Website www.cspa.com Founded 1874 | Headquarters Toronto | |
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Industry Professional association Key people Peter J. Irwin, President and CEO, Anne Babej, COO Products Membership savings and professional development Profiles | ||
The Canadian Professional Sales Association (CPSA) , commonly known as CPSA, is a Canadian association for sales and marketing professionals. CPSA is a not-for-profit association, with 27,000 members. CPSA has two main member benefits; membership savings and professional development.
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History
The Canadian Professional Sales Association (CPSA) was established in 1874 as the Commercial Travellers Association(CTA). The association’s mission was stated as the “moral, intellectual, and financial improvement and advancement and welfare of its members.”
The founding members were business leaders including first president Warring Kennedy who went on to be the mayor of Toronto in the mid-1890s.
Travel benefits and insurance programs were the driving forces behind membership then as they are today. And the influence of the founding members attracted Prime Ministers and Cabinet members to the annual “networking” events, the Travellers’ Dinners and Banquets. As for travel benefits, commercial rates were extended by the railway hotels, members received 2 cents off per mile and free sample trunk privileges from the railways and by the 1940s discounts were extended on air travel on Trans-Canada Air Lines or CP Air.
There was tremendous growth in the six regional Travellers associations until the late 1950s when the air discounts were eliminated. Major membership declines were experienced by all associations and led to the merger of three [CTA, “Ontario”CTA and “Dominion”CTA] of the six. A national organization formed under the CTA name, with 20,000 combined members, $20,000,000 in financial resources and a staff of 8-10.
Between 1988 and 1989, the CTA underwent major organizational changes. The association reorganized its internal structure to focus four major pillars; education (now referred to as professional development), communications, and member benefits (now known as Membership Savings), and information services (now known as Sales Resource Centre). After restructuring, CTA re-evaluated its public image and changed its name to the Canadian Professional Sales Association.
The Professional Development Department was charged with educating members through workshops, classes, publications and seminars; membership savings increased and improved member benefits; the communications department concentrated on developing public recognition and awareness of CPSA; the Sales Resource Centre is responsible being a source for Canadian sales and sales management information.
Membership Savings
CPSA members receive discounts in four categories, they are travel savings, insurance savings, automobile savings, and business savings. The association uses buying power to acquire savings for members.
Travel Savings
CPSA has a program that saves members money on travel expenses, called TravelSave. TravelSave has six components, Hotel, Car Rental, Airport Parking, Rail travel, Airline Travel, Travel Insurance.
Insurance Savings
Today CPSA’s InsuranceSave program is partnered with three insurance providers, who provide insurance in travel, home, auto and business, as well as health, dental, and disability.
Automobile Savings
CPSA members receive automobile savings through the AutoSave program; this includes savings on: Car Rental, Auto Insurance, Fuel, Satellite Radio, and Auto Leasing.
Business Savings
The CPSA BusinessSave program has 12 partners, including: Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, Chase Paymentech, FedEx, NEBS, RCGA, RAPTORS, CELLTIME, Drake PictureTalk, Microsoft Dynamics, and WebEx.
Professional Development
CPSA provides Professional Development courses to sales and marketing professionals. The Professional Development Department is charged with organizing, promoting, and executing all in-class, online, in-house, and tele-coaching courses and seminars.
CPSA Sales Institute and Sales Certification
The Sales Institute was established by CPSA to enhance the credibility of the sales professionals by setting professional standards and sales certification.
The CPSA Sales Institute is the administrator of the Certified Sales Professional (CSP) designation. Certified Sales Professionals are recognized for their professional and ethical standards and their selling skills.
Sales Resource Centre
Sales Resource Centre (SRC) is a source for Canadian sales and sales management information. Sales Professionals are encouraged to use the SRC to increase performance and productivity. Today, it is simply referred to as "The Knowledge Centre" by CPSA.
Through the SRC sales professionals can access articles, book summaries, podcasts, videos, whitepapers, polls, templates and best practices from sales authorities to improve sales and management performance.