BBA Business Development and Sales

Program Features

This baccalaureate degree program is designed to prepare individuals to fill business development specialist roles in any business. The BBA in Business Development and Sales offers the student an integrated education, combining studies of general business and a selected group of courses designed to provide the foundation of study for this specialization. The degree program prepares students to be business development specialists who generally are charged with helping companies grow and expand by reaching new customers. Business development specialists are responsible for investigating new business avenues for their companies. They also interface with other departments in their organizations, including sales, marketing, and customer service.

Career Benefits

Business development is a broad term applied to the process of strengthening ties with existing clients as well as cultivating customers in other sectors of a broader market. In order to accomplish this goal, business development normally crosses the traditional barriers between sales, marketing, customer care, operations, and management in order to promote a business expansion process. The business development specialist must exhibit a degree of competence in many different areas in order to identify and capitalize on growth opportunities.

The process of business development can be applied to just about any corporate situation. Even companies that are small need this type of activity in order to remain stable and to achieve growth over time.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, employment in this area is projected to grow faster than average; keen competition is expected for entry-level jobs. The need for good business development specialists in an increasingly competitive economic environment will peak demand for these workers in organizations of all types and sizes.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this degree, the graduate will be able to:

  • Conduct intensive research pertaining to channel development, product development, and product distribution
  • Develop new business strategies through market analysis, and develop new and improved methods for marketing products through various new and traditional media
  • Initiate and develop profitable strategic alliances, partnerships, and customers in the assigned market space by researching, developing, and implementing new business models
  • Demonstrate the ability to prospect for new business through networking, market research, direct marketing, and new media campaigns
  • Develop business models for new products and services
  • Identify any potential acquisitions and/or distribution opportunities and do initial research into viability of fit with an organization

Required Courses

  • ORN 099 - Undergraduation Orientation

    This online course includes an on-campus student component. ORN 099 prepares the student to be successful in Cleary University's undergraduate academic program. Students learn how to use Cleary’s course management software, receive an introduction to Cleary's electronic research tools and library services, and review the writing process. Academic policies are reviewed and student skills are measured. Time management resources, along with learning and study aids, are identified. Successful completion of this course is required.

  • BAC 300 - Business Research and Communication

    This course introduces the transfer student to academic resources: distance technology; project-based learning; working in teams; academic policies, processes and expectations; and the accelerated learning environment. Cleary’s online environment is introduced and explained. Students learn how to use electronic resources to conduct research, analyze findings, and report results in written and oral form. The research and writing processes are introduced and used to create academic papers and business reports. Plagiarism and academic ethics are discussed and students learn how to properly acknowledge research sources using APA format. Students learn to make effective formal presentations for local and remote audiences.

  • LAW 320 - Business Ethics and Legal Issues

    This course provides an understanding of the body of legal principles that govern the structure and conduct of business organizations. This survey course covers such topics as the legal environment of business, regulatory environments affecting business, business-to-business relationships, and business ethics and social responsibility.

  • MGT 340 - Managing Projects and Processes in Organizations

    This course is designed to provide basic project management skills with a strong emphasis on issues and problems associated with delivering successful application projects. The course will address the particular issues encountered in handling projects and to offer students methods, techniques and hands-on experience in dealing with their successful completion.

  • QTY 432 - Quality Management

    This course will explore the interaction of quality theory and classic management theory. Students will learn how organizations use quality practices and policies in normal operations. Participants will familiarize themselves with the history and philosophy of quality and its practical application in business, industry, education, health care, and government. Different approaches to performance improvement, including models and standards, will be explored. Students will demonstrate the ability to apply these theories to improve organizational performance. The content of this course is drawn largely from materials for individuals preparing to take the ASQ Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence Certification Examination.

  • MGT 400 - Management Skills Seminar

    This course provides students with the tools to successfully inspire, empower, and develop people. Students will learn advanced skills in planning, organizing, leading, and controlling individuals and teams. Skill development topics such as meeting facilitation, communication, conflict management, and stress and time management will be studied. Current trends will be featured.

