The selling cycle is the process a company or organisation undergoes when sell-ing their product or service to a customer.  

Step 1: Prospecting

Step 2: Planning the sales call

Step 3: Approach and sales presentation methods

Step 4: Handling objections

Step 5: Closing the sale

Step 6: Follow up

a collective term referring to the community of teachers and students in higher education.

an extensive piece written around a specific academic concept

Academic literacy is the ability to write and read about academic subjects. The ability to gather information, process information and understand the information in a post-secondary education environment

The skills of academic literacy can be applied in the classroom, assignments and exams. The goal is to equip students with the ability to summarize, compare, contrast, create ideas and analyse information from a wide variety of sources.

The takeover of one entity by another.

Activity-based costing is a costing method that identifies activities in an organization and assigns the cost of each activity to all products and services according to the actual consumption by each. Therefore this model assigns more indirect costs into direct costs compared to conventional costing.

A production environment where a large number of end products (based on the selection of options and accessories) may be assembled from com-mon components. The key items used to produce the final product, up to the sub-assembly level, are planned and usually kept in inventory in anticipation of a customer order. 

A listing of all the subassemblies, intermediates, parts, and raw materials that go into a parent assembly showing the quantity of each required to make an assembly. 

an organised process of a group offering their own ideas, usually aimed at solving a problem

finance provided for a short period (two to three weeks) that an organisation might use when they are waiting for approval of longer-term finance.

A business is defined as an organization or enterprising entity engaged in commercial, industrial, or professional activities. The term "business" also refers to the organized efforts and activities of individuals to produce and sell goods and services for profit.

Business management definition is managing the coordination and organization of business activities. Management is in charge of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the business's resources so they can meet the objectives of the policy.

The right to transport in a specific territory. More specifically, it refers to transportation between two terminals located in the same country, irrespective of the country in which the mode providing the service is registered. Cabotage is subject to restrictions and regulations. Under such circumstances, each nation reserves for its national carriers the right to move domestic freight or passenger traffic.

Capacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. In the context of capacity planning, design capacity is the maximum amount of work that an organization is capable of completing in a given period.

Way of funding operations and growth by using different sources of funds, e.g. equity, debt or preference share capital.

In marketing, carrying cost, carrying cost of inventory or holding cost refers to the total cost of holding inventory. This includes warehousing costs such as rent, utilities and salaries, financial costs such as opportunity cost, and inventory costs related to perishability, shrinkage and insurance.

Used to facilitate the planning and control of cash.

The flow of cash begins with the payment for raw materials and ends with receipt of cash on goods sold.

the mention of the author’s name from whose work you obtained the idea as well as the date of the publication

A person who travels regularly between home and work or school.

Fixed-route bus service, predominantly in one direction during peak periods, with limited stops, using multi-ride tickets and routes of extended length, usually between the central business district and outlying suburbs.

Local and regional passenger train operations between a central city, its suburbs and/or another central city.

Concurrent engineering is a work methodology emphasizing the parallelization of tasks, which is sometimes called simultaneous engineering or integrated product development using an integrated product team approach.

Occurs when transport demand exceeds transport supply in a specific section of the transport system.

words which are used for their subtext rather than their literal meaning: your manager may dislike being called “boss” because of the negative meaning associated with the word

Refers to the actions taken (both on and offline) by consumers before buying a product or service.

Consumer surplus is defined as the difference between the total amount that consumers are willing and able to pay for a good or service (indicated by the demand curve) and the total amount that they actually do pay (i.e. the market price).

The background to something you do.

The definition of control is power to direct, or an accepted comparison model in an experiment, or a device used for regulation.

The merging of distinct technologies, industries, or devices into a unified whole

A linear orientation of transport routes and flows connecting important locations that act as origins, destinations and point of transhipment. Corridors are multi-scalar entities depending on the types of flow being investigated. Thus, they can be composed of streets, highways, transit routes, rail lines, maritime lines, or air paths.

The cost of equity is the return a company requires to decide if an investment meets capital return requirements. ... A firm's cost of equity represents the compensation the market demands in exchange for owning the asset and bearing the risk of ownership.

An argument or set of reasons put forward to oppose an idea or theory developed in another argument.

Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.

These organisations oversee the movement of goods through customs and ensure that the documentation for a shipment is complete and accurate.

