Sales and Account Management

Successful completion of all courses of the module Marketing and Sales.

• Customer Relationship Management (analytical, operative, communicative, collaborative CRM), CRM tools; management of customer data.
• Key account management, customer potential analysis, customer value (e.g. RFM, ABC analysis)
• Sales strategies, sales cycles
• Customer acquisition
• Necessary competences in sales, sales talk or negotiations, handling objections
• Building and maintaining customer relationships
• Sales organisation (structures & processes), sales channels and sales partners
• Consultative selling, direct and indirect sales
• Incentivisation in sales, sales planning and control
• Lead management (e.g. lead scoring), lead nurturing (e.g. marketing automation)
• Cross- and up-selling, after-sales management
• Success factors sales manager & sales organisation
• Legal framework (e.g. cold calling)
• Developments, trends and scientific findings
• B2B case studies

In addition to a stringent marketing strategy or a clear positioning of the products and services of a company, the success of the sales activities significantly determines the sales and thus the turnover of a business model. This course provides access to the elementary aspects of (B2B) sales, especially for students of the Marketing to Sales specialisation.

The students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of incentive systems and control measures in sales. They can explain the approaches of lead management and lead nurturing, such as lead scoring and marketing automation, and know common CRM tools and their functions.

The students can discuss structures and processes of the sales organisation, describe the development and maintenance of customer relationships and they understand the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) for the systematic design of customer relationship processes. The tasks and challenges of key account management can be described in their own words.

The students learn in role plays and exercises to conduct sales talks and to deal with possible customer objections.

Interactive course with lecture, case studies, exercises in individual and group work, presentations and homework.

Pre-assignment, participation during the seminar in the form of contributions and short presentations (individual or group assignments), post-assignment, individual weighting as determined by the instructors, announcement at the beginning of the semester

None

Cravens, David W.; Le Meunier-Fitzhugh, Kenneth; Piercy, Nigel F. (2013): The Oxford Handbook of Strategic Sales and Sales Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jobber, David; Lancaster, Geoff; Le Meunier-Fitzhugh, Kenneth (2019). Selling and Sales Management. Harlow: Pearson.

McDonald, Malcom; Rogers, Beth (2019): Malcom McDonald on Key Account Management. London: Kogan Page.

Woodburn, Diana; McDonald, Malcom (2011): Key Account Management. Chichester: Wiley. 

Classes with compulsory attendance