Entrepreneurial Selling

The course content includes three parts:

Part I: Fundamentals (self-study for sales beginners)

• The Domain of Sales
• Entrepreneurial Selling Challenges
• Business Model Classification

Part II: Entrepreneurial Sales Strategy

Week 1: Selling Story

• Crafting a Compelling Buying Proposition
• Sales Enablement

Week 2: Sales Channels

• Channel Systems and Channel Economics
• Direct vs. Indirect selling (includes case Smart Entry Into The Smart Home, WHU)
• Selling through Retailers (includes guest lecture)

Week 3: Sales Scaling

• Lead Sourcing
• Legal Restrictions to Prospecting
• Developing a Scaling model (includes case InsightSquard, HBS)
• Smart Scaling Is NOT All About Ads! (includes guest lecture)

Part III: Personal Selling Techniques

Week 4: Sales Conversation

• Presenting to Top Executives
• Oral and Written Sales Pitches
• High-Pressure Selling Techniques
• Low-Pressure Selling Techniques

Week 5: Sales Personality

• Adapting to Personalities and Social Styles
• SPIN Workshop
• Selling and The Brand (includes guest lecture)

Week 6: Enterprise Selling Process

• Organizational Buying Process
• Selling to a Buying Center (includes case study Mediqup, IMD)
• Building a "Sales Machine"

Week 7: Sales Technology

• CRM Systems
• The Right CRM System for Your Startup (includes guest lecture)

Week 7: Selling Role-Play

• Outreach Exercise
• Need Identification Role-Play
• Sales Pitch Role-Play

Selling is a set of skills that one can learn. Only a few people are born a selling ace. I designed the course content based on interviews with WHU entrepreneurs and WHU investors. The course intends to enhance five categories of competencies:

• factual knowledge, for example, applying salespeople jargon to discussing the status of a sale (such as the decision-making unit, red flags, pipeline, RFQ, gatekeepers, and other idioms) and understanding the specifics and terminology of selling to consumers, small and medium businesses, and large enterprises,
• conceptual knowledge, for example, classifying the varieties of sales models as part of business models, evaluating value propositions and the uniqueness of selling propositions, analyzing the composition of a buying center, organizing the elements of a structured selling methodology, remembering legal constraints on managing sales data and on prospecting, and comparing the costs of sales channels,
• selling-specific procedural knowledge, for example, applying a structured selling blueprint, using databases to identify target customers, creating prospecting scripts, evaluating the needs of a customer through questions, creating a compelling selling story, handling objections, guiding sales conversations through questions, and closing,
• 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 discussions, constructively building on arguments by other participants, and
• metacognitive knowledge, for example, evaluating one's selling behavior and creating a skill profile for salespeople.

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. Watch this video showing the style of case-based sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbNNsq1fC0A. Problem-based learning requires a significant amount of energy from both the student and the teacher.

• 46%: team project "Sales Enablement Video"
• 12%: capstone Moodle quiz
• 42%: four class preparation notes (pdf, bullet points are enough)