  • ENT 405 - Creativity and Innovation

    Creativity, innovation, and risk taking are essential to the success of the entrepreneur. This class will aid students in unlocking their inner potential and focus on “thinking outside the box”. Students will also learn strategies for dealing with rejection and negativity.

  • CAS 111 - Microsoft PowerPoint

    This course is designed for students who have not used PowerPoint and want to know the basics to be able to develop class or business presentations. Topics include planning a presentation, using different presentation templates, creating slides, and technical aspects of making a presentation.

    NOTE: For the ABA degrees, the requirement is CAS 107 and CAS 111 or CIS 150. See the course catalog or your advisor for more details.

  • CAS 107 - Microsoft Excel

    This course is designed for the student who has not used Excel. Topics include basic spreadsheet applications, worksheet creation, formulas, formatting, printing, and charting.

    NOTE: For the ABA degrees, the requirement is CAS 107 and CAS 111 or CIS 150. See the course catalog or your advisor for more details.

  • ECO 250 - Macroeconomics

    National and international economic policies have powerful and direct effects on business operations. Business fluctuations, inflation, unemployment, monetary and fiscal policies, and international trade are discussed in the course.

  • MGT 485 - Business Planning

    Students will learn the essentials for creating a comprehensive business plan which will serve as a road map for guiding the business through strategic objectives and appropriate measurement criteria. Students will be required to identify secondary research that points to the need for the business, establish the structure and management, develop the marketing plan, determine the financial requirements and pro forma projections, define the operations process, and prepare for growth.

  • PJT 495-9 - Senior Project I-V

    Students complete the required directed study BBA Senior Project course sequence at the end of their undergraduate degree program. Each two-credit course serves as a prerequisite for the successive course (that is, PJT 495 is a prerequisite for PJT 496, and PJT 496 is a prerequisite course for PJT 497, etc.) During this thirty-week, five-course sequence, students select project topics and complete their projects guided individually by senior faculty mentors. Preference is given to selecting topics that solve problems or make contributions for the students’ employers by applying business concepts students learned in their majors. Project types may include: primary research, a business or new product plan, marketing audit, implementation plan, a process or product improvement, or an analysis of a significant workplace problem. Successful completion of PJT 495-499 requires a grade of C or better in each class.

  • NAT 340 - Environmental Science for Managers

    Ecosystems, ecological concepts, and environmental economics will be explored. Students receive a sound theoretical framework of environmental principles which can be applied to current issues. Participants will practice performing environmental audits of selected business operations and develop strategies that can eliminate or mitigate harmful practices.

  • MTH 344 - Quantitative Business Analysis

    This course provides a comprehensive coverage of the critical thinking skills used in statistical analysis. Areas of study include probability, random variables, discrete and continuous distributions, hypothesis testing, confidence interval, correlation, and regression.

  • MTH 180 - Introduction to Business Statistics

    The ability of students to enhance their capacity to gather and analyze meaningful data using a variety of statistical techniques, is essential to business success. Topics include graphical and numerical descriptive methods for describing data, such as frequency distributions, measures of central tendency, and dispersion.

  • MKT 420 - Market Intelligence

    This course outlines the process of acquiring and analyzing information in order to understand markets for both existing and potential customers. In addition, students will be introduced to methodologies that determine the current and future needs and preferences, attitudes and behavior of the market, and assess changes in the business environment that may affect the size and nature of the market in the future. Market intelligence techniques examined include product testing, industry intelligence, Web-based product research, trade shows, channels, and qualitative methods (small focus groups and personal interviews).

  • MKT 415 - Interactive Marketing

    This course explores marketing principles combined with Web-based strategies in an effort to reach customers and build individual relationships. Tools such as electronic advertising, direct e-mail, and electronic commerce are studied. Value analysis will be used to determine the individual customer’s contribution to profit, Web metrics, and analysis of buyer behavior.

