Questions and Answers of Contemporary Marketing Case

List three or four criteria you could use to qualify a lead as a likely prospect. How would you find out if the lead meets these criteria?
What are some reasons a potential prospect might not be readily accessible? How far should you go to try to overcome such an accessibility problem before you move to the next lead?
Pick any three of the sources of prospects discussed in the chapter and pick a product or service you like. Develop several ideas for how you would use each source to locate leads for the product or
Who is currently in your own network that you could use for prospecting? How might you add to your network?
Why do you think a salesperson might experience call reluctance? How can it be overcome?
The chapter provides sample goals for an initial sales call on a prospect.(a) What other goals can you come up with that might be appropriate for an initial sales call? (b) Develop three or four
Why are grooming and attire so important in selling? How do you know if you are dressed appropriately for a customer?
Rafael Sanchez is about to begin his career as a financial investment representative with Strong Point Financial Services, a national company specializing in investment opportunities for individuals.
As a customer, think back to a recent sales presentation that you felt went well. What made it good? What did the salesperson do (or not do) that most impressed you? Did you buy the product or
Imagine you are working for a company that sells teleconferencing equipment. Draft a value proposition for selling your equipment to a sales manager who has ten salespeople traveling two weeks a
Identify three selling situations where a memorized sales presentation may be appropriate. Explain why they would be appropriate.
You are the sales manager for a company selling components to companies in the auto industry and are considering upgrading computer equipment for the sales force. Draft a document detailing the
Identify the five objectives of a sales presentation and develop an example of how a sales presentation would accomplish each one.
Pair off in class and practice a salesperson’s approach to a customer. Develop an approach that lasts 3 minutes and includes a greeting.
Select two of the approach strategies and develop each one into a one-page dialogue between you and a customer.
You are a salesperson working for American Airlines calling on the vice president of a large manufacturing company. Many of the company’s people travel all over the world, and you would like them
Choose a product and sell it using the FAB methodology.
You are a salesperson for the local cell phone company presenting to the sales manager of a company considering adopting a companywide cell phone provider. Develop a 5-minute product demonstration of
Michael Lee is sitting in the lobby of Columbia Area Painting waiting to meet with the owner, Paul Ferguson. Michael is a salesperson for Bright Colors Paints. He’s here to speak with Paul because
Have you ever bought a new (or used) car? What were the negotiations like? Did you enjoy the negotiations? Why or why not?
Do you think it is possible to have win-win negotiations? Why or why not?
You have made an appointment with a new potential customer. As you prepare for the presentation you realize this person has never purchased this kind of product before. What do you do?
You have been meeting with a potential new customer regularly for three months. She likes the product but finally admits a loyalty to the existing supplier. The buyer says, “I have known Judith
“I don’t know you, and I very much liked working with Oscar Jones. Why was he transferred to Chicago?” The customer you have just met for the first time is unhappy because of his relationship
Your company has just announced a 7 percent price increase on your entire product line and you are meeting with your most important customer. She announces that your competitor has already been to
Think of a time you were talking with someone and felt yourself getting angry. How did you handle it? What steps would you take to keep from getting angry with a customer who was being unreasonable?
Your product is clearly not as good as the competition. The customer has been loyal to your company for years, but you will not come out with a replacement of your existing equipment for at least a
Which negotiation strategy has the highest risk (possibility of making the customer angry)? Which strategy do you think has the lowest risk (is most effective with customers)?
You are calling on a very large company that has the potential to become your largest customer. How could your sales manager help you be successful in negotiations with this potential customer?
Ron Chambers arrives at work early on Friday morning. His anxiety has been growing throughout his final week of training with Mid-Town Office Products. Today Ron is going to work with his sales
What images of “closers” did you have before reading this chapter? List as many negative stereotypes of closing as you can. How has the chapter’s point that “closing should become a natural
Why is attitude so important to successful closing? What are some aspects of a positive attitude that you believe contribute to success in closing (and in selling in general)?
Once a salesperson sees one or more buying signals from a prospect, he or she should trial close. What happens if the prospect doesn’t close at that point? Why is this outcome actually favorable
Why is it important to be able to use different closing methods in different situations?
A sage of selling once said, “Your job as a salesperson is to do 80 percent listening and 20 percent talking.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
Review the list of common closing mistakes in the chapter. Give specific examples of how each might affect your success in a sales call.
