Self-employment Pathway

Introduction

This short section sets the scene by describing the purpose and structure of the module.

An Overview of Running a Business and Understanding your Aims

Having a good understanding about running a business and your aims will help you make a more informed decision about what type of business is right for you. In this section, we provide an overview of what it really means to start and run a business.

Developing your Business Plan and Turning your Idea into a Product

Thinking about your new business and creating a plan in advance will be a key factor in the success of your new venture. By working on a plan, you can see problems before it is too late to effectively react to them. A plan also keeps you realistic about what to expect and, if things aren’t going well, can explain why things are turning out differently.

Pricing and Managing Finances

It’s a very good idea to think about what you need to charge to make a profit, and meet your aims, before you start selling. Along with pricing we will also talk about how this will impact your finances.

Sales and Marketing

So, you now have a plan, a product and you know how to price things. The next step is to get customers by marketing and selling your product. We discuss promotion of the business through things like advertising and then explore strategies for selling our product.

Assistance in Running a Business

You can’t be expected to be an expert in all areas of running a business, and you not going to be the only person with a view on your product or the competition. Similarly, there is support to help ease the financial burden on newer businesses through loans, grants and free or subsidised products.

Self-Employment

We'll explore what self-employment is, what options there are available to you should you decide to become self-employed, and the financial housekeeping involved when self-employed.

Introduction

This unit provides an introduction to the Foundation in Sales and Marketing module, outlining the module structure and how the rest of the units cover the module content.

An Overview of Sales and Marketing

We start the module with a broader look at where sales and marketing fit into the world and how they play their part to make things happen. We also introduce the idea of the "buyer decision process". We then break things down by introducing marketing, and exploring the role of sales and what it does.

The World of Marketing

Now we'll turn our attention to the process by which you might launch a new product or service. By the end of this unit, you will have a good understanding of customer needs and segmentation, how to define a product, and different approaches to pricing.

Promotion and Placement

Here, we continue with the second half of the process of launching a product by looking at the different ways we can promote a product and how to design the sale process to fit our product design objectives. We will also explore how multiple marketing companies will bring specialist services together to deliver a campaign.

Sales Pipeline and Roles

In this section, we move from marketing to sales and examine the sales pipeline and funnel, what prospects and leads are in the world of sales, as well as typical sales roles.

Sales Techniques

We are now on the final unit of this Foundation in Sales and Marketing module. We'll introduce some ideas to improve your strategies to work with customers and close deals.

Introduction

This short introduction to the module sets out what will be covered, how the module is structured and details the objectives.

The Importance of Excellent Customer Service

There may not be a more important personal or professional skill to have, than the ability to provide excellent customer service. This section sets out why excellent customer service is essential in any business and suggests the negative implications of poor customer service.

Providing Excellent Customer Service

This section gets straight into the business of how to deliver excellent customer service. It also reinforces the pitfalls associated with poor customer service.

Dealing with Diverse Customers and Handling Complaints

This section explores the diversity of the customer group, based on the premise that customers all have one thing in common – they are all different! It then goes on to outline methodologies for handling customer complaints and bringing them to a mutually agreeable conclusion.

Effective Communication

In this section, we delve a little deeper into the smaller things you can do to help develop a positive rapport with your customers through the way that you communicate with them.