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Certification Course

CSE-3 Certified Sales Executive® Part 3 - Leading as a Sales Executive


Total Credits: 300

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Certified Sales Executive® Program Modules

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Description

This is module 3 of 3 of the Certified Sales Executive Exam Preparatory Program. Completing all three modules successfully and the final exam will result in being awarded the Certified Sales Executive® - CSE® designation by SMEI. This module covers Ethics, the law and sales leadership; Managing Sales Technology and Sales Enablement Successfully; Turning Customer Information into a Winning Sales Strategy; Designing and Organizing the Salesforce; Assessing the Salesforce’s Performance and Coaching for Performance Improvements; and Effectively Leveraging Culture as a Sales Leader.

Content in Module 3:

Ethics, the Law and Sales Leadership

Learning Objectives

  • Identify the more common ethical dilemmas that face salespeople, sales managers, and sales executives.
  • Distinguish between those organizational policies and practices that support ethical behavior and those that enable unethical behavior.
  • Explain how principled leadership can foster a firm’s ethical principles and corporate culture.
  • Be able to develop an appropriate course of action when you are personally faced with an ethical dilemma.

Detailed Outline

I. Causes of Unethical Behavior
II. Approaches to Ethics
A. The Golden Rule
B. The Conventionalist Approach
C. The Protestant Ethic
D. The Market Imperative
E. The Libertine Ethic
F. The Utilitarian Ethic
G. Virtue
III. The Salesperson as a Boundary Spanner
A. Common Ethical Issues Facing Salespeople
1. Ethical Breaches Affecting Customer Issues Associated with the Salesperson’s Customers
2. Ethical Breaches Affecting the Salesperson’s Company
IV. Creating an Ethical Sales Climate
1. Identifying and Responding to Ethical Breaches
2. Due Process Systems
3. Dealing Personally with Ethical Breaches
V. Sales-Related Laws
1. The Uniform Commercial Code
2. Other Important Laws
A. Laws for Sales Managers
B. Leadership Challenges for Sales Managers and Executives

Video Content

  • Ethical Leadership
  • Creating Ethical Cultures in Business 
  • Ethics: Yes, Even When Nobody is Watching

Managing Sales Technology and Sales Enablement Successfully

Learning Objectives

  • Explain what sales enablement is and why sales enablement strategies are essential.
  • Explain what salesforce automation technology is and its uses.
  • Describe the challenges related to successfully implementing sales technology.
  • Describe what sales managers can do to encourage their employees to adopt and effectively utilize sales technology.

Detailed Outline

I. Sales Technology
II. Sales Enablement
A. Convenience
B. Knowledge
C. Collaboration
D. Access
E. Salesforce Automation
F. Reports and Analysis
G. Team Collaboration
H. Customer Relationship Management Strategy
III. Trends in Sales Technology
A. Robust CRM Systems
B. Artificial Intelligence
1. Chatbots
2. Voicebots
C. Contact Center Software
D. Speech Recognition and Call Analytics Technology
E. Mobile Technology
F. The Internet of Things (IoT)
IV. The Challenges of Implementing Sales Technology
V. Sales Technology Training
A. Managing Sales Technology Roadmaps

Video Content

  • Sales Influence – Why People Buy
  • 6 Sales Tools
  • Attitudes toward Digital Technology Adoption

Turning Customer Information into a Winning Sales Strategy

Learning Objectives

  • Identify the significant elements of customer data integration.
  • Explain how to develop a strategy for customer data integration.
  • Understand and apply various types of sales forecasting methods.
  • Identify external factors that affect the accuracy of sales forecasting.
  • Understand the factors needed to increase the accuracy of the sales forecasting.

Detailed Outline

I. The Challenges of Creating Accurate Sales Forecasts
A. Knowledge Generated by the Firm’s Salesforce
B. Users of Sales-Generated Knowledge
1. Manufacturing
2. Product Development
3. Finance and Accounting
4. Marketing
5. Sales Management
6. Human Resources
II. Sales Forecasting
A. Estimating a Market’s Potential
B. Estimating a Company’s Sales Potential
III. Forecasting Methods
1. Time Series Techniques
2. Consumer Spending Correlates
3. Business Spending Correlates
4. Response Models
5. Market Tests
6. Judgment Techniques
a. Executive Opinions
b. Expert Opinions
c. Customer and Channel Surveys
d. Salesforce Composites
e. Opportunity (Pipeline) Management Estimates
IV. Factors that Affect Forecasting
A. Data Quality
B. Length of the Horizon
C. A Firm’s Ability to Leverage External Data
V. Guidelines for Forecasting
A. Use Multiple Methods
B. Pick the Right Method(s) for Your Business
C. Use as Much Information as You Can
D. Plan for Multiple Scenarios
E. Track Your Progress and Adjust the Forecast
VI. Managing Your Career
 

Video Content

  • How to Create a Forecast
  • Forecasting Methods
  • How to Create a Business Data Report from the US Census

Designing and Organizing the Salesforce

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the link between a firm’s goals and the organization of its salesforce.
  • Understand that a salesforce can be organized in multiple ways that match the way customers want to buy.
  • Explain the advantages and disadvantages of different salesforce organizational structures.
  • Describe the various reporting relationships salesforces typically have.
  • Understand the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing a firm’s salesforce.

