Marketing 2b: Developing a Sales Team
How does a business make money? If you said sales, then you’re right! This course explores the secrets to sales. You’ll learn expectations, best practices, sales planning, building a clientele that becomes long-term buyers, and how to stay motivated to sell, sell, sell! If sales management is your goal, you’ll learn about management styles, how to find, hire, train, motivate, and compensate your team.
Units at a Glance
Unit 1: Sales: People, Processes, and Strategies
Take a walk to the mall and you’ll immediately notice that there are stores everywhere. They may be stores of your favorite brands, kiosks selling mobile phone accessories, or coffee shops. While all of these stores sell different things, they all depend on one thing to survive: sales. Sales is what allows each business to make money so they can expand their operations. But there’s a lot more to this profession than you may think. You’re about to discover the secrets of sales!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Understand personal success characteristics for different sales positions
- Explain key factors in building a clientele
- Understand the best practices in selling that lead to exceeding customer expectations
- Explain business ethics in selling
Unit 2: The Numbers Behind the Sales
Numbers are the foundation of sales. They help businesses keep track of how much money they’re making, what customers are buying, and how fast the company is growing. Most of the basic operations you learned in your high school math class will be used almost daily if you pick a career in sales. You’ll need to know how to use division to calculate return on investment, how to use percentages, and how to perform basic algebra to figure out missing information. The good news is that this isn’t as hard as it sounds. Let’s discover the numbers behind the sales!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Describe the nature of budgets
- Understand the various methods sales managers use to develop sales forecasts
- Discover proper procedures for maintaining sales records
- Calculate sales productivity
Unit 3: Better Together: The Sales Team
From Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Chewbacca to Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven, teams can always accomplish more than an individual. Whether fighting villains or selling software, a group of people working together is proof that there is power in numbers. Team work makes the dream work, right? But you can’t expect people to know how to function as a unit if they’ve never been taught how to do that! There are ways to increase a team’s effectiveness that can make all the difference. Organizational structure, sales territory design, relationship building, and problem solving are all critical components of group performance. Worried about how to collaborate with a team? Let it go! We’ll give you the tools you need to succeed in any sales environment. May the sales force be with you!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Identify the purposes of sales organization
- Understand the model of salesperson performance
- Describe the sales territory design process
- Discuss key approaches to determining sales force size
Unit 4: Finding and Hiring Good Salespeople
If you take a look at some of the most successful products or services, you’ll notice that there was a team of hard-working salespeople behind them. Salespeople are a critical part of any organization. If you’ve ever bought anything, there’s a high probability that it was because a salesperson convinced you to do so. You might have seen something you liked in a store but weren’t sure if it was right for you. But then a salesperson came along and answered all your questions until you were ready to buy. Companies spend lots of time finding and hiring good salespeople because they can be the difference between being profitable and not. We’re about to reveal everything that goes behind finding and hiring sales superstars!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Understand personal success characteristics for different sales positions
- Explain key factors in building a clientele
- Understand the best practices in selling that lead to exceeding customer expectations
- Explain business ethics in selling
Unit 5: Managing and Training Salespeople
There’s a lot more to being a salesperson than picking up the phone and making hundreds of calls a day. Salespeople manage customer relationships, solve problems, and develop the processes that make money for the company. To master all these skills, salespeople require the right management and training. Companies have many exciting ways to train their salespeople, and we’re about to finally uncover all of the methods used by the top sales teams in the world. Let’s get started!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Understand the process of new employee orientation
- Compare and contrast management styles
- Discuss the development of sales training programs
- Analyze characteristics of good leaders
Unit 6: Sales Motivation and Compensation
Have you ever wondered what keeps salespeople going? What makes them get up every morning to make phone calls and send out emails? The answer is simple—motivation. Sales motivation helps companies get the best out of their team so they can go above and beyond. It also helps salespeople to enjoy coming to work every day. If you’ve ever wondered how sales motivation works, then now is your chance. Let’s explore the world of sales motivation and compensation!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Understand how an individual’s career stage influences motivation
- Discuss the effect of personal characteristics on salesperson motivation
- Examine the motivational aspects of sales contests
- Demonstrate methods to recognize and reward team performance
Unit 7: Evaluating Sales Performance
Sales is a highly competitive profession that rewards top performers. In most sales roles, you’ll find that there many ways that each individual salesperson gets evaluated. Supervisors may look at the amount of revenue that each salesperson brings in to determine their effectiveness, but they may also look at other qualities such as their prioritization and communication skills. There’s a lot to learn when it comes to evaluating sales performance, so let’s dive right in and get started!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Identify and explain key success factors for salesperson performance
- Understand how a sales manager can make the performance review process more productive and valuable for the salesperson
- Discuss the actions salespeople can take to ensure long-term buyer-seller relationships
Unit 8: Technological Tools and the Future of Marketing and Sales
Being an effective marketer is all about knowing how to use the right tools. Everything has moved to the internet, which means that everything you need to create a successful marketing campaign is just one click away. The best part about it all is that technology allows you to accurately track your performance so you can make adjustments based on real data. But that’s not all. In the future, marketing and sales technology will be hundreds of times more powerful than it is now, making it possible to uncover insights like never before. Let’s explore what’s in store for the future!
What will you learn in this unit?
- Demonstrate mastery of computers and technology currently used in marketing
- Identify use of virtual means of communication
- Discuss the use of electronic presentation in demonstrations, sales meetings, staff meetings, and sales reports.
- Identify trends affecting marketing research
Required Materials
Computer with:
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- Internet access
- Word processing program
- Slideshow presentation program
- Camera for still photographs (either digital or cell phone camera)
- Video recording device with audio (computer camera, cell phone camera, etc.)
- Audio recording device for podcast recording (cell phone will work)
- Access to television, magazines, radio to observe advertisements
- Friend or family member volunteer
- Various video props: telephone, calculator, pen and paper, graphs and charts, cash register (or something to represent one), purchase orders, packing slips, spreadsheet
- Poster board or large butcher paper
- Calculator or calculator app
Optional:
- Markers, crayons, colored pencils
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