Department of Management Sciences

New specialisation - Sales Management

The idea for the new specialisation in Sales Management came from two sources: On the one hand, many conversations with company leaders and managers revealed that there is a lack of young talent, especially in sales and marketing functions.

In addition to a bachelor’s degree, the job profile should also require openness for other people, countries, cultures and languages. Another requirement is the motivation to dive very deep into the company's products, without fear of technically challenging products.

The other source was the English-only programme in International Business, which our department has been offering since the 2017/18 winter semester. It focuses particularly on intercultural aspects. 4th-semester students can choose specialisations, some of which are still being developed.

So, Sales Management is a new specialisation at the Department of Management sciences, designed for an English-language programme, but also open to students of the German-language programmes in Business Management and of Business Psychology.

The 12 lessons hours per week are spread out as follows:

  • Sales Projects (4 lessons hours per week)
  • Sales Management / Strategic Aspects (2 lessons hours per week)
  • Sales Management / Operational Aspects (4 lessons hours per week)
  • Sales Management / Performance Management (2 lessons hours per week)

We won three regional partner companies for the Sales Projects module.

  • ZERA GmbH, Königswinter
  • Kuhne Group, Sankt Augustin and
  • Stadtwerke Bonn MVA, Bonn

All three presented their project ideas on the first day of the current semester:

  • Analysis of selected African markets
  • Developing arguments for the plastics industry
  • Developing an online shop

Student teams at these companies will work on one of these sales topics, develop solutions and present them to their company at the end of the semester. The partner companies will also invite the other students in the specialisation to the presentations, so they all can meet the company.

Furthermore, the H-BRS digitization strategy includes a joint project with a Canadian partner university. Jeremy Legg, Professor at the School of Business at Conestoga College, will give a lecture on sales management in Canada in December, which we will follow live from the lecture hall.

As we take care to connect theory and practice in the classroom, Prof. Dr. Daniel Assmus will represent the academic side and Mr. Rudi Spiller and Mr. Achim Rehahn (both lecturers at H-BRS) will bring in their many years of experience in sales.

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