  • MKT 400 - Relationship Selling

    This course is designed to provide students with the understanding and application of relationship selling. This includes prospect¬ing, sales pre-planning, writing sales proposals, preventing and handling objections, sales closing, and post sales servicing. Specific performance tools will be discussed as they apply to each stage of the relationship selling process. Topics discussed include: mapping the client/customer buying process, conducting writ¬ten sales plans and an interactive oral sales presentation, developing a sales strategy with action points within the relationship sales process, knowing how to use multiple prospecting methods, responding effectively to objections, and asking for commitments that move the sales process forward and complete in a buying decision. Students will also examine the underlying linkage between being personally moti¬vated to succeed and its impact on sales performance.

  • MGT 435 - Business Forecasting

    This course emphasizes generating and implementing business forecasts. It will address how forecasts are actually developed and utilized, emphasizing modern statistical methods that are widely used to generate business forecasts. Specific applications to business include forecasting sales, production, inventory, macroeconomic factors such as interest and exchange rates, and other aspects of both short- and long-term business planning. Topics include a statistical review, data considerations, model selection, moving averages and exponential smoothing, regression analysis, and time-series decomposition.

  • MGT 420 - International Business

    This course stresses the synergy/connection between environment and culture, and the strategy and functions of business management. It further provides an overview of the functions of business in an international context. Basic economic principles are studied in international markets including micro- and macroeconomics, fiscal and monetary policies, and banking. Factors affecting foreign trade and multinational business are explored, especially the various social, political, technical, and economic complexities of doing business in foreign countries.

  • FIN 400 - Financial Management

    Selected topics in both the financial and managerial aspects of financial management for business organizations are studied with the intention of providing a survey of important concepts, issues, tools, and vocabulary that administrators need to effectively manage a business organization. Students will learn how managers and investors use financial statements in order to meet their financial objectives. The goals of the financial manager, the trade-off between risk and return, and the time value of money will be explained. The application of these basic concepts to the valuation of bonds and stocks, capital budgeting problems, and the process for determining capital structure will also be emphasized.

  • FIN 200 - Introduction to Business Finance

    Students will understand financial terms, financial statements, financial ratios, and how they affect the operations of a business corporation. This course is meant to be an introduction to finance and accounting for all students who may have budget, profit and loss responsibilities, and intend to contribute to the financial success of their companies. This is a basic finance course for students aspiring to be entrepreneurs and non-financial professionals.

  • ENG 160 - Business Composition

    Students will acquire writing skills necessary to prepare for advanced business courses. Students start at a fundamental level, beginning with an introduction to writing, moving on to writing strategies, and concluding with methods of development. This course presents writing as a means of exploring, developing, confirming, and communicating ideas. Students will apply the basic principles of language structure and become more familiar with APA documentation.

  • ECO 320 - Economics of Business

    This course provides a managerial viewpoint of macro- and microeconomic concepts that shape business environments. Macroeconomic topics include national accounts and income determination; monetary and fiscal policy; Federal Reserve System; and employment, inflation, and growth. Microeconomic topics include market structure, price theory, and supply and demand. The emphasis in this course is the business manager’s viewpoint, building an understanding of the relationship of economic theory to management practice and decision making.

  • BCS 440 - Technology and the Organization

    Today's competitive business environment requires managers at all levels to understand the role technology plays in the organization. By challenging the paradigm of how students currently view the role of technology in the organization, the student is moved to view technology as a tool to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace.

  • ACC 402 - Managerial Accounting

    This course explores basic managerial accounting concepts used to support business decisions. Topics include basic cost concepts, product costing methods, activity-based costing, cost-volume-profit analysis, standard costing, budget preparation, and relevant cost analysis.

  • ACC 401 - Financial Accounting

    This course introduces fundamental concepts in financial accounting, which are used to create financial statements for external users. The focus is on the accounting cycle and financial statement preparation (primarily the income statement and balance sheet).

  • ACC 245 - Principles of Accounting I

    This introductory course examines the basic principles of accounting. Students work through the entire accounting cycle by analyzing and posting business transactions, recording adjusting journal entries, and preparing basic financial statements. Accounting systems and controls are also covered.