While many business masters programs provide students with a broad overview of management, specialized master’s degrees enable students to focus on and develop specific skills that can launch their career in a chosen industry.
One industry where these distinct and advanced sets of skills are becoming increasingly important is sales. In recent times, there has been a modernization of techniques in sales jobs and companies now require professionals who are equipped to deal with such operations and are armed with the relevant skills and know-how.
The new master’s degree on offer at emlyon business school in France prepares students to step into these positions and for a diverse career in sales.
In conversation with Marie-Christine Colliere, director of the new MSc in Global Sales Excellence, we learned about the sales jobs you can land after this specialized master’s.
1. Head of sales engagement and enablement
To understand the role, having an overall understanding of sales engagement and sales enablement is helpful. Sales engagement is how salespeople communicate with potential customers to drive sales. By using data-driven strategies, sales managers ensure that customers receive the right information at the right time, helping salespeople close deals efficiently.
Sales enablement helps salespeople by giving them the necessary materials, training, coaching, and tools to connect with potential customers and close sales. Its goal is to provide reps with the resources, information, and support they need to sell effectively and efficiently.
The head of sales engagement and enablement plays a crucial role in strategic planning, overseeing the business pipeline, and boosting product knowledge. This supports the expansion of the sales team for a comprehensive commercial solution that can be scaled globally.
“Sales enablement is a new job with consistent tooling of the sales force worldwide, so the team can perform better and manage data driven platforms,” Marie-Christine explains.
“[The role] deals with new complex selling methods to reach local and global customers and new digital technologies transforming.”
The program is broken up into five blocks, each of which teach a different side of the sales industry. One of these blocks is Sales Enablement, which teaches the complex and sought-after skills needed for head of sales engagement and enablement in theoretical and practical ways.
During this block, students will take classes on sales engagement that will teach them about digital tools and automation and on sales enablement that will teach about process and method.
Alongside the classes, students will take on the experiential project called Transforming Early Makers, which will immerse students in these skills.
In this project, students will create their own company from the ground up, steering and supporting the emergence, deployment, and development of transformation projects using digital technology.
These skills will allow students to manage a globally scattered workforce to ensure the company’s global sales excellence when they reach positions such as head of sales engagement.
2. Sales excellence manager
The emlyon MSc in Global Sales Excellence helps students develop strategic, operational, and managerial skills—essential in the role of sales excellence managers.
Strategic skills will enable sales professionals to build effective and tailored global business strategies, operational skills cover negotiation and market studies, while managerial skills include team collaboration, leadership and fostering holistic development.
A sales excellence manager will analyze sales data and provide recommendations to optimize sales operations, implement new sales strategies, and develop new processes and procedures.
“Due to the globalized world and new technologies today, companies are wanting to hire high level candidates with very high academic levels, who can understand complex sales methods, and manage disrupting digital tools such as AI,” Marie-Christine says.
The position requires an individual with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think strategically, skills that the MSc places a strong emphasis on through classes such as Strategy Operations and Leadership.
“The Strategy Management and Leadership courses deal first with leadership, then sales force management,” Marie-Christine says.
“The classes touch on everything, from operations to compensation, motivation, and contract, then change management, and the sociology of organizations. Then, aligning strategy with sales marketing strategy, profitability, and cash management.”
3. Key account manager
The position of key account manager oversees the process of planning and managing a mutually beneficial partnership between an organization and its most important customers.
Key accounts are significant to an organization's sustainable, long-term growth and require a substantial investment of both time and resources.
The MSc in Global Sales Excellence equips students to manage large sales forces scattered geographically, handle cultural differences, drive data-driven customer platforms, and implement cutting-edge digital sales technologies.
To help with this, students will explore leading, modern sales solutions such as Salesforce, HubSpot, and Gartner.
The program will also aid in equipping students with the soft skills necessary to sustain successful relationships with clients. Students will learn these skills through classes such as Global Interactions with Customers and put the skills into practice during experiential elements including an in-company consulting project and throughout internships.
“[Students] will be developing many skills, including communication, interculturality, project management and team management, negotiation, and personal branding,” Marie-Christine explains.
These interpersonal skills, while less flashy than technical sills, are just as important to achieving success in the sales industry. A broad array of skills can help sales professionals connect with clients and teams.
These three positions are just a few of the wide number of opportunities students will see after the MSc in Global Excellence.
“Students will be primed for a large number of positions, through their training in human skills, and also professional skills, including the soft skills and hard skills needed in these jobs,” concludes Marie-Christine.
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