USC currently has one academic opportunity for students to learn the art of persuasion and sales delivery: a Marshall School of Business class on sales strategy. Ben Apple and Marshall Green, both juniors majoring in intelligence and cybersecurity, wanted to change that.

Apple and Green, along with co-founders David Rodin III, a junior majoring in arts, technology and the business of innovation; Michael Sobokssa, a senior majoring in economics; and Logan Walker-Liang, a sophomore majoring in public policy, created the USC Sales Club in Spring 2026 to give students of all majors and experience levels what they described as a “two-unit class” on the fundamentals of sales.

“Sales is more than just a profession,” said Apple, the club’s president. “No matter what major you are or what career you want to go into, we think sales is the fundamental of everything.”

The one class at USC that focuses on face-to-face communication and the delivery of sales pitches is a graduate-level course with several necessary prerequisites, making it difficult for students of all majors to learn its lessons. 

Apple said that the club will teach students how to communicate effectively and build trust with others. Green said that the new club will teach students how to sell themselves in job interviews and their products at meetings.

“USC does a really good job professionally of teaching you the skills you need to do well in the job,” said Green, USC Sales Club’s programming chair. “What our club wants to do is teach you how to have [those] self-advocacy skills and get the job.”

Apple said that to prepare students for professional opportunities, the club plans to combine speaker events and case studies. Apple said these speaker events will feature a lesson on a specific sales skill from a professional, then the group will discuss and practice the skill together. One such guest that the club will host is Google’s former head of sales in the second week of February, Apple said.

Apple said that he anticipates possible case studies will involve coming up with a sales pitch for a mock company’s service or offering.

Thomas Dadourian, the club’s faculty adviser and a lecturer at Iovine and Young Academy, said that the club also hopes to give students — whether they are going into sales or not — real-world practice by partnering members with interested nonprofits or other qualified ventures so they can gain professional sales experience as a student.

“[Our hope] is to actually have students cut their teeth and be out in the world doing sales of some kind, whether that’s for nonprofits, student organizations or businesses,” Dadourian said.

Apple said the co-founders designed the club to appeal to students with diverse backgrounds. He said that for any profession — from cybersecurity to artists — students need to gain basic communication and persuasion skills to maximize their success.

“There might be someone who’s smarter than you, but if you’re able to present it in a way that [makes] people want to buy it, that’s the most important thing,” Green said.

Dadourian said he hopes the organization will teach students how to sell themselves and their accomplishments as an industry professional.

“My number one hope is [that] students who come through this organization build the confidence and skill sets they need to close deals,” Dadourian said. “They’re confident in their ability to enroll others into success.”

As the club recruits new members, Apple said that he and other leaders are trying to challenge the negative connotation that sales have. Apple said many individuals associate sales with insurance scams, but hopes the club will change that perspective by showing that sales skills are important in any profession.

“If you want to go into law, you’ve got to know how to influence a judge,” Apple said. “If you want to go into investment banking, you need to know how to communicate your ideas clearly to the other people in the meeting.”

As the club begins hosting events, Green said that the future activities will, in part, be determined by input from club members.

“Part of what we want to do is make it like an open dialogue, where people can have their opinions matter and have their voices heard,” Green said. “We can build our program around that.”