FTMBA2022_I B2B Sales Management

The course content is organized around four parts:

1) Fundamentals (self-study for sales beginners)

• The domain of sales
• The world of B2B
• Channel systems and channel economics
• The domain of pricing
• Trade terms
• Sales forces and sales jobs
• Sales force management framework
• Sales force size
• CRM systems
• Sales compensation plans

2) B2B pricing

• Pricing pressure and pricing power
• Pricing commodities
• Pricing value-added solutions (includes case Atlantic Computer, HBS)
• Pricing services

3) B2B selling

• Selling and negotiating value-added products (includes role-play Windblades, WHU)
• Pricing process and selling process (includes case: Boise Automation, Ivey)
• Key account management

4) B2B sales force management

• Autonomy vs. automation (includes case Cabot Pharmaceuticals, HBS)
• Managing field sales (includes case StepSmart Fitness, HBS)
• Pipeline management (includes case PackMach, WHU)
• The future of sales work and sales management

B2B is larger than B2C. In B2B firms, sales and service are often the largest functions. In B2B, marketing is a part of sales, not vice versa. Most country subsidiaries of multinational enterprises are essentially sales organizations. Thus, mastering business administration requires learning to lead the sales force.

The course intends to enhance five categories of competences:

• factual knowledge, for example, applying salespeople jargon to discussing the status of a sale (such as the “buying center”, “red flags”, “mentor”, “RFQ”, “gatekeepers”, and other idioms), applying sales management jargon (such as quota, forecast, pipeline, DSM, and other idioms), and defining sales performance indicators,
• conceptual knowledge, for example, analyzing economic value to customer, calculating price-trade-offs against other profit drivers, analyzing the composition of a buying center, organizing the elements of a structured selling methodology, classifying different types of sales forces and sales jobs, classifying the dimensions of sales performance management, and evaluating sales KPIs,
• sales-specific procedural knowledge, for example, demonstrating economic value to the customer, evaluating the win probability of a sales opportunity, analyzing sales pipelines, and generating sales forecasts,
• general business-relevant procedural knowledge, for example, preparing for business meetings, making the best out of a limited preparation time budget, making concise contributions to meetings, and constructively building on contributions by other participants in the meeting, and
• metacognitive knowledge, for example, creating a skill profile for salespeople, and evaluating the excellence of sales organizations.

The learning method mix includes role-play sessions between students with joint debriefings, case-based discussions with concluding mini-lectures, interactive concept lectures, and managerial guest presentations. This video shows the style of case-based sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbNNsq1fC0A. The problem-based way of learning requires a great amount of energy, both from the student and from the teacher.

• 50%: five class preparation notes (pdf, bullet points are enough, ca. 750-1000 words)
• 50%: open-book, time-constrained (150 minutes), take-home exam. The take-home exam is a laptop-based Moodle quiz with quantitative calculation questions and qualitative multiple-choice questions.