What is it about postsale follow-up that makes it one of the most important ways to enhance long-term customer relationships? What specific things can you do in follow-up to accomplish this?
Consider the statement “Customer complaints are customer opportunities—but only if we know about them.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
How do CRM and the use of databases in selling enhance closing and follow-up?
Paula Phillips arrived back at her office at St. Paul Copy Machines around 4:00 on Tuesday afternoon. As she sat behind her desk looking dejected, her sales manager, Jeff Baker, showed up to ask how
Suppose you are a salesperson working 50 weeks per year, five days a week, eight hours a day. You want to make $$50,000$ per year, which is based on a 10 percent commission of gross sales. How many
As sales manager, you realize your salespeople need to be more efficient and effective in managing their time and territory. As you deliver the opening comments at an all-day seminar on time and
You are vice president of sales for your company and are speaking with your sales managers from around the country. You have been asked by the CEO to prepare a 5-minute presentation on why time and
Complete the priority checklist in Exhibit 10.2.What do your responses to the checklist tell you about your career choices? Personal Life Family Life goals Personal wealth Career Goals Ambition
You are a sales manager for an office supply distributor in a large metropolitan area. What do you use as your basic control unit in creating territories? Why?
What are the criteria used for estimating the total effort required by a salesperson to cover a territory?
You are the sales director for a company with 1,125 customers generating $30 million in sales. Calculate the number of customers and sales generated using the 80:20 rule.
What is the most useful source of information on customers generated by any company? Identify all the possible data available on that source.
Identify five types of sales reports a consumer products company might generate. Specify the purpose of such a report and who should have access.
Diagnostic Services Inc. (DSI) is a new company. It has been in business for only one year, offering diagnostic services to physicians in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Miami, and Orlando markets. DSI
A salesperson’s past and present performances affect his or her expectations for future performance. After experiencing several failures, many new salespeople quit their sales job within a few
Frequently, sales managers use contests and recognition rewards to motivate the sales force. If sales managers understand salesperson performance, why is it necessary to employ these additional
“I want sales representatives who can stand on their own. Once they have been through training and show how to apply their knowledge, it shouldn’t be necessary for me to constantly tell them how
Dave Parrett, sales manager for Ace Chemicals, is wrestling with the issue of how to get Kay Powers back on track. Kay has been with the company for 20 years. Historically, she had been one of the
What are the advantages of using the Internet to conduct preliminary job interviews? What problems is a company that uses computer-aided interviewing likely to encounter?
The CEO of the company asks you to justify the 10 percent increase in sales training expenditures for next year. How would you satisfy this request by the CEO?
As sales manager for a nationwide electrical products distributor, you are about to roll out a new line of electrical products. What method would you use to train the 500 salespeople in your national
Steven Zhang, regional director of sales for Right Times Uniform Company, is reviewing the résumés and applications and his notes on three job candidates he interviewed for a vacant sales position
House Handy Products manufactures plastic products and utensils for use in several situations. The company produces and sells a vast range of products that can be used in the home (plastic cooking
DOUG: Now that it looks like we are going to get approval on these two new cancer drugs, we need to get a sales force out there selling them for us and we need to do it quickly.HAROLD: I agree.
Jamie Walker, regional vice president of sales for American Food Processors (AFP), is looking at the performance numbers of his sales force for the past year. He is starting to get that sinking
In Thomas Friedman’s book The World is Flat, he states the big companies should “learn how to act small and enable their customers to act really big.” What do you think that means? How might
You are a small manufacturer of specialty medical devices located in Chicago, Illinois, and the market for your product is cardiologists in the United States. Does globalization affect your business?
You are the global sales manager for a consumer food products company that is getting ready to roll out a new product. As part of the introduction your global sales force is being asked to do a
You are the global sales manager for Samsung responsible for sales of their tablet computers. The company has just announced a new model that will be available in five countries starting next month
As sales manager for a global technology company, you have been tasked with opening up a new market in Asia. One of your responsibilities is to create a sales force consisting of 20 new salespeople.
Barry Randolph is a global marketing manager for Gen Tech Corporation, a leading manufacturer of computer accessories. The company has market-leading products in several categories, including
Someone says: “Our firm focuses on maintaining long-term relationships with our customers. We don’t have to do any prospecting.” Evaluate this statement.
