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Course detail: Professional Selling Microcredential

Course Description
As our world becomes increasingly services-based and knowledge-oriented, there is a growing demand for sales professionals who can effectively identify client needs, craft customized solutions, and marshal company resources to deliver superior value. Without sales, there is no business. Accordingly, this credential is designed to teach professionals about selling and how to sell effectively. Many professionals, both in the business world and other professions/industries, recognize the value of selling and want to increase their knowledge of effective selling.

The credential is designed to be 12 weeks, starting twice a year in the fall and spring semesters. The delivery mode will be fully online with both asynchronous (self-paced) and synchronous (live online) components.

Professional Selling includes mastering interpersonal skills through interaction. As such, the live online synchronous meetings via Zoom will take place once per week on a set night for 60-75 minutes to engage in various classroom activities including role-plays and case studies.

In addition to the live online class meetings, asynchronous self-paced assignments and video lectures will be assigned via weekly modules (below). The credential will be taught by distinguished professors in the KU School of Business Professional Selling Program.

Learning Objectives
Selling is an integral part of not only business, but everyday life. Professionals will be called upon to sell ideas, products, services, and even points of view in all careers. By completing this credential, professionals will learn the latest concepts concerning several elements of the professional selling process: prospecting, needs-identification, handling objections, closing, and negotiation. In addition, these concepts will be reinforced via role-plays and sales simulations. Additionally, modules in emotional intelligence and sales industry career planning enhance this credential.

Module 1 - Overview of the course, what is sales, exploring the sales profession
Module 2 - Effective communication and the elevator pitch
Module 3 - Emotional intelligence and the social style matrix
Module 4 - Value-based selling and ethics
Module 5 - Prospecting and pre-call planning
Module 6 - Needs discovery/SPIN method
Module 7 - Presenting solutions
Module 8 - Handling objections
Module 9-Obtaining commitment
Module 10 - Managing your new role
Module 11 - Sales resume
Module 12 - How to interview for a consultative sales position

Who Should Attend
This course will benefit:

Current sales professionals who are seeking expanded sales knowledge and skills to improve career outcomes.
Current professionals who are looking to make a career pivot to sales and wish to learn the sales process to launch into a new endeavor.
Those looking to earn more money, provide stability in career, advance more quickly in career, or get a promotion.
Those looking to have more control of the future, advance more quickly in their career, reinvent themselves, or learn something different.
All professionals who are interested in learning the sales process and adding additional skills to their professional learning or professional career.

Course Requirements
Participants should expect to spend approximately 3 hours (or less) on the following each week:

1.25 hours for live online sessions
0.5 video lectures
1 hour for online self-paced pre-work including textbook readings, quiz, simulation activities, etc.

Grading will be at 80% Pass/Fail, with a certificate of credential being awarded at completion. All pre-work is to be completed each week prior to the live online meeting and students are expected to attend and participate in all twelve live online class session activities. During live class sessions, video screens should remain on at all times and active engagement in class discussions, both at the small and large group levels, is expected.

Course Materials
An online textbook and software will be provided as part of the course fee.

Course Fees
Early registration fee: $3,450 if you register and pay by the early registration deadline (August 15/January 15)
Regular registration fee: $3,650 if you register and pay after the early registration deadline

**Introductory Pricing for the Fall 2026 Session Only**
Early registration fee: $3,150 if you register and pay by August 15
Regular registration fee: $3,350 if you register and pay after August 15

Course Accessibility
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to participate in University of Kansas sponsored educational offerings. If you require a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in one of our online courses, please email jayhawkglobal@ku.edu or call 785-864-6779 at least four weeks prior to your anticipated start date.

Session Information: PB27105O

Schedule:

This course will meet live online weekly on Wednesday evenings.

