AGB 202: Introduction to Sales
I designed the course to go beyond a simple sales program by incorporating social science research, emphasizing written communication skills and encouraging students to consider how to apply sales concepts to their lives in multiple contexts. I began my course preparation by researching other sales classes and speaking to faculty in the business school that have also taught sales. I received several great ideas for the course, including teaching about behavioral types. Additionally, most sales courses require students to interact with a salesperson and perform a mock sales call, and I included these best practices. However, I felt that the most popular textbooks were overly formal and too expensive given the short duration of the quarter. Instead I chose to go with a textbook written by a Cal Poly graduate that was under $100 and directly related to agricultural sales. It was clearly written by someone that enjoys teaching, is directed toward undergraduates and has a variety of interesting real-world examples.
During class lectures I emphasize the theory behind the sales process and then use group activities to give them applied experience. For instance, when discussing how to open a call we learn about the DISC behavior categorization system, which is used to assess communication style. I begin that learning module by having students perform a DISC self-assessment. As a class we discuss how accurate they consider their DISC style to be as well as potential implications for interpersonal communication. They then break into groups according to their DISC style and compare and contrast several sales calls openers before devising their own opening lines.
As by its nature sales is best learned through practice I try to reduce the amount of time actually spent lecturing. In order to ensure students are keeping up with the reading outside class they complete weekly online Polylearn quizzes, freeing up class time to put this theory into practice. Research suggests that students can only concentrate in 20 minute increments. While I have always aimed to involve students during lecture and make the process as interactive as possible, I now ensure each lecture component is broken up, whether it be through quizzes, videos, group work or structured discussion. One such activity involves quizzes through the personal response system Socrative, which I use to introduce new topics and also incentivize students completing the reading before class. I additionally invite several guest speakers throughout the quarter so that students can hear from active salespeople, which has the added bonus of corroborating for students that the material we learn is actually used in the field by professionals.
Frederick (1981) stipulates that in a good discussion all should participate, students should be expected to think about the issue before the discussion begins and the primary goal should be to create an improved understanding of some specific topic. In order to incorporate these elements I employ small group conversations to ensure all students are able to participate in the larger class discussion. For instance, in order to practice constructing FAB statements I ask my students to develop sales points for the same product to a personaI, retailer and food service customer. By selling the same product to three different buyers, students are able to see the importance of changing how they translate features into benefits dependent on the expected use.
My course assessments are designed to meet Cal Poly learning objectives, including effective communication, critical thinking and productive group work. Lang (2008) states that an effective set of assignments should tie in with course objectives, be of varying types, include written portions and give students an example of what they will experience in their post-university professional lives. I have kept these suggestions in mind when designing my course. First, I describe how the assignments relate to course objectives so that students understand the connections between assessment and course content. Second, given the variety of ways that students learn, they are assessed on a combination of essays, online quizzes, written exams and presentations. Third, experiential learning projects such as shadowing a salesperson allow students to experience a day in the life of a sales professional.
The capstone of this course is the Ready Set Sell presentation, where students perform a mock sales call of a product of their choice, with a randomly assigned student acting as a buyer. As part of this project the students submit written assignments throughout the quarter that follow the sales call strategy process, from prospecting for customers to establishing follow-up plans. Research suggests that feedback given on assignments may not improve student learning, as students often do not see the relevance to future course topics (O’Donovan, 2015). Thus, I have structured this set of assignments to induce formative assessment by creating a dialogue with the students as they see how improving their work directly impacts their final presentation. Each of these assignments must be submitted in e-mail format as students’ inability to properly write an e-mail is a complaint I have heard from both faculty and those outside the university.
Following the model of experiential learning, each student is expected to prospect for a salesperson and cold call them with the objective of shadowing them on their sales calls. Students are allowed to follow a salesperson from any business of their choice as I encourage them to contact salespeople in an industry they are interested in. Thus, even students who do not intend to go into sales can get an understanding for what working in their area of interest would entail. A significant component of this assignment is the final essay, where students describe how the salespeople put what we learned into action and explain instances in which they didn’t. They must also reflect on their experience and describe how it influenced their understanding of sales as a profession and career.
Another way I make the application of the material clear is by connecting it to something I have experience with and that is of large concern to students: the job interview process and future employment in the business world. This approach has the added benefit of serving students who will not go into sales, which tends to be a large percentage of my class as this is a required course for two majors in CAFES. Early in the quarter we cover the concept of an elevator pitch, where an entrepreneur has 30 seconds to pitch an investor. I devised an assignment where students pretend they are at an industry mixer and must sell themselves to their ideal employer in one minute. This forces them to both consider their strengths as well as how to communicate the benefits of these attributes to employers, which models the process of creating a FAB statement during a sales presentation. They must also incorporate a solid introduction and small talk, similar to the opening of a sales call.
Building on the elevator pitch, I designed an assessment that integrates the concepts of salesmanship and interview behavior. After consultation with career services, I introduced students to Big Interview, an online portal that includes videos of professionals explaining how to answer common interview questions as well as a virtual interview section. After watching tutorials for several common interview questions each student records themselves giving mock responses and then finds a partner to exchange these videos with. The final product is an essay detailing what they learned about interview techniques as well as how they will incorporate their partner’s constructive criticism into future interview scenarios. This tends to be one of the most popular assignments.
