KOÇ UNIVERSITY
MKTG 450-Selected Topics in Marketing
Sales Management
Fall 2007
Instructor: Ayten Kök
Office: CASE Building-156, Phone: 338 1451, Email: akok@ku.edu.tr
Office hours: Monday and Wednesday 15:30-16:30 or Friday by appointment
Prerequisite: MKTG 201
Course Objectives and Overview
Sales management which can be defined as the planning, implementing, and control of
programs designed to achieve the sales and profit objectives of the firm is the focus of the
course. The course is concerned with how to manage a salesforce rather than how to sell.
It aims to familiarize students with sales management concepts and to show examples of their
application for the solving of business problems. The relationship of sales management with
other marketing activities and how strategy drives tactics are shown. Case studies which
indicate that sales management is concerned with strategic decision making along with
carrying out of marketing programs will be worked out. A good understanding of the role of
the sales executive in the design and development of corporate marketing programs will be
provided.
The course uses the lecture-case method.
Important Course Policies/Procedures
University rules and policies on academic honesty will be strictly enforced.
The students are required to attend the course section for which they are registered.
Regular and timely attendance at all class meetings is expected. Since the success of the
course depends also on active participation by class members, attending class is a must. Being
late to class must be avoided.
Each student is expected to read and to get prepared to discuss in class all assigned readings
and cases. The students are also expected to participate in discussions related to the
presentation of the course projects.
Students will be graded on overall class participation. Class participation grade will be
dependent on the quality of the relevant discussions. Students should try to make effective use
of discussion time by paying attention to the relevancy, and the value to be added to the
discussion.
Course Material
Textbook
Dalrymple’s Sales Management
Cron, William L., Decarlo, Thomas E.
9th edition, ISBN 0-471-74319-4
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Additional Readings and Other Course Material : Will be available electronically through the
library e-reserve system. Harvard Business School Cases: Biomed Co., Ltd., Designing a
New Sales Compensation Plan, Richard Ivey School of Business, product no. 906A37,
Version (A) 2007-03-28 and Scalix Corporation, The Evolution of a Sales Model, Case SM147, Date: 01/19/06.
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Coverage of the Course :
Text
Chapters
Introduction to selling and sales management
Strategy and sales program planning
Channel strategy
Sales opportunity management
Account relationship management
Distribution research
Customer interaction management
Organisation
Recruiting and selecting sales personnel
Sales training
Motivating salespeople
Compensating salespeople
Evaluation of salesforce performance and controlling salespeople
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11
12
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Grade Determination:
Midterm (November 7th)
Participation in class
In class exercises and homework
Project (15% for written report, 5% for oral presentation)
Final
25%
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10
20
30
The final exam will be on cumulative basis.
Case Assignments
Harvard Business School Cases
Biomed Co., Ltd., Designing a New Sales Compensation Plan, Richard Ivey School of
Business, product no. 906A37, Version (A) 2007-03-28.
Scalix Corporation, The Evolution of a Sales Model, Case SM-147, Date: 01/19/06
Textbook Cases
Arapahoe Pharmaceutical Company
BSI
Hanover-Bates Chemical Corporation
The Optics Corporation
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Reading Assignments
1. Kim, W.Chan, Mauborgne, Renee, “Value Innovation: The Strategic Logic of High
Growth”, Harvard Business Review, Jan.-Feb. 1997.
2. Rangan, Kasturi, V, Menezes, Melvyn, A, J, Maier, E.P., “Channel Selection for New
Industrial Products. A Framework, Method, and Application”, Journal of Marketing,
July 1992, pp. 69-82.
3. Anderson, Eric, Day, George S., Rangan, V. Kasturi, “Strategic Channel Design”, Sloan
Management Review 38, no. 4(1997):59.
4. Leslie, Mark, Holloway, Charles A., “The Sales Learning Curve” , Harvard Business
Review, 00178012, July 2006, Vol. 84, Issue 7.
5. Cooper, Robin and Kaplan, Robert S, “Profit Priorities from Activity-Based Costing” ,
Harvard Business Review, May-June 1991, pp. 130-135.
6. Reinart, Werner; Kumar, V., “The Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty”, Harvard
Business Review, July 2002, Vol. 80 Issue 7, pp.86-95.
7. Erffmeyer, Robert C., Johnson, Dale A., “An Exploratory Study of Sales Force
Automation Practises: Expectations and Realities, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales
Management, 08853134, spring 2001, vol. 21, issue 2.
8. Saffo, Paul, “Six Rules for Effective Forecasting”, Harvard Business Review, Managing
for the Long Term, July-August 2007.
Project
Deadline for Written Report: December 3rd, 2007
Oral Presentation: On an assigned day, for each group, between December 3- 26.
Students will be grouped into teams of 3or 4 and they will be working as a team in the
project to be undertaken to investigate the sales management functions being performed, and
the sales management concepts and techniques being applied in the company selected for the
exploration. The students must get approval on the company selected.
The teams will give special emphasis to a specific area in sales management and will evaluate
the practices and will come up with recommendations for changes. This part of the work has
to be supplemented with secondary research.
Background information on the position of the company in the industry it belongs to and the
profile and organization of the company must be included in the report. A selling application
that is unique for the industry/or the company has to be fully explored to bring information to
class during project presentation. Students are expected to report on the progress of the
project and also ask for advice in the office hours of the instructor.
The expected coverage of the report is listed below.
Coverage:
The profile of the industry in which the selected company is situated
The company profile and organisational setup
The detailed marketing organisation
The functions of the sales manager
The type/s of selling job
The sales organisation
Recruiting and selection practices
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Training
Evaluation of salespeople and compensation
Quotas
Major accounts
Distribution channels
Value-added services
Customer Relations Management
Sales support activities
Computerbased systems
The team’s evaluation of the management of sales in the company and recommendations with
special emphasis, through a detailed analysis, to a specific area to be selected for exploration.
Grading of the project
For the report, each team gets a single grade. Team members will be graded individually for
the presentation.
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