Times:

07:00pm-09:00pm CDT

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Price:

Introductory Pricing - Early Registration Fee : $3150.00

Instructors

Name

Additional Resources

Kristen Helling

Kristen Helling
Director, Professional Selling Program

Biography: Kristen S. Helling earned a B.S. in business administration from the University of Kansas. She began her sales/marketing career in the cosmetic industry, working for Lanc�me Cosmetics, where she served as a business manager. Kristen then worked at Hallmark Cards in the sales department with increasing responsibilities across the Card Specialty, Gold Crown, and Mass Channels. In the Mass Channel, she managed the store-level execution of card departments for the Walgreens and CVS chains. While working at Hallmark, Kristen earned an M.B.A. with an emphasis in marketing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Kristen has also done business development and marketing for a small startup company, Lice Ice. Kristen joined the marketing lecturer pool at the University of Kansas in the Spring of 2015 and has taught various courses for the department including Professional Selling Skills, Retailing, Honors Marketing, and Principles of Marketing. She also serves as the director of the KU Professional Selling Program, a program she has grown from 40 to 700 students while graduating approximately 170 students per year. Kristen is passionate about teaching and mentoring young professionals. She believes that the ability to "sell yourself" is a trait that is important for all people to master-regardless of one's career aspiration.

Duane Myer

Duane Myer
Associate Teaching Professor, Professional Selling Program

Biography: Duane Myer, Ph.D. teaches a variety of Marketing courses at the University of Kansas both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The courses include Principles of Marketing, Sales Management, and New Product Management, in addition to the Micro Credential in Sales. He also teaches marketing at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California in the summer.

He earned an undergraduate degree from Iowa State University with a concentration in Management. He also earned an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from the University of Kansas. He returned to the University of Kansas where he earned a Ph.D. in Marketing.

In addition to his teaching role at the University of Kansas, Duane coaches several of the Professional Selling Program's Sales Competition teams each year, He also leads the Marketing and Sales in Europe study abroad program. The students travel to Dublin, Belfast, London, and Paris where they attend lectures in several European universities and explore the field of Marketing and Sales at some of our PSP partners' foreign offices. He has also travelled to India and Cuba for the study abroad program at the University of Kansas.

He also has 20+ years of professional experience in sales, financial modeling, and valuation with Sprint PCS and the Federal Reserve.

Emma Sittenauer

Emma Sittenauer
Assistant Teaching Professor, Professional Selling Program

Biography: Emma Sittenauer holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from the University of Cincinnati, along with a Bachelor of Science in Business in Marketing from the University of Kansas - giving her a unique perspective as both a KU alumna and now a faculty member shaping the next generation of business professionals at her alma mater. Dr. Sittenauer teaches several courses within the Marketing Department at the University of Kansas, both in-person and online, with a particular focus on preparing students for the practical realities of client-facing careers. In addition to teaching, she serves as a coach for the Professional Selling Team, advisor for KU Women in Business, and has been published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, as well as in a special issue on Consumer Psychology in Sustainability. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Sittenauer worked in insurance, where she was fully licensed in Property & Casualty and Allied Lines across Kansas, Missouri, and Colorado. She has also consulted for several small businesses across the Midwest, giving her firsthand experience translating strategy into action for organizations of varying industries.

Gail Kelsey

Gail Kelsey
Lecturer, Professional Selling Program

Biography: Gail Kelsey is a marketing professional with over 24+ years of sales and marketing experience. She worked within the marketing division of Hallmark Cards, Inc., with the majority of her positions in a variety of sales roles. Gail worked with some of the leading retailers including Walgreens and Wal*Mart. She launched the national sales team for Hallmark Cards during their partnership with the USPS and developed sales and marketing team programs for a new sales organization while working with a subsidiary of Hallmark. She earned her master's degree from the University of Central Missouri.

Her role at KU is focused on the areas of Brand Management, Global Marketing, Retailing Management, and Professional Selling. Gail is involved with the Professional Selling Program and serves as a coach for teams competing in national sales competitions.

Facility Detail

Live Online Training

Meets live online weekly

Live Online, WEB OTHER