Definition of customer engagement: Customer engagement monitors the relationship between a consumer and a company. This relationship is important for encouraging customer loyalty, increasing awareness and looking at customer satisfaction.

Market survey is the survey research and analysis of the market for a particular product/service which includes the investigation into customer inclinations. A study of various customer capabilities such as investment attributes and buying potential.

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during, and after a purchase. 

customer service metrics, as the name suggests, provide data on your customer service team's performance in terms of efficiency and speed. These metrics focus purely on numbers, such as how many emails you receive per day, how many calls you answer, the rate of response, and so on.

the literal meaning of a word or name. Although Paris might make you think of romance, its denotation is simply the city of an old tribe called the Parisii

Individual parts are designed and assembled specifically for each customer order. Even if the end product contains standard parts, a separate pro-duction process with a specific parts list is required for the product. 

Service quality in the SERVQUAL model consists of five dimensions: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. These dimensions are used in service quality gap, which implies that there is a difference between the expectations of customers and perception of services

the first, rough attempt at writing something

The economic principle encompasses a wide variety of economic laws and theories that define or explain how an economy attempts to satisfy the unlimited demand in the marketplace with a finite supply of resources available to do so.

In corporate finance, as part of fundamental analysis, economic value added is an estimate of a firm's economic profit, or the value created in excess of the required return of the company's shareholders. EVA is the net profit less the capital charge for raising the firm's capital. 

Economics is the study of how man attempts to satisfy his unlimited wants and needs by way of limited resources. This relative scarcity of resources implies the existence of cost and the need for choice. 

In microeconomics, economies of density are cost savings resulting from spatial proximity of suppliers or providers. Typically higher population densities allow synergies in service provision leading to lower unit costs. 

Economies of scope are "efficiencies formed by variety, not volume". In economics, "economies" is synonymous with cost savings and "scope" is synonymous with broadening production/services through diversified products.

The degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result; success.

Efficiency is the ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste.

The employee life cycle model (ELC) is an organizational method used to visualize how an employee engages with the company they are a part of. There are six stages involved in this model: Attraction, Recruitment, Onboarding, Development, Retention, and Separation.

Manufacturing process where product is built as per customer specifica-tion due to requiring unique engineering, design, customisation etc. 

Exists where a country can produce a good or ser-vice with the same opportunity costs than another country, i.e. their pro-duction ratios are the same. Countries with equal advantage will not trade. 

The price paid by the user of a transport service at the moment of use.

Goods that have either been completed in a production process, or purchased in a completed form, but which have not yet been sold to customers.

Costs that do not vary with the quantity shipped in the short run, i.e. costs that must be paid up front to begin producing transportation services.

willingness to change or compromise.

Forecast accuracy is the extent of difference between the forecasted values and the actual values. 

Forecasting is the process of making predictions based on past and present data and most commonly by analysis of trends. A commonplace example might be estimation of some variable of interest at some specified future date. Prediction is a similar, but more general term.

Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash a company generates after accounting for cash outflows to support operations and maintain its capital assets. ... Interest payments are excluded from the generally accepted definition of free cash flow.

Free goods are found in abundance and do not carry a price directly, although taxation may be used to maintain these goods, e.g. fresh air

A person or a corporation that accepts less than a truckload or less than a carload shipment from shippers and combines them into carload or truckload lots. 

Functional products are items that are bought regularly and are considered staples. They are widely available in retail outlets, such as, grocery and convenient stores and have a predictable long life cycle due to their stability, although, competition is high resulting in low profit margins.

"The study or use of the rules about how words change their form and combine with other words to make sentences" 

Cambridge English Dictionary

A green/clean/eco-friendly/environmentally friendly vehicle is a road motor vehicle that produces less harmful impacts to the environment compared to conventional internal combustion engine vehicles running on gasoline or diesel.

the process of engaging in learning at an advanced level.

Holt’s method, also known as double exponential smoothing, as it adds growth factor. 

Exponential smoothing is a rule of thumb technique for smoothing time series data using the exponential window function. Whereas in the simple moving average the past observations are weighted equally, exponential functions are used to assign exponentially decreasing weights over time.

Words which sound the same but have different spelling and different meanings, e.g. flour: flower.

A hybrid vehicle makes use of two or more distinct types of power, such as an internal combustion engine to drive an electric generator that powers an electric motor.

Challenges or obstacles which prevents or limits the process of putting a decision or plan into effect, execution. 

