Is an MBA worth pursuing for sales reps and aspiring leaders?

While the overwhelming majority of B2B sales roles and most sales and revenue leadership job requisitions do not require candidates to hold a Master of Business Administration degree, given increased buyer expectations and the wider responsibility of senior revenue leader roles that encompass both sales, marketing, operations, and enablement, it is a path worth considering for some. While there are a number of factors to consider, it is critical that one has a clear understanding of their specific career goals and the expected Return on Investment.

Factors to consider

• What is your current education field and level?
  • If you have an undergraduate business degree, will you gain significant incremental knowledge or would an MBA be more of a credential than anything else?
  • If not, is your lack of formal business education holding you back in any way? Does your current company or desired employer place a ceiling or barrier to entry for those individuals who do?

• Do you wish to move into middle or senior management?
  • If you are currently an individual contributor and wish to remain one, pursuing an advanced degree probably does not make sense unless you feel that a lack of specific knowledge is holding you back (and you can’t gain it in another, more efficient and less costly manner).
  • If a management (or more senior management) role is of interest, is your goal to become a Vice President of Sales, a Chief Revenue Officer, or a senior general management role? As CRO roles typically involve more than overseeing frontline managers and reps, an MBA with a concentration such as Marketing may make sense. If you seek to be COO or CEO, having an MBA would certainly be advantageous and may even be required.

• Would you plan to pursue an MBA full-time or part-time?
  • Many of the top programs only offer full-time options. While going full-time requires one to forego their current job and two years of associated income, doing so allows one to focus on their studies. Additionally, full-time programs (particularly elite ones), generally provide access to more selective jobs and result in higher income post-graduation.
  • Part-time programs allow one to avoid foregoing income and to apply learnings in real-time in their current role. At the same time, it’s important to ask yourself if the time demands of doing so will hinder your performance-both at school and at work.

• If you wish to go part-time, how supportive are your current employer and the school?
  • Does your employer truly support the idea or merely tolerate it?
  • Will they be understanding if you have to leave work early on particular days or are unable to travel for business because you have a conflicting class or project? Conversely, what is the university’s policy on missed classes?
  • While it’s increasingly rare these days, will your employer subsidize all or a portion of your tuition? If so, what do they ask for in return post-graduation (such as a contract to say with the company for a set period of time)?

• Most importantly, do you have a clear understanding of the payoff?
  • Speaking to your manager and your company’s Human Resources Department about how they view your career potential with and without an additional degree is well worth any required difficult conversations.
  • If your goal is to go full-time and not return to your current company, or leave it following graduation, what options at other companies will become available to you that are not currently? Will a potential increase in pay offset the associated costs of the degree?

My personal experience and thoughts

Like many people who graduated from college with liberal arts degrees but wished to enter the business world, I suffered from both a lack of hard skills and clear direction on what specific industry or type of role that I wanted to pursue. Luckily, I both graduated during a strong economic time and was not too far off in my attempts at guessing. I was also self-aware enough to know what my inherent strengths and limitations were. I knew that I have strong communication skills that were refined by studying the liberal arts yet am not particularly quantitatively oriented. I thus recognized that financial services was not the ideal path for me and instead opted to pursue advertising, which while paying significantly less money, provided me with an opportunity to leverage my skills and learn marketing fundamentals. I quickly noticed that while I surpassed many of my entry-level peers in terms of writing and presenting skills, I was notably behind some of them in terms of tech savviness and general business knowledge.

After a few years in the workforce, I confirmed that I wanted to pursue a career in business. The decision to pursue an MBA in Marketing made sense for me as means to build upon my on-the-job learning and fill in the knowledge gaps I had in areas such as financial and operations management. At the time, going to school part-time in the evenings meant working a full day, rushing to get to an in-person class in another location, and spending most of my free time studying. I thus determined that full-time was the best option for me. In today’s world, hybrid and remote part-time programs are plentiful and would be something I would consider if I were making the same decision now.

As there is no “one-size fits all” solution and everyone’s situation is unique, pursuing an MBA may or not make sense. In making the decision, be sure to ask yourself the right questions and consider the pros and cons for you-and not a generic MBA graduate