Questions and Answers of Selling And Sales Management

What do you like most and, like least about selling?
Do you prefer to work alone or with others?
How (or why) did you get (or want) into sales?
What obstacles are most likely to trip you up?
How will this job help you get what you want?
What mortgages, debts, etc., press you now?
When and how did you first develop an interest in selling?
How does your spouse (or other) feel about a selling career?
How do you handle customer complaints?
Who was your best boss? Describe the person.
Do you think that you’ve made a success of life to date?
How can the American way of business be improved?
Ever uncertain about providing for your family?
Ever lose in competition? Feelings?
Discuss the legal and ethical considerations in salesforce recruitment and selection.
Identify the key activities in planning and executing a program for salesforce recruitment and selection.
Describe how recruitment and selection affect salesforce socialization and performance.
Explain the critical role of recruitment and selection in building and maintaining a productive salesforce.
What changes and additions would you make to the draft plan?
What are the pros and cons of Mason’s draft plan?
What are the implications for OTC’s customers if the draft plan is implemented?
What are the implications for Donna Armstrong and Steve Tremaine if the draft plan is implemented?
Should firms always try to design equal territories? Why or why not?
How can computer modeling assist sales managers in designing territories?
How are salesforce size decisions different for firms with one generalized salesforce versus firms with several specialized salesforces?
How can the incremental method be used to determine the number of salespeople to assign to a sales district?
How are salesforce deployment decisions related to decisions on sales organization structure?
What are the important relationships between span of control, management levels, line positions, staff positions, specialization, and centralization?
What are some problems that a firm might face when undertaking a major restructuring of its sales organization?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of structuring a sales organization for major account management?
Why do you think there is a trend toward more salesforce specialization?
Discuss the situational factors that suggest the need for specialization and centralization. Provide a specific example of each factor discussed.
Discuss the important“people” considerations in salesforce deployment.
Explain the importance of sales territories and list the steps in the territory design process.
Describe three methods for calculating salesforce size.
Explain three analytical approaches for determining allocation of selling effort.
Discuss salesforce deployment.
Explain how to determine the appropriate sales organization structure for a given selling situation.
Name the important considerations in organizing major account management programs.
Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of sales organization structures.
Describe the ways salesforces might be specialized.
Define the concepts of specialization, centralization, span of control versus management levels, and line versus staff positions.
How would you assess NCM’s alternative sales channel on the Web? Can you recommend any changes to minimize conflict with the independent reps?
What factors should Ann consider as she contemplates a change in major account sales strategy, especially a change that assigns independent reps to some major accounts?
Should Ann request a revision of the 5 percent cost-of-sales target? If so, what sort of information would she need to convince her CEO?
What are the pros and cons of John Rickles’five-point plan?
Is it reasonable to charge Pronto’s salesforce with simultaneously building and holding market share?
What are the most important organizational buyer behavior trends, and how might these trends affect sales strategies in the future?
How might telemarketing be used when accounts are covered by distributors?
How can trade shows be used to supplement other sales channels?
How is the management of relationships with industrial distributors different from the management of relationships with end-user customers?
Discuss how the buying situation affects the buying center, the buying process, and buying needs.
How would sales management activities differ for an SBU following a differentiation strategy versus an SBU using a low-cost strategy?
Why do most firms use both personal selling and advertising in their strategies?
Why is personal selling typically emphasized in business markets and advertising emphasized in consumer markets?
How can sales promotion and publicity be used to supplement a personal selling–driven strategy?
How does the corporate mission statement affect personal selling and sales management activities?
Describe the sales channel strategies.
Discuss the importance of different selling strategies.
Explain the different types of relationship strategies.
Define an account targeting strategy.
Discuss the important concepts behind organizational buyer behavior.
Describe ways that personal selling, advertising, and other tools can be blended into effective integrated marketing communications programs.
Specify the situations in which personal selling is typically emphasized in a marketing strategy.
List the advantages and disadvantages of personal selling as a marketing communications tool.
Discuss how corporate and business strategy decisions affect the sales function.
Define the strategy levels for multibusiness, multiproduct firms.
If you were Sharon’s sales manager, what would you recommend she do to improve her chances of succeeding?
What problems do you see with Sharon’s first sales call?
What further suggestions can you make for dealing with Hypermart and Ed-Toys?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Zack’s interaction with Ed-Toys and Hypermart?
How could this situation have been prevented?Scene 2: Location—Rebecca’s office. Action—Zack presents his strategy to Rebecca.Upon completion of the role play, address the following questions:
Is Rebecca justified in telling Zack to devise his own strategy rather than giving him specific direction at this time? What are the advantages and disadvantages of her approach?
Discuss the final step of the sales process (enhancing customer relationships) as related to the continuing evolution of personal selling
Is adaptive selling as important in domestic markets as it is in international markets?
How important is teamwork between the customer and the sales organization in practicing consultative selling? How does teamwork within the sales organization factor into consultative selling?
When do you think stimulus response selling would be most effective?
How does the consultative selling approach differ from problem-solving and need satisfaction selling? Explain the three key roles of consultative salespersons.
How are need satisfaction and problem-solving selling related? How do they differ?
Most businesses would have a difficult time surviving without the benefits of the salespeople who call on them. Do you agree?
What are the primary contributions made by salespeople to their employers?
How do salespeople contribute to our society? Are there negative aspects of personal selling from a societal perspective?
What factors will influence the continued evolution of personal selling?
Understand the sales process as a series of interrelated steps.
Describe the three primary roles fulfilled by consultative salespeople.
Discuss five alternative approaches to personal selling.
Distinguish between transaction-focused traditional selling and trustbased relationship selling.
Explain the contributions of personal selling to society, business firms, and customers.
Describe the evolution of personal selling from ancient times to the modern era.
1. What steps can James take to increase the level of satisfaction among his salespeople?
3. What can Gage do to ensure that his salespeople make efforts to improve their performance in the areas he deems important?
2. What do you think about the type of feedback Gage is willing to provide his salespeople? How do you suggest the performance feedback be handled?
1. Assess Gage’s use of 360-degree feedback for performance appraisal. Can you make any suggestions for improving this process?
5. Role Play Situation: Read An Ethical Dilemma on p. 301. Characters: Chris district sales manager; Emily national sales director and Chris’s boss. Scene: Location—Chris’s office.
3. Following is an evaluation of salesperson Sally from the XYZ Corporation that was filled out by her sales manager. The company requires all its sales managers to use this form when evaluating
1. Develop a method that can be used to evaluate salespeople’s performance in the folowing areas: communication skills, attitude, initiative and aggressiveness, appearance and manner, knowledge of
3. What else can be done to ensure that GSW Technology Group’s salesforce is performing effectively?
2. Outline a benchmarking study that could be used to help make GSW Technology Group’s salesforce more effective.
1. How could Eric use benchmarking to address Sarah’s concerns?
1. What analyses should Raven perform with this data? Conduct these suggested analyses, being careful to document your work and your answers.

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