The first part of the module introduces students to sales management. Students will be introduced to the selling process as well as the preparation and the strategic decisions required to undergo this process. Furthermore, students will be taught how the sales territory is managed and how the salesforce is, trained, motivated, compensated, and evaluated with focus on hospitality industry. Also, they will be taught how the salesforce understand selling strategies, develop a strategic thinking, build a selling plan, set targets, prepare & provide forecasting, and manage customer relationships. Finally, attention will be drawn to specific issues, such as B2B vs B2C sales, online & offline sales, and international sales management.
The second part of this module focuses on sales negotiations since it is an integral part of the sales process. Specifically, various areas of bargaining are covered, including distributive bargaining, integrative bargaining, multi-person negotiations, multi-issue negotiations, and inter-group negotiations. Through hands-on case studies and exercises focused in the hospitality industry, all the phases of the negotiating process are analysed including pre-negotiation preparation, opening, exchanging of information, conflict resolution, building trust and using persuasion, and closing the deal. Analysis of BATNA is central along with presentation of ploys to beware of, persuasion tactics to employ and explanation of helpful concepts such as the winner’s curse. Cognitive biases, framing and anchoring are also presented along with single and repeated interaction in game-theoretic terms.
