Entrepreneurial Selling

The course content is organized around five themes:

1) The Buying Proposition

• Sales in the Business Model
• Storyboarding a Compelling Buying Proposition*

2) The Sales Conversation

• Always Be Closing? Phases of a Sales Conversation*
• Adapting to Different Personalities
• Need Identification Role-Play
• Sales Presentation Role-Play
• Sales Enablement Video Project

3) The Sales Channel

• Matching buying proposition and targeting
• It’s NOT All About Ads (Stephan Schubert Guest Lecture)

4) Selling to Enterprises

• Pitfalls in Enterprise Selling*
• Structured Enterprise Selling Methodology

5) Sourcing Leads

• Lead Sources and Prospecting
• CRM

(*) Three of the 15 sessions of the course (i.e., 20%, topics are indicated by *) include content from my WHU BSc course “Foundations of Sales”, depending on when you took that course. This is necessary to bring the diverse MSc group up to a common level.

1) In regard to factual knowledge, participants are enabled to

• apply salespeople jargon to discussing the status of a sale (such as the decision making unit, red flags, pipeline, RFQ, gatekeepers, and other idioms),
• understand the specifics and terminology of selling to consumers, small and medium businesses, and large enterprises.

2) In regard to conceptual knowledge, participants are enabled to

• classify the varieties of sales models as part of business models,
• evaluate value propositions and the uniqueness of selling propositions,
• analyze the composition of a buying center,
• organize the elements of a structured selling methodology,
• remember legal constraints on managing sales data and on prospecting,
• compare the costs of sales channels.

3) In regard to selling-specific procedural knowledge, participants are enabled to

• apply a structured sales process and blueprint,
• use databases to identify target customers,
• evaluate and create prospecting scripts,
• evaluate the needs of a customer through questions,
• evaluate and create a compelling selling story,
• apply objection handling, questioning, and closing techniques.

4) In regard to general business-relevant procedural knowledge, participants are enabled to

• prepare for business meetings and internal committee sessions,
• make the best out of a limited preparation time budget,
• make concise contributions to meetings,
• constructively build and comment on contributions by other participants in the meeting,
• derive a course of action from a careful analysis of the situation and a structured evaluation of alternatives.

5) In regard to metacognitive knowledge, participants are enabled to

• evaluate their own selling behavior,
• create a skill profile for sales people.

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.

• 30%: four class preparation notes (pdf, bullet points are enough, ca. 500-750 words)
• 10%: two hands-on exercises
• 10% learning-for-life reflection note (pdf, bullet points are enough, ca. 500-750 words)
• 50%: sales enablement team project (40% concept + 10% rough mobile phone video)