Master in Marketing and Sales Management

Course Content:

The company and its environment:

The participants will learn modern concepts upon which the current economic activities are based on, in both the business sector and the national and international scope. This module will study which economic forces regulate the company’s activities and determine its national and international performance.

Organisational behaviour:

The development of this module considers how the structure of an organisation must comply with its strategy, its human resources, the organisational culture and the management’s processes.

Determining marketing strategy:

This module studies the company’s internal determining factors that affect its marketing decisions. Students will learn to analyse the organisational, financial, productive and cost structure of companies and the determining factors of the business culture, service, marketing and corporate image. This learning process will train the participants to detect strengths, which can allow the company to keep a competitive advantage, and weaknesses, which involve a risk when it comes to achieving the organisation’s aims.
This module will analyse the external determining factors (micro and macro-environment, market, demand and competition) that allow the company to detect external opportunities, as well as possible threats to the latter. Determining factors directly or indirectly affect the development of a product and determine the feasibility of the latter on the different markets, taking into account different concepts and variables.

Market research and sales forecast:

Market research, in its qualitative and quantitative aspects, shows how to obtain, gather and analyse information focused on reducing risks when making strategic and operational marketing decisions.
Knowing about sales forecast techniques and statistics helps us to plan future results. Benchmarking is used to know the successful actions of our competitors and to establish competitive advantages. Logistics allow us to manage stocks and physical distribution efficiently. Finally, geo-marketing will help us with customer positioning, establishing areas of influence and hotspots, and designing efficient distribution networks.

Marketing strategies:

Once the SWOT matrix has been defined, and with the aid of marketing tools, students will be able to define strategies and establish the company’s aims. This module will teach students how to define the optimal positioning for each segment as well as the strategies to reach the latter. The scope of application of marketing strategies not only covers the offline and online sectors but also social networks. It is all about creating contents to draw the attention and disseminate information through the networks of contacts our groups of interest.

Operational marketing:

The participants will get to know in detail the marketing policies that will allow them to operate on the market in order to reach the aims set out in the business strategy: – The Product/Service will be treated as an instrument to satisfy needs, analysing the design, packaging and development and launch of new products/services. – The positioning and assessment of brands will be analysed. Prices will be studied as an instrument for market positioning and as a key variable when it comes to obtaining profitability. – Distribution policies will be analysed in compliance with the customer, the product/service and the market, paying special attention to the new value creating figures: Trade Marketing, Key Account, Category Manager and Merchandising. – Commercialisation will be treated as basic element for marketing actions, analysing the most appropriate commercial policy, its planning, organisation, management, control and the network’s motivation, as well as the definition of the salesperson job, the recruitment, training, wages and the organisation and planning of the work to be carried out.

Global marketing:

It is currently quite difficult to find a marketing field that does not include at least certain international issues. This subject is focused on the special considerations faced by companies when they commercialise their brands on a global scale. The advances in communication technologies and transports, amongst others, have made the World even flatter. It is a fact that, regardless of the company’s size, it is necessary to approach international marketing issues.

Digital marketing:

The programme’s global point of view complies with marketing management in the information society context. To adapt the marketing function to a continuously and rapidly changing environment, the participants will become familiar with information systems and the ability to identify the critical aspects that may help to boost the company.
We will use digital channels to promote the company’s brand, products and/or services. In this sense, the use of mobile devices as a marketing communication channel becomes very important. In this sense, we will deal with many different aspects, such as: – Creation of brands on the Internet. – Margins and prices on the Internet. – Online promotions. – Online communication. – Digital channels management.

Personal and management skills:

During the development of this subject, we will develop and enhance the management and personal skills of the participants, especially those relative to leadership, team work ability, encouragement of collaborators, organisational change management, and in general, all skills regarding the improvement of the management and the decision making process.

Sales network management:

The management of people is one of the most valued functions in any organisation. All commercial managers, just like any other functional managers, must be qualified to successfully assume this new and important function in a more decentralised manner. The development and review of techniques help us to understand that control is not a purpose, but a useful channel for managers to correct errors and promote the strengths of their teams. It is all about strengthening qualitative and quantitative supervision systems, which allow us to minimise deviations and establish encouraging improvement plans, adapted to the characteristics of each salesperson.

Part of the attention will be focused on defining the mission and main functions of the salesperson, the elaboration of the most appropriate profile, the recruitment and the selection process will allow the participants to be able to hire the most appropriate workers in the shortest period of time and at a lower cost. Finally, basing themselves on the pros and cons of the systems used currently and the understanding of the psychological elements that take part in this complex issue, students define, in compliance with their company’s characteristics, a salary and bonus system that will allow them to pay, in an appropriate and encouraging manner, all the work and efforts made, without harming the internal and external equality, which all payment policies should keep.

Marketing plan:

The Marketing Plan develops and implements a strategic commercial plan applied to a real company. During the development of the Plan, the team puts in common all the ideas and knowledge received throughout the programme.