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The Science of Sales Management at UCD Smurfit School

Date: 30 Jun 2009

Published: Sunday Tribune Business

Salespeople are often perceived as acting on instinct, using skills that are either innate or learned on the job.  But that is to overlook the strongly academic elements of sales, which inform many of the most effective sales strategies employed by progressive sales managers and sales directors in some of the world’s leading companies.  World-class sales strategies can be learned – and this is why UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School is offering a one-year part-time Diploma in Sales Management.

“In our experience, the type of people who will be attending this course will largely be in customer-facing roles”, said Philip Matthews, a former Irish rugby legend who is now director for Executive Education at UCD Smurfit School.  “But these will not just be senior salespeople – they could be project managers who have been dealing with clients, or sales managers who are looking to develop a sales strategy for either local or international markets.  Or they could be senior sales people, who want to make the step up, because the Diploma focuses on the sales management discipline within a wider perspective which includes finance, marketing and coaching.”

Thus, in addition to the technical knowledge required to develop a strategic sales management strategy, the Diploma in Sales Management will look at elements such as how to structure a sales force; how to motivate and manage sales teams; and how to launch a new product or service, identifying the most appropriate sales channels in which to bring it to the market.
But it also gives participants some of the less-tangible assets that a world-class sales manager must have – namely confidence, and the ability to analyse and think through what a working sales strategy should be.

“Being in a class of carefully selected peers of similar level allows participants to learn from each other”, said Matthews.  “The programme is like a journey, and the people on the programme can apply the knowledge that they have learned to their own companies – knowledge which has been road-tested by leading academics.”
The Diploma in Sales Management is delivered over eight weekend work-shops throughout the year, with a parallel company-related project also to be completed.  The participants’ companies will benefit from this project by having leading-edge academic sales practices applied within their organisations; but the main benefit for the companies, and for the individuals, is to create sales managers applying a wealth of academic knowledge to their organisations.
“Many sales managers and senior sales managers will have learned from experience,” said Matthews.  “Or they may have had a technical qualification and found themselves in a sales position.  They will probably have no formal sales qualification, so we give them the ability to develop the sort of strategic thinking that allows them to figure out the best sales strategies for them, while also giving them the tools to implement and manage these strategies.”

For further information on the Diploma in Sales Management at UCD Smurfit School, contact programme manager Liz Knight on 01 716 8801 or email liz.knight@ucd.ie