Business-to-Business Sales

Department: Business Administration
Department Chair: Craig Roger
Program Options: Certificate, B.A., B.S.

Sales professionals play a major role in helping consumers select the sources for their goods and services. Strong skills in sales can help any job candidate survive a competitive business landscape. Cultivating sales skills pays off, even in times of recession. Because most sales professionals are compensated based on their performance, experts can earn significant salaries and commissions. The demand for skilled, experienced sales managers is expected to grow faster than the average for all other jobs in the next decade. You can specialize in niche fields to become more successful. A major in Business-to-Business Sales can be combined with a minor in finance or technology to develop expertise in those niche areas.

You can capitalize on the many emerging opportunities for women in the sales profession. The St. Kate’s sales program will prepare you to become a knowledgeable, ethical professional in a rewarding career. Starting salaries of $45,000 or more are very common, and experienced sales people can easily reach incomes of $100,000 or higher. A recent study showed that more CEOs of U.S. corporations came from sales and marketing than from any other area of the company.

At St. Kate’s, you’ll have the opportunity to learn, work and study with sales and marketing faculty who have real-world experience that enriches their theoretical expertise. St. Kate’s is the only college in the country with a sales program that integrates the critical-thinking and problem-solving focus of a broad-based liberal arts education with professional sales preparation. The business-to-business sales major was developed with extensive input from top executives at 3M to create a new model for sales education that emphasizes lifelong learning rather than short-term skills acquisition, developing an analytical and conceptual framework that will serve you for the life of your career.

If you would like to develop sales skills and competencies that lead to business-to-business sales careers, but don’t currently plan to complete a sales major, one or both of the sales certificates St. Kate’s offers may be right for you. As a sales certificate student, you will learn a solid business foundation along with the ability to build strong relationships and partnerships with customers. Ethics and integrity in sales are woven throughout the curriculum, as are oral and written communication skills, leadership skills and technical computer skills.

Common Aspects of All Business Majors
When it comes to your career, you mean business. And so does the College of St. Catherine. As a business-to-business sales major at St. Kate’s, you’ll benefit from a comprehensive business education that draws on exceptional faculty from academia and business, attracts outstanding students from around the country and world, weaves a focus on ethics into every course, provides introductions to leading corporations, potential employers and women role models and mentors, uses cutting-edge technology to enrich your studies and prepare you for the workforce, and prepares you to succeed in the private, government or nonprofit sectors.

There’s no dearth of women role models or creative ways to help you master the curriculum and reach your career goals. Other full-time professors, adjunct and international faculty provide just the right balance of the theoretical and the applied. You’ll not only become familiar with business theory and practice, but you’ll also begin to learn the art of being a successful businesswoman.

Faculty will work with you during your four years at St. Kate’s to develop your business portfolio, a requirement of graduation for students in the business administration department. Presenting a portfolio at a job interview is a powerful way to get the attention of potential employers and prove that you are the right woman for the job. Technology is fully integrated into the curriculum, and faculty will work with you as you learn to perform online research and prepare computer-based presentations. You will learn to integrate technology into your solutions for business problems.

St. Kate’s students frequently receive statewide recognition and scholarships through such organizations as Delta Mu Delta, an international business honor society, and Financial Executives International. St. Kate’s also has an active chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon, the national business fraternity, which offers practical business experience and connections with business executives to members along with opportunities to network with students from other colleges and universities. Each year, faculty members nominate two students to receive scholarships granted by the Twin Cities Chapter of the Financial Executives Institute (FEI). St. Kate’s has a success rate of more than 88 percent in this scholarship competition. We credit this success to the caliber of the program and its students and to the faculty’s personal knowledge of their students.

St. Kate’s Professional Partnership program will match you up with successful alumnae in your field of interest who will provide links with other professionals and career advice. Most students also participate in internships during their junior and senior years. Internships will allow you to refine your skills, broaden your perspectives and make valuable professional connections. The Entrepreneur Internship program matches business majors with women-owned businesses.

More than 60 companies visit campus to meet students, share information about their companies and recruit potential interns and employees at the annual St. Catherine’s Business Career Fair. Workshops prepare students on résumé writing, researching companies and interviewing. Many St. Kate’s students also attend the Minnesota Private College Job Fair — another excellent opportunity to connect with potential employers.

See also: Accounting, Information Systems, Healthcare Sales, Marketing and Management, Business-to-Business Sales Certificates, Small Business/Entrepreneurship, International Business and Economics.

MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
ACCT 2110 Financial Accounting
ACCT 2130 Managerial Accounting
ACCT 3210 Financial Management
BUSI 3650 Business Law
MKTG 2300 Introduction to Marketing (2 credits)
MKTG 4300 Advanced Marketing
SALE 2330 Introduction to Selling (2 credits)
SALE 3330 Professional Sales: Customer Centered Selling
SALE 3630 Ethics and Integrity in Selling (2 credits)
SALE 4430 Advanced Sales: Strategic Account Management
SALE 4630 Sales Force Leadership
SALE 4752 Business Practicum, Sales (2 credits)

Required supporting courses:
COMM 1030 Speaking to Lead and Influence
One course in persuasion or negotiation as agreed upon by chair
ECON 2620 Principles of Macroeconomics
MATH 1070 Finite Math Analysis
ECON 2250 Statistical Analysis for Economics and Business or ECON 2200 Statistical Analysis for the Social Sciences or MATH 1080 Statistical Analysis or PSYC 2050 Statistical Methods in Psychology
PSYC 1001 General Psychology or SOCI 1000 Principles and Concepts of Sociology

NOTE: Business-to-business sales majors can complete an economics minor with just three additional courses. ECON 2610 Principles of Microeconomics, ECON 3350 Money and Banking, and ECON 3500 Managerial Economics are recommended.

Electives relevant to the sales major include:
BUSI 4490 Business Policy Formulation
BUSI 4752 Business Practicum (additional)
MGMT 2400 Principles of Management
MGMT 3400 Advanced Management
MKTG 3350 Buyer Behavior & Market Research

Other recommended electives:
COMM 3600 Leadership and the Art of Persuasion
ECON 2610 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 3350 Money and Banking
ECON 3500 Managerial Economics
ENGL 2000 Writing for Life: Developing Skill and Confidence
PHIL 3200 Business Ethics

BUSINESS PORTFOLIO
All majors are required to complete a business portfolio. The portfolio is the vehicle that enables you to integrate the life skills and knowledge you bring with you and the knowledge, skills and values learned within the courses and field experiences throughout the program. This portfolio allows you to validate your experiences at the College of St. Catherine.

The portfolio is cumulative in nature; most aspects are completed as part of course work. You must present your portfolio to your advisor no later than September 30 if you will be a December graduate, or February 15 if you will be a May graduate.
For specific portfolio requirements, please refer to the Professional Portfolio Handbook.

Business-to-business sales majors satisfy the Writing Requirement for Majors by completing SALE 4630. You complete the Liberal Arts and Sciences Core Writing Requirement with three other writing-intensive courses (CORE 1000 and CORE 3990, and any other writing-intensive course in this or another department).

URL: http://minerva.stkate.edu/academiccatalog0709.nsf/pages/business_to_business_sales
This page was created on 05/01/2007 and last updated on 05/01/2007.
Comments, questions and feedback about this site may be addressed to registrar@stkate.edu.