Sales Professional

Communication remains an essential skill sought by employers, regardless of discipline or field of study.  Using a practical, vocation-oriented approach, students develop stronger grammar and business writing skills to become effective business communicators.  Through a combination of lectures, exercises, and independent learning, students practice writing, speaking, reading, listening, locating and documenting information, and using technology to communicate professionally.  Students develop and strengthen communication skills that contribute to success in both educational and workplace environments. 

This course is designed to provide students with the an introduction to the sales process and is intended to help students to develop their selling, communication, and negotiation skills in order to be successful in a sales career. Topics presented include: the steps in the selling process, ethical issues in selling, the importance of the sales function, and integrating technology in the sales process. Students also learn how to develop negotiation skills, establish successful customer relationships, develop winning communication skills in a variety of presentation situations. This course is highly interactive and each student will be expected to fully participate online. Each student will be required to prepare and deliver a sales presentation as a part of this course.

This course applies principles of effective oral presentations to a marketing setting. Students will be enhancing their skills in the planning, preparing and delivery of effective marketing presentations to a variety of audiences using a variety of media. The majority of class time will be engaged in observing, evaluating, and practicing presentation skills.

(Note: Offered only in Summer semester each year)

This course focuses on several important person-to-person relationship-building strategies that contribute to success in professional selling to the business-to-business (B2B) marketplace. Students will learn the fundamentals of relationship selling, the importance of prospecting for new clients, preparations for a sales call, and make strategic and ethical decisions to develop business. Students will learn the critical steps in the professional selling process and have the opportunity to demonstrate the completion of each stage of the selling process through varied techniques.

Leaders in any organization need to understand the cost of doing business. Financial documents are used to explain how money is used in a business and can be interpreted to predict an organization's success. The ethical and effective use of financial statements and ratio calculations for forecasting and budget preparation can ensure investments or withdrawals within an organization will produce a healthy return or mitigate decline in other areas. Knowing the processes for assessing ROI, creating a budget and anticipating variances are critical in any organization in order to make effective decisions.

This course is designed to provide students with the essential skills required to be a sales professional in a Business-to-Business (B2B) environment.  The course will explore computer and communication technologies as they apply to business-to-business selling and will provide an introduction to the use of customer relationship management (CRM) and web selling.  Students will develop their skills by creating a detailed step-by-step sale simulation of a product or service using a consultative approach and creating a win-win environment for both the prospect and the seller delivered via YouTube.