Whether you realize it or not, you’re selling almost every day of your life.
Even something as simple as convincing a friend to join you for lunch requires sales skills: you need to get a sense of whether they’re likely to agree, you have to outline the benefits, and then make a proposal you think they will accept.
It rams home the point that sales is a valuable skill in both your personal and professional life. Recognizing this, the University of New Brunswick (UNB), Saint John in Canada is now including a business development and sales specialization as part of its one-year MBA program.
Here are some of the skills you can expect to gain from an MBA in Business Development and Professional Sales.
1. Analytical skills
There’s an oft-repeated mantra in sales that in order to sell more, you simply have to work harder. While that may sometimes ring true, you still need to know where to channel that extra energy. That’s where solid analytical skills come in handy.
“The analytics focus your time on where you should push that effort,” says Peter Kerr, associate professor and chair of applied research in sales at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John. “What kinds of customers should that effort be expanded on? Should I be prospecting, or should I be closing?”
Peter goes on to say that although analytical skills would barely have registered among the demands of employers 20 years ago, they are now vital for any sales related role.
“Analytics is now one of the number one skill requirement that is recruited for by sales recruiters, and according to research I did last year, is highly correlated to sales performance.”
2. Negotiation
Though a career in sales has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, one skill that remains as valuable as ever is negotiation. And it’s important to reiterate that just like any other skill, negotiation is something that can be practiced and improved over time.
Really good negotiation comes down to good preparation. It’s about knowing what your customer is looking for, the best alternative to negotiate an agreement, and when to walk away from a deal.
In the MBA program at UNB Saint John, students develop their negotiation skills through a series of role playing activities. One day they could be a lawyer, defending a case in front of a judge. The next, they might be acting as the CEO of a major corporation. Modupe Ihimekpen is a graduate of the university’s specialist, one-year MBA in Business Development and Professional Sales, and says the skills she has learnt in these scenarios can be applied to any industry.
“Now I think I have all the skills that I need to be a good negotiator, not necessarily even being in the banking industry. If I find myself in this industry, the music industry, wherever it is, I now understand that negotiation is a skill.”
3. Entrepreneurship
Though employers value sales skills more than ever, they’re just as important if you’re planning on going it alone.
“A lot of our students want to be entrepreneurs, and they know the minute they open their business, they've just chosen to be their chief sales officer,” explains Peter.
And it’s true: things like finding new customers, negotiating a price, and sealing a deal are some of the most important first steps for any new business to take. Modupe recognized these skills as key pillars for her own entrepreneurial ambitions.
“In any role you find yourself, especially when you plan to have your own business like I do, you need to learn [to sell], right?” she says. “You need to understand how to sell: as CEO, as a project manager, as an IT professional. You need to be able to sell your ideas to people.”
4. AI mastery
AI is affecting pretty much any industry you can think of in 2024—and sales is no different. UNB Saint John’s MBA in sales is preparing to introduce an AI-driven tool to help students sharpen their skills in a pressure-free environment.
“It allows the students to carry on a sales role-play with an app, as opposed to with another individual,” says Peter. “So you're basically having a conversation with an artificial intelligence buyer, and students are often more comfortable doing that. They can do it over and over again to improve.”
Students can also input their arguments into the tool, so they can get back potential counter-arguments. It’s a useful way of pre-empting responses from potential clients or customers.
“Not only does the AI respond in a way that is appropriate and realistic, but it's also scoring the student and how they're managing the conversation. So they get a detailed report of how they did, and they can come back and go around and do it again and again,” adds Peter.
5. Decision-making
But if sales comes down to one thing, it’s perhaps an understanding of what makes people tick. If you can put yourself in the shoes of the person at the other side of the table, you can anticipate what they want out of a deal.
That’s why UNB Saint John’s MBA in sales also delves into behavioral economics, helping students to understand why consumers make the decisions they do. They also learn how to manage the various interactions throughout that decision-making process.
Master the art of decision-making, and you’ll also master the art of sales.