ZPDI1285 - Sales and Marketing Professional (Online)

Course Description

Course Outline

Lesson 1: Initiating the Marketing Process

What is the true purpose of marketing? That's a question a lot of people may find hard to comprehend or truly understand. If one is wanting to become a professional in this industry, they will need to fundamentally understand what this is. This lesson covers marketing and its main purpose: creating customer value and engagement. Additionally, the authors will provide reasoning as to why one should have a marketing strategy so that any marketing effort created is sustainable for some period of time.

Lesson 2: Understanding the Market Environment

Once a sales and marketing professional has a fundamental understanding as to what marketing is, the next step is to learn what the environment may be for their specific product and/or service. Students in this lesson will gain valuable knowledge on analyzing the marketing environment and using the information to gain customer insights.

Lesson 3: Understanding Buyers

The customer or client one targets is the primary reason a company is in business. Without them, there truly is nobody to sell to other than oneself. Having an awareness of how consumers behave and the markets they are associated with is the primary topic of this lesson. Students will also gain knowledge as to business behaviors as well. Note that businesses and consumers often behave differently and require different marketing strategies.

Lesson 4: Marketing Strategies

Theoretically speaking, one may have an idea, product or service that they want to sell to the masses. However, how are they going to achieve that? They have to develop a marketing plan and strategry in order to succeed. The fourth lesson of the course reviews the most commonly used marketing strategies to create and build value for the customers or clients one serves. Learners will learn to develop additional projects to capture customer value for the people they serve.

Lesson 5: Pricing Strategies

Up to this point, the marketing plan has been developed to the point that someone has an understanding of the markets they are serving and has an idea as to what they want to sell consumers. But at what price? The fifth lesson of the course reviews the concept of pricing. Students will not only gain an understanding as to how to capture value but other considerations (e.g. margins) so that the pricing accurately reflects the cost of the product and also gains value for the business generating revenue from it.

Lesson 6: Marketing Channels

Marketing professions are much like a Swiss Army knife — they have to be knowledgeable in a number of different subjects in order to be successful in their roles. As time has progressed, the number of marketing channels one can sell through has increased several times. This lesson of the course reviews different ways marketing professionals can deliver value for their clients or customers and reasons why one should choose their product or service over another.

Lesson 7: Customer Engagement

Defining what a customer is or isn't can be difficult if one strictly deals with consumers or businesses alone or a combination of the two. For the purpose of this lesson, students will gain an understanding of how retailing and wholesaling works. Other topics that are discussed here include how to engage customers and communicate value through relevant marketing strategies.

Lesson 8: Advertising and Promotion

Marketing is more than just price and the product itself. In the eighth lesson of the course, students will learn the concept of advertising and public relations and how it applies to marketing goods and services. Advertising is more than just billboards and flashy radio or television commercials. The lesson concludes with a comprehensive overview of different ways one can sell — specifically in person and online.

Lesson 9: Competitive Advantages and Global Marketing

The final lesson of the course reviews the future of marketing and how professionals can create a competitive advantage that is both local and globally focused. Gone are the days when products and services are often sold to customers in person. Now, there are new ways and approaches that can be done anytime and anywhere. The authors provide an understanding of the global marketplace and how businesses can remain sustainable in an environment like this. Conclusively, being socially responsible and ethical are topics that every professional must adhere to, regardless of what area of marketing they decide to go into.

Learner Outcomes

Upon completion, students will be able to:

• Review and comprehend the fundamentals of marketing and analyze how they have evolved over time
• Comprehend factors that influence buyer and seller decisions
• Develop marketing and pricing strategies through the creation of a marketing plan
• Describe various marketing channels that can be used to sell goods and/or services
• Create solid pricing strategies and implement those while engaging customers through advertising and promotional campaigns
• Examine ways marketing can be extended outside of a local or regional market segment
• Describe the concept of sustainable marketing and social responsibilities marketing professionals must adhere to so their actions are ethical and proper

Notes

Participants will have 12 months to complete this self-paced online course.

All necessary materials are included.

System Requirements:

Internet Connectivity Requirements:

• Cable and DSL internet connections are recommended for the best experience.

• CPU: 1 GHz or higher
• RAM: 2 GB or higher
• Resolution: 1280 x 720 or higher
• Speakers / Headphones
• Microphone (Webinar / Live Online sessions)

• Microsoft Windows 7 or 10 (Home, Pro)
• Mac OSX 10 or higher
• Latest Chrome OS
• Latest Linux Distributions

NOTE: While we understand that our courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, we do not recommend the use of these devices for our courses. The size of these devices do not provide a good learning environment for students taking online or live online-based courses.

• Latest Google Chrome is recommended for the best experience.
• Latest Mozilla Firefox
• Latest Microsoft Edge
• Latest Apple Safari

• Office suite (Microsoft Office, OpenOffice or LibreOffice)
• PDF reader program (Adobe Reader, Foxit)
• Courses may require other software that is denoted in the above course outline.