Sales Management and Getting your Beachhead Customers (CI85561)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	2 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Kenneth Morse	Marketing	ENG

Faculty: Kenneth P. Morse <ken.morse@esade.edu>
- Visiting Professor, ESADE Business School
- Serial Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, and Global Sales Veteran
- Founding Managing Director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center (1996-2009)
- Chairman and CEO, Entrepreneurship Ventures Inc.
- BS, MIT; MBA, HBS.
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenmorse


Teaching Assistant:
Lara Garriga Calvera (laia.garriga@alumni.esade.edu)


Course Summary
- Improving the effectiveness of Sales and Sales Management processes, and the overall speed of decision making in customers, large and small, is consistently cited by business experts as one of the highest priorities, year after year. In the current tough climate, every purchase by any prospective customer, especially a beachhead customer, must be triple-justified at all levels of management. This means that having the best ROI-based sales approach is essential to shortening the sales cycle and therefore to the growth and survival of most young, aspiring firms.

- This course is designed to enable ambitious future innovators and tech entrepreneurs to be more effective in establishing long term, dependable, profitable, referenceable, and mutually beneficial customer relationships, to achieve sustainable global growth.

- Roughly 70-80% of the CEOs of the 5000 largest companies came up through sales.

- "Everywhere in the world, the company with the best sales force usually wins, even if their competitors have better technology. -- "Howard Anderson, Founder, Yankee Group

- "Everyone wants to eat meat, but there are very few consistently successful hunters." - Jim Brown, NFL Hall of Fame

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- In today's tough environment, your company must be excellent at sales, customer acquisition, and customer retention, or else you will not survive.

- Effective high value sales techniques and customer relationship management is a science, not an art: it can be learned and promulgated throughout the organization.

- You must be able to quantify the value proposition, and express it in numbers.

- Succinct, 55-second elevator sales pitches are essential.
- Setting higher expectations for your sales and customer support team can actually be very motivating, and will likely increase both your customer and employee satisfaction, and retention.

- The CEO is the top sales person. Sincere commitment to solving customer problems is key. If your CEO is not passionately committed to delivering significant value to customers, then either he/she should leave the company, or else you should find another place to work, because the company will not succeed.

- Long-term strategic customer relationships can provide a key, dependable source of sustainable competitive advantage for your company.

1. SESSION ONE 1. SESSION ONE (Monday 20 May, 2019, 15:30-19:30) Homework Reading: Quantifying the Value Proposition: Prepare the Feyzin Case (two pages). Framework and Definition of High Value Sales and Sales Management. Understanding and Selling to "the Jury". How to Prepare For, and Carry Out, Top Notch Sales Calls, and Build Effective, Long Term Customer Relationships. Integrated Value Pricing Arrangements which match the Internal Needs of Target Customers: Discussion in the context of the Feyzin case reading and preparation for Session Two. Definition of an Effective Elevator Sales Pitch; Communicating your Pitch to top Decision Makers as prospective customers. Quiz #1: ¿ Provide and comment upon the definitions of "Sales", "Jury", and "Value Proposition". ¿ Suggest and comment upon a Convenient, Effective, Customer Centric Pricing Arrangement for the Feyzin Opportunity. Use graphics to show how the money flows from the customer to your company.

2. SESSION TWO 2. SESSION TWO (Tuesday, 21 May 2019: 15:30-19:30) Homework Reading: Spotfire Case and Questions. Discussion of the Spotfire Case: how a startup company in a small city in Sweden was able to design, build, and deploy an effective global sales strategy, with a positive outcome. Securing your first Beachhead Customers The Power of Vertical Marketing Note on Spotfire Case: This is a SALES STRATEGIES case, not a VC investing case. You do NOT need to read the financial exhibits, BUT please read the other exhibits carefully, but not the financials. Recruiting, Managing and Building a World Class Sales Team, Discussion of Elevator Sales Pitches, Quantifying the Value Proposition, and Practice for the Thursday Evening Competition. Quiz #2: ¿ Describe some of the benefits and the power of Vertical Marketing. ¿ Suggest and comment upon how best to define and select some possible additional verticals in general, and specifically for Spotfire. Note: At the conclusion of Session Two, you will have to decide whether you will select and pitch Feyzin, Spotfire pharma, or your own new business idea.

3. SESSION THREE 3. SESSION THREE (Wednesday, 22 May 2019: 15:30-19:30) Homework Reading: "Inbound Marketing" by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (please read the entire book). Discussion of the key concepts and framework of "Inbound Marketing" as a complement to other Sales Strategies. Consider where and how Inbound Marketing fits into the greater sales strategy and execution picture. Quiz #3: ¿ What are the key concepts of the book "Inbound Marketing"? ¿ How would you plan to apply these concepts in your company, or your next job?

4. SESSION FOUR 4. SESSION FOUR (Thursday, 23 May 2019: 15:30-18:00) Building Mastery: Networking, Trade Shows, and Cocktail Party Mgt. Practice your Elevator Sales Pitch Prepare and welcome Judges to the ELEVATOR SALES PITCHING EXERCISE

5. SESSION FIVE 5. SESSION FIVE (Thursday, 23 May 2019: 18:00-20:30) Graded Elevator Sales Pitching Exercise: Prepare/present your chosen elevator sales pitch, one by one, to at least 8-10 judges, and receive real time feedback, with sample grades (not final). Dress Code: Business, or crisp, elegant Business Casual

6. SESSION SIX 6. SESSION SIX (Friday, 24 May 2019: 15:30-19:30) Closing the Sale "Challenger vs. Defender": Case discussion around the Fast Company Article, ¿The Big Score¿ Course wrap up and next steps Course Evaluation and feedback Quiz #4: ¿ What are the key takeaway concepts from this course? ¿ How will you use these concepts in your next job, and in your career? Course evaluation and feedback

Pledge:
Students registering for this intense elective course will be asked to sign a pledge that they will prepare all the homework before the course classes begin, and that they will not have any other activities except for the classes and the quizzes, which take place every day for five days in a row.
- Specifically, students will pledge not to exceed one glass of wine per day, finish their dinner and wine by 9 p.m., be in bed by 10 p.m. and lights out at 11 p.m. each day.
- Birthdays and other special days will be celebrated only after all five classes are completed.
- The quiz for each day's class will be submitted on the same day as the class, by email. It is preferred to be submitted by 8:30 p.m. [20:30] and for sure before the "lights out? 11 p.m. deadline each day.

This pledge has been discussed with dozens of students who took the course, and they all agree it is reasonable and advisable. If you do not feel you can sign and live up to this pledge, then probably it is not a good idea to enroll in this intense elective course this time.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

Required and optional readings:
Cases:
1. AspenTech Case (Feyzin Plant - 2 pages) [we supply]
2. Spotfire Case (HBS; Gothenburg) [we supply]

Books:
1. "Inbound Marketing", by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah (Please READ the ENTIRE BOOK). Students SHOULD BUY the book themselves. It can be found on amazon.com or Kindle. You should buy the latest version, please.
Authors: Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

Articles:
1. "The Big Score", an article from Fast Company magazine (we supply)

YouTube Movie:
1. Watch the following YouTube video: Elevator Pitch Session at ESADE Creapolis for Full Time MBA Students, by Ken Morse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYfyHiIuOIY

Group	Teacher	Department
	Kenneth Morse	Marketing