APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

VHL 3681 The customer meeting – sales and service in retailing

Responsible for the course
Gorm Kunøe

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
7,5

Language of instruction
Norwegian

Introduction
The sales experience is vital to the existence of any market-dependent company, and the sales force constitutes the power that in practice must secure revenue and build the store as a brand. Understanding the importance of communication as an active means to persuade and influence existing and potential new customers in a wanted direction is part of the sales term.

Learning outcome
The course shall give the students the competence to complete sales processes, and give the students a good understanding of the most costly and at the same time most effective marketing tools a company has at its disposal.

Acquired knowledge

• An understanding of what it means in practice to gain the competence that enables the student to function as a professional sales person.
• Competence that enables the student to establish and develop customer relations in retailing.
• Ability to develop an individual training plan

• During the course the student will be taught to understand that the sales person is indispensable to the shop, and that at the same time he/she is an active brand builder towards new and existing customers.
• Through a professionalizing process the course shall establish a critical and constructive attitude to retail sales.
• During the course students shall develop a good understanding for the ethical side of the sales process.

• Introduction to customer meeting, professional retail sales, to training and work requirements

• Thematic lecture schedule:
  Achieve your sales targets
  • How to achive your sales targets
  • Sales profession in stores
  • Input factors that influence sales
  • The meeting with the customer
  • Verbal and nonverbal communication

Affecting
• Reciprocity
• Consistency
• Social proof
• Sympathy
• Authority
• Scarcity

Achieve your sales targets - continued
• The sales process
• Purchasing Process
• Retail Sales
• Customer Care
• Personal service
• Customer Complaints
• Structure of sales work
• Ethics in Sales
• Personal development and training
• Tasks: Mystery shopping - team collaboration
  
• Training Plans
  
• Peer review
  In order to promote learning between students, a student-helper-student system is used. Students are instructed in how to systematically give feedback to fellow students and document assessment in analyzing behavior in the customer meeting.
  Peer review assessment alternates between students and represent a good preparation for the development of a formal training plan - see the learning process.