Give some examples of how CRM-enabled sales analytics can provide valuable insights at each of these stages of the customer journey: prospect (lead), initial customer contact, engagement with the
Are there actually situations in which the use of one or more of the older sales technologies might be superior to something new? When and why would older approaches perhaps be a better choice in
Why do some salespeople not immediately embrace the use of the newest technologies? What are some ways in which a salesperson who is reluctant to adopt new technologies might be influenced to do so?
Consider any three of the newer types of sales technology presented in the chapter. For each, provide as many specific applications as you can think of that could enhance the buyer–seller
Why would a salesperson be reluctant to adopt CRM? What can management do to help gain salesperson adoption and usage?
How does CRM offer advantages to salespeople in terms of information management? What are some of the problems you could predict for salespeople in firms that do not use CRM?
Karen Simmons awoke early one cold winter morning because she had almost 70 miles to drive to begin her day as a pharmaceutical sales representative with Health Sense Pharmaceuticals. Karen knew the
Think about the general concept of a relationship, not necessarily in a business setting, but just relationships in general between any two parties. What aspects of relationships are inherently
What is value? In what ways does a relationship selling approach add value to your customers, to you the salesperson, and to your sales organization?
When a firm shifts from transactional selling to a value-added approach, a number of changes have to take place in the way a salesperson approaches customers as well as his or her own job. List as
Has transactional selling gone the way of the dinosaur? That is, are there ever any situations in which a transactional approach to selling would be an appropriate approach today? If so, what are
Why is it important to talk about selling solutions instead of products or services? How does selling solutions further the success of a relationship-selling approach?
The chapter mentions negotiating for win-win solutions. Think of a time when you negotiated with someone over something and one of you “lost” and the other “won.” How did that happen? Why
Another salesperson in your company says to you: “Closing techniques today are moot. We know all our customers and their needs too well to have to employ ‘closing’ techniques on them.Doing so
Think about the various courses you have taken during your college career. What motivates you to work harder and perform better in some courses than others? Why? What rewards are you seeking from
Sales managers ranked success factors for sales recruits as “listening skills” first, “follow-up skills” second, and “ability to adapt sales style from situation to situation” third in
A wise and weathered sales sage tells you: “Today, all selling is global.” Is the sage right? Why or why not?
Like all firms, Apple operates within an external environment of factors beyond its immediate control. Consider the various aspects of the external environment portrayed in the chapter. What specific
Creekside Outdoor Gear is a Philadelphia-based company that produces and markets clothing sold exclusively in retail stores specializing in apparel for outdoor enthusiasts. The product line includes
Sue Wilson, purchasing manager for the Humboldt, Tennessee, plant of National Agri-Products Company, is back in her office reviewing her notes from a meeting she just finished with Tom Roberts, Vicki
Select any firm that interests you. Which aspects of the 12 categories for communicating value you learned in the chapter do you believe are most relevant for the firm you selected, and why is each
Why is it so critical that marketing communications be integrated?
What is customer satisfaction? What is customer loyalty? Is one more important in the long run than the other? Why or why not?
Take a look at Exhibit 3.2 on the value chain. Pick a company in which you are interested, research it, and develop an assessment of how it is doing in delivering value at each link in the chain.
Consider service quality as a source of value. Give an example of a firm of which you have been a customer that exhibited a high degree of service quality. Also, give an example of poor service
BestValue Computers is a Jackson, Mississippi, company providing computer technology, desktops, laptops, printers, and other peripheral devices to local businesses and school districts in the
Much has been made of the scandals at Enron and other large companies. What effect do you think these scandals have had on the salespeople who work for these companies? Do you think it makes their
Companies talk a lot about being socially responsible. What do you think that means for a company like General Electric or IBM? As a salesperson, would you incorporate your company’s social
The chapter talks about the business practice of “caveat emptor,” or “let the buyer beware.” Do you think this philosophy is consistent with contemporary selling? Why or why not?
As a sales manager, how would you handle this situation? One of your salespeople (not a top performer but one who consistently comes close to hitting sales objectives) has turned in a receipt for a
A large customer has just told you it expects to introduce a new product over the next 45 to 60 days. This product will definitely enhance this customer’s position in the market. Your company also
As part of a mid-year cost reduction effort, your company has reduced your bonus for achieving annual sales targets. This is widely perceived as unfair; even your manager declares the company should

Showing 1 - 100 of 423