Chapter 6: Continuing Case Custom Product, Custom Presentation During the past three months, Brenda had improved her prospecting process. She was identifying more prospects that represented better sales opportunities. Brenda knew that it was important to plan her sales calls in advance to maximize the time she spent in face-to-face selling. In this selling environment, most customers were not interested in all of the features of Brendas products. Brenda had to determine what was important to each customer, and customize her presentations accordingly. Further, she had to clearly communicate the benefits of her products, and not overwhelm potential buyers with too much technical language. Assume that Brenda has an appointment with EFP, a nonprofit organization that raises money to promote environmentally friendly practices such as recycling. The organization uses e-mail, Web-based communications, and direct mail campaigns to reach potential donors. EFP is currently using an older-generation copy machine that frequently needs maintenance. When EFP needs high-quality color copies, they rely on a local company to produce the copies. This works fairly well, although sometimes there are delays in getting the copies back from the local copy shop. EFP has a fax machine. Although it is rarely used, EFP's management has told Brenda that a fax capability is important for communicating with some clients. Currently, EFP does not have a good way of scanning documents. This is a big problem, as using scanned documents in client e-mails is increasingly preferred. Given these circumstances, Brenda believes that EFP could benefit from a multifunction printer. A multifunction printer consolidates the functionality of a printer, copier, scanner, and fax machine into one machine. EFP has agreed to consider a multifunction printer, but their management is concerned about cost and the reliance on a single machine if there are breakdowns. Questions

Using an Internet search engine such as Google, find the general benefits of multifunction printers. You might enter benefits of multifunction printers in the search engine, or examine data from copier providers such as Ricoh, Canon, or Xerox to find these benefits. List 5 to 6 potential benefits of a digital copier to EFP.

From the listing developed in # 1, select three benefits. For each benefit, write a sentence or two that Brenda might use to communicate those benefits during sales call with EFP. For the three benefits identified in # 2, describe what information Brenda should have on hand when she makes the sales call on the EFP buyer. Also describe how this information would be best communicated, i.e. what support materials will Brenda need to enhance her verbal communications?

Assume that the buyer acknowledged the value in at least two of the benefits identified in # 2. Write a realistic buyerseller dialogue of Brenda's interaction with the EFP buyer concerning these benefits.