BST 3202 Sales Management and Personal Sales

APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2012/2013

BST 3202 Sales Management and Personal Sales

Responsible for the course
Gorm Kunøe

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
15

Language of instruction
Norwegian

Introduction
This course, in combination with BTH 3203 Bachelor Thesis - Sales management and personal sales, 15 credits represent a major of 30 credits, and give the inscription specialization on the Diploma. Applies for students at Bachelor of Marketing. Other students may choose to take the course as an election course in its 3 academic year.

Companies more than ever focused on the "top line" and how revenue is generated. Sales and sales management is the reality of the world and in market-oriented businesses, it is important what has been sold, what was not sold and what should be sold to whom. Our market economy is dependent on skilled sales people who do their utmost to sell in national and international competition. Excellent sales management and personal selling is the key to any company's success, with the incessant demands to see the competition in the eyes and change with the market. The answer to the market's changing challenges driven by behavioural, technological and managerial effort, which inevitably changes the way sales people understand, preparing for and realize themselves in their jobs. The behavioural forces are increased expectations from customers, globalization of markets, and de-massification of the domestic market. The technological forces include IT systems for sales support, virtual sales offices and online outlets. The management and control of the future sales means an understanding of direct marketing, outsourcing of sales functions and a sensible mix of personal sales and marketing.

Learning outcome
Sales representatives and sales managers need to face these changes influences on any part of the sales management and management of sales, from the way sales are organized on the selection, training, motivation and reward of the individual seller.

Sales and sales management is central to any company's strategies and action plans. Without sales, no business.

Acquired Knowledge
During the course students should:
  • Be able to create targeted results, conduct its own sales and develop sales function within the company, conduct sales planning in practice, to operative recruitment and leading a sales staff.
  • Develop a level of knowledge that enables them to plan and implement personal sales and lead a sales function.
  • Understand what it means, in practice, to sell professionally and how to acquire skills that enable people to act as the seller by profession and lead a sales staff.
  • Get added expertise that enables them to establish and develop customer relationships as well as motivate and plan.

Acquired Skills
After completing the course, students will:
  • On their own be able to contact potential customers and establish a sales process.
  • Be able to prepare a sales plan that meets the management of the sales scheduled activity targets and carry out planning of the customer relationship over time.
  • Be able to prepare a sales plan.
  • Be able to conduct meetings with clients in both industrial sales and retail sales.

Reflection
  • During the course, the student will understand that the seller is indispensable for the company, and an active builder of corporate reputation to new and existing customers.
  • Through professionalization of the participant they will establish a critical and constructive attitude to the concept of sales.
  • Develop a good understanding of the ethical side of the personal selling and management of sales staff.

Prerequisites
The course requires two years of Business Administration, Marketing or equivalent, including basic course in statistics, MET 3431 or MET 2920.
In addition, students must have the course MRK 3414 Marketing Management (or MRK 2914 Marketing) and MRK 3480 Consumer Behavior (or MRK 2980 Consumer Behavior). It is an advantage to have MRK 3500 Business to business, marketing and sale.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Berg, Petter A. 2009. Kunsten å selge : etablere, beholde og utvikle salgsrelasjoner. 4. utg. Cappelen akademisk forlag
Johnston, Mark W., Greg W. Marshall. 2011. Churchill/Ford/Walker's sales force management. 10th ed. McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Kunøe, Gorm. 2010. Salg og salgsledelse med CRM - systemer. ScanForum. Kap 3 - 9 og appendix 3 - 5.
Kap. 3 Operativt salg med CRM - systemet, 271 – 294
Kap. 4. Den selgende organisasjon, side 302 – 350
Del II (100 sider)
Kap. 5. Om å finne kunder med CRM – systemet
Kap. 6. Om å vinne kunder
Kap. 7. Om å binde kunder til seg
Kap. 8. Realisering av kundebevaringsstrategier
Kap. 9. Fremtiden for CRM starter internt
Tre sentrale lover innen salg og salgsledelse ( 84 sider)
Appendix 3: Markedsføringsloven
Appendix 4: Lov om personopplysninger
Appendix 5: Lov om forbrukerkjøp

