[00:28:21] Jeremy Wood: That’s great, and I, I, I love the idea of positioning, never placing, and I think it’s really important to establish those things that are most important to you as you look into these roles and be open to these roles versus going when, with a little bit more narrow your mindset, and, and it probably leads to a lot of them, you know, being a lot more happy with their decisions, right?

[00:28:43] Adam Rapp: Yeah, absolutely. I, I, we don’t do a lot of tracking once they leave here, but we know that the students, just seeing ’em on LinkedIn, we just know that the positions they take, the posts they’re making, the success they’re having, we know that we’re, it’s not always a home run, but we know that, that we’re doing very well in that space.

[00:29:02] Kristen Wisdorf: All right. We have a couple fun questions for you. So, when you think about your career, right, as in academia, as, you know, a salesperson, even at the nonprofit, what role has been the absolute hardest, in your opinion for you?

[00:29:22] Adam Rapp: I would say one of the hardest roles is, it’s one that I’m doing now. So I’m Associate Dean now for the College of Business, as well, and there’s a lot of internal pieces of meetings, and not so much of the decision-making part, but the meetings, and a lot of time behind the screen, and, and just conversations that I find frustrating because I’m a go get it done type of guy.

[00:29:49] I love to be in front of people, I feed off of that energy, I wanna do things that I want activity, and so for me, it’s so challenging, even though I know that there’s prep work and there’s things that need to be done in the planning pieces, that is a very difficult piece for me. Even in sales, I would wanna run into a conversation and just start talking before I did any research, but I’ve learned over time, the more research and preparation, the more successful I can be.

[00:30:16] So, right now, this is, this is definitely, I’m gonna say that I’m growing as a person because it is so challenging for me to sit through some of these meetings and conversations, and I know there’s positive outcomes that, that will show up down the line that I may not even get to be a part of, but for me, that’s definitely it, it’s teaching me patience.

[00:30:35] Kristen Wisdorf: Totally. Some of our more experienced listeners in their career will really resonate with that ’cause, you know, a lot of your first couple sales jobs early in your career is just do, do, do, and now you’re working on the business, or in this case, this, the school of business, right? So, interesting, okay.

[00:30:52] What is one of the more recent things, this, maybe you’ve just answered this, but what is one of the more recent things you’ve learned?

[00:30:58] Adam Rapp: Hmm, so, okay, you know, I’ve done everything I can, obviously, I’m surrounded by, by younger people, and I’m not gonna say that I’m old, but that, the college students are definitely younger, and I’ve learned a ton about technology and technology tools. You know, we talk a lot about sales enablement and sales enablement, and simply, you know, some of the tools and things you can put in place or leadership could put into place to help salespeople be more successful.

[00:31:21] And I’ve really learned a lot from the folks around me about different ways to leverage technology tools for advertising our program, creating brand awareness, creating, you know, nice marketing material, promotional material, and, and some different things using technology, which for me, again, that’s something that takes so much time to learn and become proficient at, which is something I would tend to skip over,

[00:31:45] but having worked with folks just recently and learning about Snapchat ads and learning about some of these things, which it’s just, it’s, I look at it and I’m so fascinated, and I know I, I never ever would’ve done it on my own, but then watching them do it, and explain it, and teach me has been really tremendous.

[00:32:02] And I’m not gonna say I’m an expert and I’m not ready to coach anybody up, but it’s definitely been good for me.

[00:32:07] Jeremy Wood: That’s awesome. So, what, what would you say is like your most prized collection?

[00:32:14] Adam Rapp: My most prized, my personal collection? 

[00:32:17] Jeremy Wood: Yeah.

[00:32:20] Adam Rapp: Comic, I feel like this is a, this is a softball. I’m a huge comic book collector. I have a monstrous comic book collection. I have every Marvel and DC comic book from 1958 to 1988 in the superhero genre. I have a couple thousand from the 1930s up through the 1950s.

[00:32:38] And I have every first appearance of every key superhero, except this stuff in the 1930s and 1940s.

[00:32:45] Kristen Wisdorf: Oh, my gosh. That’s incredible. What got you into collecting comic books? How did this start?

[00:32:50] Adam Rapp: Great story. So, small town in Western Pennsylvania, we’d go to church every Sunday morning, and on the way home from church my dad would buy Sunday paper and lottery tickets, and my brother and I would run into the convenience store and we would have the amount of time it took my dad to get lottery tickets, to pick one comic book off the spinner rack.

[00:33:08] Coming from a very small town with, you know, no cable television, no internet, you got lost in comic books. It was a different world that my brother and I would spend a week studying and talking about, and that has always carried with me, and because it’s a huge way for to tell a story. And so, I’ve actually written research papers on using comic books and superheroes as a vehicle to communicate leadership traits and abilities.

[00:33:32] Because for me, I would read about Peter Parker, the 15-year-old nerd that would get beat up, and I was that kid, right? Or I, you know, and I’d read about these heroes and that had these powers and abilities, and they try to struggle their way through it, and I could identify with, you know, the things I wanted to become and do versus who I was currently.

[00:33:50] And so, when I had the means to start buying and collecting, then it, it just, it, it caught on fire and it’s, so, I’ve collected quite a bit.

