• analyze business markets, customer organizations and decision making processes in organizations and propose and evaluate sales strategies
• link the overall strategy of the company to concrete sales activities
• be able to propose organizational structures, training and HR development that enable the execution of strategy
• analyze the personal qualities needed in order to perform efficiently in different kinds of business to business relations.
• analyze and explain the role of trust and culture in developing lasting customer relations
• critically evaluate different approaches to business to business sales and their contribution to overall strategy
• critically asses advantages and disadvantages of different sales execution strategies and of organizations and training programs related to business to business sales and marketing

The purpose of this course is to train students to analyze the motives and demand patterns of the organisation’s external stakeholders and to manage stakeholder relations. The course offers an overview of the various types of actors and relationships the organization must relate to and manage, focusing in particular on industrial customers and professional sale and cooperation.      

Students will gain insight into

• the strategic importance of customer relations in business to business marketing as a means to achieve the organization’s overall strategic goals, including how sales managers and other customer facing personnel implement and transform strategic goals into concrete sales strategies.

• how to create and maintain customer loyalty through communication and personal relationship-building. The students will both develop a theoretical understanding of developing the appropriate relationships as well as a practical proficiency in consultative communication. 

   

• how departments such as HR and marketing which are not directly involves in sales and cooperation with partner companies may contribute to the attainment of the organization’s business to business goals.

   

• the various forms ofbusiness to business cooperation, ranging from short term sales to joint product development and marketing

   

• the factors that determine customer satisfaction and loyalty through the delivery of superior value to customers in complex business to business sales, in consulting and cooperation with other organizations.

   

• the buying and decision making behavior of organizations and how to interact with customer organizations.
   

Indicative literature: Frank V. Cespedes: Aligning Strategy and Sales. Harvard Business Review Press. Latest edition.