Articles:
Cadogan, John W., Lee, Nick og Tarkiainen, Anssi og Sundquist, Sanna. 2009. Sales manager and sales team determinants of salesperson ethical behavior. European journal of marketing. vol. 43
Darrat, Mahmoud, Douglas Amyx, Rebecca Bennett. 2010. An Investigation into the Effect of Work-Family Conflict an Job Satisfaction on Salesperson Deviance.. Journal of personal selling & sales management. Vol. 30 Summer
Geiger, Susi and Paolo Guenzi. 2009. The Sales function in the twenty-first century: where are we and where do we go from here?. European journal of marketing. Vol. 43
Onyemah, Vincent. 2009. The effect of coaching on salespeople’s attitudes and behaviors. European Journal of Marketing. Vol. 43
Poujol, F. Juliet and John F. Tanner, Jr.. 2010. The Impact of Contests on Salespeoples’s Customer Orientatio n: An Application of Tournament Theory,. Journal of personal selling & sales management. 30 (winter)
Sarin, Shikhar, Trina Sego, Ajay K. Kohli, Goutam Challagalla. 2010. Characteristics that Enhance Training Effectiveness in Implementing Technological Change in Sales Strategy : A Field-Based Exploratory Study. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 30 (Spring)
Verhoef, Peter C. 2003. Understanding the Effect of Customer Relationship Management Efforts on Customer Retention and Customer Share Development. Journal of Marketing. Vol. 67

Recommended reading
Books:
Jobber, David, Geoff Lancaster. 2012. Selling and sales management. 9th ed. Financial Times/Prentice Hall
Manning, Gerald L., Barry L. Reece, Michael Ahearne. 2012. Selling today : creating customer value. 12th ed. Pearson

Course outline
The course consists of two parts which begins with Personal sales and continues with Sales Management.

Personal selling and sales planning (module 1 - 3)
Sales Management (Module 4 - 7)

Module 1 - the sale process (12 hours)
  • Introduction to personal selling and sales planning
  • Sale and purchase processes
  • Sales calls and sales call
  • Communication Understanding
  • Questionnaires and sales techniques
  • Objections
  • Closing deals

Module 2 - Reasoning (12 hours)
  • Presentation Technique
  • Economic arguments
  • Negotiation Skills
  • Sales to consumers in specialized trade
  • Telemarketing

Module 3 - Relationship building and quality assurance (12 hours)
  • Reporting, management and control
  • Understanding Needs and performance experience
  • Building relationships and partner sales
  • Quality assurance and control for key
  • Account Management and Key Account Management
  • Competence

Module 4 - Sales management and sales roles in the organization (12 hours)
  • What is Sales Management?
  • Sales Plan from planning to evaluation
  • The importance of the external and internal environment
    Purchase and sales process
  • Organizational buying process
  • Sales Activities
  • Steps in the sales process
  • Alternative methods of selling
    The sales role in a CRM context
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • The personal sales role in corporate strategies

Module 5 - Organisation of sales efforts (12 hours)
  • The purpose of a sales organization
  • Horizontal structures in sales staff
  • Account management and Key Account Management
    The information role in sales management
  • Analysis of market opportunities
  • Forecasting techniques
  • Sales Quotas
  • Size of sales staff
    Vendor Performance: Behaviour, role, perception and satisfaction
  • Understanding the seller's performance
  • Model Review
  • Seller's role

Module 6 (10 hours)
    Seller's performance: sales force motivation
  • The psychological motivation process
  • The motivation characteristics
  • The organization's function in the seller motivation
    Personal characteristics, skills and potential
  • Determinants of a successful sales team
    Recruitment and selection
  • Job analysis and selection criteria
  • Selection Procedures

Module 7 - Sales Training: Objectives, techniques and evaluation (10 hours)
  • Goals for seller training
  • Development of a training program
    Development of compensation and incentive programs
  • Decisions on what should be rewarded
  • Different types of compensation plans
  • Sales Contests
    Assessment and control of the sales plan
  • Analysis of the cost of CRM implementation
  • Review of process in the sales plan

Computer-based tools
IT - software will not be used interactively in the course. However, software for analytical purposes will be presented

Learning process and workload
The course consists of 80 hours of class room teaching and work in groups.

In order to secure learning it is emphasized that the student should be prepared for class, to that effect cases will be distributed before each lecture and are supposed to be solved before the lecture in question.

During the semester five assignments within sales analysis and sales management will be proposed. The student will have to solve at least three of the five assignments. The assignments can be used in the project report. The asignments will be evaluated by the teacher and rated "accepted/not accepted", and three of the five assignement must be accepted before the student can registre for the final exam.

Teaching activities
Use of hours
Participation in lectures
74
Participation in presentations og analysis and exercises
6
Preparations to lectures
50
Training seminar i sales management
analysis tools and feedback 		30
Solving cases (individually and in groups) 40
Own studies of literature and writing project report
80
Writing the project paper
120
Recommended use of hours
400


    Examination
    A project report on a given topic concludes the course.
    The project paper may be solved individually or in groups of up to three students.

    Examination code(s)
    BST 32021 Project Paper, counts 100 % to obtain final grade in BST 3202 Sales Management and Personal Sales, 15 credits.

    Examination support materials
    All support materials are allowed.

    Re-sit examination
    A re-sit examination is offered at next course.

    Additional information

    Semesters

    Translations