Brenda Smith is working in the office this morning preparing for tomorrow's sales call with Gage Waits, managing partner, and Tanisha Autry, operations manager, at Energy-Based Funds LLC. Energy-Based Funds is a major investment banking organization specializing in managing and marketing a variety of energy-based mutual funds. The company operates throughout Canada and employs 175 people, with offices occupying the top three floors of a major office building in the heart of the financial district. For the past several years, Energy-Based Funds has been leasing and purchasing office equipment from Altima Systems, one of Brenda's biggest competitors. Brenda has been working her network to get a chance to begin a sales dialogue with Energy-Based Funds and she finally has an appointment with the main players on the purchasing team: Gage and Tanisha.

Brenda knows that planning is a key part of success in selling and is diligently working on her strategy and plans in preparation for tomorrow's sales call with Gage and Tanisha at Energy-Based Funds. According to the sales call plan that Brenda is developing, the purpose of this initial meeting is twofold:

• (1 to discover more about Energy-Based Funds' current operations, their future plans, and the nature of their use of and needs for copiers;
• (2) to begin acquainting Gage and Tanisha with NCC and the value they can provide Energy-Based Funds.

At this point in her sales call plan, Brenda is considering the different pieces of information she needs to get from the dialogue and what questions she might use to elicit that information from Gage and Tanisha.

1. The ADAPT questioning system is a logic-based sequence of questions designed for effective fact-finding and gaining information about a buyer's situation. Develop a series of ADAPT questions that Brenda might use in her sales call to develop the information she needs regarding Energy-Based Funds, their operations, and their needs for copiers.