1 of 1
University1
Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University has announced that it is now accepting the first batch of applications for its sales MSc, in partnership with sales performance experts Huthwaite International.
The MSc programme, one of only a handful such courses in the UK, is due to begin in September 2014.
The two-year, part-time, MSc course in Sales & Sales Leadership will be modular and flexible.
- The Short Award programme will include a reflective assignment and modules on the relationship between sales and marketing, and contemporary business environment.
- The Post Graduate Certificate will augment the Short Award by offering modules on business performance, negotiation and innovation in sales methodology.
- The Diploma will add a second year comprising modules on advanced leadership, change management and a reflective assignment.
- The full MSc award requires an additional full-length dissertation.
The initiative arises out of a long-standing assertion by Huthwaite that the world at large, and the academic world in particular, needs a suitable vehicle to develop sales as a truly professional discipline, with the rigour and measurement that one would expect from a field of university study.
Huthwaite International, CEO Tony Hughes saod: “Anyone who has worked in high value business- to-business selling knows that it calls for intelligence, judgement, a vast spread of current technical and non-technical knowledge, behavioural skill, financial acumen, and many more attributes. Today’s and tomorrow’s generations of professional salespeople and sales leaders will need to couple their native intellect and personal gifts with research-based and solidly factual knowledge of how sales operations function, how buyers buy, and what factors are influencing the future of the marketplace.”
Course leader, Mr Simon Kelly of Sheffield Business School said: “Companies who place their sales staff on the programme will gain a team equipped with the latest skills, poised for sales innovation and will benefit from work-based projects and improvement in processes and methodologies. Typically it will be the kind of experience that confers personal development opportunities which will enhance staff motivation and retention.”
Huthwaite’s head of thought leadership, Dr Janet Curran, has been instrumental in bringing the MSc to the launch pad. She added: “We see this as the perfect realisation of a long-term plan to marry the practical skills of sales field-craft, case-study based insight and real-life management skill, with the academic disciplines of market environment analysis, understanding sales technologies and theories of leadership.”
To find out more about the masters programme contact course leader Simon Kelly of Sheffield Hallam University. For further updates on social media follow #MScSales.