Australia Cal Poly Global Program
My study abroad experiences were a formative part of my education, and I have always encouraged it as a possible path for my students. After serving on interview committees for Cal Poly’s global program I became interested in participating as well. The Australia program takes place in Adelaide and is agribusiness focused; there are weekly excursions to local wineries and we are located in a highly productive agricultural area. As such, I taught two sales and marketing classes to the students abroad that incorporated Australian agriculture as well as our wine trips.
Advanced Sales Techniques (AGB 309)
While Introduction to Sales primarily covers the sales call, this course emphasizes strategy and prospecting. I began with an overview of the specificities of wine sales to ensure students had a proper context from which to analyze our winery excursions. Incorporating winery visits into the curriculum exposes students to personal and business to business sales on both a domestic and international level. We then covered emotional intelligence, including exercises that required students to introspectively assess how successfully they interact with others. Several weeks were spent on strategic topics such as pipeline building to give students examples of the elements necessary for a successful sales plan. Additionally,
In addition to relevant articles and academic studies, students were also assigned readings from How to Win Friends and Influence People. I love this book as a text because it transcends sales and encourages students to apply the interpersonal techniques we discussed to all aspects of their professional and personal lives. Additionally, the descriptive anecdotes give historical context to sales and the study of consumer behavior. In order to encourage students to think critically about the readings, and prepare them for class discussions, they were given reading quizzes that allowed the use of handwritten notes; studies have suggested that students who take handwritten lecture notes outperform those who use computers, so I incentivize that behavior.
Major assessments incorporated Australian agriculture and wineries, giving students practical experience in which to employ our sales concepts. Students worked in groups in order to simulate the sorts of team-based projects encountered in private-sector companies. Each group was assigned a winery and had to create a sales plan that discussed the current sales strategy, identified weaknesses and developed potential solutions. Throughout the quarter they were required to do research on each winery before the excursion and present this information to the class so that all students were knowledgeable before each industry tour. These tours then provided participants with the opportunity to see operations first-hand while ensuring one on one discussions with relevant personnel.
Relevant Course Materials
Syllabus
Homework Assignments
Pre-Winery Project Assignment
Sample Submission
Sales Plan Project Assignment
Sample Sales Plan Submission
Sample Plan Presentation Submission
Global Agricultural Marketing and Trade (AGB 318)
This is a phenomenal class to teach abroad as students are able to see internationally marketed products and companies first hand. I initially developed ebooks for this course abroad as I did not want to assign students a hefty textbook. I also adapted all assignments to the Australian environment, with successful results. There were two group homeworks that asked students to compare Australian marketing customers to those in the U.S.; one involved farmers markets and the other concentrated on alcohol marketing. The final project asked students to identify a food product or service that they thought could be profitable in Australia, but was not yet present. This turned a feeling common for students abroad, missing products that are familiar to them from home, into a critical thinking exercise that forced them to consider how culture, market demographics and infrastructure impacts product availability and design.
My study abroad experiences were a formative part of my education, and I have always encouraged it as a possible path for my students. After serving on interview committees for Cal Poly’s global program I became interested in participating as well. The Australia program takes place in Adelaide and is agribusiness focused; there are weekly excursions to local wineries and we are located in a highly productive agricultural area. As such, I taught two sales and marketing classes to the students abroad that incorporated Australian agriculture as well as our wine trips.
Advanced Sales Techniques (AGB 309)
While Introduction to Sales primarily covers the sales call, this course emphasizes strategy and prospecting. I began with an overview of the specificities of wine sales to ensure students had a proper context from which to analyze our winery excursions. Incorporating winery visits into the curriculum exposes students to personal and business to business sales on both a domestic and international level. We then covered emotional intelligence, including exercises that required students to introspectively assess how successfully they interact with others. Several weeks were spent on strategic topics such as pipeline building to give students examples of the elements necessary for a successful sales plan. Additionally,
In addition to relevant articles and academic studies, students were also assigned readings from How to Win Friends and Influence People. I love this book as a text because it transcends sales and encourages students to apply the interpersonal techniques we discussed to all aspects of their professional and personal lives. Additionally, the descriptive anecdotes give historical context to sales and the study of consumer behavior. In order to encourage students to think critically about the readings, and prepare them for class discussions, they were given reading quizzes that allowed the use of handwritten notes; studies have suggested that students who take handwritten lecture notes outperform those who use computers, so I incentivize that behavior.
Major assessments incorporated Australian agriculture and wineries, giving students practical experience in which to employ our sales concepts. Students worked in groups in order to simulate the sorts of team-based projects encountered in private-sector companies. Each group was assigned a winery and had to create a sales plan that discussed the current sales strategy, identified weaknesses and developed potential solutions. Throughout the quarter they were required to do research on each winery before the excursion and present this information to the class so that all students were knowledgeable before each industry tour. These tours then provided participants with the opportunity to see operations first-hand while ensuring one on one discussions with relevant personnel.
Relevant Course Materials
Syllabus
Homework Assignments
Pre-Winery Project Assignment
Sample Submission
Sales Plan Project Assignment
Sample Sales Plan Submission
Sample Plan Presentation Submission
Global Agricultural Marketing and Trade (AGB 318)
This is a phenomenal class to teach abroad as students are able to see internationally marketed products and companies first hand. I initially developed ebooks for this course abroad as I did not want to assign students a hefty textbook. I also adapted all assignments to the Australian environment, with successful results. There were two group homeworks that asked students to compare Australian marketing customers to those in the U.S.; one involved farmers markets and the other concentrated on alcohol marketing. The final project asked students to identify a food product or service that they thought could be profitable in Australia, but was not yet present. This turned a feeling common for students abroad, missing products that are familiar to them from home, into a critical thinking exercise that forced them to consider how culture, market demographics and infrastructure impacts product availability and design.