Elon dedicates Chandler Family Professional Sales Center

The Elon University community gathered Friday morning to dedicate the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center, a resource inside the Koury Business Center that provides students with practical and relevant sales experiences while connecting them with local and national employers.

Dozens of faculty, staff, students and members of the board of trustees applauded as the Chandler family, led by Elon Trustee Thomas E. Chandler and his wife, Lynn, cut the ribbon in front of the first-floor room. The family endowed the center in 2008 as part of the Ever Elon fundraising campaign.

Chandler Concrete has been family owned and operated for more than 35 years. The company today operates in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, and the Chandlers credit a powerful, focused sales philosophy for much of its success.

In his remarks, Tom Chandler recounted a conversation many years ago prior to starting Chandler Concrete where his father-in-law advised “nothing happens in a company until a sale is made.”

Chandler has been a strong proponent of professional sales education ever since. He said the family is proud of what the sales center and business school faculty have accomplished as students consistently receive job offers at top companies and win several awards each year at national sales competitions.

“We have just been thrilled at the success it has received,” Tom Chandler said. “We are proud as a family to have our name associated with this sales center.”

Tom Chandler has been an Elon Trustee since 1999. He is a member of the board’s executive committee, and serves as chair of the development committee and vice-chair of the campaign leadership committee. The Chandlers have been loyal donors to Elon and made a generous gift supporting the construction of the Koury Business Center, the home of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business since 2006.

Elon University President Leo M. Lambert and Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, also offered remarks. Lambert focused on the myriad ways the Chandler Family Professional Sales Center contributes to the business school’s national reputation, the importance of the faculty members who lead it, and how the Chandlers’ longtime support for Elon makes it a better place.

“We have a stronger university because of families like you,” Lambert said.

Tadepalli talked about the philosophy behind Elon University’s sales program and how it has led to job offers for many students. “We don’t teach people how to sell. What we teach is how to solve problems,” he said. “A salesperson is trying to help a client solve a problem by buying a product.”