Hello Couse Hero Tutor! I've recently been thinking about taking a Law 001 course at my local community college and I wanted to try out a scenario to get a gist of it. Can you help me figure out the questions I have created for the scenario below? It would be helpful for me. Thank you, in advance.

Scenario:

Toward the end of the year, Jack had exceeded his annual sales goals to the extent that he qualified for a level of compensation bonuses tied to his annual sales attainment. During the latter part of September, a salesperson from a computer forms company let Jack know that one of the computer-forms salesperson's customers was getting ready to purchase a business computer system from a competitor of Jack's company. Jack immediately called the prospect and set up an appointment.

During the first appointment with the owner in late September, Jack found that the prospect was getting ready to purchase the competitor's system, but before doing so, wanted to see Jack's proposal. Jack also discovered that the competitive system with the necessary software was priced around $30,000, which the owner indicated was his company's budget for the automation project. Jack was somewhat discouraged in that he could not offer a system for that price but did come back the next day to finish a survey of the prospect's automation needs. Based on the survey, Jack thought that the prospect would need a small central computer with five attached workstations; three displays/keyboards, and two desktop printers. The three workstations would be placed in accounting, the order department, and in the warehouse. One printer would be in the accounting office for daily bookkeeping and one printer would be in the order department/warehouse. Additionally, Jack found that the prospect was projecting additional growth in the business around 100 percent over the next two years. A major factor in the prospect's decision was that the computer network had to be delivered and installed by the end of the year. Jacks's major concern was not only the prospect's low budget but also the required delivery timeframe that Jack could not meet with any of his company's current products.

Jack's Actions:

During the week, as Jack was about the give up on the prospect due to the prospect's low budget and delivery requirement, Jack's company announced a new business computer that seemed to meet Jack's prospect's requirements. The new computer consisted of a small, limited capacity computer that would accommodate up to five workstations in any combination of displays/keyboards and desktop printers, had a price under $30,000, and could be delivered in two months. Jack immediately configured a product solution for the prospect consisting of the business computer, three workstations, and two desktop printers that had a total price of around $32,000 including the application software for the prospect's business. Jack realized that his proposed business computer fit the prospect's current business requirements, but would not be able to accommodate any future growth. Jack, however, decided to go ahead and present the proposal to the prospect but not inform the prospect that the proposed product solution was limited to only current needs.

The Results:

The prospect liked Jack's proposal as compared to Jack's competitor's proposal and placed an order for the business computer and software. Jack left the customer's office very satisfied because the last-minute sale put him in the next tier for bonuses for sales attainment. This sale represented an extra $1000 in commission on the sale.

All went well. The business computer was delivered and installed in December. Then there was good news and bad news. The good news was that Jack's product solution perfectly met the customer's current needs and the customer was delighted. Then the bad news came. On the first business day of January, the customer called Jack, told him how happy he was with the product, and informed Jack that he wished to move up his anticipated growth schedule and immediately add additional workstations

(displays/keyboards and printers). At this point, Jack panicked knowing that the product he had sold to the customer was at its maximum capacity and could not accommodate the customer's growth plan but thinking he had one or two years to address the additional growth with another product solution. The customer expects Jack to set up an appointment as soon as possible to place an order for the additional workstations.

The Issue:

What should Jack do? Jack realized he could be in trouble with both the customer and his company. The customer would probably realize the company had purchased a business system that could not expand to keep up as transaction volumes increased the business grew rapidly over the next few years. Jack's company identified such sales behavior as violating the company's policies and grounds for dismissal.

Prologue (for the teacher):

Jack did not inform his immediate manger of the customer situation, nor did he inform the customer of the growing problem. He developed a proposal showing the customer that the new system just purchased was not the best long-term solution since the customer was growing much faster than anticipated. He showed the customer that the current system would accommodate some nominal growth but not the accelerated growth of the company. Jack's new proposal was for a slightly larger computer system that would handle the increased volume brought on by the growth of the company. Jack's proposal was made somewhat more attractive in that his company, in a new policy, was giving customers significant trade-in's on recently purchased computers toward the purchase of larger computer systems.

Jack was very relieved when the customer agreed the company would need the larger computer system for the anticipated accelerated growth over the next few years. The customer did order the new system Jack proposed trading in the recently purchased system.

MY QUESTIONS:

1. Was Jack's action ethical? Why or why not?
2. What would lead an ethical salesperson to act in unethical ways?
3. Should Jack discuss the situation with his immediate manager?
4. HowshouldJackapproachthecustomer?
5. What actions do you think Jack should take?