You receive a message from your sales director with a lead on a hot new client. It is up to you to reel this one in. How do you go about it? What communications and meetings are needed to land the sale? What are the best terms you can negotiate?

This is a typical challenge facing sales executives. There are no simple recipes. In practice, you make your best decision, win the business or lose it, and then move on to the next one. But a web-based simulation that is part of Wharton's Leading the Effective Sales Force program gives participants a chance to think more carefully about their strategies and to see the impact of their decisions down the road.

Although couched as an individual challenge, the simulation is designed to encourage experienced executives to think more broadly about the effectiveness of the sales strategies of their organizations. "The main reason we're including this is to give participants an opportunity to examine their organizations' typical sales strategies, so that they can take a fresh look at standard sales practices and approaches," said Deb Giffen, program director. "This hands-on approach makes the learning more fun and direct. It is both an individual challenge and a way to examine and drive the organizational strategy."

Simulating the Sales Process

The simulation, developed for Wharton by the educational simulation firm Prendo, takes participants through the entire sales process — following up on a lead, submitting a proposal, winning or losing the business, and seeing the results for the client and the supplier. It offers insights into the complexities of closing sales that are made through multiple decision makers.

As is typical in working a sales lead, participants don't have much information at the beginning. They are placed in the role of a sales executive at a company that sells engineering software and services. The executive receives a lead from the company's sales director about a potential client in the oil industry. The director challenges the sales executive to turn the lead into profitable business.

Participants in the simulation, sitting at the virtual desk of the sales executive, can review company data, gather information about the client's needs, and identify decision makers in the client firm. Participants can make phone calls or send and receive e-mails to an assistant, the sales director, and the contact at the prospect firm. Participants also can schedule meetings, demos, and workshops as they move toward a sale. These virtual "meetings" can then be used to carry the sales process forward. Finally, participants can propose commercial terms to the customer, including specifying technical features and direct outcomes.

Months of Experience in a Few Hours

Once the sale is closed, the work is not over. The simulation offers an evaluation of the encounter 3 months after the sale. Did the sales executive leave money on the table or push so hard that an initial good deal actually cost money in the end? The strategies and results of other participants in the simulation are then discussed with the executives and faculty. Months of experience are compressed into a few hours.

The simulation offers a risk-free environment in which to experiment. Actual sales calls and decisions often have big dollars riding on them, so executives often do not feel they have the luxury to try new approaches. They may fall into patterns of using approaches that are comfortable but may not be the best ones for the particular sales challenge.

The simulation also can offer clearer lessons than actual field experience. ("Did we land that big contract due to a brilliant strategy or dumb luck?") The simulation provides sharper and more detailed feedback and also presents opportunities to do "what-if" thinking about other potential strategies that could have been used.

The simulation is a great addition to other approaches used in the sales force program. "Sales force challenges are complex, and the program addresses them from diverse angles," said Giffen. "In addition to lectures, cases, and an analytical tool for assessing the sales force, this new simulation rounds out the course by exploring the complex decisions and interpersonal relationships that contribute to a successful sale. "

Related Courses

• Leading the Effective Sales Force

• Wharton Executive Education
  
  
• The Wharton School

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