Organise and develop a top class sales function. At Cranfield, we know first-hand about the demands on Sales Directors and Leaders to grow revenues.

Organising a top class sales function is a challenging task. It encompasses the building of an effective sales organisation, working with key stakeholders across the business, nesting sales strategy within the overall business strategy, and of course, being intimately connected with and deeply knowledgeable about the market.

Our Strategic Sales Leadership Programme is the only researched based programme for Sales Leaders in Europe. The programme gives you the skills and tools you need to successfully develop your sales function, engage customers and lead your sales teams. The strategic sales programme provides a unique opportunity to:

  • Increase profitability through sales strategy.
  • Align sales with your business strategy.
  • Understand and then reverse all areas of sales under performance.
  • Focus on strategic selling to develop sustained competitive advantage.
  • Make the personal transition from sales manager to sales director (or give you the confidence that you have done so).

Apply today for a 1-2-1, tailored session to your aspirations –

Contextualised courses

Courses can be tailored to your organisation and delivered in-company – find out more »

Programme information – Face-to-face

  • Dates
    • 24 - 28 Mar 2025
    • 17 - 21 Nov 2025
  • Duration5 days
  • LocationCranfield campus
  • Cost£7,350 + VAT, including accommodation Concessions available


What you will learn

You will gain:

  • An advanced understanding of how to make the selling organisation productive.
  • An increased ability and confidence in influencing, managing and motivating sales teams
  • Practical tools for managing a customer portfolio and creating customer value.
  • Connect more closely with the marketing team and creating customer strategy together.
  • State-of-the-art concepts, tools and frameworks for creating an effective sales strategy to improve performance.

Your organisation will gain:

  • Vision and commitment of senior executives to lead change initiatives to improve sales revenues.
  • A proposed intervention plan that will support sustained growth in sales performance.
  • A more knowledgeable and effective sales team that understand the concepts behind creating innovative sales strategies in order to help deliver increased profits.
  • Alignment of the sales strategy with business strategy to support sustained organisational growth.

Core content

Taught by experienced faculty, you will benefit from the creative practices, diverse ideas, success methods used to overcome challenges that your peers and faculty have faced in a range of sectors.

The practical design of the programme walks you through four key elements of a sales leader's responsibility: strategy, structure, measurement and people development. This ensures that you are fully equipped with the state-of-the-art tools and frameworks to successfully develop your function in order to easily achieve better long term performance.

Programme Details

The Strategic Sales Leadership Programme understands the challenges you face when organising a top class sales function within your organisation.

You gain state of the art models to:

  • Support your role to deliver greater value.
  • Engage with customers more profitably.
  • Effectively lead your sales organisation.
  • Develop short term actions for long term performance.
  • Engage in meaningful sales performance analysis.
  • Improve your personal effectiveness with key stakeholders.



What you'll experience

Strategy: Defining Value-Creating Sales Strategies Technology in Sales Organisation

  • The strategic role of sales
  • Short-term actions for long-term performance
  • Creating and delivering value to customers
  • Leveraging technology in your sales route to market

Structure: Configuring high performing sales organisation

  • Key account management and team selling
  • Sales structures and internal selling
  • The procurement perspective

Measures & Targets: Defining effective sales enablement practices

  • Sales performance analysis
  • Target setting
  • Rewards systems in sales

Sales Leadership: Leading the sales organisation and its individuals

  • Sales leadership and development
  • Recruiting and retaining talent
  • Persuading and influencing

Who should attend

Senior executives involved in strategic selling and customer management, with high-level business responsibilities:

  • Sales Directors or Managers.
  • Directors of Global or Key Accounts
  • Business Development Directors and Managers.
  • Commercial Managers.

Programme Director

Javier Marcos Cuevas

Key contributors

Dr Monica Franco-Santos
Andrew Hough
John MacDonald-Gaunt
Nicolaas Smit

Concessions

20% discount (tuition fee only) for Cranfield School of Management Alumni who have attended one of our eligible leadership programmes.

Accommodation options and prices

Tuition, course materials,  and lifelong access to Alumni Membership benefits are included in the price of this course.

How to apply

Next steps

Our team of executive development experts will be happy to talk to you about your development needs, please email us or call +44 (0)1234 754500.

Download brochure

This course is provided by Cranfield Management Development Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of SWAGºÏ¼¯