Sales Management is a course that helps students develop the skills required to sell products, services -or themselves as a matter of fact-. It is also about how to manage sales processes and sales forces. Sales offers a great starting point for many graduates entering companies after university, so it makes sense for students to feel comfortable in this role. This course provides students with the basic sales approaches to fulfill this function. This course builds on sales techniques with specialist sections in negotiation, including how to sell a company or how to negotiate with suppliers. So, students also master negotiation strategies. Students get a framework and conceptual understanding about how to structure and motivate a sales team and the sorts of leadership qualities that good sales managers need when handling sales teams. Just 39% of business undergraduates get sales courses on their programs, which means anyone with sales training on their CV will have an extra advantage when it comes to securing a job in business. Sales in many sectors is driven by Customer Relationship Management with many buyers researching previous to a sale on the internet. So, salespeople these days are just as likely to get their sales leads from the marketing department. The inside sales function, which means salespeople spend significant amounts of time working from their offices rather than out on the road visiting clients, is changing the way that salespeople work and we will also see how to manage the digitalization of the sales process and some of the platforms that students might encounter when at work in sales functions.
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Students will go away from the course having developed a thorough knowledge of sales techniques for modern organizations both at the B2C and B2B level. They will understand how to manage the selling function and how to organize sales teams. Most importantly they will develop skills and competencies that are key to both their careers in sales and further through to more senior executive positions. These include softer skills like negotiation skills, our ability to empathies and manages our emotions, and harder skills, like inside sales functions of platforms like Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com, etc.
Keyword Competencies (to be worked on in the course):
Sales management, digital prospecting and CRM, sales dialogues, motivation and compensation of sales forces, Emotional self-awareness, emotional self-control, achievement orientation, positivism, understanding others, organizational understanding, empathy/assertiveness, influence, conflict management, team building, inspirational leaderships, inside sales, inbound marketing.
- Introduction
- Sales Channels
- New sales realities
- Constructing and Clarifying Sales Models
- Customer Selection
- Buyers and Buying Process
- Managing, Maintaining, and Reconstructing Sales Models
- Sales Management
- Digital Sales Prospecting and Management
- Sales Negotiation
- Making deals
- Networking
The learning experience is based on a range of teaching methods that seek to foster your understanding of the marketing function. The classes will be dynamic only if students come to class prepared and willing to contribute to class discussion. The classes will involve simulations and roles plays to practice sales techniques. The classes will concentrate on the principle sales concepts, readings and case studies that you will be required to do outside class time as well as in-class discussions.
- Case study 25 %
- Final Group Assignment B2C role play and feedback 25 %
- Individual Assignment 30 %
- Participation (you must attend 80% of classes unless you have justification for participation grade) 20 %
*dates for hand in set via Moodle during course
The coursework comprises points 1 to 5. If you are not in class with your group for your role plays you will get a 0 for that assignment.
Criteria for salesperson interview (see moodle) Assignment: prepare questions that you will ask a professional sales person. Carry out the interview and prepare a report analysing the answers given in the interview. Criteria for The B2C sales conversation Will be a role play between two students. A seller and a buyer. The seller will need to develop a sales dossier that they will present to the teacher. The buyer will go to a shop and the seller will engage the buyer and sell them the product that the seller has prepared in the product dossier. An observer will feedback on the seller´s performance Sales sketches carried out with the buyer (mark out of 20) - Bonus/penaltyfrom -2 points to + 2 points (out of 20) linked to the performance as observer (each student will be observer once) - Bonus/penaltyfrom-2 points to + 2 points (out of 20) for the quality of the sales documents created by the student. - Penalty of 2 points (out of 20) for unexcused absence. RETAKE POLICY Students should retake 1. Exam (50%) 2. Project-based portfolio based on a sales scenario 1000 words (20%). To be assigned 3. Summary of 5 articles on sales management from a sales related journal 2000 words (20%). Students choose the articles 4. Reflective essay on students sales abilities 1000 words. All the above must be passed with a 50% grade for the overall score on the retake to be vallid
Ingram, T., Laforge, R., Avila, R., Schwepker, Jr., Milliams, M., (2016 Edition) SELL South Western, Cengage Learning
- Adler, S., The Zen of Selling, 2010.
- Guenzi, P & Geiger, S,. Sales Management 2011
- Jobber, D & Lancaster, G. Selling and Sales Management 2015
- Miller, A., 365 Sales Tips for Winning Business, Barcelona Management 2000
- Martinez. P. Aprender a vender, Barcelona Paidos 2002 (Spanish readers)
- MitchA., Selling with emotional intelligence, Barcelona, ??Deusto,2004
- Roberage, M. The Sales Acceleration Formula 2015
- Signorelli, B. Inbound Selling: How to Change the Way You Sell to Match How People Buy 2015
- Thompson, L. The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator 5/e
A number of articles will be assigned for students to prepare and discuss in class over the course.