PGD Sales

Building on and further expanding the students' understanding of the basic selling process and skills, this course integrates the latest negotiation theories and practices to enable students to master relationship selling and complex selling situations. Students will experience enhanced ability and confidence to effectively negotiate win-win solutions and sell themselves, their ideas and their market offerings in an increasingly competitive environment. In doing so, the course takes a highly experiential perspective and uses a sequence of real world-based projects to build and reinforce specific selling skills and competencies.

This course focuses on major account management, the supply chain, purchasing units, segmenting and targeting organizational markets along with team selling. As a result of this course's emphasis on building relationships with customers for maximized loyalty and retention, students will gain the ability to segment markets, target accounts with the highest potential and develop strategic account plans to effectively generate long-term buyer-seller business relationships. Extensive interaction with sales and business managers is incorporated throughout the course along with applied projects and exercises.

Learning activities for this course center on mastering the advanced skills and competencies associated with the consultative selling process, and developing sales territory planning and analysis techniques. The first half of the semester emphasizes gathering pre-approach information, planning sales calls, executing benefit selling strategies, gaining commitment and working with buyer resistance.

The subsequent portion of the course involves activities designed to build students' proficiency in analyzing territory market potential, developing call schedules and territory routing routines, developing account goals and managing sales territory budgets. Students work with sales professionals and participate in sales call role plays, written reports and class presentations related to class assignments.

This course develops a conceptual and practical foundation of knowledge regarding the nature of purchasing and materials management in contemporary organizational management. This foundation addresses both the nature of procurement and materials management. Participating students can expect to relate contemporary business paradigms of agility and relational business practices to the specific context of purchasing and materials management. Experiential exercises further enhance students' mastery and understanding of moving readily between concept and application.

Internships provide students the opportunity to gain valuable experience working in a sales-related position for a business organization. Students benefit from the direct involvement in actual day-to-day business operations and having responsibilities that allow them to apply knowledge and skills gained in course work. The benefits to the student and the company are so great that companies are increasingly using internships as their major form of recruiting new employees. Students qualifying for this internship experience can receive letter-grade credit. Up to three credit hours can be counted toward the marketing major.