Salesforce for students: Innovative custom class module replaces the ‘school of hard knocks’

Whether it’s due to lack of background information, an overabundance of optimism or just not enough real-world experience, most sales and marketing professionals have found themselves falling down the rabbit hole of a lead that just didn’t pan out at some point in their careers. Not only is it an exercise in frustration, but it’s a drain on precious time and financial resources, as well. 

An innovative new learning module at the University of Missouri’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business is designed to help marketing students build lead qualification skills in a risk-free environment.

“We wanted to teach our students to use Salesforce, without having to lean on Salesforce’s online learning platform,” said Drew Reeves, Trulaske’s director of Transformative Technology for Business & Society (C4TT). “Salesforce’s online learning platform is self-paced, which makes it hard to use collaboratively in a classroom setting.”

With support from Rafael Rolim Nunes, an alum of Trulaske’s MBA program who now works in Salesforce architecture, design and implementation, the Trulaske College of Business created and deployed a custom learning module that helps students learn to solve a real-world business problem using CRM.

The module includes a rubric containing fictitious sales leads with accompanying ratings on a scale of 1-4 in several categories, such as company size, lead age, source of the lead, needs, budget, decision authority, implementation timeline and relationship quality. Representing a fictional company called TruEdge, marketing students are supplied with AI-generated conversations between the fictitious companies and their previous sales representatives. They are then divided into small teams and tasked with the challenge of identifying the top five leads to pursue based upon the orphan records they’ve been provided, with the ultimate goal of attaining “Closed/Won” status for each of their picks. 

Using data from Salesforce, students then discover how many of their selections were correct. The program includes red flags in some conversations that more seasoned professionals would quickly identify and skip over, while less experienced students might choose to pursue. The goal is to help students learn to recognize those red flags and quantify opportunities using CRM platforms like Salesforce, a technology they’ll be expected to use when they graduate and enter the workforce.

“This module exposes our students to CRM, while also teaching them the importance of being methodical in their work,” Reeves said.

Reeves hopes the module also creates a fun classroom experience for Trulaske students. Teams are pitted against each other in the module, with the winning team walking away with bragging rights and a swag bag. 

“This is a great way to infuse content-relevant technology into the curriculum,” said Srinath Gopalakrishna, a Trulaske marketing professor who implemented the module in his own class. “The ‘Advanced’ sales class is thus able to feature some truly high-level, state-of-the-art CRM system for managing sales leads.”

According to a survey of the 42 students who participated in the program, 98% enjoyed it, and 100% felt that they had learned something new or applicable to their careers. 

“Familiarity and experience with programs like Salesforce are essential for young professionals entering the workforce today,” said Balaji Rajagopalan, Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. Dean of the Trulaske College of Business. “Combining that with leading-edge technology like AI is just one of the many ways the Trulaske College of Business is using transformative technology to prepare our graduates to succeed, and even lead, in real-world settings.”

The Salesforce module was also modified for use in a class for non-sales students, who used it to learn more about creating and implementing AI agents. 

"This experience was amazing,” one student wrote. “Being able to use AI hands-on and apply it to real-life scenarios was a huge lesson for me."

Reeves plans to continue scaling up the module for future classes. Gopalakrishna found the module to be especially relevant to his classwork, and said his students enjoyed the interactive experience with Salesforce.

"This was an extremely important concept to cover in a sales class, specifically because sales majors have a good chance of using Salesforce in the future,” one student wrote of their experience.

Nunes built smaller modules for the program, as well, including one that simulates the type of business cards a professional might collect at a trade show and asks students to determine which leads were worth pursuing.

“Business processes are undergoing a huge transformation in today’s high-tech environment,” Gopalakrishna said. “Students must have some exposure to the capabilities and workings of these new systems that make the business process more efficient and effective.”

Interested in building opportunities like this for your own classroom, or partnering with the university to create future modules for business students? Email Drew Reeves, Director, Center for Transformative Technology (C4TT), at reevesan@missouri.edu.

Mizzou’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business prepares students for success as global citizens, business leaders, scholars, innovators and entrepreneurs by providing access to transformative technologies, offering experience-centered learning opportunities and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset.