Sales

This course introduces sales and non-sales personnel to the selling process through practical and interactive discussions along with role-playing exercises designed to develop their confident implementation of these skills for a positive impact on the customer. Participants will learn and practice the necessary skills required to implement a proactive approach to selling that includes developing a customer-focused and solution based strategy in establishing strong relationships and long-term partnerships. Sales process, sales plans, and the challenges that may be encountered during the sales cycle will be discussed and tools for successfully going from planning to close are explored. Considerable class focus will be placed on effective questioning techniques, active listening and adaptive selling skills that will enhance the ability to effectively work with both external and internal customers.

Generations of sales and marketing professionals have struggled to understand each other, ending in frustration and reduced productivity. This dilemma has given birth to many top selling books, but yet the problem persists. In this class we join sales and marketing to discuss the differences, similarities and ultimately how the departments can work better as a team. If you are a sales person you will walk away with better insight to the marketing side of the business and how to influence your marketing team to provide you with tools to be more efficient. And if you are a marketing person, you will learn the world of sales from a practical standpoint so you can increase your value in the revenue generating side of the business. No matter who you are or what your current position is, you will be given enough information to determine-"Can I Sell?"

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a strategic methodology that recognizes customers as the core of a business. Composed of people, technology and processes, effective CRM optimizes the identification, acquisition, growth and retention of valued customers to maximize profitability and enhance competitive positioning. This course will address both organizational customers (B2B) and individual consumers/households (B2C). Emphasis will be placed on key CRM decision variables and improving sales effectiveness. Topics include customer profiling, sales intelligence systems, sales campaign management, collaborative (internal) CRM and CRM software. The benefits as well as the pitfalls of CRM strategies and implementation will be addressed in depth. Case studies, outside speakers, hands on data analysis and student completion/presentation of a CRM plan will be used to accomplish the objectives for this course.

Salespeople must manage their territory as a business by developing strategies supported by tactical action plans in order to focus efforts. The goal is to maintain sales productivity and not simply to be a product vendor. In this course students will learn how to build a sales funnel based strategic plan that will strengthen account relationships and maximize territory results and revenue; manage a sales territories as a business; produce strategies to develop and grow market share and achieve aggressive revenue goals; align company's product/service offering with current market demands; and implement scheduling techniques to ensure the sales plan is a success.

Sales prospecting can be a nerve wrecking experience; however, with the right tools, prospecting is the key to sales success. Contact strategies, value statements, key listening skills, and persuasive presentation methods will be explored and practiced. Students will have an opportunity to apply these tools in a variety of settings in order to form and master their own effective sales prospecting styles.

Traditionally, the primary negotiation strategy utilized has been a competitive approach commonly referred to as "distributive bargaining." Recently a more cooperative approach has emerged fostering the term "win-win" negotiation. This approach centers on interests rather than issues and attempts to create value for each side. In an interest based negotiation, attention moves toward solution. Explore the theory and practice of negotiating and the methods of obtaining cooperative conflict resolution. Business managers and professionals will benefit by examining positional bargaining, cooperative approaches to impasses and collaborative styles of negotiation techniques.