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Personal Selling and Sales Management

Code

GBE-SSM1

Version

4.0

Offered by

Global Business Engineering

ECTS

5

Prerequisites

None apart from general progression to 7th/9th semester. For exchange students general admission requirements.

Main purpose

Enabling the student to carry out a professional sales presentation for any business and product/service by mastering all the steps in the sales process from prospecting to obtaining the order and the follow-up phase.

Knowledge

  • The different kinds of sales jobs and personal characteristics of successful sales persons
  • Understand the significance of personal selling to the sales of the company, its relation to other the other elements of the promotion mix of the company and its marketing strategy
  • The connection between the purchasing behavior of the customer and the right sales strategy
  • The buying center concept and factors affecting the customer decision-making process
  • Prospecting: how to find new sales leads and methods to qualify them as potential customers
  • A deep understanding of the key phases in the personal selling process:
    • 1. The opening at a sales meeting
    • 2. Need and problem identification
    • 3. Presentation and demonstration of relevant solution
    • 4. Effective techniques to deal with buyers’ objections
    • 5. To negotiate a deal
    • 6. Techniques to close a sale (get the order)
    • 7. Follow-up on the sales meeting
  • Basic knowledge about sales organization and sales administration including international aspects
  • Define customer value from the buyers perspective
  • How to transform product features into customer benefits
  • Building, maintaining and extending customer relationships
  • Awareness of ethical practices in personal selling
 

Skills

  • Create a prospecting plan to find new customers
  • Plan and design the sales meeting by finding and using relevant information
  • Determine the members of the ‘buying center’, their needs and purchase motivations
  • How to determine customer value and create a strong value proposition
  • Prepare and present a sales presentation in a convincing manner
  • Be effective in sales negotiation and handling of objections
  • Be able to close a sale
  • Manage customer relationships to maximize long term customer satisfaction
 

Competences

  • Be able to effectively prospect for new customers
  • Overall to plan and conduct a professional sales meeting covering all the steps in the process from the opening over need and problem identification, presentation, handling of objections, negotiation, closing the sale to follow-up on the meeting
  • Prepare and conduct a sales presentation: visual, verbal, and nonverbal communication of  information using professional selling skills
  • Use an appropriate selling strategy according to the needs of the customer, the characteristics of the product in question, the competition and the objectives of the selling company
  • Be effective in building, maintaining and extending customer relationships
  • Function as the market expert regarding information on products and competitors to both the selling and the buying organization
 

Topics

Teaching methods and study activities

Duration: 1 semester - 137,5 hours of student work load.
 
Activities during the course: dialog based teaching, class discussions, demonstration of sales situations on video, casework and role-plays to practice personal selling.
 
 

Resources

  • Textbook: Castleberry & Tanner: ”Selling – Building Partnerships”, 11th Edition, McGraw-Hill.
  • Material handed out by the instructor
  • Teaching methods and study activities

 

Evaluation

Examination

Prerequisites for exam:
None

Exam type:
Individual oral exam with internal examiner based on the written report of a sales case handed in before deadline set by the teacher and the curriculum.
Duration – 20 minutes per student including evaluation.

Tools allowed:
All

Re-exam: 
As ordinary.

 

Grading criteria

7-point scale. Examinations account for 100 % of final grade. See additional comments below.

Additional information

Responsible

Kresten Tang Andersen

Valid from

8/1/2023 12:00:00 AM

Course type

Business and Management

Keywords

- Appreciate and understand the important role of sales, personal selling and its significance in in executing the marketing and sales strategies of the firm - To plan and execute a sales meeting at a high professional level - Handling customer relationship management after the sale - Understand how a sales organization can be structured under given (international) market conditions