Supervisory staff and maintenance staff’s labour in a production environment cannot be physically traced to a specific product and is therefore regarded as indirect labour.

Unable to be divided or separated.

Product innovation is the creation and subsequent introduction of a good or service that is either new, or an improved version of previous goods or services. 

the way you think about things, approach them and process the information.

Also seen as a ‘middle man’. Intermediary is a company or person (such as a broker or consultant) who acts as a mediator or a link between parties for a business deal, investment decision, negotiation, and so forth.  

Job shops are typically small manufacturing systems that handle job production, that is, custom/bespoke or semi-custom/bespoke manufacturing processes such as small to medium-size customer orders or batch jobs. Job shops typically move on to different jobs (possibly with different customers) when each job is completed.

Key account management is a term used, to describe the approach your sales people take to your most important customers and clients.   

The law of decreasing returns states that: Production decreases as more of the variable factor (labour) is added to the fixed factor (land).

The law of increasing returns states that: Production increases as more of the variable factor (labour) is added to the fixed factor (land).

Lead time is the total sum of time between the recognition of a need for an order and the final availability of the goods/raw materials for use in production or available for sale. Lead time consists of both purchasing lead time and manufacturing lead time. Manufacturing lead time applies when the final product is manufactured or assembled by the supplier.

the particular way in which you gather and perceive information and the process and organise it.

Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics is the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of customers or corporations.

Logistics customer service is a part of a firm's overall customer service offering, customer service elements that are specific to logistics operations including fulfillment, speed, quality, and cost. The term fulfillment process has been described as the entire process of filling the customer's order.

Short for ‘magnetic levitation’. Technology enabling trains to move at high speeds above a guideway on a cushion generated by magnetic force.

A production environment where a good or service can be made after receipt of a customer’s order. The final product is usually a combination of standard items and items custom designed to meet the special needs of the customer. 

Manufacturing is the production of goods through the use of labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy.

A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. 

Market value refers to price as determined by demand and supply. Market value or OMV is the price at which an asset would trade in a competitive auction setting. Market value is often used interchangeably with open market value, fair value or fair market value, although these terms have distinct definitions in different standards, and differ in some circumstances.

The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, marketing communication and distribution of ideas, products, and services to create exchange that satisfy the organisational goals. 

Is the process that provides relevant data to help solve marketing challenges that a business will most likely face--an integral part of the business planning process.

Is the process of dividing a market of potential customers into groups, or segments, based on different characteristics.

Occur when two separate entities combine forces to create a new, joint organisation.

Factors or elements in a company’s immediate area of operations that affect performance and decision-making abilities.  These factors include competitors, customers, distribution channels,  suppliers and so forth.  

Refers to a movement of people or freight. It can have different levels linked to the speed, capacity, and efficiency of movements.

In statistics, a moving average is a calculation to analyze data points by creating a series of averages of different subsets of the full data set. It is also called a moving mean or rolling mean and is a type of finite impulse response filter. Variations include: simple, and cumulative, or weighted forms.

Network planning and design is an iterative process, encompassing topological design, network-synthesis, and network-realization, and is aimed at ensuring that a new telecommunications network or service meets the needs of the subscriber and operator.

A lead time is the latency between the initiation and completion of a process. For example, the lead time between the placement of an order and delivery of new cars by a given manufacturer might be between 2 weeks and 6 months, depending on various particularities.

The process of deciding which items are more important than others and them placing them into an order with the most important first and the least important last.

Ordering costs are the expenses incurred to create and process an order to a supplier. These costs are included in the determination of the economic order quantity for an inventory item. 

An organizational strategy is a plan that specifies how your business will allocate resources (e.g., money, labor, and inventory) to support infrastructure, production, marketing, inventory, and other business activities.

Process that links what individuals and teams do on a daily basis with the larger goals, value and cultural practices of the organisation and the needs of the customers.

The first part of a combined word, e.g. un- as in unhappy.

a collective term referring to the logical sequence of steps to achieve an objective

Procurement is the process of finding and agreeing to terms, and acquiring goods, services, or works from an external source, often via a tendering or competitive bidding process. Procurement generally involves making buying decisions under conditions of scarcity.

 A product is an object or system made available for consumer use; it is anything that can be offered to a market to satisfy the desire or need of a customer.

Groups of people who have a common interest or common values in a particular situation. 

The management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its public’s.

