CustMaS is a project funded by Erasmus+ to design an empirically validated skills model for Business-to-Business customer management skills and a post-graduate level curriculum and program guide for developing these skills.
The project has the following objectives:
- Develop an up-to-date, comprehensive, and empirically validated model of skills in B2B customer management in a digitalizing world.
- Develop a post-graduate course curriculum and program guide, including program-intended learning outcomes, appropriate pedagogy, and evaluation strategies.
- Disseminate the results of the project for a broader community. The project will develop a self-assessment tool for customer management skill evaluation and prepare an introductory Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on upskilling and reskilling.
Sales occupations (i.e., sales engineers, sales representatives of services, wholesale, and manufacturing) have been classified as occupations with a bright outlook “projected to grow faster than average” and “to have 100,000 or more job openings over the period 2019-2029 [only] for the US” (o*net online, 2021). Importantly, the market reports insufficient note talent as a key barrier for B2B sellers in Europe (Integer Group & Coppeberg, 2021). It follows that European B2B firms need sales professionals that will be skillful in accommodating changing B2B buying behavior to compete for the markets of purchasing expenses.