[00:33:59] Kristen Wisdorf: That is so cool. Okay. So, which superhero, comic book superhero do you think would be the best salesperson, or sales manager, based on your research?

[00:34:08] Adam Rapp: Okay. So, so, you gotta go, it’s gotta be a Captain America, right? Because of the integrity, the trust, uh, you have to go with a Superman because Superman has the empathy because he’s not from here, and he’s got the endurance, he never stops, and so, that, that, the empathy piece is huge, you know, the integrity piece is huge, but there’s a lot, I mean, if you look at Batman, the idea of the greatest detective, he’s adaptable, he changes to a situation.

[00:34:35] If you look at Peter Parker, humility and selflessness. If you’re talking about leaders, you would go, Thor, the idea of boundary spanners because he moves between Midgard and Asgard. And so, I actually do a full lecture, the reason I know this, so, I do a full lecture on this to teach sales characteristics to the undergraduate students using superheroes.

[00:34:53] Kristen Wisdorf: Oh, my gosh, I love it. I’m a big Marvel gal myself, so this, I really like this. Okay, you said integrity, empathy, and endurance. I mean, that is incredible. I think those are three great traits if you’re considering a career in sales, and those three kind of all go back to helping people, which is what you said early on.

[00:35:11] So, I love that. That’s amazing. All right, final fun question. 

[00:35:16] Adam Rapp: Okay.

[00:35:16] Kristen Wisdorf: If you could have a billboard anywhere in the world, where would it be, and what would it say or have on it?

[00:35:23] Adam Rapp: Yeah, the, it would, the billboard would say the quote that’s outside of my office, and it says, “You did not wake up today to be mediocre.” And it would hang wherever I’m working, it would hang on that building, so everybody coming into that building realizes that, you know, they’re there to be their best self and do their best job.

[00:35:42] And so, I think, you know, and I under, sometimes we need to take a break, and sometimes it’s like going to the gym, it’s like working out, you know what? Sometimes you’re not feeling it, take a day off, rest, recover rather than go in and be mediocre and be average, and, and, you know, sometimes it’ll pick you up, but sometimes it’ll just get you in a funk.

[00:35:59] And so, my attitude is don’t be mediocre. If you’re here to do the job, do the very best job you can. And sometimes you’re not, you’re just gonna take the day off, and that’s okay, you have to recharge. But for me, it would be that “You didn’t wake up today to be mediocre.”

[00:36:12] Jeremy Wood: Yeah. I, I think that’s really great for, for people to hear because I, I know that at some point we always sort of face that, that moment where we, we want to take a day off, or we want to, to slow down, I mean, what advice would you give for someone who maybe feels in that mode, or is kind of nearing that, that mindset?

[00:36:30] Adam Rapp: So, if you’re facing that, okay. The important thing is, A, to recognize it and talk about it because that leads to burnout, that leads to so many negative things where you just wanna quit, you wanna give up, you just wanna, this isn’t for me anymore, and we never wanna get there, the important thing is recognize it, and then communicate it.

[00:36:48] I tell my students, “Hey, if you hit that point if you’re starting to feel like, man, it’s just, it’s getting to me, tell me, talk to me, whether you’re one of the leaders on my team, whether you’re in my class, if you tell me these things and what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna say, ‘Okay, how do we work through this? How much time do you need?

[00:37:02] What can I do to support you?'” Because if you don’t communicate it, then what’ll happen is, is I’ll get frustrated, or I’ll think that you’re slacking off, or I’ll start making misconceptions that I shouldn’t make. And so, the best thing is to have that communication, and realize what you need because, obviously, we’re, we’re kind of,

[00:37:20] we’re our best guides for ourself. What do you need, personally, for me, maybe I just need a, a 20-minute nap and a cup of coffee, maybe you need a day off, maybe you need something else, but, you know, communicate that, understand what you need to recharge those batteries, and then take it. And if the person or the company, if they won’t give that to you, then maybe it’s time to, honestly, start looking at someplace that will because I want you to be your best self, and if you need to take a day off, and you can work hard the other days, let’s do that.

[00:37:49] Kristen Wisdorf: That’s such good advice, and good advice for students in your program, and good advice for anybody in sales because you really do have to recognize it, talk about it, communicate it ’cause challenges, hitting a wall, a roadblock, tough times, ruts in your sales career, I mean, it’s bound to happen in sales, right?

[00:38:08] Adam Rapp: Yep.

[00:38:09] Kristen Wisdorf: So, really, really good advice. Well, Adam, this has been incredible. It’s been really good getting to know you and learning a little bit more about what you’re doing, and how you’ve grown the program so much, and all the exciting things you’re doing. Your students are very lucky, especially to get a, a class, and then a lesson all about how you apply superheroes to sales.

[00:38:29] I like to think of us sales professionals as superheroes, too, myself. So, uh, we appreciate you joining us today. Thank you so much.

[00:38:37] Adam Rapp: Thank you. I, I’ve really enjoyed it, and anybody who might be listening, if anybody’s ever interested in that lecture on superhero sales, please don’t hesitate to reach out because I’m more than happy to deliver it. It’s my absolute favorite to do.

[00:38:48] Kristen Wisdorf: I love it. Thanks.