APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2015/2016

GRA 6441 Sales and Sales Force Management

Responsible for the course
Gorm Kunøe, Jon Bingen Sande

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
6

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Selling is an imperative within all private companies. There is no other single factor in the company that is of higher importance than sales. The “top line” of the company is the “navel string” from which every person and every function in the company is fed. Consequently, sales and sales management have the scrutinizing attention of owners, managers, employees and customers, to build the values promised and get paid for it. High expectations on the sales function and its ability to fulfil company goals whatever happens in the market place and internally.
This course build on the reality of sales being the focus is concerned specifically with the management of business-to-business sales,the management of the sales force and its activities to achieve results.

Accordingly, the desired result is to develop individuals who can take responsibility for their own customer portfolio, influence to sell, build relations, and through a solid understanding of how effective sales are structured, manage a sales organisation and organise one self and others in the endeavour to reach company goals.

Thriving under ever changing market conditions, the sales force must exploit opportunities and constantly rethinking their selling concept. Changes in customer needs, and the resulting recasting of the sales role and sales practices creates a current shift in emphasis of what to focus. Getting close to the best customers and stay there is a “must” in modern sales organisations. The seller needs to be personal accountable for the desired result of the customer, by understanding the customer’s business and thereby building relevant customer values. It’s necessary to solve problems and still be creative in an international market place where the digital buy is just a “mouse click” away.

It is imperative to the management of the sales force to create a customer-driven culture, recruiting and selecting the right sales talents and train the sales force for the right set of skills. Helped by still more integrated CRM-systems the formal sales processes can be analysed as never before for continuous sales process development and CRM-analysis is a part of the course. The role of IT in sales support and communication is enhanced to ensure knowledge of the customer relationship management dialogue so fundamental when building new customer values.

Learning outcome
Sales representatives and sales managers must face the changes the market is forcing upon them. These large and small variations from former planning and previous behavior, influences sales management actions and the management of sales. Also in the way the selling is planned and organized, on the recruiting, training, motivation and reward of the individual sales person.
Consequentially the superior learning goal of every sales person and every sales manager is to fathom recurring changes and take the right strategic and practical consequences.

Acquired Knowledge
During the course students should:
· Know how to create targeted results, conduct personal selling and develop the sales function within the company, do sales planning in practice, recruit and lead a sales staff.
· Understand what it means, in practice, to sell professionally and how to acquire skills that enable one to act as the seller by profession.
· Know how to establish and develop customer relationships in sales
- Get an insight into sales motivation and sales planning.

Acquired Skills
After completing the course, students will:
· Be able to prepare a sales plan that meets the management of the sales, schedule activity targets and carry out planning of the customer relationship over time.
· Be able to prepare a sales plan, including the planning of the skills needed to work the plan.
· Be able to conduct meetings with industrial sales (B2B) clients.

Reflection
· During the course, the student will understand how indispensable the seller is for the company, and what role an active builder of corporate reputation should play to new and existing customers.
· A critical and constructive attitude to the concept of sales and sales management is established.
A sound understanding of the ethical side of personal selling and the management of sales staff will be developed

Prerequisites

All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Spiro, Rosann L., Gregory A. Rich, William J. Stanton. 2008. Management of a sales force. 12th ed. McGraw-Hill/Irwin

Collection of articles:
A collection of research articles will be made available at the start of the course. These are selected articles from journals on the following topics: Operational selling, ethics, post-heroic management, emotional intelligence, value creation, motivation, compensation, control, sales force training, CRM, CRM-systems, communication and stress

Other:
During the course there may be hand-outs and other material on additional topics relevant for the course and the examination.


Recommended reading
Books:
Huczynski, Andrzej A., David A. Buchanan. 2013. Organizational behaviour. 8th ed. Pearson
O'Reilly, Charles A., Jeffrey Pfeffer. 2000. Hidden value : how great companies achieve extraordinary results with ordinary people. Harvard Business School Press

Course outline
The structure of the course is similar to the structure of the textbook and research articles are connected to the topics of the course.
3. Sales operation (1)

Key topics:
1. Introduction to sales and sales management in the 21^st century
2. Organising, staffing and training a sales force
4. Sales operation (2)
5. Sales planning
6. Leadership, managers, teams and bosses
7. CRM, CRM-systems and CRM analytics
8. Sales force loyalty, control and motivation
9. Sales force compensation
10. Ethics
11. Evaluating sales management and the sales force

Computer-based tools


Learning process and workload
A course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of 160-180 hours.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory. It is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/It's learning or text book.

The course is structured as a combination of lectures, discussions, in-class activities, and compulsory student presentations. It requires a substantial amount of preparation by the students and active involvement during class.

A number of guest lecturers from sales departments will present their views on the key topics mentioned in point 12 above.

The class will be organized around discussing selected topics illustrated by theory and practical cases. The students are expected to be well prepared and highly involved in the discussions.

Examination
The course grade will be based on the following activities and weights:
1) A 3-hour written examination (individual) accounting for 40% of the final grade
(2) A term paper over a chosen topic from the course (group work, maximum three students in a group) accounting for 40% of the final grade
(3) Class participation 20%