Sample Materials:
Syllabus
Ready Set Sell Assignments
Shadow a Salesperson Assignment
Elevator Pitch Assignment
Big Interview Assignment
I designed the course to go beyond a simple sales program by incorporating social science research, emphasizing written communication skills and encouraging students to consider how to apply sales concepts to their lives in multiple contexts. I began my course preparation by researching other sales classes and speaking to faculty in the business school that have also taught sales. I received several great ideas for the course, including teaching about behavioral types. Additionally, most sales courses require students to interact with a salesperson and perform a mock sales call, and I included these best practices. However, I felt that the most popular textbooks were overly formal and too expensive given the short duration of the quarter. Instead I chose to go with a textbook written by a Cal Poly graduate that was under $100 and directly related to agricultural sales. It was clearly written by someone that enjoys teaching, is directed toward undergraduates and has a variety of interesting real-world examples.
During class lectures I emphasize the theory behind the sales process and then use group activities to give them applied experience. For instance, when discussing how to open a call we learn about the DISC behavior categorization system, which is used to assess communication style. I begin that learning module by having students perform a DISC self-assessment. As a class we discuss how accurate they consider their DISC style to be as well as potential implications for interpersonal communication. They then break into groups according to their DISC style and compare and contrast several sales calls openers before devising their own opening lines.
As by its nature sales is best learned through practice I try to reduce the amount of time actually spent lecturing. In order to ensure students are keeping up with the reading outside class they complete weekly online Polylearn quizzes, freeing up class time to put this theory into practice. Research suggests that students can only concentrate in 20 minute increments. While I have always aimed to involve students during lecture and make the process as interactive as possible, I now ensure each lecture component is broken up, whether it be through quizzes, videos, group work or structured discussion. One such activity involves quizzes through the personal response system Socrative, which I use to introduce new topics and also incentivize students completing the reading before class. I additionally invite several guest speakers throughout the quarter so that students can hear from active salespeople, which has the added bonus of corroborating for students that the material we learn is actually used in the field by professionals.
Frederick (1981) stipulates that in a good discussion all should participate, students should be expected to think about the issue before the discussion begins and the primary goal should be to create an improved understanding of some specific topic. In order to incorporate these elements I employ small group conversations to ensure all students are able to participate in the larger class discussion. For instance, in order to practice constructing FAB statements I ask my students to develop sales points for the same product to a personaI, retailer and food service customer. By selling the same product to three different buyers, students are able to see the importance of changing how they translate features into benefits dependent on the expected use.
My course assessments are designed to meet Cal Poly learning objectives, including effective communication, critical thinking and productive group work. Lang (2008) states that an effective set of assignments should tie in with course objectives, be of varying types, include written portions and give students an example of what they will experience in their post-university professional lives. I have kept these suggestions in mind when designing my course. First, I describe how the assignments relate to course objectives so that students understand the connections between assessment and course content. Second, given the variety of ways that students learn, they are assessed on a combination of essays, online quizzes, written exams and presentations. Third, experiential learning projects such as shadowing a salesperson allow students to experience a day in the life of a sales professional.
The capstone of this course is the Ready Set Sell presentation, where students perform a mock sales call of a product of their choice, with a randomly assigned student acting as a buyer. As part of this project the students submit written assignments throughout the quarter that follow the sales call strategy process, from prospecting for customers to establishing follow-up plans. Research suggests that feedback given on assignments may not improve student learning, as students often do not see the relevance to future course topics (O’Donovan, 2015). Thus, I have structured this set of assignments to induce formative assessment by creating a dialogue with the students as they see how improving their work directly impacts their final presentation. Each of these assignments must be submitted in e-mail format as students’ inability to properly write an e-mail is a complaint I have heard from both faculty and those outside the university.
Following the model of experiential learning, each student is expected to prospect for a salesperson and cold call them with the objective of shadowing them on their sales calls. Students are allowed to follow a salesperson from any business of their choice as I encourage them to contact salespeople in an industry they are interested in. Thus, even students who do not intend to go into sales can get an understanding for what working in their area of interest would entail. A significant component of this assignment is the final essay, where students describe how the salespeople put what we learned into action and explain instances in which they didn’t. They must also reflect on their experience and describe how it influenced their understanding of sales as a profession and career.
Another way I make the application of the material clear is by connecting it to something I have experience with and that is of large concern to students: the job interview process and future employment in the business world. This approach has the added benefit of serving students who will not go into sales, which tends to be a large percentage of my class as this is a required course for two majors in CAFES. Early in the quarter we cover the concept of an elevator pitch, where an entrepreneur has 30 seconds to pitch an investor. I devised an assignment where students pretend they are at an industry mixer and must sell themselves to their ideal employer in one minute. This forces them to both consider their strengths as well as how to communicate the benefits of these attributes to employers, which models the process of creating a FAB statement during a sales presentation. They must also incorporate a solid introduction and small talk, similar to the opening of a sales call.
Building on the elevator pitch, I designed an assessment that integrates the concepts of salesmanship and interview behavior. After consultation with career services, I introduced students to Big Interview, an online portal that includes videos of professionals explaining how to answer common interview questions as well as a virtual interview section. After watching tutorials for several common interview questions each student records themselves giving mock responses and then finds a partner to exchange these videos with. The final product is an essay detailing what they learned about interview techniques as well as how they will incorporate their partner’s constructive criticism into future interview scenarios. This tends to be one of the most popular assignments.
Sample Materials:
Syllabus
Ready Set Sell Assignments
Shadow a Salesperson Assignment
Elevator Pitch Assignment
Big Interview Assignment