1. Refer to Appendix 2, Marketing by the Numbers, to determine the number of salespeople a company needs if it has 3,000 customers who need to be called on 10 times per year. Each sales call lasts approximately 2 1/2 hours, and each sales rep has approximately 1,250 hours per year to devote to customers.

2. If each sales representative earns a salary of $60,000 per year, what sales are necessary to break even on the sales force costs if the company has a contribution margin of 40 percent? What effect will adding each additional sales representative have on the break-even sales?

Salespeople do more than just sell products and services—they manage relationships with customers to deliver value to both the customer and their company. Thus, for many companies, sales reps visit customers several times per year—often for hours at a time. Thus, sales managers must ensure that their companies have enough salespeople to adequately deliver value to customers.