Please be advised: the information contained on this page is a general overview of the course. As course information is subject to change from one semester to another, please check DukeHub for the most accurate and up-to-date information about EGRMGMT courses.
At a Glance
- Instructor(s): Kathie Amato
- Semester(s) typically taught: Fall and Spring
- Units: 3.0
- Grading scale: Graded (A-F)
- Required or elective for MEM degree? Elective
- If elective, applicable elective track(s): Product Management, Technology Development and Commercialization
- Pre-requisites: n/a
- Recommended previous courses: n/a
Course Description/Synopsis (from DukeHub)
Skills in negotiations and consultative selling are required. From making a decision that affects internal operations, presenting a proposal to one’s boss, or closing a sale with a major client, it is vital to have a strong set of skills to achieve our objectives. Focusing on two primary areas of influence and communication within business — negotiations and consultative selling (working collaboratively with others to effectively meet customer needs), this course covers the structured processes, theoretical constructs, and practical applications required to understand a complex situation and develop the negotiation or sales process most needed for value creation and goal attainment.
360° Course View (from LinkedIn)
Course Syllabus (Most Recent)
Negotiations and Consultative Sales Syllabus Fall 2023
A Class Sample
A Word About the Faculty (from LinkedIn 360° Course View)
Kathie Amato, with a successful career as an entrepreneur and extensive experience in publishing and marketing, believes that we are always negotiating. Sometimes it’s a once-a-year activity such as negotiating for funding sources for a venture. Sometimes it’s a monthly chore to negotiate with suppliers and getting more customers. She mentions that this course is designed for students who have an engineering background and are transitioning into a management role. The negotiation activities are chosen specifically for MEM students to build collaborative thinking and instilling a mindset of creating value for all. Kathie draws parallel between teaching the same class to MBA’s and mentions that they are quite similar other than the expectation for a deeper quantitative analysis from the MEM students. Kathie reflects on the key takeaways from the course and mentions that the focus should be to leave the class with a strong ethical grounding. Trying to build long term relationships which create value for all is the key to being a good negotiator and a salesperson.
Student Testimonials (from LinkedIn 360° Course View)
Saurabh Mohan: “A little skeptical in the beginning, Saurabh joined negotiations after hearing about the weekly negotiation activities and saw an opportunity to compete there and of course, win. That was the mindset with which Saurabh joined but learned throughout the course that individual short winnings don’t matter, and you only win big if you are ready for small losses. Saurabh’s expectation from the course changed when he realized that ethics play a big part in being a good negotiator and a salesman. Being greedy in these activities will only get you so far. Saurabh recollects that he expected to come out as a con man after taking the subject because of his previous understanding of who a negotiator is. But as it turns out, he learned about how to be a better man. The highlight for him was winning $40 in the class and trading his way up to a TV from a small red paperclip.”
Revati Deshpande: “Revati’s motivation behind choosing Negotiations/Consultative sales was to develop soft skills as a consultant. What she didn’t anticipate was such hands-on activities and active learning in the class. She recollects how mind-blowing was the first class which involved an activity pursuing the professor to sell her family heirloom called the Amato bottle to the most persuasive team. The kind of activities organized in every class kept her hooked and engaged throughout the semester. Revati mentions she did not realize the important role of ethics in sales until she took the course. She reflects on how her definition of negotiation changed with every framework and concept she learned in the class. She specifically mentions the negotiations that she participated in every lecture and how they evolved over the course of the semester and kept getting complex. The experiential learning format helped in applying the skills she learned in the class.”
Previous Course Evaluations
- Fall 2021
- Spring 2021