Passenger transportation services, usually local in scope, that are available to any person who pays a prescribed fare. It operates on established schedules along designated routes or lines with specific stops and is designed to move relatively large numbers of people at one time.

The activity of purchasing is to acquire goods and/or services to meet the objectives of a business. Purchasing is done according to a standard as outlined in the procurement policy of the business. 

Quality assurance is a way of preventing mistakes and defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering products or services to customers; which ISO 9000 defines as "part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled"

Rail or motorbus transit service operating completely separate from all modes of transportation on an exclusive right-of-way.

The price of transportation services paid by the consumer. They are the negotiated monetary costs of moving a passenger or a unit of freight between a specific origin and destination.

The items that are purchased or the materials extracted which are then transformed into components or products using a manufacturing process

Refers to the sourcing and screening of suitable candidates to fill a position from within or outside the organisation.

thinking back on how you have thought about something.

Resources in production are also known as means or factors of production, which include natural resources, human resources, capital and entrepreneurship. 

Reverse logistics is for all operations related to the reuse of products and materials. It is "the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal.

Something being in short or limited supply.

Seasonality refers to predictable changes that occur over a one-year period in a business or economy based on the seasons including calendar or commercial seasons. One example of a seasonal measure is retail sales, which typically sees higher spending during the fourth quarter of the calendar year.

Entails the process of deciding on the most suitable candidate for appointment in a position.

Shareholder value is a business term, sometimes phrased as shareholder value maximization or as the shareholder value model, which implies that the ultimate measure of a company's success is the extent to which it enriches shareholders.

the ability to do something well.

The responsibility of an organization for the impacts of its decisions and activities (products, services and processes) on society and the environment, through transparent and ethical behaviour that: 

• contributes to sustainable development, including health and welfare of society;

• takes account of the stakeholders’ expectations;

• is in compliance with the applicable law and consistent with international norms of behaviour; and

• is integrated throughout the organization and practiced in its relationships.

Strategy is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. 

The management of the flow of goods and services, involves the movement and storage of raw materials, of work-in-process inventory, and of finished goods as well as end to end order fulfilment from point of origin to point of consumption.

The supply chain strategy establishes how organisations work with chain members, which, if orchestrated and managed correctly, can increase organisational success.  

The theory of supply of goods also known as the “Supply Theory” attempts to understand why and how firms do what they do. Analysing the firm’s behaviours and to understand what their goals are. This theory can also be called the “Theory of the firm” according to your textbook. In this module we will work on the assumption that firms seek to maximise their profits. 

SWOT analysis is a tool that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of an organization.  

Specifically, SWOT is a basic, straightforward model that assesses what an organization can and cannot do, as well as its potential opportunities and threats.  

The method of SWOT analysis is to take the information from an environmental analysis and separate it into internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats). 

The bringing together of the different strands of an argument into a cohesive whole

The Cost Function, shows the relationship between the price of inputs and the quantity produced. A firm’s costs of production depend on the prices and quantities of its factors of production. When a firms’ output changes we can also expect the firm’s costs to change. The relationship between the production function and the cost function is that the cost function is derived from the production function. 

TQM describes a structured, systematic and integrated management approach to long–term success through maximizing internal and external customer and supplier satisfaction. It is where all managers and employees of an organization use quantitative methods to participate together as a team and actively work to support each other in improving all the processes, products, services, and the culture (ethos) in which they work.

It is a management philosophy that looks to integrate all the organizational functions (marketing, finance, customer service, etc.) to continually improve on the delivery of customer needs and business objectives.

TQM is also referred to today as Business Excellence

A trade-off is a situational decision that involves diminishing or losing one quality, quantity, or property of a set or design in return for gains in other aspects. In simple terms, a tradeoff is where one thing increases, and another must decrease.

Costs required for gathering information, negotiating, and enforcing contracts, letters of credit and transactions. Often referred to as the cost of doing business.

This involves the transfer of goods from one carrier to another and/or from one mode to the other.

A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product for the market.

Value drivers are anything that can be added to a product or service that will increase its value to consumers. These differentiate a product or service from those of a competitor and make them more appealing to consumers.

Items that are in different stages of completion throughout the plant, including all raw material that has been released from the store for preliminary transformation up to a completely processed product awaiting final inspection and acceptance as finished goods inventory. The value of semi-finished stock and components may also be included this category