Detailed Outline

I. How a Firm’s Goals Affect the Design of Its Salesforce
II. Organizing the Members of the Firm’s Salesforce
A. The Size of the Salesforce
B. Specialists versus Generalists
C. Geographical, Product, and Market Structures
D. Key Account Structures
1. Utilizing the Existing Salesforce Structure
2. Assigning Company Executives
3. Building a Separate Salesforce Division
E. Inside Sales
III. Reporting Relationships within a Firm’s Salesforce
A. Span of Control
B. Adding Independent Sales Representatives to the Sales Structure
C. Company Salesperson or Sales Agent?
IV. Managing Your Career

Video Content

  • The Definitive Guide to Sales Territory Management
  • How to Use Salesforce.com to Plan Territories
  • How to Manage Territories and Plan Sales Calls

Assessing the Salesforce’s Performance and Coaching for Performance Improvements

Learning Objectives

  • Explain why it is important to evaluate the overall performance of the firm’s salesforce.
  • List the advantages and disadvantages of sales, cost, and profit analysis.
  • Understand the importance of profitability and the application of ROI and ROAM.
  • Explain both input and output objective sales performance measures.
  • Explain the differences between performance and effectiveness.
  • Compare formal and informal evaluations.
  • Describe how a sales manager can implement an effective performance review.

Detailed Outline

I. Evaluation and Metrics: How Sales Managers Know What Is Working and Why
II. Evaluating the Performance of the Organization and Its Salesforce
A. Sales Analysis
B. Cost Analysis
C. Profitability Analysis
D. Ratio Measures for Evaluating the Organization and Its Salesforce
1. Return on Investment (ROI)
2. Return on Assets Managed (ROAM)
E. Relating the Performance of the Salesforce to the Firm’s Salespeople
III. Performance Evaluations for Sales Representatives
A. Quantitative Measures of Sales Performance Evaluations
B. Activity Sales Metrics
C. Pipeline Sales Metrics
D. Sales Outcome Metrics
E. Ratio Measures for Performance Appraisals
F. Qualitative Performance Measures
G. The Problem of Evaluation Bias
H. Informal Evaluations
I. Reducing Sales Management Errors in Performance Evaluations
IV. What Happens When Salespeople Don’t Achieve Their Sales Goals?
A. Responding to Performance Appraisals
V. Managing Your Career

Video Content

  • How to Fuel a High Performance Sales Team
  • Why the Secret to Success is Setting the Right Goals
  • How to Rescue a Struggling Salesperson

Effectively Leveraging Culture as a Sales Leader

Learning Objectives

  • Define organizational culture.
  • List and explain the different cultural categories that guide organizations.
  • Discuss how culture impacts a sales organization.
  • Offer a strategy for modifying a firm’s culture.
  • Discuss how a nation’s culture impacts sales management and personal selling.
  • Understand the components of culture and how they impact sales management.
  • Explain why a diverse work environment is needed for the success of a contemporary salesforce.

Detailed Outline

I. How a Firm’s Corporate Culture Affects Its Salesforce
A. The Firm’s Marketplace Orientation
1. Production-Oriented Approach
2. Product-Oriented Approach
3. Sales-Oriented Approach
4. Market-Oriented Approach
5. Relationship-Oriented Approach
B. Which Marketplace Orientation Is Best?
C. Low- Versus High-Performance Cultures
1. Low-Performance Cultures
2. High-Performance Cultures
D. Achieving Internal Alignment
E. Misalignment and Entropy
F. Sales Managers as Culture Creators
II. How External Cultures Affect a Firm’s Salesforce
A. The Different Levels of Culture
III. Cultural Components
A. Communication Style
1. Cross-Cultural Communication Problems
B. Religion
C. Education
D. Aesthetic
E. Social Organizations
F. Technology
G. Time
H. Values and Norms
1. Ethnocentrism
IV. Managing a Global Salesforce
A. Designing a Global Salesforce
B. Selecting Sales Personnel
C. Training Global Salespeople
D. Motivating Global Sales Personnel
E. Compensating Global Sales Personnel
F. Evaluating Global Sales Personnel
V. The Changing Demographics of Salesforces
A. The Benefits of Embracing Diversity
VI. Managing Your Career

Video Content

  • 5 Keys to a Winning Sales Culture
  • Diversity in the Workplace and in Society 
  • A Look at Google In-House Lawyer Jack Chen

FINAL EXAM

You must successfully pass the final exam in order to obtain your full CSE credential.