Sales Strategy

Syllabus

Thematic definition of lectures: 1. Concept and Context of Sales Strategy. Classification of Sales Strategies. The Process of Creating a Sales Strategy. Content of the sales strategy, and its interdisciplinary links. The place of the sales strategy in the structure of business strategies. The process of creating a sales strategy. SWOT analysis as a broad-spectrum method of basic approach to sales & marketing analysis. Overview of follow-up methods - deepening the results of SWOT analysis. Dimensions of modern sales & marketing approaches and strategies. 2. Sales & Marketing Engineering and Market Analysis as a Starting Point for a Successful Sales Strategy. Managerial decision-making in the context of sales strategies, software support in choosing proper sales strategies, analytical tools, quantitative and qualitative methods, types of models, responsive models, forecasting models, benefits and limitations of these models, principles and examples of applying sales & marketing engineering methods and models. 3. Consumer Behavior in B2C Markets as a Factor Influencing The Sales Strategy. Specifics of B2C markets. Factors influencing consumer behavior in B2C markets. Types of consumer behavior and customer purchasing decisions in B2C markets. Current trends in consumer behavior. Differences in consumer behavior in global and local markets. 4. Consumer Behavior in B2B Markets as a Factor Influencing The Sales Strategy. Specifics of B2B markets. Types of B2B markets. Specifics of consumer behavior in B2B markets – producers, resellers, government, and institutions market. Customer preferences, product / brand attributes, simple and multinomial choice models, analysis of elasticity of customers preferences. Current trends in consumer behavior in B2B markets. Neuromarketing and its use in customer-centric sales strategies (lecture provided by an external partner). 5. Customer-Centric Sales Strategies. Positioning strategy. Customer relationship management. Customer needs, purchasing process, approaches to measure the customer value (objective, perceptions-based and behavioral), relations: costs – price - value, customer valuation methods, esp. CLV analysis (Customer Lifetime Value), RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) model, etc. 6. Competitive Analysis and Types of Competitive Sales Strategies. Competitive analysis as a starting point for creating a competitive strategy. Basic competitive strategies - cost leadership, differentiation, and focus strategy. Competitive intelligence. 7. Types of Competitive Sales Strategies. Some other selected types of competitive sales strategies - market share strategies, strategies differentiated according to market position, strategies based on the product / market matrix, strategies based on the time factor and the globalization factor. Possibilities of using software solutions in the process of creating a competitive strategy, perception maps, preference maps, JointSpace maps, changes in market share caused by changes in perceptions of product / brand attributes. 8. Product-Centric Sales Strategies. Product design. Strategies for developing and launching a new product. Strategies in other phases of the product life cycle. Modeling consumers response using Conjoint analysis. Launching a new product on the market. Forecasting models: model ASSESSOR, Bass model. Use of analogy in forecasting future sales. 9. Sales strategies focused on marketing communication - part I. Choosing elements of marketing communication - specifics of sales strategies in advertising, promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and personal sales. Changes in the marketing environment and its impact on the form of marketing communication. Components of marketing communication and importance of these components in the communication mix. 10. Sales strategies focused on marketing communication - part II. The process of creating a marketing communication strategy. Current trends and specific forms of marketing communication. Online marketing communication, possibilities of measuring and evaluating its effectiveness (lecture provided by an external partner). 11. Sales strategies focused on distribution – part I. 12. Characteristics of distribution routes and distribution entities. Choosing a distribution channel. 13. Sales strategies focused on distribution – part II. Distribution system. Types of distribution strategies and their characteristics. Current trends and future of distribution channels and distribution strategies. Direct Marketing. E-commerce. 14. Evaluation of sales strategies. Approaches to measuring sales & marketing performance. Sales & marketing audit. Current approaches and developments in the field of marketing performance evaluation. KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators). Thematic definition of exercises: 1. Methodology of basic approach to sales & marketing analysis - SWOT. Assignment of seminar project from the field of sales & marketing analysis. Adapting the seminar project to different conditions - types of companies, industries, markets, etc. 2. Basic indicators of quantitative market analysis and applications - market potential, market capacity, market saturation. In-depth methods of sales & marketing analysis. Application using the software Marketing Engineering for Excel or Enginius. 3. Customer choice models and applications. Preference elasticity analysis using the Multinominal Logit Model and solving it in ME>Excel or Enginius. 4. Different ways of approaching customers. CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) analysis using ME>Excel or Enginius, and RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary Value) model. 5. Industry analysis, indicators allowing the evaluation of market / industry attractiveness and company’s internal strength. Methodology for finding a competitive advantage based on differences. Market segmentation - applications (segmentation basis, descriptors, profiles, etc.) and classification. Targeting, up-selling, cross-selling. Application of segmentation and classification using the ME>Excel software or Enginius. Using dendrogram to choose the number of segments according to the loss of information. 6. Presentations of seminar projects. Learning and using presentation and communication skills. Getting feedback. 7. Sales strategies focused on market share. Portfolio analysis, positioning strategies. Application of ME>Excel / Enginius software to create perception maps, preference maps, JointSpace map, and to find the optimal mix of attributes, which is maximizing the market share. GE McKinsey matrix. 8. Case studies focused on designing and launching a new product and forecasting its sales. Using ME>Excel / Enginius to prepare the Conjoint analysis, and to use Bass model, model ASSESSOR, and MS Excel Solver to forecast future sales. 9. Situational analysis for the purpose of marketing communication strategy. Basic components of the communication mix and its use. Assignment of a seminar project focused on creating optimized marketing communication mix. Discussing current trends in marketing communication. 10. Designing and budgeting the communication mix. Applying ADBUG decision-making model to optimize the marketing communication’s budget using ME>Excel / Enginius. 11. Selecting distribution routes, choosing the distribution strategy, and modifying selected distribution routes - practical applications. Optimizing the CALLPLAN system using ME>Excel / Enginius. 12. Presentations of seminar projects. Learning and using presentation and communication skills. Getting feedback. 13. Evaluation of assignments, harvesting value from sales strategy course.