Read each paragraph carefully and identify each statement that is correct. Then read it again and identify what is incorrect and briefly explain the correct answer that would make it correct. Do this for each paragraph.

Jim White was recently hired as an outside salesperson for an electronics company selling to both consumers and small business owners.

Paragraph # 1

Jims Sales Manager told his sales people that selling has not changed over the years so the old selling principles and attitudes remain the same. The key was to identify a potential prospect and convince them to buy your products. To do so you must know all the features associated with each piece of equipment you sell.

Paragraph # 2

Your job was not to establish a relationship with customers. Get the sale and move on. So what if you lose a few customers there are plenty more where those came from. Treat all your customers the same once they buy from you, its only fair. Establishing relationships is time consuming and takes away from more productive sales time and effort.

Paragraph # 3

In their training classes the new hires were taught not to break the law when selling but being ethical left a lot of wiggle room. The company had a code of conduct but it was so broad that it didnt apply to sales. It only applied to lower management and non- management workers, VPs and above are exempt. Recently they hired a new sales rep from a competitor and in addition to her selling skills she brought information about her old companys sales plans with regard to their largest customers. This will be helpful when selling to them. The fun part of the job was the fact that we had access to a slush fund and we can use the money to convince customer s to buy our products.

Paragraph # 4

Part of the training was about understanding emotional intelligence and how it influenced our selling abilities. The only problem is that it is set in concrete so it is what it is. No big deal. The key is to understand that the customers are all alike and you sell the most popular features to them. Industrial customers are very logical and informed and they primarily buy on price. As far as consumers are concerned think about Maslow to figure out how to sell to them.

Paragraph # 5

Losing customers is a bit of a problem. Most of them leave because of pricing concerns so you have to go out and find new ones. Its time consuming and inefficient to just drop in on potential customers but it is part of the job. The objective is to replace lost customers so you can replace the lost revenue.